I'll See You When I Fall Asleep

Epilogue

The soft scratching of graphite on paper sounded through the room like soothing white noise. Cammie, legs curled beneath her in a chair, looked between her sketchbook and her sleeping girlfriend, tangled in the sheets.

The morning sunlight streamed in through their open blinds and highlighted the soft curves of her lover's body. Each stoke of her hand captured the natural beauty inherent in the French woman.

As she looked up to recapture the imagine in her mind, Cammie found a pair of brown eyes gazing back at her.

"Good morning," Virgo said, sleep seeping from her bones.

"Good morning, ma chérie."

Virgo's eyes slid from Cammie's face to her sketch pad. A smile broke through her features like rays of sunlight penetrating clouds. "What are you drawing?"

"You."

With an eyebrow raised in question, Cammie shook her head and denied Virgo's request.

"Not yet. I'll show you when I'm done. Stay still."

Virgo obliged and continued to watch Cammie's eyes roam over her body. In turn, she observed Cammie, huddled into the chair, still nude. When Cammie glanced up, Virgo caught her eyes, watching her girlfriend study her body like a beautiful piece of art.

They continued this dance with their eyes for several long minutes, until wordlessly, Cammie crossed the room and joined Virgo in bed, flipping her sketchbook around to reveal the finished product. Delicately, Virgo grabbed the paper and studied the drawing.

"This is amazing. How long have you been awake?"

A blush covered Cammie's cheeks, but she didn't respond. Instead, she flipped the pages to reveal several other drawings of Virgo, just from this morning.

"Do you often draw me while I sleep?" Virgo asked, amused.

"Not just when you're sleeping."

Cammie opened the notebook to fall on her lap. Virgo pushed herself up, the sheets pooling around her hips, to join Cammie. With a small blush covering her cheeks, Cammie flipped through the sketchbook, revealing drawings from the last year, mostly of Virgo. Mixed in with the drawings of her muse were sketches of the scenery: buildings, churches, mountain ranges, and glasses of wine.

"I had no idea," Virgo mumbled.

"I know."

The stare they caught themselves in was an unbreakable bond of devotion, their eyes alight with promises.

"I have this, too." Cammie slipped out of bed and pulled a notebook from the shelf. Rejoining Virgo in bed, she began to flip through it.

"I remember this one. It's the first sketchbook you showed me."

Cammie nodded. "Yes, and you stopped looking through it right before I was about to embarrass myself."

A question was on Virgo's lips, but Cammie found the pages she was looking for before Virgo could ask. It was dated a little more than three years ago. It was the first drawing of Virgo that Cammie had ever created.

Dark eyes, made intense by the charcoal shading, stared at them both. The expression Cammie created in the drawing was thoughtful, as if trying to decode a particularly difficult lock. There was a ghost of smile sketched into Virgo's lips, as if she was privy to some secret that only she knew and found amusing. Her hair fell around her face and shoulders, casting dramatic shadows over the the piece.

Virgo notes the date. "This is was when we met for the first time."

An embarrassed blush covered Cammie's cheeks. "I know. I kept dreaming about you. Then we met and the dreams became more vivid, so I decided to start drawing you."

Touched, Virgo leafed through the pages and discovered sketch after sketch. Virgo watched the transformation of her lover's drawings: initially, Virgo's features were vague and almost indistinguishable. As the dates on the pages passed, so too did the indiscernible nature of her face; each page detailed out a new aspect of her features, her expression, her soul. A year into the drawings, Virgo was complete. When she flipped the last page of the first sketchbook over, Virgo was at a loss for words.

"Je n'oublierai jamais le jour où l'on s'est rencontré," Cammie whispered.

"J'en reviens pas," Virgo mumbled. After a thoughtful silence, Virgo looked to Cammie, her eyes loving. "You see me."

Gently, Cammie cupped Virgo's cheek with her hand and gazed into her soul. "Toujours."

They kissed. Gently. Passionately. Intimately.

"I'd really like to paint you," Cammie mumbled against Virgo's lips.

"You want to paint me?"

"Yes."

"Right now."

Cammie laughed. "Okay."

Virgo leaned back in the bed, the sheets twisted around her waist, her naked flesh glowing in the sunlight. Cammie collected her supplies and began mixing paints.

"I've never painted a person before. I've only done scenery." Cammie mentioned while she concentrated on mixing the right colors for Virgo's skin tone.

"Then we paint every day until you have mastered it."

Cammie bit back a smile.

They spent the morning painting, exchanging those same glances: Cammie's studious, curious; Virgo's enthralled.

By the time Cammie added the last stroke of color, the sun was high in the air and their stomachs were growling with hunger. Virgo sat on Cammie's lap, wrapping her arms around her neck while they both appraised the painting.

"This is how you see me?" Virgo asked, enthralled by vibrant colors Cammie used to highlight the room.

Cammie nodded. "Yes."

"To be loved by an artist," Virgo mused.

Cammie kissed her cheek. "I know the feeling."

The sat together, frozen in time, engulfed in their love.

"Allons-y," Virgo finally said. "J'ai faim."

Cammie laughed, noting the time. "Moi aussi."

They dressed and left their apartment, walking hand-in-hand down the stone walk to the café.

It had been three years since they flew across the Atlantic and settled in France. To no one's surprise, Cammie decided to stay in Europe with Virgo. She returned briefly in the early summer to walk with her class and finish her last requirements to receive her degree.

Keith and Elizabeth were slowly coming around. It was an arduous process, and Cammie still wasn't sure if things would ever be the same, but they called her once a week to check in and her mother was always messaging her on WhatsApp, asking for pictures of her travels and general updates on both her and Virgo.

The Driver parents had also attempted to reconcile their difference with Jess and even found space on their walls at home to hang up her art. And much to everyone's surprise, mostly Jess', they apologized for how they treated her and told her they would pay off all of her loans for school. She flew home much more often.

Jess visited Cammie and Virgo for a few weeks after her own college graduation. It was the first time Cammie had seen anyone from her old life back in the states since she left for France permanently.

They both saw Virgo's family very often, which usually consisted of getting drunk off of wine in the middle of day or babysitting their nephew.

Savannah and Jackson FaceTimed Cammie so often, she often had to remind Savannah of the time difference, as her phone would often ring at two in the morning. They were both perfectly happy and were talking about getting married soon. Savannah made Cammie promise that she would be back for their wedding as her Maid of Honor. Cammie assured her she would.

Everyone made plans to visit them in France. For some reason, Virgo insisted it be next summer, though Cammie still couldn't figure out why it couldn't be this summer. Eventually, she accepted Virgo's stubborn insistence and began planning where she would take her friends when they visited.

Virgo and Cammie lived in a small apartment together just outside of Marseilles. They often visited the sea, laying out on the rocks and drinking wine.

Virgo taught music to young children while Cammie taught English to high school students. Cammie still wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life, but she enjoyed exploring Europe with her Soulmate and had no plans to change anything. For once, she was free to do as she pleased, doing things she never imagined. Cammie began to grow accustomed to Virgo waking up one morning and deciding to take a train to another country for the weekend to visit. Eventually, Cammie was planning small visits too.

Cammie also painted whenever she had the opportunity. Virgo was convinced that if Cammie put all of her paintings together, she would have a picture of the entire city.

The little life they created was idyllic.

On this particular night, the girls found themselves wandering through the streets of Paris, the clock climbing closer and closer to midnight, once again on one of Virgo's adventures.

"So where are we going again?" Cammie asked.

"It is called the Sacré-Cœur." Virgo pointed to a huge, white church with rounded, white architecture. "It is that building, there."

"Wow," Cammie breathed.

They took a lift up the small hill and were soon overlooking all of Paris, the city lit up like it was on fire. Thousands of locks were hung from the fence surrounded the lower levels of the basilica.

"It's beautiful up here," Cammie said, memorized. She scanned the horizon and noticed the Eiffel Tower was visible from there. Virgo pointed out all of the famous landmarks in Paris from their view on the hill.

Virgo kissed Cammie's cheek and lead her up the steps of the Sacré-Cœur and found a spot to sit. Virgo opened the bottle of champagne she was carrying and it exploded with a pop. They drank straight from the bottle.

"This is amazing," Cammie said, sipping from the champagne.

"I still cannot believe that we live in France together. I cannot believe you are here, with me."

"Forever," Cammie added.

"Forever."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, their eyes scanning the city and people scurrying below.

"I can't believe I'm here either. Really. This is so different from how I pictured my life."

"Is this the life you want?"

"It's the life I've dreamed of."

Cammie rested her head on Virgo's shoulder. Virgo spoke to her in French, whispering words of commitment, of love. Cammie smiled, the words no longer a mystery.

"Tu étais dans ma vie comme arrive l'été, sans prévenir, avec ces éclats de lumière qu'on retrouve au matin." Virgo quoted.

"Il est impossible de ne pas t'aimer."

"Vraiment?"

"Oui. Tu es un rêve devenu réalité."

Virgo was silent for a moment, thoughtful. Her gaze shifted from Cammie, to the city, then back. She glanced at her watch. "When we were in California while you were finishing school, I spoke with your parents." Cammie raised an eyebrow in question. "I spoke with them a lot, actually. They told me they wanted nothing more than to see you happy and they know you are happy with me. They know we are happy together. They see what our relationship has done for you and for me."

Cammie listened with curious silence.

Virgo took one last sip of the champagne and stood on shaking knees. "So I asked them for their permission to spend my life with you. Of course they said yes." Then she reached into her pocket and knelt down, opening a small wooden box that revealed a sparkling diamond ring. Cammie's mouth fell open in shock.

The hour struck midnight and the Eiffel tower danced with flashing lights. Tears filled Cammie's eyes, dazzling with the lights of Paris. "Cammie, will you marry me?"

"Yes, yes of course!"

Virgo slid the ring on Cammie's shaking finger and it gleamed with the lights of the city. Cammie admired it for a moment, noting all of the small diamonds encrusting the ring, then rose to kiss Virgo.

"Je t'aime," Cammie whispered.

"Je t'aimerai toujours."

Two girls passed by as they broke apart from their kiss, smiles on their faces from the proposal. One of them spoke too quietly for Cammie to hear, but it caused Virgo to smile, thanking them in French.

"What did they say?"

"They said our love is beautiful."