???
I flip through the pages of my planner.
August, August, August.
Every page, August.
Every page is bursting with responsibility.
Then September.
September is quieter.
Several pages have been paper-clipped together.
Must have been in a hurry when I attached a client's card during a meeting.
Releasing it, the planner falls open to Thursday.
September third.
My birthday.
Spilling across the margin, a cluster of tiny stars appear.
A delicate Milky Way, sketched carefully from corner to corner.
Recognition dawns slowly.
I know that wispy drawing style.
Amos, I smile.
You drew me a picture, baby?
Then I read the quote, whispering the words aloud.
“For I have loved the stars…”
A quiet smile curves on my lips.
“...too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
My darling man knows my heart even more intimately than his own.
I trace the galaxy lightly with my thumb.
Damn it.
I’m in so deep.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Closing my eyes, the memory of the lake rises in my mind.
The cold night air, the crackle of the fire.
An enormous sky stretched above us.
