Sunday night came around, and although Sam hadn't worked as she was still off with her shoulder injury, Ethan was still picking her up after his shift at 9pm. He had kept the whole thing a surprise, and all she knew was what he had originally told her, to wear something comfortable and warm. She she had her jeans and boots on, with her big hoody and a jacket. It wasn't really what you would consider a 'date' outfit, but this didn't sound like a normal 'date'. As it was now mid December she also put her woollen hat on. She was waiting for him to arrive when she heard a car pull up; looking out of the window, she saw Ethan turning the car around and she grabbed her keys and locked up, heading out to meet him. He got out of the car and greeted her with a kiss, then opened the passenger door for her.
"So are you going to tell me yet?" She asked eagerly as he got back in the car. He looked at her, smiled and shook his head and started to drive.
"No, not until we get there."
"You know how to keep a girl guessing." She smiled.
They drove out of the city and into the countryside. Sam got more and more confused. It was about 10:30 when he parked up in the middle of nowhere.
"Ok, now I'm really confused Ethan. If I didn't know you I'd be really worried by now." She laughed nervously.
They got out of the car and Ethan opened the boot and pulled out a blanket and basket, and held out his arm. She linked her arm through his and he led her up the hillside.
"Ok, so I'm assuming a midnight picnic of some description?" She questioned. And he smiled knowingly but still not giving the full plan away. He made small talk to keep her guessing, telling her about the goings on at work over the past few days. Once they reached a flat area at the top of the hill, he placed the blanket on the ground and pulled her down to sit next to him.
"So, you obviously don't know what's happening tonight." He smiled at her.
"No." She said simply, still confused as to what he looked so pleased about. He got out a pair of binoculars.
"Does that give you any ideas?"
"We're bird watching in the dark." She giggled.
"Close," he smiled, "there's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight that might be visible from around here. The weather is clear. I thought we could do some star gazing and see if we can see any meteors."
"Oh wow!" She breathed. "Really? That's such a beautiful idea Ethan." She leant over and kissed him.
"Really? I'd hoped you'd like it, but it was a risk not telling you and dragging you all the way out here and then you not wanting to." He breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's fantastic." She said. "You're amazing."
"You're the one who's amazing." He smiled simply, squeezing her hand then pulling her in closer to him. He couldn't believe how natural this felt, but also how quickly he was falling. He knew he should probably be more sensible about this, but this was one occasion when his heart completely ruled his head, and as his brother would say, he was going along for the ride, and he was loving every minute so far.
He pulled out a flask of coffee and poured one for Sam. She cradled it to keep warm as they sat next to each other talking. It was quiet away from the noise of the city, and without fear of interruption, they continued to talk about their past, their hopes and fears, their dreams. Sam felt so content, she had never felt like this before, she couldn't believe how different this was to past relationships, this just felt so right. Part of her wanted to hold off falling so hard so quickly, but she couldn't stop it. But then this was Ethan, he wasn't the most likely candidate to deliberately hurt her.
They lay flat on their backs and Ethan talked more about the constellations, just like they had done before, then she realised that that was where he must have got the idea from, and she smiled. How lovely was he, remembering things like that. Her stomach fluttered with butterflies again. She turned onto her good side and leaned up on her elbow, looking at Ethan, he was looking through the binoculars still talking about the stars. She loved how animated he was when he talked about things with passion. She lay there smiling at him until she realised he had asked her something as was now turning towards her.
"Sam?" He asked.
"Hmm?" She said coming back to reality.
"You weren't listening were you?" He smiled.
"No, I'm sorry, its not coz I wasn't interested, I am, but I was, well um, I was completely distracted." She admitted.
"Oh, OK." He said, suddenly feeling a bit unsure of himself. Sam looked at him and saw his face drop and she felt terrible.
"Ethan, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention, but its because I was watching you talk, I love it when you talk with such passion about things, so I was listening to you, but not taking things in. I was distracted by you." She smiled.
"Oh, um, OK. Sorry." He said. Sam started giggling.
"You're so sweet." She said giving him a quick kiss on the lips. She sat up and picked up the binoculars looking upwards. "Come on then, where were we?" She shivered, and Ethan moved nearer to her.
"Are you really cold?" He asked.
"I'm, OK, this is so lovely, I'm not letting cold air spoil it." She smiled. He nervously put his arms around her and pulled her in close to him. She snuggled in and he relaxed and they carried on looking into the night sky. Suddenly they saw what they had been waiting for. 3 meteors flashed past. "Oh wow!" Sam gasped. "I've never seen one before. This was so amazing Ethan, thank you."
"Thank you for sharing it with me." He smiled, pulling her in for a longer kiss.
When he finally dropped her off at her new flat it was nearly 3am. They shared another kiss on the doorstep and Sam turned in to her flat feeling giddy with emotion. She couldn't believe how happy she was, nothing would wipe the smile off of her face as she crawled into bed, not even how cold she was.
Ethan crept into his flat, trying not to wake Cal. He made his way to his room and got into bed. He took his phone out of his pocket and tapped out a text. Then he snuggled down into the covers unable to stop smiling.
Sam's phone went off. She looked at the screen fairly certain it would be Ethan, but her smile got wider when she read it.
"Thank you for being you, and for sharing this perfect night with me x"
She sent him a reply.
"You made the night perfect, I loved it so much, thank you x"
Both drifted off into blissful sleeps, unable to believe how happy they were.
