Galaxies and Oceans

by N.R. Walker

“The Southern Cross?” “That was the name of the boat,” I answered. He frowned at that and made a face. “What is it, Aubrey?” His eyes filled with tears as the sun kissed his face and the ocean breeze rustled around us. “The Southern Cross is what brought me here. The constellation. I followed it, here, to this island. To you.”

How was it possible that this younger man could level me so completely? I was older, I had more experience. I was fourteen years older than him—I’d had my first kiss before he was born, for God’s sake… Oh God. I’d had my first kiss before he was born.

I was almost certain that heaven had just collided with the earth. That the world outside could resort to madness and we would be oblivious to all but this moment.

What we did, what you did to me, was the best love-making of my life. And that’s what it was. It wasn’t just sex.”

Patrick looked up at me with love and wonder in his eyes, and he slid his arms around me. I kissed him, rocked on him, rode him, owned him. He filled me, in my arse and in my mouth, he held me, he adored me.

“I do love you. That has been my one, constant truth.”

“I will love you every minute of every day for as long as there are stars in the sky,” he said. “Aubrey Hobbs, will you do me the extraordinary honour of marrying me?”

Like the lighthouse he tended, he kept me safe, my course steady. He navigated me home.