It seemed like whole hours passed by since when Sheba first sat on one of that stairs that lied below the arcade of that one house that the rebels of elder David's church used as headquarters. Immersed in the most religious of silences, she lost her look in the dark night sky, which that night shined of a billion stars of such a beauty that was able to enchant whoever took a glance at them, exactly as he did.

It was strange, whatever she thought, with a complicated and inexplicable mental equation, her thoughts were always, unequivocally, inexorably, brought back to him, like a river without tributaries, a road without any deviation that always led to the very same destiny, the very same destination, which was nothing but the marvelous as it is unreachable concept of him.

Lost in the river of her thoughts, she failed to notice that the very object of the said thoughts was glancing at her by the doorway, with that one usual inscrutable expression of his that efficiently carried out her job to not let his indeed gentle aura shine through.

"What are you doing there, in the dark, Sheba?"

Solomon finally broke the silence, slowly approaching her, until he sat at her side.

"Thinking", she answered, with a sigh that almost sound tired, maybe tired of waiting, unimaginably longing to be loved by that one person that her eyes never got tired of contemplating.

"About what?"

"About a beautiful as it is unlikely future."

Sheba finally shifted her gaze upon Solomon, the very object of all her desires and dreams, the one who unconsciously held in his hands her bliss as well as her despair.

"Are you enamored, Sheba?"

His gaze seemed changed, somewhat softened, as he spoke those words.

"Yes", she said in a whisper, a tiny melancholic smile forming on her pink lips, "with a gorgeous person, he's totally out of my league."

"I don't think there's possibly someone out of your league."

"He is. He's wise, clever, he's a great magician, he can do anything. He's a true leader, and, even if he'll never admit it, he would make a great king. And, you know, Solomon? Those eyes take my breath away. If I have to be completely honest, everything about him takes my breath away, beginning with his body, his personality, and then his attitude. Yes, he undoubtedly is human, he has his flaws, but even those flaws of his, in my eyes, make him perfect."

Solomon listened to every word Sheba pronounced, he heard her sing the praises of this man, which didn't take long for him to realize it was himself.

Involved in her so deep romantic idyll, she shined of an intense light, her eyes glowed with that very spark that only true love was capable to ignite.

And, God, she was indeed beautiful.

"You know, I am in love with a woman, too."

Sheba's heart briefly stopped, preparing for the imminent crack it was convinced it would receive.

Sheba kept silent, listened, as fear slowly devoured her.

"To say the truth, I only realized it not long ago, but I am firmly convinced I want to spend the whole length of my life with her. She's silly, stubborn, childish, happy-go-lucky and most of the times she's reckless and unmindful, but she always put the fate of her companions before her own, she does her best to make everyone happy and she knows me better than anyone else, she understands when nobody does, she believes in me more than any other person in the world. I was sure I wasn't fit for this kind of feeling, but that woman taught me how much I am human, like everyone else."

"She sure is one strange woman."

Sheba's voice barely trembled, she felt the awareness of losing every chance slipping through her fingers so slowly she wanted to cry.

"She is."

Solomon smiled so sincerely while talking about her, that it made Sheba almost regain her happiness.

"Do I know her?"

"You should know her fairly well", Solomon answered, lastly turning around to face her.

"Arba?"

Solomon stared at her shocked for a while, then let out a uproarious and uncontainable laugh.

"Arba is an older sister to me, she could never be more than that."

"You can't be talking about Falan, can you? You know, her and Wahid…"

Sheba talked quickly, gesticulating frantically, incredulous of the erroneous conclusion she deduced on her own.

"You really are a naive woman, are you?"

It was a moment, a second, an instant, she barely realized.

Solomon had taken her hand and had pushed her whole weight on his chest, while his eyes, which transmitted her so much calm as well as tenderness, fixed in hers, until the distance between their lips, already minimum, was finally nullified.

It was Sheba's first kiss, and in that very moment, while in her chest a tempest of endless emotion ran wild, she swore that, exactly as Solomon was her first, he would have been forever her last, she wouldn't have given such privilege to no one else that wasn't him, after him, no one would have come next.

Finally, he broke the kiss, laying his forehead on hers.

"You are the woman I love, silly."

A smile slowly graced his features, and that was the most honest smile she ever saw on him.

"And you are the man I love", she readily answered, gaining a light laugh by him.

"I knew that much", he commented, taking her hand between his and bringing it to his lips, kissing it softly.

"Will you marry me, Sheba?", he asked, without thinking twice.

He did not need to think: every single woman he met told him that once he had found the right one, he would understand it. It would have been a spark, they said, it would have been a peculiar desire to keep that one woman only for himself and never let her go, to spend with her the rest of his life: it was exactly how it felt like with Sheba.

"Yes."

This once it was her turn to kiss him.

Now that he was hers, she would have never let him go.