“Do you know what the Milky Way is?
His right hand moved off the wheel and began snapping his fingers together. “Um, those little candy bars? Yeah, I love ’em.”
“No,” I replied with a head shake. “The one in the sky.”
I caught his eye as he turned to me and winked, giving me the distinct feeling he was playing dumb on purpose, but I didn’t know him well enough to tell. And that wink was making my belly feel like I was on a rollercoaster. I continued.
“The Milky Way is a galaxy. It’s made up of billions and billions of stars and gas, and when you see it in the sky, it looks like a big hazy rainbow of light.”
His thick brows knitted slightly, creating a line on his smooth tanned forehead. “And you were looking at it all night?”
“Yep,” I nodded again. “I got a new telescope for Christmas and wanted to try it out properly. Last night was a new moon so the sky was dark, and Milky Way season is just starting.”
“Milky Ways have a season?”
“Way. Just one. Milky Way, and yes, kind of. It’s always there, but because of how the earth moves, we can’t always see clearly it in the Northern Hemisphere.”
“Huh.”
When I’ve explained stargazing before, it’s usually at this point most people zone out, which is what I assumed he’d done as he sat there in silence for a minute darting in and out of the traffic like a racecar driver.
But to my surprise he didn’t, he just kept going with the questions.
“And this is all part of your space learning to get you to M.I.T. and N.A.S.A.?”
I tried not to show more surprise that he’d remembered what I wanted to do.
“Um, yes, part of it,” I sighed wistfully. “But I find space so incredibly beautiful and interesting.”
“So tell me about this Milky Way.” He pointed a finger at me with a smirk and added, “not the candy bar.”
I giggled hard, and stopped short. Who was this Marnie Matthews giggling in Jupiter Reeves’ car?
Like, what?
What was happening right now?
“The Milky Way is the galaxy which includes our solar system…”
“Including yours truly?” he interrupted, passing me his coffee again after he sipped it.
“Yep, including Jupiter,” I smirked. “It’s one of many galaxies in the universe, and it’s reckoned some of the oldest stars in it are as old as the Universe itself. It’s shaped like aspiral, so when you see it in the sky, it looks like a big arch of dusty light. But it’s harder to see here because of light pollution. It needs to be really dark to see it properly.”
“So all our planets and stars that we see are in the Milky Way? We’re in it now?”
“Yep.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
I grinned wide at him. “It is, yes.”
“So it’s gonna be there again tonight?”
“Yeah.”
For the second time he turned and caught my eye with a smile, and the weird, unfamiliar flutters moved down from my belly and into my groin.
I crossed my legs.
