Stars in Moonlight

Stella was a teacher who lived in a lovely cottage in the south of England. She loved her job and enjoyed writing too. Tonight, she was wearing her long auburn hair braided to one side. She had a pile of papers t correct and yet she was staring out the window at her best friend. To the world, Stella seemed to be a lonely woman, but she wasn't, she had her small family of pets and her group of friends in her bookshelf. But above all she could always count on her best friend, the one she could tell everything and trust would never judge her. Stella was happy, playing with her braid and thinking of everything she had to tell her best friend. She finally decided to put work aside, grab a jumper, a tumbler fool of tea and went outside to see her. She walked down the small path that went through her garden and sat on the fallen tree trunk that was her favourite spot in the world. She sat down and took a sip of tea from her tumbler, took a deep breath and smiled looking upwards. She didn't have to wait for her friend, or even look for her: the moon was right there, like every night. Sometimes a little bigger, other times barely a sliver, but she was always there. Stella sat there staring at the beautiful full moon this night and after another long sip of tea, to calm the slight chill of the wind that blew from the sea, she began talking gently, in a low voice.

"Hello dear friend, it's good to see you at your fullest. I have a ton of work on my table, but after the day I had, I need to talk to you before I can focus on anything else."

Stella took a deep breath, remembering the events of the day had resurrected the butterflies in her stomach. She drank some more tea, the warm feeling making the butterflies calm down for a moment.

"Tommy Bellotti's father came to the school for a meeting with me. You know, dear Moon, how much I've always liked that man, and this sudden meeting surprised me to the point I was almost speechless."

Again she took a deep breath; she was too excited to speak, but she had to tell the moon about what had transpired in the meeting. With a voice that was little more than a whisper, she continued.

"He told me some things about Tommy, and why he was improving, apparently Tommy had a crush on me, but now he's over it... apparently it's the father who is attracted to me now!"

Stella sighed and looked back up; the moonlight made her eyes shine almost silvery

"So...Altair, that's Tommy's father, asked me out for coffee next week...of course, I had to decline, no matter how attracted I am to him, it's unethical."

A tear rolled down her face; it glistened as a ray of light from the moon touched it, and Stella dried it with the back of her hand as she smiled weakly at the gentle touch from her friend.

"I'm not sure I can stay much longer, Moon, I should go back home. I was finally happy in my job, and my cottage is beautiful, but I think Nova wins the bet!"

She saw her friend brighten up and tried to smile, but there was no strength left in her for that. She was quite upset by all of this, after all, Stella hadn't expected to fall for any man here.

She heard a voice and almost jumped out of her skin; it was a man's voice.

"Who are you talking to, Stella?"

The girl turned around to find the object of her affection standing next to a tree, close to where she was sitting. The moon seemed to shine brighter on her bathing her in silver light. She saw the man was also bathed in this light and blinked twice.

Altair seemed to be as surprised as she was.

(To be continued...)

681 words