Hidden Truths, Burning Hearts

Goodbye

I turned towards Ray with a smile,
"You came."
"Well someone said to give it a chance."
I just smiled in return.

He looked ravishing in his navy blue button up shirt and jeans. With his sleeves rolled up to just below his elbow. There was a tattoo of a crown on the inside of his left wrist, which I had never noticed before.

"You look beautiful." He said to me bringing his lips near me as they nearly touch my ears.
I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me as I suddenly feel so hot.

"You too." I said but my eyes widened in realisation that I called him beautiful.

"Handsome. I mean you are handsome." God, Why am I acting like a lovesick teenager.
"I mean you look nice too." I finally said bringing my shit together.

He gave me his signature smirk. "No I definitely feel underdressed." He said looking at me up and down. "This is not my crowd." He said looking around the gallery.

"Nobody cares. They are here for the art." I said waving him off.

"So these are all yours?" He asked looking around the place.
"Yes, what do you think of them?"
"I have to say they are not what I was expecting." He said with a straight face.
"What do you mean?" I asked furrowing my brows a little.

"Well I was half expecting to find a banana taped to the frame or something like a stroke of paint on a canvas, that would be priced at a hundred thousand dollars." He said with a laugh.

"But yours are a lot better."
"Ah I see what you mean." I smiled understanding his point of view and happy because our concept of art is somewhat similar.

"Come let me give you a personal tour."
I took his hand into mine boldly, ignoring how giddy it made me feel inside and showed him every piece, asked about his thoughts and told him about every one of them.

"What about this one?" He asked me when we stopped before another one.
It was of a little girl, smiling to her father as he is on his knees in front of her with a puppy in his hand, while his back was pierced with lots of arrows.
"This one I painted remembering my father.."

He looked at me like he knew there was more to the story and squeezed my hand in his.
"Tell me about him." He asked.

Something inside me told me I could tell him, trust him with all my secrets.

"He was my hero. He was everything to me when I was that age." I said as I nodded towards the girl in the painting.

"I was around 10. He would do anything to make me happy. He made me feel the safest. He kept making me smile while he was battling with cancer. And then one day he was just gone. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye because I wasn't expecting to lose him so soon." I said as my eyes were getting blurry with tears threatening to fall.

But I tried to hold them in. His hand reached out to wipe a treacherous one from my cheek. I instantly closed my eyes and leaned on to his touch.

"I'm sorry." He said genuinely.
"It's ok. I've come to peace with it. He was just protecting me by not telling. I just wish we had more time." I said while I smiled reassuringly at him.

"So why Antheia?" He asked as he pointed towards the signatures on the paintings as we moved on.

"I've always found inspiration in the nature. It's one of my dominant themes. Antheia is the Greek goddess of garden and flowers." I said as I showed him some still life paintings of flowers and birds that I had done.

"These are all beautiful. Wait you didn't show me this one." When I saw which one he was referring to blood rushed to my ears and I'm pretty sure I looked like a tomato. It was the one l didn't want to put on display. I had done this on the first day of our meeting.

It was of a couple under an umbrella in the rain. The girl had her hands around the man's neck with a flower bouquet in her hands that was blocking their face. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that they were kissing. I had painted the figures in an abstract way while the bouquet of flowers were painted in a realistic way. The flowers represented their love for each other. It showed that love was the only thing that mattered. The only thing that was Real.

"Well there's nothing much to tell here." I said looking anywhere but his eyes.
"Really then why isn't it on sale?" He asked with a grin. I could tell he was enjoying this.

"Because it's special and it came here by mistake. My manager insisted on displaying it."
"Well he is a very wise man." He said leaning towards my face until his lips reached my ears, "cause it's the one I loved most."
I smiled looking down as he moved back.

The gallery was almost empty when I gathered my things and put on my coat. I said goodbye to Mark and got out with Ray beside me.

"I'm really glad you came." I said to him as I got out.
"Yeah me too."

We started walking mindlessly. I could walk all night with him beside me. How could I trust a man, I knew so little about. I thought to myself.

"Ray, tell me something about you." I asked him.
"Like what?" He asked as his body stiffened.
"Anything. You know so much about me. But you never talk about yourself."

"There's not much to tell."
"I'm sure that's not true. What work do you do? What do you like to do for fun? How's your life like?" I asked and he stopped in his tracks and turned to me.

"Why do you care?" He asked being serious.
"Because I want to know you. Because I ... I like you Ray. I want to know everything about you."

"I won't do you any good Amelia. Being with me will only hurt you." He told me looking away.

"Why? Because you are friends with the guys from the other day? Are you in a gang or something?" I asked the inevitable question.
He didn't answer.

"Tell me why Ray. You are not like them. Why would you be with them then?"

"Not like them? Wake up Amelia, I'm one of them. This life is the only one I know. I never got the chance to be someone else. Something more." He finally said looking me in the eye.
"I'm not the one for you. And you are definitely not the one for me. Look at you. You're not even my type."

His words shattered my heart in pieces.

"Then why are you here? Why did you come?"
I asked as tears were already forming in my eyes. But I refused to shed them in front of him.

"Because I'm saying goodbye." He said as he motioned for a cab to stop beside us.

He opened the back door to me and said,
"Go home Amelia. This is for the best. Nothing good will come out of this."

I got in the cab with tears filled eyes. And he closed the door. I gave the driver my address and looked back at Ray through the window as the cab started to move. His face hardened. He started to walk the opposite way as the cab drove away. And I finally break down letting the tears fall free.

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A/N
It's not the end!