Burning Moon (Wattpad Version)

Chapter 16

A lunar eclipse can only happen if a number of variables all come together in perfect symmetry, at the perfect moment in time. The full moon passes directly behind the earth and is swallowed up by its shadow. But for this to happen, the Sun, Earth and moon have to align precisely. This is known as syzygy.  

And that’s how my relationship with Damien was. So many things had to align perfectly, at just the right place, at just the right time and in just the right order for this moment to have happened. For this moment to even exist. Look a little closer at the seemingly disordered chaos of the past few days and a pattern emerges. A pattern that is ordered, structured and has a singular purpose.

Michael needed to leave me at the altar. I needed to be so distraught that I wore my pyjamas onto the plane thus attracting Damien’s attention. I needed to enter the toilet at the exact moment that he was exiting, so we could bump into each other and be introduced. I needed to get sick on the plane so that I would have a reason to talk to him later at the airport when I tried to apologise. We needed to be talking together and standing at just the right place and time for security to have seen and arrested us. We needed to be arrested so that Damien would lose all his money trying to save his dignity, and so that I would offer him a place to stay for the night. The following day we needed to be at the same restaurant, at the exact same time and he needed to have brought me to Burning Moon.

It was all so clear now. Everything had happened exactly the way it was supposed to. Coincidence. Synchronicity. Call it what you like. But this whole time when I’d been cursing Karma, the Gods, the invisible director and the evil writer bitch on her Mac for causing my life to fall apart, it was actually all coming together, I just didn’t know it…until now.

In fact, you could say that my entire life had been orchestrated so that this moment, right here, right now, could happen.

We’d stayed up talking for most of the night, and with each word, every story and funny anecdote we told each other, my feelings for him deepened. They grew and increased and expanded at such a rate that I felt totally overwhelmed. Was it even possible to feel this way about a person? I’d been crazy about Michael when we’d first met, but it wasn’t like this, not even vaguely. In fact, they were beyond any form of comparison; my feelings for Michael were a tepid dripping tap, this was a raging waterfall.

In typical first-night fashion, we’d wanted to know everything about each other. Every detail; favourite colour, favourite flavour ice cream, first childhood memory, grade school teacher, first kiss, first date, favourite movie, band, TV series -- and then we’d moved onto the bigger things, like previous relationships. I discovered that Damien had had one serious relationship, but that they’d just grown apart after three years. I tried to pry for her surname as subtly as possible, so that when the first opportunity arose I could stalk her on Facebook, look at all her pictures and see if we had any friends in common so I could ask them about her. You know, the usual. We spoke about his sister, his family and the expectations they had for him that he could not, and did not want to meet. I told him about Sue and Val and more about my mother; I had a lot of anecdotes to share about her.

We’d cuddled. We’d stroked each other’s hair. We’d held onto each other. We’d kissed for what seemed like hours and stared longingly into each other eyes. And then we’d finally slept. Wrapped tightly together. All in all, the most perfect evening of my life.

 ***

The light from the sun crept towards us, bringing with it the early morning humidly. I opened my eyes and saw that Damien was up and sitting on a cushion staring at me.

 “How long have you been awake?” I mumbled, still half asleep.

“A while.” He smiled at me, his face looked completely different this morning. “I’ve been watching you sleep.”