SEBASTIAN
Days passed like a blur until eventually, it came to a stop on February 14th, Margo's birthday and Valentine's day. The streets of Paris were filled with vendors shouting out their stock for the day, the chocolates appetizing to the shoppers passing by, the flower shops had people carrying out bouquets by the masses and they were loading them into two vans in similar numbers. Couples lined the streets and benches, cafes were full and I'm sure restaurants were both filled with fear and excitement of the hoards of lovers that would grace their tables all night. The Eiffel tower would light up with pink lights as was their Valentine's custom, Paris was, after all, known to be the city of love.
At this moment, the only romance that I was getting was Micheal and the air conditioning. It was actually really weird to watch, even our boss was resting on the side of the table that Dominic and I leaned on.
"What are we watching?" He asked quietly, not disturbing Micheal and the air conditioning in their natural habitat.
"Micheal is performing his mating dance by side-stepping in front of the air-con even though it literally blows in one direction and that 's not even where he's standing if he wanted the cool air he would need to move back half a meter," Dominic replied, gesturing to the spot where he should be.
My boss didn't look any less confused. "And why are you all not doing work?"
"Since it's Valentine's day there hasn't been a lot of work to do with it being a lover's holiday and whatnot so any work that we had is already done for the day, we can't move onto to any future cases as the legal paperwork hasn't gone through yet," I explained, still watching Micheal, "oh, he's starting singing to it, how fascinating."
"Why aren't you doing work boss?" Dominic questioned, still watching Micheal.
"Same reasons. Does he always do this?"
"Every year without fail, it's February so it's not even that hot, the air-con is on the lowest setting so we have no idea why he does it, you're just always in your office or overseas," Dominic answered, earning a chuckle from my boss.
"Do you see these kinds of things at home?" My boss gestured to the swaying man serenading the machine.
"Not at all," I replied with the shake of my head.
"You see, in Singapore, we don't have stupid people, our people have common sense." Dominic followed, getting his phone out and turning on the flash, beginning to sway to Micheals song. We both looked at him with slight judgment before he defended himself by saying, "I said we don't have stupid people but hey, may as well have fun with it."
At this, my boss and I had a moment of hesitation before we both got our phones out with the light and joined Dominic. Other members of staff walked by, some throwing weird looks to both the air-con serenader and the trio of swaying idiots with flashlights, others laughing saying that it's Micheals time to shine or that he's up to this again, some even joined us and got their flashlights out and began swaying with us.
What we didn't realise, was that Micheal thought he was alone or that no one was paying any attention as when he turned around he jumped with a scream before nervously bowing to the crowd who clapped for him.
"Micheal no, please, do continue."
"Free concert, do you think the air-con will say yes?"
"Ah yes, my OTP, Micheal x air conditioning."
His face turned red, almost as if he took on the spirit of a strawberry and managed to mumble out a stop from behind his hands that covered his face. The crowd dispersed and we resumed our business, our boss throwing a reminder that the building will be closing early today for the public holiday. Apparently this was a usual as paperwork and cases were either practically non-existent, already completed or needed scanning which never took that long, leaving us all to about two hours worth of free time where we either went home after confirming we had finished everything and with the boss's permission or spent the time playing games and chatting to other colleagues.
When the day ended, I went home, walking through the door to see Audrey in the living room. She turned around as I closed the door, greeting me with a smile and a kiss.
"I could really get used to this." I could feel the amount of smugness and pride that my smile held afterwards.
"Hmm, I have a present for you."
"For me? Isn't it Margo's birthday today?"
She had her arms wrapped around my shoulders and my arms wrapped around her waist. "Yes, but we video called earlier and I already wished her a happy birthday. Plus, Logan came home near the end of the call and I'm pretty sure she's busy right now."
"Oh, damn Margo, get that action."
She laughed, placing another kiss on my lips. "I said that; I also said that she should change her name to Mar-hoe but that's not important."
"Really? What did she say?"
"She laughed and said she might have to consider the amount of time they've been working out together. At that point, I bid her adieu and ended the call but that's not important. It's present time!"
She sat me down on the sofa and rushed into the kitchen, coming out with a bouquet, a medium-sized box and two slightly smaller boxes. She plopped down beside me on the sofa and held out the bouquet with a beautiful mixture of the prettiest pink roses I've ever seen along with smaller bunches of delicate white flowers and other beautiful flowers.
"I know your favourite flowers are roses because you're a boring cliche and romantic so I got this made for you." I smiled and thanked her, completely in awe of the bouquet and the woman in front of me, so in awe that I couldn't muster up the cheesiness to tell her that pink roses were my favourite flower because they reminded me of her with their beauty and strength.
She handed me the medium box next, once the wrapping paper was uncovered the box was revealed to me and I ended up sucking in a gasp.
"I noticed that you really love taking pictures so I wanted to get you something that would be related to your passion and decided that since you don't have a camera that I would get you one."
"Audrey, I..." I felt lost for words, I gently placed the box onto the table with the bouquet and pulled her into a hug, burying my face into her neck and mumbling a thank you.
"You're very welcome, your photos are really good and I know it's a hobby but you should keep going at it." I held her for another couple of minutes before reluctantly letting her go.
She reached over to the two smaller boxes, handing me one of them and keeping the other for last. "So the last two are gag gifts."
"Gag gifts? Audrey, you been visiting some weird websites? I know we can get heated some times but I mean, sure if you're into that kind of thing."
"Shut up," she lightly whacked my arm as I opened it, "so this one is a tie, but it's not a normal tie."
"It's not?"
"No, look closer." This navy tie was apparently special, as I looked closer my eyes were able to make out outlines on it.
"Oh my gosh! They're cats, there are cats on my tie!"
"Yeah, I thought this would be a fun gift, don't know what you can do with it or where you can wear it but whatever." She laughed such a joyous and beautiful sound.
"Jokes on you, I'm gonna wear this every day to work, don't test me." This only made her laugh even more.
Finally, it got to the last gift, when I unravelled it I knew exactly what it was and couldn't contain my own laugher. "A Pokeball plushie? Amazing!" I knew full well that this was a nod to the way we met, it made my heart skip a beat.
"I wanted to get you the standard Pokeball that you could also hold a figurine inside but I got worried that you might make a joke and throw it at me."
"I would never," I defended.
"Well better safe than sorry, we don't know what your childish side is capable of."
I laughed and held it up to Audrey's cheek, tapping it against it. "I choose you, Audrey."
She laughed and let me pull her closer, returning the kiss that I placed on her lips. I had to break the moment when it got too heated, pulling away and getting the piece of paper I had in my bag.
"What's this?" She asked, reading what was on it.
"A location, this is where your present is." I smiled cunningly, knowing that she loved hunts.
"Let's go," she bounced excitedly, grabbing her things and running to the car, plugging the location into her GPS.
When we got there, right on cue, the sun began to set. We walked in and I took her to the location of her present. We entered a domed room, the middle of the floor had been covered with a king-sized mattress, blankets and pillows. To the side was a cart with freshly baked desserts and wine, the floor had small gatherings of artificial candles around and the grey cover of the glass dome pulled away to reveal the sunset streaming through the glass.
"This is amazing." She gasped, watching the sunset.
"Do you like it? There's supposed to be a meteor shower later on."
"I love it, thank you so much."
She settled on the mattress as I brought over the desserts and wine, we spent the next couple of hours talking, eating and drinking our wine.
"The stars are out now, oh, I need to give you your present."
"This wasn't the present?" She asked.
I shook my head and proceeded to walk over to the cart, finding the boxes that I placed there earlier today, bringing them over to her, crossing my fingers, hoping she will like them.