The Love of the Moon

Real life doesn't explain itself the way it does in movies and books. The camera doesn't pan out and show the assassin giving the injection. A man is just buried, his family weeps and laments not encouraging him to exercise more and not eat as many corndogs. Heart attacks kill over 100,000 people in America each year.

The information doesn't land on the detective's PDA in time to rescue the victim. These are the thoughts keeping Nima up all night, here of all places. Still naked between the sheets with Charlotte sleeping next to her, blissfully unaware of the world. Charlotte wasn't as haunted as Nima.

Here of all places, on a dream vacation in Alaska, nestled in a romantic cabin, her restless mind told her body to stir. Nima took a deep breathe in through her nose and closed her eyes, rolling over onto Charlotte's chest. Her senses flooded with an aromatic mixture of the now low burning fire, sandalwood candles, the cold night air, and Charlotte- who always smelled like rosewater. A sudden chill went through her. Charlotte stirred a little, curling into herself more.

Reluctantly, Nima slid off of Charlotte, kissing her cheek and taking in another deep breath of her. Donning her robe and wrapping it tight Nima put her bare feet on the wood floor of the cabin. She regretted it immediately and drew them back up, reaching across to the chair for her socks. Feet now protected, she gathered the two empty champagne glasses from the side of the bed and brought them to kitchen, rinsing out one and refilling the other. She sipped the bubbling alcohol and let it warm her as she headed over to the fireplace to stoke it back to life. The warmth from the dancing flames felt comforting on her face and softened her nipples. Her muscles and mind began to relax. Sometimes we need to move a little more in order to feel still.

Nima sat crouched before the fire for a few minutes before padding back to the bed and looking over Charlotte. She brushed her curly blonde hair back off of her face and smiled, then turned toward the french doors to the balcony. As hard as she had worked to get warm, she felt a pull to be outside, to be in the open. Sometimes we don't realize how uncomfortable our own comfort is making us. We live in our comfort zones until one day we feel the pain of being held back, some of us never get out. That's not the kind of life Nima wanted, she was willing to be uncomfortable if it meant being alive. Pulling her robe tighter around her she walked to the doors, careful to pull only one open enough to slip out. The icy air of Coldfoot, Alaska enveloped her and she filled her lungs deeply. With the flip of a switch she powered on the hot tub before slipping out of her robe and socks and into the warm water.

The view from their balcony looked out at Brook's mountain range beyond their nestles place in the forest. Her gaze went upward to where the Aurora Borealis danced above the dark country, unimpeded by light pollution. She had taken care to leave the room as warm as possible, to leave Charlotte as warm as possible.

The air on her face was in contrast to the hot water gently enveloping and vibrating her body. The warmth reminded Nima of Charlotte, both the physical warmth she felt when their bodies entangled together and the warmth she felt from the inside out with her. Their connection was more than skin deep, more than sex and weekend getaways. It was more than texting late at night and holding hands. What they had found was an ability to look into the other's eyes and see their soul. To feel if the other one was hurting even when they were miles apart. Love, and not the cheap kind. Not the obsessed kind. The kind that compliments but doesn't take. Each their own person, but an even more powerful force together. Nima glances back through the window, smiles at a glimpse of Charlotte sleeping.

"What have I done to deserve this?" she wonders, taking in the world with all five senses. The smells of the forest mixed with a hint of alcohol as she brought the champagne to her mouth and let the bubbles pop against her upper lip. The sweet yet bitter taste of the brut. Different parts of her body took in different temperatures while her eyes slowly panned around from the beautiful girl on the bed to the breathtaking scene around her. The calm silence amplified the thoughts of gratitude in Nima's head, no longer anxious and rushing.

Love has it's own gravity it pulls you into. It's up to you how much though. Weather it's the heavy gravity of Earth that holds you down, or the more weightless gravity of the moon that allows you to touch down and ground yourself but still bounce back up. Nima believed in the light weight love of the moon. Charlotte did too. In being being able to touch down and ground each other, in being able to stand back and look at the world together, but in each still being free to push off and feel space around themselves.

Nima always knew that it meant at any point Charlotte may push off a little harder and float away for good, but it was worth the risk. It was worth the feeling of touching down with her, and the feeling of floating back to her own space, content in knowing they would touch back down again eventually. Slowly. A gentle gravity that doesn't hold you hostage. Yes, whatever time the universe was going to allow them together, was worth the risk.

As the biting wind swept over Alaska that night, two girls never felt so warm.