26
Chloe
My fingers and lips are still sticky from the bucket of doughnuts we demolished as we window shopped and watched a magic show where a stage and benches are permanently set up near the end of the pier.
Tyler and Cooper each throw in a few bills as they pass around a hat, and then Tyler jerks his chin toward the end of the pier. “We might not be able to see them, but let’s take a look.”
“See what?” I ask.
He smiles mischievously in response, two of his fingers in my back pocket as we reach a set of stairs with a giant red heart in the middle that leads to an area that looks out over the bay.
The wind off the water is chillier without the warmth of the sun, but I can’t bring myself to complain because this moment is so perfect, and the clear skies above only promise better viewing for the meteor shower tomorrow that has me glancing skyward. “Look,” I tell them as light streaks above us. “It’s the meteor shower.”
“I thought it was tomorrow?” Tyler asks, glancing at the sky.
I shiver from the breeze coming off the water and move closer to him. “No, you can actually see it for five weeks. Tomorrow’s just the best day when we’ll be in the thick of it, but we’re currently passing through the comet’s orbit, so the meteors are coming into our atmosphere.”
“Coming into our atmosphere?” Ty asks, his eyebrows knit like I’ve just told him a line from an alien takeover movie. “Does that mean they might hit Earth?”
I shrug, trying to recall all the data about comets and meteors. “Meteors generally disintegrate before they reach Earth. Most of them are only a few millimeters in diameter—dust essentially. But, once in a while, there will be a large enough meteor that it will make it to our surface, and then it becomes a meteorite.”
“Weird to think we’re watching specks of rock that are on fire and admiring them, right?” Vanessa asks.
“They’re on fire? Is that why they glow?” Ty stares at the sky.
I glance at him, wanting to kiss him again because each time he asks a question and invests his time and interest in this part of my life and other interests of mine, I can feel another piece of my heart get lost to him.
“Is that a stupid question? Do all kids learn this in like, third grade, and I didn’t pay attention?”
Vanessa shakes her head. “I just live with her and have sat through this conversation a hundred times.”
I laugh, shaking my head as I try to shuffle my thoughts back to his question. “It’s kind of complicated. I don’t study meteors, so I can’t give you the full explanation, but basically, the rocks hit our two outer regions: the exosphere and the thermosphere where there’s no air, and the meteors are rocketing to Earth—like twenty-five-thousand to one-hundred-and-sixty-thousand miles per hour—but then they hit the middle layer of our atmosphere: the mesosphere, and the gasses cause friction, which heats the meteors, so they mostly burn off in the mesosphere, and that friction and their speed create the falling star.”
“Mesosphere? Is that the layer we live on?” he asks.
“No, we live in the troposphere,” I tell him.
“But none of this has anything to do with what you’re studying?”
“Not really. All of this involves the Milky Way Galaxy. But, it’s still very complex and involves multiple areas of study. During meteor showers, astronomers measure objects in the Kuiper belt, which extends into our outer solar system, because we believe some comets, like this one, might have been created in an outer solar system and then got kicked into our solar system, so lots of planetary science is involved. That’s one of the coolest things about astronomy, so often it requires teams of people from all over the globe to all have the same goals and objectives to witness and capture images and facts. Much of it is interconnected.”
“How does this meteor shower happen every single year?” Cooper asks, staring up at the darkened sky.
“This one, Perseids, is caused by Earth passing through the orbit of a comet called Swift-Tuttle, which is a giant comet that is constantly losing gas and dust particles, and that’s what we’re seeing.”
“But we don’t see the comet?” Nessie asks.
“Every hundred and thirty-three years, you can see it from Earth.”
Coop blows out a low whistle. “That’s crazy how cool dust looks in space.”
I grin. “Right?”
We watch for several minutes as meteors streak across the sky, and then I hear a sound that draws my attention to the left where a crowd is gathered at the railing. “What is that?” I ask.
A smile flashes across Tyler’s face. “Want to have a look?”
I’m already five steps forward before I nod, making him laugh.
“Sea lions!” Nessie cries. The water is dark, but the many lights hung along the pier allow us to see their dark outlines, so they’re difficult to see but not impossible.
“If you all come back this way tomorrow, make sure to stop here. You can see them so much better during the day, and there’s usually someone here who’s talking about them and sharing information. You would enjoy it,” he says, looking at me with another intense gaze that feels immense and heavy. Our relationship is so new and yet feels old at the same time. I used to avoid the fact I knew so much about him, and now I wish to know it all.
“Come on. We have to ride that carousel,” Nessie says, turning to retrace our steps.
I grin as Cooper follows with an objection that Nessie ignores.
“Hang on,” Ty says, catching my hand. He digs in his pocket for his phone.
“What are you doing?”
His fingers release mine, and he quickly types something out in an email. “Canceling my meetings for tomorrow.”
“Can you do that?”
He slides his phone back into his pocket. “I just did.”
“Are you sure?” I hate that my hopes feel so inflated and that this seems so momentous.
“I want to see San Francisco with you. I want to show you the bridge and take you out for ice cream.”
I feel a bit guilty for feeling so excited by this. After all, Cooper and Nessie have been troopers, willing to go to so many different museums and tourist sites with me, but the idea of seeing San Francisco with Tyler makes my heart feel like it’s in my throat.
“This hotel has no problems, and half the questions and concerns are going to be addressed as construction begins, so it’s mostly a moot point. We can go see the bridge and Lombard Street, and the Coit Tower, and Chinatown…”
I kiss him, silencing the plans he lists that have my chest feeling light with excitement. His lips are soft and gentle, frustrating me because I feel like every second I’m around him, I lose a little more of my composure and control, and right now, he feels like the definition of control. I don’t care about the crowds or that Nessie and Cooper are nearby as I move closer to him, feeling too much air, too much space, too much composure, and far too much desire culminating like a black hole making it impossible for me to escape any of it. I close the space and kiss him deeper, my hands tightening around his neck.
Tyler growls into my mouth as I trace his tongue with mine, and dig my hands into his hair as I press my breasts against his chest. The more of him I feel, the more desperate I become.