Chrysanthemums

It all started when our hands touched, meeting in the middle and ending with a firm shake. I didn't think much of it until I sat down and saw ink, painting my skin with dozens of chrysanthemums, I remember looking up at the person in front of me as she busied herself with the folder in front of her. "What qualities do you have that you think will help this company?" she inquires, observing me, her eyes refused to leave me as I tried to think of an answer.

I fidgeted with my hands, left hand tracing the flowers that had suddenly appeared on my right. I blink, remembering why I was here, now was not the time to be nervous, the time I spent preparing myself for this couldn't go to waste. I looked up, answering with all the confidence I could muster up, right that second.

She turns the page and an audible gasp was heard, she turns her head swiftly and makes eye contact with me, she gestures to me to raise my right hand, I comply, raising my trembling hand, looking away in an attempt to avoid her stares. She stands up from behind her desk and walks up to me to hold my hand. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead, each trickling down as I felt the room around me shrink. Afraid to look up and meet the eyes of the woman beside me.

She pats my head in an attempt to calm me down, simultaneously, she traces circles on the back of my hand, it takes a few minutes for me to stop hyperventilating, and after a while, the world felt normal again.

We look at each other for a while, lost for words. "I'm sorry for panicking," I say, she assures me that it was alright. She walks back to her seat behind the desk and picks up the folder with my name on it.

"Let's finish the interview, shall we?" she says with a smile, and in that moment, I figured out why my mother would always talk about how wonderful it was when she met my father, her soulmate.

I got hired as her secretary and we completely forgot about the fact that we were soulmates. She refused to believe that she was fated to me and I couldn't accept the fact that I could be tied down this early in my life. Ever since then, the both of us wore gloves to hide the ink that embedded our skin. She said that nobody was allowed to know.

After a few months she decided to ask me out, knowing that the both of us didn't have a choice, our reluctance to be together made fate push us to each other even more. Our first date was uneventful, we avoided each other's stares and bickered for the evening. And after that, we started avoiding each other again.

.
.
.

Now here I was, in front of her, I held out my hand, asking her a question, "Do you want to try going out again?" I smiled in an attempt to persuade her. I accidentally let it slip in front of my mom that I had met my soulmate and that we agreed to ignore it completely, she scolded me for complying to ignore the fact that fate has connected me to her and forced me to try and ask her out once more.

Doubt was the first thing that came up on her face, but after contemplating for a while, she took my hand and nodded, smiling at me.

.
.

"What made you decide to ask me out?" she asks as we walked along the dirt path on the park, surrounded by grass and lampposts. I turn to see her pouting at me, staring with her curious eyes.

"I just did," I answer briefly as I pulled on the hem of my shirt, I didn't know what to do anymore, my only plan was to take her out to dinner, then go to the park. I started to get nervous, I looked down at our intertwined hands, and then at her, she looked at ease and I panicked even more. What if she was expecting a surprise? What if I disappoint her?

"Hey, hey," she looks up at me, breaking my trance, "Don't be nervous, I can feel your hand trembling." She raises her hand and caresses my face. "We're soulmates remember? Made for each other and all that other stuff. I'm sure that whatever you came up with, I'll like it."