this is the version of us that i dream of when it is two a.m. and the stars look like they’re dancing across the sky:

we are in Italy, we are laughing, and it is warm. you point out a piece we studied years ago, and i smile because it was always one of my favorites. we talk about it over dinner and time passes slowly. i tell you that you are my whole world. you tell me what you know about earth’s rotation and how if the world revolved around anything other than the sun, the universe would be a mess. i laugh and you hold my hand and kiss me. my lips respond back to the rhythm of a song that i used to know. we are happy, and it is good. we walk home and wonder what it would feel like to dance on top of the sun.

this is the version of us that i think of when the sun is high in the sky and the clouds sing songs across the blue:

we go separate ways like we were always meant to. you come home at christmas and we talk over bitter tea. you tell me that when she talks it is like hearing a language you never learned but somehow know. i tell you that he makes me feel like summer and my favorite song. things are okay and things are good. i don’t think about what we could’ve been, but rather i cherish how close we still are even years later.

because at the end of the day,
dreams are just dreams, the earth will always revolve around the sun, and things are exactly how they were always meant to be.