AJ

“Atlas, what is this” I asked. Looked at me, holding my hand, and lifted it up to his lips. He kissed the ring and said “a promise”. “A promise? What kind of promise?” Still holding my hand, he began to rub circles on my skin. “The kind of promise where I will always take care of you. I will honor our parents wishes for us, if that’s what you end up choosing. It’s what I would like as well. I know you may not love me, yet at least, but I do have feelings too. And this is me acting on them in one of the only ways that I can publicly, until you choose to accept me. Unless of course you choose not to accept anything between us. Which I really hope you don’t go with that option” he said.

“Oh Atlas, things have been really fast. That part is true. But I’ve been wondering what we are. What we’re doing. What’s between us. And I’m still figuring that out. But the last thing I’d do is deny any feeling so have towards you. The ring is perfect. Thank you” I said. He smiled at me then, and kissed me passionately. He pulled back not long after “We need to get to work, we’re already late”. We took a shower together. He washed my body, and washed my hair for me. Taking absolute care as if not to break me. And about 30 minutes later we were both dressed and heading out the door.

We both arrived together to work for the first time, eyes all over us. Throughout the day they were whispering about the visible marks on his neck and the new ring on my finger. I did my best to ignore them, but I knew that the talk would get much worse once we announced a relationship. I didn’t notice that time was flying by and I missed my lunch break so I ordered for delivery and ate at my desk. The artwork and sculptures would be arriving shortly anyway. Suddenly there was a big commotion in the hallway and I looked up to see what it was about.

Suddenly, 20 men came in wearing tuxes carrying large bouquets of flowers. Each bouquet was the same. Pink roses and white lillies. They all formed a line surrounding my desk. I looked at them in confusion when they parted just enough for another man to step through. My boss. My Atlas. He had a single branch in his hands and placed it on my desk. A branch of cherry blossoms. Then suddenly, all the men started singing Happy Birthday. And soon everyone in the office joined in too. Atlas moved to stand behind me after the song was over and he bent down and kissed me on the cheek “Happy Birthday Calliope”.

After all the flowers were set in front of my desk, they started to leave. Everyone was still staring or clapping in the office. The last one to leave was Atlas. He stopped at the end of the room, turned around, and yelled “Everyone back to work”. Then he winked at me and left. I looked at the blossoms on my desk. And then on my ring. And thought to my room. I never told anyone that they were my favorite. Not even my adoptive parents.

I was spacing out in thought when the phone began to ring. It was the University telling me that they were here with the painting and sculptures I requested. So I made my way down to the lobby to continue doing my job.

We’ve been adjusting and rearranging the sculptures and paintings throughout the room to make it perfect. But one was missing. The Maine Coon. Suddenly, they brought out a small column. It was going to be used to house the final sculpture, the center piece of the room. And then very carefully, they brought it in and placed it in its spot. I began staring at the sculpture again, admiring its fine work. I went to look at the plaque, with the information about the piece. And right there. It said “For my lost love. I’ll find you again. I promise ~AJ”

I was at a loss for words. At least it’s seeing the light of day, and maybe, just maybe, the person this is for will find him instead. I make my way to Atlas’ office to let him know that the lobby is finally complete, and ahead of schedule. His assistant announces me, and I enter. “Mr.Jones, the lobby is ready now. When you have the time I’d like you to come see my work” I said. “Well then little one, let’s not add to the suspense. Let’s go” he said as he got up. We didn’t speak to each other the whole way down to the lobby. He looked around. An unreadable look on his face while he took everything in, until he reached my center piece. He stopped. Frozen. I thought something was wrong. Maybe I made a bad choice after all. “Where…HOW did you get this” he said as he turned to me.

“I contacted the university to seek approval of supplying artwork from its current and previous students. They’ve had this piece in storage for a long while now. More than a decade. They couldn’t reach the artist, but since it was in storage so long they went ahead and approved it being sent. I don’t know who AJ is, but I do know that you have access to his work. There’s a painting of his in my room after all. Perhaps you could get ahold of him to let him know his work is finally being displayed in public” I said. His hands dropped to his sides when he looked at me again, “This is mine. I made it. I made it for you”. The whole lobby got quiet then. And I started to feel dizzy. But I held on. After this, there was no going back. No hiding what we had together. Not like his stunt in the office hid that fact either, but this. It changes everything.