A sneak peak at the movie-tie in novel of ILYB!
Ever since she was a little girl, Natalie had been amazed by the night sky. She would spend hours gazing up in unrestrained awe at the stars, the moon and the planets fiercely shining back at her from their distant orbits. While other children had elaborate birthday parties with clowns or magicians, intricate games, lengthy guest lists and-most importantly-cakes and tubs of ice cream; Natalie preferred to spend her birthdays in the dimmed recesses of a planetarium with her mother and little sister, Rainey, both of whom would glance around with frowns of boredom crimping the corners of their mouths as they looked forward to the moment when the show would end and they could return home. Natalie, however, would gaze up toward the celestial heights, her large, green eyes opened wide in thrall at the images projected on to the curved planetarium ceiling high above them.
Little was different on this, her twenty-fifth birthday, except that instead of her mother and sister, she stood next to her boyfriend, Kevin, outside of the apartment they shared, as he looked through the eyepiece of her telescope. It was late and they both were tired from the surprise party her sister had thrown for her, but Natalie's eyes still contained the glint of childhood excitement as they roamed over the darkened sky, seeing beyond the heavens to the edges of the universe.
"It's fascinating, don't you think? Somewhere, out there," she nodded toward the stars, "billions and billions of miles away, time, the universe, it's just being born. When scientists look into space, they're seeing the beginning of time."
She turned to look at Kevin, but his face was still down turned, focusing on the eyepiece, or at least pretending to be, so Natalie returned her attention to the stars. "That's where we'll find the answers to the big questions. Like, why are we here? And where did we come from?"
Kevin stepped back from the telescope.
"It's twelve," he said.
Natalie was glad to see that he was paying attention, but was confused by his statement, wondering what on earth the number twelve had to do anything. She squinted up at the sky, as if the answer to her own question, somehow could be found there.
"What is?"
"The answer," he said. "It's always twelve."
"Don't be silly."
"I'm not the one who spends my free time looking at lights in the sky."
Natalie's eyebrows rose in a mock gesture of arrogant snobbery. "Well, it's my birthday, Mr. Murphy, so I can do whatever I want."
"Is that so?" Kevin asked as he grabbed Natalie's hips and pulled her to him. She responded by cradling her hands behind his neck.
She flashed a smile, nodded. "Uh-huh."
Kevin grinned at her. "Well, is there something particular you had in mind?"
A mischievous twinkle sparkled over her eyes and her smile widened, taking on a lusty ardor that prompted wicked thoughts in Kevin's mind.
"Oh, I can think of a few things," she said.
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