𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 | 𝐧𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

1:1

"Stand right about here," Noel directed, as he held both of my shoulders and guided me to lean my right side on an empty wall near the window. "That's it, perfect!"

One thing had led to another and he had an urge to sketch a portrait of me. I didn't mind at all, in fact I was interested in finding out how he saw me through his eyes and wonderful mind.

He told me to slightly cross my arms over my chest before returning back behind his easel in front of me. I felt like I was at a carnival or on the streets of Europe somewhere, commissioning someone to sketch a caricature of myself, while I stood vulnerably as a model. The only difference now was that the person behind the easel stand had a look of genuine concentration on his expressive face. My eyes remained locked on him as he madly swirled his charcoal pencil about the oversized drawing pad, stepping back to assess his work before resuming it again, while his eyes flickered back to me every so often.

"You've got really striking cheekbones," he said while making a gesture with his free hand, "they're beautiful."

"Do I really?" I tried not to move too much as I talked.

"Mhm and your eyes, they're just like pools of honey."

I refrained from uttering the clichè line "paint me like one of your French girls," although I thought it was ironically fitting for the circumstance. Instead of elegantly disrobing like Rose, I was dressed in Noel's sweatshirt, barefoot, while my now tousled hair fell in limp waves over my shoulders. I probably looked like a mess.

Minutes later, Noel backed away from his finished product and cocked his head to the side, concluding that he was done.

"I think it's some of my best work I've done so far, you know." He said, holding the pencil between his teeth. "Come take a look."

I finally let my arms hang down as I walked over to look at his work. I was pleasantly surprised to see a black and white picture that looked so much like myself that it almost seemed like a photograph. The soft shadows were placed in a flattering manner and the light was in such a way that it felt as though it was moving across my face and shoulders. He was able to capture my silhouette and facial features right down to the gleam in my eyes from the moonlight. The sketch contained so much depth for the time that he completed it in. I didn't know what to say, no one had ever done something like this for me.

"Noel, this is incredible. I'm speechless..."

He looked at his accomplished work and then back at me with a content smile on his face, his fingers stained from the black charcoal. "It looks great, right? You're an amazing subject to sketch and it helps of course that you're gorgeous."

I didn't know whether to make a lighthearted joke or say something completely driven by my emotions. Right now, I felt compelled to speak from my heart.

I shook my head. "You're too nice to me, I don't deserve it but I appreciate it with every molecule in my being."

Noel spoke with a sense of determination. "You are gorgeous, Emma. From the inside, out. And you deserve to be told that on a daily basis. I've never met anyone quite like you before."

With him standing closely behind me, I could feel his breath against my neck and a ripple of heat coming off of him. It terrified me. I would melt like putty in his hands with one kiss. If he kissed my lips and resumed his work, I would be devastated. It took everything in my power not to turn around because I knew I wouldn't be able to stop myself if I looked into his eyes. If it weren't for the Bowie record that ended, I would've confessed my feelings to him right then and there. He gave me a gentle kiss on the top of my head before going to take the record off and leave us to the sound of only our own voices.

I took the sketch off of the canvas and knelt down on the carpet to examine it in further detail. I was enamored with every minuscule marking he had made on the paper. Noel came up next to me and sat himself on the floor.

"You reckon it looks like you?" He pointed to my nose on his sketch with his pinky finger. "I even tried to get that cute little button nose of yours just there."

I chuckled softly. "I love it. It's definitely going in a frame so I can hang on my wall and stare at it for eternities."

His eyes widened and his eyebrows jumped at my words. "Eternities? That's a bit daunting isn't it?"

"I'm only exaggerating. I playfully shoved him to which he laughed and delicately shoved me back.

We fell into a hug that resulted in him pulling me down to lay next to him on the rather comfortable shag carpet. The pale moonlight from the moon shined through the sky windows, illuminating our two faces.

We were staring up at the moon when Noel unexpectedly put on a gentle yet strained voice. "When you are the moon, when you look at earth, the only thing you can see is the Great Wall of China."

I looked over at him while he continued watching the night sky and quietly laughed. I attempted to mimic his voice. "You know, uh, the Diet Coke, you can get that with cherry in it now."

My terrible impression earned a loud laugh from Noel, the sight of him laughing so hard that his eyes squeezed shut was enough to send me laughing as well.

"That was so bad," he said through his laughter.

"I know, let's never talk about it again." I said rolling over on my side in laughter and hiding my face in my hands.

My cheeks were beginning to hurt from smiling too much as I brought myself down from laughing. Meanwhile, Noel was still trying to recover from my moon impersonation. I watched him as he reached up to rub his eyes, assuming that he was tearing up from laughter. I'd never seen him laugh so hard and although it was unintentional, I was happy to be the one that made him laugh.

When he was able to compose himself, he turned his head to look at me. His eyes resembled bright blue pools that I desperately wanted to take a dive into. My eyes explored every inch of him and I noticed the faint smile lines on his face. I delicately rested a hand on his cheek and grazed my fingertips over his facial expression lines. The palm of my hand felt the rough stubble across his cheeks.

His eyes remained locked on mine as I pushed the choppy fringe out of his face, revealing his forehead and eyebrows. Because he constantly hid most of his face behind his hair, I felt like one of the few lucky people who saw the hidden age revealing lines across his forehead. I somehow admired him even more because of it and it brought him down to earth. I was running my thumb over his brow when he reached out to brush a strand of hair away from my cheek. We looked at each other for a moment that seemed to last forever. This was the moment. If there was ever something that was going to happen between us, it was now.

My face was still warm from his touch and my pulse quickened realizing that we were completely alone in each other's silence. That's when he gently put his hand on the back of my head to bring me in closer to him before he planted a long deep kiss on my mouth. His lips were soft and practiced, like he knew what he was doing to me. I found myself kissing him back as he pulled me in closer still. Our lips moved in unison and each kiss sent my head into another dimension. It had been so long that I'd nearly forgotten how impassioned kissing truly was. My strong feelings for Noel coarsed through me as we continued kissing, and there was a weightless moment where I thought about our future together.

He planted small pecks on my lips after pulling away from the initial long kiss. We then gently pressed our foreheads against each other. "Sorry," he said although he obviously wasn't sorry. "But I've been wanting to do that since I first saw you."

We were quiet for a few seconds, his hands were still firmly around me. "I think I'm in love with you, Emma." His tender voice whispered against my lips.

I softly nuzzled the tip of my nose against his before smiling against his lips. "I'm falling in love with you too."