In the daytime, Gael's apartment looked even more impressive than it had the night before. Every detail looked like it was specifically chosen and perfectly placed, colors and patterns mixing incredibly well. The rug was definitely antique, the vintage landscape paintings looked like originals, and the pillows on the couch didn't come from Target. A chunky wooden table that looked like it came from a trendy New York City flea market was paired with sleek chairs in his dining area at the base of the stairs.
Blue watched as Gael walked towards the kitchen, petting a curled up Percy as he passed him on the back of the couch, then began his routine of making coffee that he had probably done hundreds of times. A perfectly eclectic assortment of dishes were neatly lined up on the shelves of the cabinets, along with a very interesting coffee mug collection. When he brought out his phone, Chopin began to echo from hidden speakers strategically placed all throughout his apartment.
"Ooh, fancy," Blue joked as she sat down on a barstool at the island, quickly joined by Percy who hopped up next to her and gave her a curious look, as though to say, "you're still here?"
Gael shrugged and responded, "music is life," as he pushed the buttons of his coffee maker and began to dig through his mug collection for the perfect mug for Blue.
"That makes sense...but, no offense, why is your place so...well, fancy? If you say that you have a talent for interior design on top of everything else, I might scream."
He laughed as he stretched to the very top of the cabinet after spotting the mug he was after, "oh God no! I'm completely hopeless when it comes to that stuff. If it was up to me I'd have a bed and a coffee maker, that's it." He sat two mugs down on the counter and started pouring the coffee that had just finished brewing, steam billowing out of them as he continued. "My sister is an interior designer so she did everything for me. She even got featured in Architectural Digest for this place, I think, or one of those magazines. I kind of feel like it's wasted because I spend so much time at the theater, but it is nice to come home to I guess."
"Wait! You have a sister?" Blue exclaimed as he handed her a perfectly sweetened cup of coffee in a Les Mis commemorative mug from the 1980s. She wondered when he even acquired this mug and how he knew she would like it.
"Yeah, you didn't know? Surely I've talked about her before."
"No! First a cat, now a sister...if you need to disclose anything else, now's the time." She suspiciously eyed him over the top of her mug as she sipped the delightfully warm coffee.
Gael laughed as he walked around the island and headed towards the couch with his coffee, Blue and Percy following not far behind. "Nothing else I can think of. Isabel moved back to Puerto Rico when papa died so she could live with mama for a while and help out, she's the oldest so she assumed it was her responsibility. I'm grateful she was able to be there for mama, I know it helped a lot."
They curled up together on the couch, sipping their coffee as Gael told Blue about his family. "She's engaged to a really nice guy named Jake, we actually grew up with him in Washington Heights and they graduated in the same year. Now they spend half their time in Puerto Rico and the other half in New York since he's some kind of VP at NYC & Company; I think he's in charge of all the Latin America tourism marketing, or something like that." Gael took another sip of coffee and asked, "what about you, do you have any siblings or other animals?"
"Nope I'm an only child and Molly is an only pet. After..." she faltered for only a second, trying to push past the wall that always shot up as soon as she began to speak of her parents; she had spoken with Gael about it before and knew he understood her pain of loss somewhat, but it still was difficult to casually speak of them. "After my parents died, I moved in with my Aunt Millie, the one that likes to call at inopportune moments." She smiled and covered her emotions with humor, as usual. "She and my uncle didn't have any kids; I do have some cousins on the other side of the family, but I've only met them a few times. So I grew up around adults, going to dinner parties and the theater was my version of playdates. I mean I had friends in school and did a lot of activities, but not much family."
Gael was holding his oddly-shaped matte black mug in one hand and absentmindedly rubbing her leg that was draped across his lap with the other. "I honestly can't imagine that, even with only one sister my family is so large we had to borrow the neighbor's yard for summer barbecues! And the family back in Puerto Rico, I can't even tell you how many there are." He shifted a little to set their empty mugs down on the shiny coffee table and then pulled Blue closer to him.
"There were times I wished I had a larger family, or at least a sibling," Blue said, "but it honestly wasn't so bad. Maybe it's just because I don't know any different, but I'm really close with my aunt and can't imagine needing anyone else."
They continued to talk for a while, Gael answering her questions about the old letter he had framed from his grandmother, where the odd-looking bronze statue came from that sat next to his sheet music collection, and why he had a bunch of vinyl records but no record player.
"I inherited the vinyl collection from my papa, but his record player was broken and I've never had the time to find a new one. It's a shame, too, because it's a pretty fantastic collection." He stood up and walked over to the shelf that held the tattered vinyl sleeves, picking an album out of the middle of the stack and showing it to Blue. "He liked everything; literally one day he would be jamming to progressive rock from the '60s, and the next would be nothing but reggaetón all day long. He always said, 'Mijo, don't ever discriminate against another human or another music genre; they both are created in love and should be respected simply because they exist.' I guess that always stuck with me..."
Blue stood up and joined him at the shelf, slowly running her fingers along the spines of each album and feeling the connection between Gael and his father there. "He sounds like he was a really cool dude," was all she could think to say, stirring up a laugh and bringing Gael out of his reflective thoughts.
"He really was..." he whispered as he placed the album back into its spot on the shelf next to its dusty old companions.
Thinking of her own father made a familiar pain in her chest appear, one that she often fought off and never let consume her. "My dad literally only listened to Fleetwood Mac. It was the only cassette tape he owned and it never left the boombox in his shop. I don't even know how the dials still worked on that thing, it was so covered in sawdust that he must have memorized where the play and rewind buttons were." The image of her dad bent over his workbench, measuring a beautiful piece of wood as "Go Your Own Way" blared through the terrible speakers of his tiny boombox flooded her mind. Blue swore she could almost smell the sweetly green smell of fresh-cut wood as Gael showed her another album that had a man standing next to a bohemian looking woman on the cover, making her eyes go wide in amazement; Gael's dad apparently had a copy of the same exact album in his collection.
"I am definitely going to have to find a record player now; I haven't listened to a single one of these in five years, if not more." Gael put that album away as well and walked over to the coffee table to pick up their empty mugs to take them to the kitchen.
The silvery cord that connected them was no longer wispy, not just thin strings trying to tie them together. It was now becoming as thick as a sailor's rope, knotting between them and pulling them closer to each other like the wind pulls the sails forward.
Blue finally asked, "how did you know I like Les Misérables? Or was that a lucky guess?"
"You have a Les Mis sticker on your laptop and you've quoted Cosette twice in conversation, once in text. Plus, it was the first work in your portfolio, so I just assumed." Gael finished washing the mugs and set them out to dry as he walked back over to where Blue was standing and wrapped his arms around her waist. "So now the question is, do we get food - honestly, I have never slept this late and I have no clue if we are supposed to eat breakfast or lunch right now - and then head over to The Met?" He bent down and kissed her slowly, in no rush to break away from her coffee sweetened lips. "Or do we just order in and stay on the couch all day?" he asked, suggesting his intentions by kissing her again, this time a little more enthusiastically.
Blue's thoughts were muddled for a moment as she battled in her mind between Gael's kiss and the secret tour he promised at The Met. "I'm really not good at choices, I want all options; a sample platter of everything." She thought for a moment and then suggested, "Why don't we grab breakfast - because no matter the time of day, Gael, you never skip the opportunity to eat a breakfast burrito - and swing by my place for a change of clothes," she looked down at her attire of nothing but Gael's shirt, "since I don't think the docents would approve of this outfit." He laughed and showed his appreciation for her lacking outfit by acknowledging the access he had to so much of her skin. "Then after the tour, we can come back here and not leave the couch for the rest of the day. Or the bed. Or the table. Doesn't matter to me!" She gave him a wicked smile as he agreed to her irresistible and inclusive plan.
After a quick shower, while Blue cuddled with Percy and checked her emails on her phone, Gael called an order in at a restaurant that was between his and Blue's apartment so they could pick it up on the way. She didn't have to do a complete walk of shame since he let her borrow his black t-shirt that she'd been wearing, although she had to tie a knot at the bottom to make it fit somewhat normal; only her plaid pants gave away the fact that she had slept over at his apartment. As they walked into her apartment with sausage and egg burritos in hand, Molly met them at the door and gave Gael an inquisitive look.
"Molly, meet Gael. Gael, meet Molly." She walked over to the oh-so-holy cabinet that held the oh-so-beloved treats and grabbed a few to hand over to Gael. "Here, this is trick number one of how to get a cat to like you: spoil them rotten with treats. The more disgusting they smell, the more they will love you."
He bent down and held his hand out to Molly as she sniffed his fingers first, then the fishy-shaped treat. After gently nibbling at it with her tiny mouth, she swallowed it whole and then rubbed against him, requesting more. "Ha! It worked! I'll have to get some of these for Percy and see if he likes them."
"I told you! Cat life is mostly bribery and pampering, but once you figure out the things he likes he will figure out how to butter you up with cuddles in order to get what he wants." She scratched Molly above her squishy nose and then started to head down the hallway. "So this is obviously the kitchen and living room, my room and bathroom are down the hall to the right. I'll only be a few minutes, feel free to sit wherever and eat while I shower. Don't give her any human food, no matter how much she begs you with her eyes." Blue looked at Molly as she pranced away, acting as innocent as could be.
She started the water in the bathroom so it could warm up while she quickly picked out an outfit to wear to the museum. Choosing a soft tan turtleneck and black pants, she dug out her comfortable leather loafers from the bottom of her closet and ran back down the hall to the steaming shower. While she shaved her legs as fast as humanly possible, she smiled to herself as it sunk in that she was going on another date with Gael after spending the night with him. Two weeks ago she was lying to herself about her feelings, while secretly despairing the fact that their relationship had been cut short before it even really started. Now? After working together for months and watching their hard work pay off with the success of the show, she really did achieve what Arjun jokingly suggested after her interview; she got the job and the guy. She knew she felt something with him that she had never felt before, even as cliché as it sounded and as much as that thought made her want to vomit. While she wasn't one to easily acknowledge and accept her own emotions, she realized he was good at getting her to do exactly that, even if it was unintentional on his part. And for some reason, she felt a pull to get him to do the exact same.
Realizing as she dried off that she forgot underwear, she wrapped the towel around herself and opened the bathroom door. Gael just stared at her, Molly in his lap and purring loud enough that Blue could hear her from across the room.
Gael quipped, "are you sure we have to go to the museum now?" His eyes betrayed his joking tone, broadcasting the fact that all the art in the world couldn't be as tempting as what was underneath the thin towel draped across Blue's wet skin.
"As much as you made me wait, you deserve a little payback." Blue turned on her heel and headed towards her bedroom to change into her clothes.
After arriving at the museum and checking Blue's coat at the front desk, Gael quickly found his friend Angelica from college that had offered to take them on a behind-the-scenes tour, but she was on her way to a research meeting and wouldn't be done for at least an hour. Deciding to walk around by themselves until she was done, they turned left through a doorway out of the Great Hall and started with Greek and Roman art. The echoey room was filled with an excess of white marble statues that gleamed brilliantly under the lights, making them seem like specters rather than solid figures carved out of stone. In contrast, the bronze sculptures that were peppered all throughout them were dark and murky, the ancient patina that covered them rendering the lights practically useless in reflecting any sheen. Gael never let go of Blue's hand as they weaved between the columns, sometimes placing his hand on her back or around her waist as they stood and admired a Roman bust. She delighted in his closeness, in the fact that he was constantly seeking her touch and maintaining their connection.
Moving on to the next collection, Gael spent a while admiring the swirly faces depicted in the Art of Africa Oceania and the Americas. The gods, ancestors, and spirits all wore curious and sometimes comical expressions, preserved forever in wood and ceramic for everyone to see. Blue noticed Gael mimicking some of their faces and began to laugh quietly, but she still tried to muffle her snickers by dropping her head onto his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered into her ear, causing even more soft giggles to escape. All their frivolity was making an older man carrying a cane look down his nose at them. Literally. He turned his nose up into the air and looked down on them as he shuffled away.
Deciding that they didn't want to get into any more trouble, they moved on to the Modern and Contemporary Art, assuming most people in there would be so confused by Cubism that they wouldn't notice their flirting.
"So the main reason I asked you here is to find out: are you a fan of modern art?" Gael asked quietly as they passed a very famous Picasso.
"Of course I am, I love all forms of art!" Blue answered. "I love that it challenges everyone's concept of beauty. I don't need art to be conventionally beautiful, I don't need it to make me feel anything, and I definitely don't care if it was difficult to create or not. I mean, I appreciate it if those things are true, but I don't need them to be." She tilted her head to the right, looking at a painting full of abstract geometric shapes from a different angle. Gael looked like he was pondering her statement when really he was enjoying watching her standing bent over to her side, squinting at the painting in front of her as though it was an optical illusion that would reveal its truth if her eyes lost focus at just the right moment. She stood up eventually and shrugged, continuing, "I had a professor that always said not everything was for us. There are devoted fans of entire movements no matter the subject matter, and then there are those who have only ever seen one single piece of art they liked. I think his point was to get us to keep an open mind, but it mostly just scared everyone into thinking their art was going to fall into the latter category..."
Gael laughed as she smiled up at him, noticing someone seemingly staring at them over his shoulder. "I have an interesting relationship with modern art," he admitted as she brought her attention back to Gael. "I appreciate that it was the first time humans began consistently creating about subject matter other than deities and death; they no longer idealized things, but instead tried to expose what was truly inside us. It became all about what you feel. Honestly, I think it's amazing that you don't need to feel anything - I often wish I could do that as well." They stopped walking and sat down at a bench in front of a massive painting that Blue guessed had to be over eight feet tall...they had finally arrived at the Pollock. It almost hurt Blue's eyes to see the paint splattered in the way the artist had covered the canvas, the textures purposely messing with her depth perception with each layer of paint he added. "But for me," Gael explained, "it's so easy to find meaning in everything; even when I can't find meaning I can still appreciate the technique and skill. I think it's beautiful that I can look at this," he said as he pointed to the painting taking up the entire wall in front of them, "and feel like it's a perfect visual representation of what's going on in my head sometimes. The chaos and obvious flaws. Overpowering emotions. Thoughts and ideas intersecting like his colors do as they drip down the canvas. Even though I'm sure that may seem melancholy, to me it's still beautiful."
Blue forced her eyes away from the black and white and brown that covered the canvas in front of her to look over at Gael's face. He didn't look upset; instead, his face almost looked meditative. He held her hand in his lap, gently brushing his fingers over her palm as though he was unintentionally tracing the lines he was staring at in front of him. She whispered, "you're right, that is beautiful. I wish I could feel more freely - not that I'm a robot, I do have feelings. Although if I was a robot, would I be conscious of that fact and able to communicate it?" Gael shook his head and kissed her on the forehead. Blue leaned on his shoulder and whispered again, "I don't want to hold back from you, and I don't want you to hold back from me, okay? I want to feel everything. I have a bad habit of...shutting things off. Don't let me."
Gazing at the painting ahead of them both, Gael promised, "the floodgates have opened for me for the first time in years - I don't think I could hold back anymore anyways, mi Azul. Also, I'm really good at making people feel things, it's literally my job." He smiled at her as they stood up to let another couple sit down and enjoy the painting. "I'll do my best to make sure you feel everything you need."
Angelica found them in the American Wing, after Blue had pulled Gael directly to the gallery containing all of Winslow Homer's art. She had told him about how every summer Aunt Millie would take her to a local museum that only held a few of Homer's oil paintings depicting idyllic scenes of farm life, but one summer an exhibit came and brought with it a few of his later works. As she walked up to The Gulf Stream, the same sensation washed over her as it had when she was fourteen, recognizing the harsh angles of the waves and the fierce shades of blue he used in all of his fierce depictions of the sea. She admitted to Gael, "I know it must be vanity, but the way he uses the color blue is breathtaking. Every shade looks alive, but the darkest blues are my favorite. They are as deep as the real sea; it almost feels like it's pulling me in."
His only response was, "thank you, Homer, for my new favorite color," as he squeezed Blue's hand.
When Angelica found them there next to the sea, she apologized for taking so long to finally be able to show them around. "I'm so sorry," she exhaled, "I really didn't think today would be as busy as it has been! We are acquiring a few new pieces that are being delivered around the same time, so the unease has been looming downstairs all day." She pulled back her thick curls into a bun as she started weaving through the small crowd of people staring at a portrait of a beautiful woman painted by John Singer Sargent. Gael and Blue followed close behind as he took her hand again, causing Angelica to give them a fascinated smirk. "And now a mob of paparazzi has gathered outside the front doors and won't leave no matter how much security berates them! There must be a celebrity visiting or something, they usually call ahead and warn us though. Anyways..." She led them through a door into a back hallway, ominously looking over her shoulder, "this hall is supposedly haunted, by the way." Blue smirked at Gael, squeezing his arm in excitement. "A daughter of one of the curators in the '50s died prematurely, and although it didn't happen here she apparently loves to wander the halls and play behind the crates, as she did in life."
Gael joked with Blue, "do you want to see if we can make contact? I don't have an EMF meter in my pocket, but we could at least try."
Blue declined firmly, "absolutely not! Little girl ghosts are the scariest ones! Let's wait until we find a nice old grandma ghost that is knitting in an antique rocking chair or something."
Angelica laughed at them and added, "well someone also haunts the writing table of Louis XV downstairs, I'm not sure if it's an old lady though." They had reached the research wing, dozens of odd-looking machines and sterile environments creating such a stark contrast to the rest of the museum they had just walked through. Angelica introduced them to an older gentleman with two sets of glasses positioned on his nose. "Guys, this is Roger. He is currently working on this illuminated manuscript and trying to identify the different pigments used by the Florentine Illuminator in what we think was around 1370, is that right Roger?" The man simply nodded his head as he continued to concentrate on the manuscript in front of him.
"How does this machine help you do that?" Blue asked curiously.
He looked up at Blue, his eyes twice their normal size through the magnification of two lenses. "This is an X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy unit. Spectroscopic imaging uses X-ray energy in two dimensions and can be combined to produce datasets that reveal chemical and molecular information down to nanoparticles. It is used in a non-invasive manner to map the distribution of elements across flat surfaces, such as manuscripts and paintings."
Blue nodded along as he spoke, acting like she understood exactly what he was explaining, then finally admitted, "I think I understood the word X-ray, but that's about it!"
Roger laughed and re-phrased, "it allows me to see how the artist used all this gold leaf to make his artwork more captivating."
As the dawn of understanding flashed across her face, Blue smiled at Roger and leaned closer to the manuscript, murmuring, "ah, I see now, that's real gold! In theater we try to make everything artificial look real, so you'll have to excuse me for forgetting that everything here is genuine."
Roger simply replied, "or at least we hope it is!" and smiled as he let Blue look at the screen and see his findings for herself.
Angelica and Gael stood back as Blue filled her curiosity cup to the brim. Giving Gael an inquisitive look, Angelica decided to alleviate her own curiosity. "Congrats on the show, by the way, it's all over my Twitter feed every time I look at my phone."
Gael smiled proudly, "thanks! I can't believe it's finally out there for the world to see and they all seem to like it. Blue is the costume designer, did I mention that?"
Angelica nodded, "yes you did, but when you text me 'hey can I bring the costume designer for a tour' I didn't assume you would be so...well blended."
Suppressing his smile, he asked, "what do you mean?"
With an exasperated look on her face, she rolled her eyes and said, "Gael, you've been so busy I haven't seen you in almost a year and you suddenly waltz in here holding hands with a woman, looking at her like she hung the Mona Lisa. Do you honestly think I wouldn't notice? It's my job to notice every tiny detail, and you did not make it difficult."
Gael let his smile grow as he looked back over at Blue who was now convincing Roger to show her one of Queen Elizabeth's knight's armor that was covered in Tudor roses. "Believe me, I didn't expect it either. I might have allowed myself to hope for it, but I definitely didn't think I had any chance of...well...her."
At this, Angelica's smile matched Gael's. "I'm happy for you. It's nice to see the old Gael back, you look even happier than you did in freshman year when you beat Blake Sullivan for the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream."
"Ah, that was sweet justice. I believe he had boasted that I'd never get cast because I was a talentless slug with no aspirations, right?"
"And look how wrong he was," she stated as they joined Blue who was still admiring her knight in shining armor.
—
After Angelica had shown them as much as she could without getting into trouble, Gael and Blue decided to leave the museum in search of food since her stomach had growled no less than three times in the conservation wing. On their way out, Blue thanked Angelica for a wonderful tour and jokingly promised she wouldn't speak about any of the secrets she had shown them that day.
After hugging Angelica goodbye, Gael started to walk out the front doors as Blue remembered she had checked her jacket and called out to him that she would meet him outside. After grabbing her jacket and slipping it on, she stopped abruptly at the glass doors as she saw the commotion outside. Gael was being swarmed by a group of people that looked like they were all trying to talk to him at the same time. Confused, Blue pushed the door open and ran over to the crowd, hearing shouts of, "Gael! Gael! Over here!"
She tried to get through the crowd, but was pushed to the back and unable to see anything due to her lack in height. Looking to her left, a man was holding a camera with a lens as long as Blue's arm and it finally dawned on her: they were the paparazzi Angelica had mentioned.
They were there for Gael.
She stepped away from the crowd and slowly walked back up a few steps, and as she turned around she was finally able to see. Gael was signing autographs and taking selfies with people while the paparazzi snapped hundreds of photos. He looked a bit startled, but was also riding the high of all their attention. Somehow, these people got word that the suddenly famous Gael Nevárez was at The Met...and they all came to see him.
As Blue watched the crowd grow larger as more attention was gathered, she was completely unaware of how incredibly turned upside down life would be moving forward; for her, for Gael, and for them.
THE END.
**Part two coming soon!**