“I bet he did go through with it. He seems like the type that doesn’t know when to let go,” she replied.
Angel’s statement made me think. What if Antonio did decide to follow through with his plan? After he and AJ squared off at the hospital, I honestly hadn’t given him much thought. I assumed that he’d finally gotten the picture and moved on with his life. There was no way to tell unless I called him and asked, but there was no chance of that happening. The chapter in my life that included Antonio was closed as far as I was concerned.
By the time our food arrived, the mood at our table had lightened a little. We ate and laughed together and didn’t get up to leave until nearly 1:00. Once outside, I hugged Angel tightly around her neck. “Love you, Cuz,” she whispered.
“Love you, too. I’ll call you before we leave out tomorrow,” I replied.
She moved to hug AJ goodbye. “Take care of her. I know if I can count on anyone to look out for her, it’s you.” AJ smiled before we parted ways with Angel. We hopped into the cab parked on the side of the street and AJ gave the driver the address to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue just as the man pulled out into traffic.
As we passed by some of the city’s landmarks, I smiled to myself. There was so much diversity that prejudice seemed to be obsolete. Interracial couples were at every turn and no one seemed to give any of it a second thought. It was nothing like where we were from where our relationship had been ridiculed since day one.
We pulled up to the museum and AJ came around to open my door. Excitement shot through me at the mere thought of seeing some of my favorite art pieces on display, close enough to touch. We held hands and walked through the front doors. Again, I took note that no one seemed to even notice that AJ and I were different. I gripped his hand tighter and smiled to myself.
The first piece that we came to was my favorite, Birth of Venus. I was overwhelmed by its beauty as soon as I laid eyes on it. The colors were much more brilliant than I’d imagined and no picture in a book or cheap replica that I’d seen of the painting had done the real thing any justice.
“It’s beautiful,” I said in a voice almost low enough to qualify as a whisper. AJ stood beside me, finally beginning to understand why this painting had always spoken to me.
“What’s the name of the artist who painted this again?” He asked.
“Sandro Botticelli. He was actually the Medici family’s artist.”
“Annnnd who the heck are they?” He asked as he laughed to himself.
“How did you graduate from high school with a near-perfect GPA and not know who the Medici family is?” I joked. “They were a really powerful Italian family who basically owned a lot of land and had a lot of money. Kind of like your family,” I stated. AJ just continued to stare at the painting, but didn’t respond. “Come on. There’s another one of his over here.” I pulled him along by his forearm to the next painting – Primavera.
“This man was an artistic genius. I’d love to be able to move people the way he does,” I gushed.
My eyes shifted to AJ briefly and I was glad to see that he really seemed to be as engrossed as I was. “Do you like this one?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out what it means on my own.” I smiled and turned back to face the painting. After a couple minutes he blurted, “I give.”
“You would miss the easy one,” I joked. “It’s his interpretation of spring. There’s some mythology insinuated, too, but the gist of it is that he’s describing the onset of the season.”
AJ nodded knowingly, pretending to already have all the answers. “That’s what I thought, but you seem to have so much fun explaining this stuff to me.” I smacked him on his back and he laughed quietly.