The Moon is beautiful, isn’t it?

It was winter dusk, she was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. Time seemed unnecessarily longer than usual. As she decided to check her phone, it beamed up and a name with a red heart emoji flashed on her screen.

She was about to pick up but then she thought, Would I look too excited if I pick up the call in the first two rings? That would make it too obvious and….

The call hung up.

She thought of calling him back but then she decided to wait for at least 10 minutes. You know, ‘not too excited’, ‘not too obvious’.

She called him after exact 15 mins and 1 second. One ring… Two rings…

‘Hello?’

‘Umm.. Hi. You called?’

‘Apparently.. ‘

‘So?’ Damn she knew it was getting more awkward every minute as she spoke.

There was an uncomfortable pause. None of the two knew who should be the one to break it.

‘What you doing?’

‘Nothing, just on my phone, switching through social media’

‘Ahh.. wanna go out?’

‘Now?’

‘Yeah.. I am outside your house, I want you out in 5, bye’

She came out in 10. He was not mad, he anticipated that. More like he was relieved that she managed to come out that quick.

“Put your seat belts on,” he said clutching the gears.

“Where are we goin’?” She asked.

Then she felt the familiar yet unfathomable side effects she has, every time she gets in the car with him. Her lower stomach was stirring like a grinding machine churns the fruits and vegetables but not aggressively, softly and carefully but still hurting, her throat went dry like drought and she felt out of air. Every time the same in his car.

“I don’t know? We’ll see,” he winked.

He drove past the town, it was awfully quiet. There weren’t many people in sight, mostly two or three men in their suits coming back from work. He slightly glanced at her every few minutes. He could see her right face, her eyes were transfixed on her phone, she was reading something.

“The moon is beautiful, isn’t?” he said looking at her.

“What?” She said looking away from her phone.

He pushed his brakes abruptly. He took her phone and pushed it in his side pocket.

“You’ll get this when I drop you home.”

She smiled. She thought it was cute.

“Let’s park here and talk in the car,” she said.

“Are you planning to make out?” he said teasingly. Before she could say, “I wouldn’t mind, you know,” he said it like it was so easy.

All the moisture in her mouth evaporated, the body temperature went to 100 C. She couldn’t concentrate on anything but what he just said but again he was just fooling around with her like every time she thought.

“You can dream….”

“Yeah I do.. every day and when you..”

“Shut up or I am getting myself a taxi.”

He started laughing. She knew he was fooling around.

“So what were you saying about the moon?” She asked casually.

“That it’s beautiful,” he said. “Look at it, isn’t it?

The moon was half shy under the clouds. It lightened up the dead of the night and the people in it. It was lonely even with the unnumbered stars scattered across the sky.

“It’s just a satellite,” she scoffed.

He frowned at her.

“I thought you’d know about this phrase,” then he looked at her face, it was softly touched by the dim light of the moon. She looked back at him and quickly looked away. She explored unknown feelings running through her when he was around.

He took her hands, and she flinched.

“Look at me,” he said firmly.

She was in a conflict in her heart if she looks at him her eyes will tell everything and she was afraid of that. Before she could decide, he started saying,

“I was reading Japanese literature and I came across a famous Japanese novelist Natsume Soseki. Once one of his students who translated “I love you” as “Ware Kimi O Aisu.”

She looked at him, at his eyes. It was dark, searching for hers.

“Then?” she asked.

“Soseki said to his student that the Japanese do not say such a thing instead say, “The moon is beautiful.”

“So Naomi, the moon is beautiful, isn’t?” He said to the beautiful girl sitting beside him at the front seat of his car, the moon that is shinning in front of his eyes.

Her eyes filled with tears, she knew this time he wasn’t fooling around.

“You had to sound intellectual when you finally say this after so many years.”

“You know I am not the cliché ‘I love you’ type of guy and I was making it obvious anyway. How would I pick up your call in the first two rings?”

“Nathan, I don’t know what to say.. I have always ..” He clasped his hands on her mouth.

This time she did not waver her eyes away from him, she was certain of him and of her feelings.

“Say the moon is beautiful?” He winked.

She unclasped his hands and reached him from her seat, unbuckling her seat belts.

She hugged him and put her head on his chest. He hugged her back and made soft strokes on her back with his hands and then caressed her hair softly, the kind your mother does when she wants to say everything’s gonna be alright. She felt secure, she felt home, she felt..felt.

They broke the hug and she asked,

“You planned this?”

“Umm.. For 2 years but I didn’t know how you would react but now I just want you to know how I feel. I can’t spend one more day not letting you know that I want you. Always have. I know Naomi that you are scared, I know you have questions. Trust me, baby, I feel the same way. I know time changes, feelings changes and I am not saying we’ll be the same. Honestly, I don’t want to, I want us to grow with each other, grow in each other. I am not making any promises and not asking you to make any. Just whatever happens know this, I choose you to love, it’s not a jittery feeling in my guts that tells me you are the one. I want to love you because I find the best time of my day with you and we just talk like idiots, that’s insane. I don’t have to do anything or be anything but ‘just be me’ to make you happy and that makes me happy. You see me and I see you. I think this speech is getting pretty long and you are about to cry so I’ll just stop..”

She cried in her arms for some time after that. He didn’t stop her, just kept caressing her hair softly.

Then she got out of the car and he followed.

“You said everything I wanted to hear and more,” she said sitting over the engine of the car. He joined, putting his hand over hers and whispered slowly into her ears, “I know.”

She giggled, “So, the moon is beautiful,” she said looking at the sky and the lonely shy moon. Her eyes glimmered like the stars.

“Yes it is,” he said, looking at her.