A knock at the door broke apart our blissful paradise, she smiled at me sadly, as though she didn't want this to be over. I didn't want it to be over.
"Hey, guys! You wanna let me in? I bought popcorn!" Kristen's chirpy voice floated through over the music.
Cosima sad smile begins to turn into a grin as the smell of warm popcorn wafted through the thin wooden door. She signals for me to sit down on the sofa and winks at me, putting her fingers to her lips. I do as I am told and pretend to zip my lips. She laughs.
"Coming kirst" she wanders to the door.
"Good, it's freakin freezing out here!" Cosima opens the door and a blast of icy air slices through the heat of the room. The smell of the warm popcorn travels through the air and makes my mouth water.
"How's angel?" Cosima cocks her head slightly the side as she questions. I have noticed her doing this whilst watching her. Her movements mimicked her words and tone of voice perfectly.
"She's good, her grand kids are well. Frankie's arm is now out of the plaster cast"
"Angel?" I question
"The popcorn lady" the say in unison in a kind of sing songy voice. "We eat popcorn a lot." Cosima added.
The film Kirsten chose for us was some American chick flick. Not to my taste. And not to Cosima's taste seemingly by the gestures and imitated retching noises I heard behind me. I couldn't help but giggle.
"Shhhhhh, it's cute!" Kirsten protested.
"I'm sure it is" Cosima pretended to yawn. The yawn was quickly cut short by a pillow hitting her smack in the face.
"Hey!" She looked startled, but quickly reciprocated the action straight back a Kirsten. Both of these girls were grinning with pillows poised. Cosima gave Kirsten a wink before they both swivelled round to face me. The twinkle was back in Cosima's eye.
"Non,non,non" I shielded myself with my arms, this did very little to protect me. The soft pillows hit me full force pushing me backwards as feathers exploded around me. Cosima began laughing, her laugh was infectious, it shone through her and made everyone around her light up. The pillow fight continued, squealing and giggling we all ended up in a heap of cushions as feathers floated down around us like soft snow. Cosima's hand brushed my past my cheek, I folded my hand into hers.
"Holy crap! Guys it's 9pm , we're gonna be so late. Right both of you get packed. And get changed go, go, go" Kirsten rolled out the room in a tom cruise style motion which sent us all into another fit of giggles.
"I thought we were just going to the museum?" I managed through laughs.
"Yeah but it's this once a year experience kind of thing" Cosima's hand actions mimicked her tone. "Basically you get to have a sleepover in the museum and we go every year and it's really cool, well we think it's really cool and we were hoping you'd want to come along?" She almost looked worried awaiting my answer.
"Sounds brilliant!" I grinned.
We arrived at the museum a little after 10:30. I watched Cosima wander into the room casually. Although the look on her face made it seem like she would rather be galloping through and twirling around. She was wearing black jeans and a deep red fitted top which came quite high up her neck line. Her dreadlocks were piled high on top of her head. Her eyeliner thick and black. She seemed to elate everyone she walked by. Her smile making her more beautiful than I ever thought possible.
There must have been no less than 100 people there.
"I expected there to be more people" I gazed around the room "not that I'm complaining, I prefer quiet to busy" I quickly added seeing Cosima's face droop a little.
"Yeah, well it's kind of exclusive" she nodded over at Kirsten who was squealing and giggling like a school girl whilst being lifted up by a guy with dark brown, slightly curled hair and glasses wearing a museum name tag "we have some excellent contacts" she winked at me.
"So where would you like to set up camp? The main areas people tend to go to are the aquarium and the jungle exhibit."
"What about just here?" I gazed up at the huge glass domed roof. The night sky looked so beautiful.
"Excellent choice" Cosima winked " and it's a good job you chose this because the aquarium makes me need to pee and the stuffed jungle animals creep me out a little at night" she confessed.
There were mattresses laid out at the side of the room as well as sleeping bags and pillows. Tucked under Cosima's arm was a large duvet which I must admit looked more appealing that the thin sleeping bags.
"Me and Jake, oh this is jake by the way," Kirsten gestured vaguely towards him, he grinned and waved at us "are heading off the aquarium for the night if that's ok?"
"Sure!" Cosima waved back to jake.
"Oui! Have an excellent time" I waved.
As soon as they had left a large group followed them. Another large group headed off in the opposite direction to where, I assumed, the jungle exhibit must be. There were only 20 odd people left under the dome.
I turned around to see Cosima struggling with a rather large double mattress.
"You don't mind sharing do you? They were out of singles"
"Non" I didn't mind at all.
It was about 1 in the morning when they turned off the main lights. We had been given soup and bread rolls earlier which we graciously received and ate hungrily. Not stopping to talk between mouthfuls. It had been a long while since we last ate.
Both of us lay there, the soft duvet wrapped around us, her body heat close to me keeping me warm, I could feel Cosima's hand searching for mine under the covers. I slipped mine into hers, surprising her a little. She held my hand tightly, rubbing my hand with her thumb before taking our hands out of the covers.
Both of us still looking up at the dome. The moonlight shone through the inky blackness of the night sky, leaving a pool of light above us. Each star twinkled above us, dotting the sky line with a billion tiny lights.
Cosima's hand in mine she pointed our hands upwards and made them trace several constellations. Explaining what each one was, I barely took any notice of what's she was saying due to the overwhelming sense of happiness I was feeling. I watched every movement of her hand gently sweeping of the movement of the stars. She placed her hand down bringing mine with it, I could feel her turning to face me. I turned over until both of us were lying there face to face. I looked into her rich hazel eyes which had so much depth to them. The moonlight reflected within them. I reached up and stroked her cheek. I could feel her cheeks move upwards as she smiled. I leant into kiss her. She placed her hands in my cheeks bringing me closer softly. The kiss was soft and sweet but grew into passion, beautiful, awe inspiring passion. I don't know how long the kiss lasted for but it felt too short. She brought me closer too her, her arms wrapped around me. Intertwined.
"You Delphine Cormier are so very beautiful" It had been so long since anyone had told me those words with any meaning. I smiled, and kissed her again. Feeling so elated.
She fell asleep wrapped in my arms.
"Je t'aime" I whispered softly, holding her close.