Carlos was gone before Cecil even woke up. Which was really weird because Carlos is never gone because they always left the apartment together!
There must have been a science emergency, Cecil thought to himself as he got ready for work.
Once he got into the radio station, Cecil sent Carlos a text, asking if he was going to stop by to see him when he got a break from his experiments and data collecting. Cecil's phone beeped a minute later, but he was saddened once he read the text that said that Carlos was sorry, but he was going to be way too busy today to take a break. Cecil texted him back saying that it was alright and suggesting dinner, but he didn't get a response.
Cecil moved through the day at a slow pace, but he didn't let his numerous phone calls that all went to voicemail bother him too much.
Why is Carlos ignoring me? Cecil wondered, as he called his boyfriend's number once more. This time Carlos finally picked up, and Cecil got excited once more.
"Carlos!" Cecil exclaimed. But the man in question spoke before he could say anything more.
"I'm sorry I've not answered your calls, Cecil, but I'm really busy today. I have to go. I'll see you at home, okay? Bye, sweetie." And then he hung up, leaving Cecil's jaw slack and him staring at the cellphone, wondering what had just happened.
Once again disappointed, Cecil resumed his show. By the end of it, Cecil had gone through in his mind every possible reason for Carlos to be ignoring him and the most likely option was that Cecil had done something to upset him.
Maybe it was something that I said yesterday, Cecil thought for the umpteenth time as he walked down the sidewalk towards Carlos's laboratory to surprise him at work, if not just to talk to him, face-to-face for a second.
Cecil entered the lab, but he did not see Carlos around the haze of scientists doing various things with chemicals and papers. Cecil recognized two of Carlos's team of scientists—Rachelle and Dave—working together, the former leaning over a microscope, saying something to the latter, who seemed to be writing it down.
Cecil walked up to them, and cleared his throat a bit before saying, "Um, excuse me? Do you know where Carlos is?"
Dave turned his head towards the voice and his eyes grew wide. He moved his hand to grab at Rachelle's arm and she picked her head up away from the lens with an exasperated, "What?"
She, too, seemed surprised by Cecil's presence and stammered a bit before saying, "Oh, uh, hi Cecil! What—what are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for Carlos. Do you know where he is? I have to talk to him."
"What? Why?" Rachelle asked, if not a little too quickly, and sounding very concerned.
Cecil furrowed his brow, looking very confused, and said, "He's been ignoring me all day long, and I want to talk to him. It will just be for a minute. Just long enough to make sure that he's alright and not being held prisoner by a group of sadistic torturers making him not answer me all day."
"Oh," Dave said with a content sigh, which seemed a little weird to Cecil. His relationship may be falling apart at this very moment and Dave sounded like he was happy at this news.
Rachelle smiled a little before she made her face all serious again. "Carlos is, um, out getting supplies right now."
Cecil frowned. "When will he be back?"
Dave piped up. "Not for a while. Sorry, Cecil."
"You should probably go home and relax," Rachelle suggested. "You look really tired."
Cecil bowed his head a little and said, "Yeah, I guess I'll talk to him tonight. Or tomorrow. Or never again for as long as I live."
Rachelle and Dave exchanged worried glances.
"Just . . . go home, Cecil," Rachelle said softly. "I promise that everything will work out just fine."
"Yeah," Dave interjected unhelpfully. "Go home. I guarantee that you'll feel better."
Cecil nodded and turned to leave, expressing his thanks quietly.
As he walked down the sidewalk, Cecil's mind was swimming with scenarios. What could possibly be wrong? he wondered frantically. As he approached their apartment complex, he entered the code at the front door and walked down the hall to their apartment. He turned the key in the lock, opened the door, and deposited his messenger bag and jacket on the jacket rack inside.
As he turned towards the small kitchen, Cecil stopped in his tracks. On the dining table, there were two place settings with plates piled high with delicious-looking food, fancy silverware next to the plates and napkins, and a beautiful candle burning in the center. Carlos was standing next to the counter next to a bottle of wine and he was wearing a button-down shirt and nice dress pants. Cecil took another step into the room.
"What's all of this?" he asked.
"This is what I've been doing all day," Carlos answered, taking another step towards Cecil. "I know that you went to see me at work and I wasn't there. Rachelle texted me. I'm sorry that I was ignoring you today, but I really wanted to surprise you with a fancy dinner." Carlos hung his head and looked at his hands for a brief second when he apologized.
Cecil didn't know what to say. So he finally closed the gap between him and his boyfriend and threw his arms around the man's neck. Carlos was surprised, but he gratefully returned the hug.
"Thank you, Carlos," Cecil said in his ear. "No one's ever done something this fancy for me."
"You're welcome, Cecil," Carlos responded quietly, gently pushing Cecil away from him, so that he could kiss him.
Cecil was overjoyed that Carlos wasn't angry with him or kidnapped or anything. So they sat down together and began to eat their meal whilst they talked about their days.
Imagine person A ignores person B the entire day, barely speaking a full sentence to them. And person B is getting really upset, confused, and wondering if they did something wrong. But at the end of the day when person B comes home they find a house full of flowers, chocolates, dimmed lights, candles, and a dinner set up in the kitchen with person A dressed in an adorably fancy outfit. They wanted to catch Person B off guard and surprise them.