Starry Nights

Chapter 6: Alex

He was falling for her, and there was nothing on Earth he could do to stop it.

As he was riding home in the taxi this was one of the 123981479 thoughts that raced through his head. What am I going to do when I have to go back to Afghanistan? What will happen to us? Is there even an us? He didn't even know if she felt the way he did. He wished that he could know what she thought about him in that moment.

When he got back to Denny's apartment, he found Denny asleep on the couch with the Xbox controller in his hands still. Alex put the controller away and threw a blanket over Denny. He went to the bathroom and started a hot shower. As he was showering he wondered if she was thinking of him as well right now. When he got out he dried off and didn't even bother throwing on clothes as he got into his bed in the walk-in closet. As he felt himself drifting into sleep, he only had one thought on his mind, and that was tomorrow night with Natalie.

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After the second date, they spent every day together starting with the night Alex went to Natalie's apartment for a few glasses of wine. They would spend every day together. Before Natalie started work they would both go for a jog in Central Park and as soon as she got off work they went for dinner at either Natalie's apartment or a restaurant, depending on whether Lauren was at the apartment or not. Natalie had told Alex that she didn't want him to meet Lauren just yet because Lauren would interrogate him like he was a murderer.

They often went to Givaldi's for pizza, and other times they would go to a restaurant that Natalie knew of. Alex began to fall for her more and more after every date, but soon he realized that the inevitable was approaching soon; he would have to go back to Afghanistan.

Originally, he pushed the thought from his mind and chose not to worry about it until he had to, but when it came to the point where he had but two days left until he had to leave, he couldn't help but worry about what would happen to them. He figured he would bring the subject up over dinner that night and ask her what she thought about the whole situation. He hoped that the situation would go well, but he knew that there was no way that a situation like this could go well.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As they walked down the trail to get to their bench holding hands, they laughed like children and looked up at the stars remembering their first night together. When they got to the bench , they sat down together and watched the stars in comfortable silence. "I only have one day left here Natalie", Alex said.

The comfortable silence shifted to an uneasy sad silence. "I know", she started, "I've tried not to think about that too much."

"Well, what are we going to do? Do you want to stay with me?"

He could feel her tense up besides him. "What do you mean do I want to stay with you?"

"I mean, I didn't know if you'd still want to stay with me when I had to go back to Afghanistan."

She pushed herself away from him so she could look at him. "You think I'd just leave you after all we've been through?" He could hear her voiced start to quiver.

"I mean, I just di--"

"NO, I wouldn't leave you. There's something special between us and I wouldn't want to loose it. But from the sounds of it you wouldn't care if I left you or not would you?"

"I would Natalie, I wou--"

She didn't let him finish before she stood up with tears forming in her eyes and said, "I thought you were different, I thought you actually cared enough to try anything to keep us together. I thou--"