The wind was surprisingly strong for such a warm summer night, but it could’ve been a tornado and it wouldn’t have bothered me. The grass was dry and soft, crickets sang their song in the distance, and the moon was bathing us in its gentle glow. I was the happiest I’d been in a long time, sitting in silence with this beautiful boy who was all mine.

‘Hey, babe?’ He said, breaking the comfortable silence. I looked down at his head in my lap, at his eyes rolled up so he could look at me upside down. I had to smile at the way he could still manage to be so cute in such an awkward position.

‘Mhm?’ I asked, still staring into his eyes and running my fingers through his silky hair. It was soft and warm and smelled of spices, which he never quite understood when I tried to explain that that’s just what it smelled like to me.

‘You see those stars?’ He waited while I looked up and confirmed that, yes, I did see the twinkling balls of light littering the sky. ‘Well, you’re about a million times more beautiful than them.’ Then he smiled, looked at me a second longer, and turned his attention back to the diamonds over our heads while I was left speechless. Biting down on my lip and trying not to swoon at what he’d just told me, I gently squeezed his shoulder instead of trying and failing to find adequate words to describe how much he meant to me. He already knew, of course. He knew he was the only guy who had ever made me nervous, the one who could shut me up for more than a minute. He was well aware that he was the inspiration for all my melodramatic, cliché poetry that he loved to read. He knew that I was madly in love with him, and he gladly reciprocated. He knew we were perfect for each other. So it didn’t matter that I didn’t respond to possibly the sweetest thing anyone could ever say, because he knew by the way I cradled him in my arms that I loved him more than all those stars in the endless expanse of sky.

‘Hmm,’ He sighed, eyes closed, an easy smile further beautifying his face. As always, I was struck with amazement at how I had gotten so lucky. But this time, it was different. I wasn’t just overcome with so much joy that I was grinning like an idiot, which was the usual case. This time, I felt tears spring to my eyes and I smiled as they spilled down my cheeks. I pulled him up to face me and pressed my lips to his, burying my hands in his hair again, feeling the pulse in his neck race against my palm. He gently pulled away, lips still barely touching mine, golden eyes gazing deep into my blue. His thumb traced circles along my jaw line and I shivered under his electrifying touch.

‘Oh, Love.’ And that was all he needed to say.