Radinson had convinced the CIA to transfer him to RED since his agent was the one who brought down the cartel. He knew how to play them considering he was the one who trained me on it. He still would tell me absolutely nothing about Atlas. But I guess that is what I deserve for falling in love with my mission.
At this point, I had moved fully to the RED building. Went and got all my things from Detroit and moved to the big city for good. I figured if Atlas was to come back and try to find me, it would be here.
We yet again promised we would make it work. I waited a year and heard nothing. I wrote letters that only he could decode, I thought about him every second of every day but nothing in return. I decided to stop this stupid love confusion game we were playing, stop acting like a 13-year-old in love, and move on. At that point, he was miles away and out of reach and I did not know if he was even alive.
I had been trying to go on dates with random guys to try to get over him. Some really nice, others just too fucking weird. You think of them I probably went on a date with them.
One night I went out with a gentleman. Really nice, tall, black hair, brown eyes, ex-cop turned into a lawyer. Very nice guy but I just was not feeling it. He just talked about himself way too much. We decided to go to a little salsa bar not far from Times Square. All I could do was sit there and watch others dance and think about that night out with Atlas.
Those memories were seeping back into my head slowly but surely. Him spinning me around, my dress fanning the air around me, Atlas’ hands intertwined in mine while dipping me. Those eyes looking so deep into my soul as if I was the only thing in the world that could possibly matter. That is what love was.
“Don’t you agree?” What’s his face said to me.
I quickly came back to reality, “Oh ummm …” As I stuffed a nacho in my mouth, “yeah.”
He shook his head like he had just proved an enormous point.
“You know what?”
“What?” He replied as he started moving closer to me.
I pushed myself back, “I am not feeling so good. Could we go?”
He quickly got up and pulled my chair out and helped me up. He walked me to a cab and that was the end of that.
Dating was just becoming a habit to try and forget everything in reality. Every day after work I would lay in bed until I found something better to do. I would just say yes to a date so I could just get myself out of my pity party of one in my bed every night.
But there was one night that really snapped me back and put me in my place. On this night I got out of bed, took a half-ass shower, threw on some jeans, a kind of nice shirt, put my hair up, put on a kind of nice jacket and went off to my date at Beat Down. The same bar where Atlas and I kind of became a thing.
As the cab dropped me off I started noticing the same people hanging out around it like the first time I came here. The same businessmen, druggies, and party girls. It almost had a tiny smile on my face. I walked up closer to the bar and had a photo of the man who I had met online so I know who the heck I was going to meet.
As the gentleman met me outside of the bar, he introduced himself very politely, like I said quite a gentleman.
“Hey there I am Robert.”
I stuck my hand out like on a business meeting, “I am Mel.”
“Shall we go in?”
“Lead the way.” I slapped a fake smile on and pretended to laugh and giggle as he told me more and more about himself as we started to walk up the stairs to the main floor.
It did not hit me at first then, but finally I noticed while walking up that was the same spot where Atlas kissed me. It all came rushing back. It was as if I was watching it all in slow motion again. Either I was going crazy or my heart was trying to tell me something. That whole night started coming back to me, making all the other memories come back to me. It was hard to try to hold a conversation. I came here expecting to forget but like the date at the salsa bar everything was just being pointed back out to me.
He kept talking and I kept pondering on what I was supposed to be doing. I just figured I would go along for the ride because it probably all meant nothing anyway.
He was very nice and got us a great table on the top floor. We had to wait a minute so we went over to the bar to grab a few drinks.
We sat at the bar to grab our drink. “What will you be having sir”
“Corona for me and whatever the lady wants.”
“Did you say Corona?”
“Umm yeah, why is that a problem?”
“Not at all. Make that two” I said while slowly pondering in my head what this could all mean.
We went on for just a little bit talking about work and what not but I just did not feel it. He was all about work and I was all about that head nod. Any time he would ask me about myself I would just nod my head. I was without a doubt the worst date this man had probably ever had.
“Excuse me.” The waiter oh so politely whispered tapping on his shoulder.
“Yes.”
“Your table is ready sir.”
“Finally. Thank you.”
As he stepped away and threw the rag over his shoulder I just realized I was not supposed to be there. Maybe I was crazy but I could not sit here and wait for something to happen for me.
I looked at him like I had not looked at anyone for what felt like ages. He looked back at me as though my eyes carried no soul. I thought to myself, “is this how it is supposed to be?” I have felt true love before; this is not what true love felt like. Alas, I need to find Atlas. I felt as though I was hyperventilating, I needed to leave. I was not going to stop until I had him. It felt as though the passion for Atlas was cutting through my heart and slicing through my veins. I had to find him, I would not be me until he was back in my life.
That is when I decided I was done. I got up from the bar stool. Using my last breath in my lungs, “I can’t do this anymore. I am not the one you are meant to find. I am meant for someone else. You will find who you are for and believe me, she will love everything about you, but I have to go!”
With everyone staring at us from my dramatic exit, I rushed down those stairs, taking one more brief look at that spot and knew what I had to do. I got a cab; I reached for my phone and dialed a number, “be at my house in 10 minutes, no questions asked.” I got back to the place I called “home” and ran up as fast as I could. I ran up those stairs the same as I had ran down the day I got transferred to RED. This is where I was meant to be and I was not going to stop until I was there.
I busted open my door and grabbed a bag I kept just in case I got called on a last minute mission. I walked out the door and did not even turn back to take one last look. At that moment, I knew what I had to do. I had to go find Atlas.
When I got outside, there he was, the man who originally brought me to RED, a grand ol’ Mr. John. He was there in less than five minutes and took me to his own plane. He told me how to get to Atlas and said he would try to cover me as long as he could.
We pulled up to a beaten down airport with only a couple planes left on the runway. I figured this is probably where the highest class of people came to escape. I looked and saw a tiny little four seater Piston Single sitting on the runway ready to go.
I ran up to the plane with my hair blowing everywhere and waved back to John.
“I will have someone there to get you Mel.” He yelled over the roaring engine.
“Thank you!” I shouted back.
“Mel! Don’t trust anyone!” He slowly got back in his car as I hopped into the plane.
I gave the pilot the crumpled up piece of paper with the address on it. He knew exactly where to go. He told me to go take a seat and we would be there in just a little while.
I saw New York slowly leaving my site as the ocean filled the windows with its view. I had my muffs and microphone on but all I could do was hope we would be there soon enough.
“It is going to be a little while Mel, I know it is not the comfiest of rides but why don’t y
ou stretch out just a little in the back. I will wake you when we are there.”
I nodded and climbed to the seat behind me. I used my bag at my pillow, crossed my arms, flipped up the microphone, and dozed off. I could only dream of seeing him again. What was I going to do? Would he be alive? Did I do the right thing? I could just hope that this would all make sense in the end.
CHAPTER TWELVE: ONE MORE NIGHT
“M el, you can wake up now.”
I started to open my eyes and stretch just a little bit. I turned the microphone down and gave him the thumbs up. I crawled back to the front to see what was going on. It took a bit but I finally saw under the clouds what looked like what I could only imagine as Rio. Green covering the land, a bright blue ocean, piles of brown and grey to what I could only assume were the barracks of the locals.
He pointed to the airport we would be landing at. Just a beat down one like the one we left in New York, only this one covered with lush trees. It was meant not to be seen. As we started to descend I just felt my heart beat get faster and bigger. This was it. There was no turning back.
I got off the plane and was hit with a gust of humidity. I had a big white beach hoodie and shorts on, my hair curling from the ocean in the air, sweat starting to glisten my face, so I threw my bag over my shoulder and was on my way down the stairs.
It looked like John had a driver waiting for me. I got in the car and like with the pilot, handed him the address.
“Mam are you sure? This place is a place I take people that never come back.”
“Please just go there. Now.”
He took all back roads. Everything was filled with dirt, beaten down houses, people walking around bare foot, jeeps following with guns. This was not normal. We drove longer and off road and finally came to a stop.
When I finally got to the complex, the rotting water covered the air, the trees covered the roof as if it were a blanket to the old building, it is covered in vines, old rust, it looked like nobody had touched this pile of shit in years, and he is all the way at the top.
It had broken brick and rotting bamboo covering the walls up for all five floors. It looked like a type A government hide out. There were windows broken on every level. This place looked like it had been abandoned for years. I could see a very faint light on in the one window not broken on the top right-hand side. I took a deep breath, started to get out of the car and looked at my way up the stairs.
I guess when you realize you would risk everything in your life to have that person wrapped around you for one more night that is when you know you have to leave. You have to make that happen. You have to change. You have to fight for them.
I slowly closed the door behind me. I looked at the car and ran.
There was nothing holding me back now.
I ran up those old raggedy stairs that seemed to have a never ending twin to the door I hoped had been his. The night sky was filling the painting of my future and I could only hope that is was going to be a masterpiece. It started raining and the water starts falling on me like a broken shower through the rusted roof of the complex. I threw my bag on my back, got the hair out of my face, fixed my wetting white hoodie, and knocked on the door. It took everything I had for me to calm my heart down.
What was I going to say? What was I going to do? What would I do if he wasn’t here? Things I obviously did not think of before I got here.
A second later I hear the lock unbolting. That one second felt like a slow replay of dreams I had been having for years. A million emotions are running through my veins. Atlas opens the door while pushing glass away with his foot. He slowly looked up at me.
His slightly short hair and face scruff the same as when I met him. He is tan from being down here for so long. He is shirtless and in black pajama pants. His knuckles bloody. Things all over the place. The TV smashed. I see glass all over the floor and the edge of our picture peeking out of the side of the couch. The food he had on the table in the plastic container looks like he had just sat down to eat. His eyes were shot like he had been crying.
Before I could say anything, his eyes widened like a deer in headlights, he ran out and put his right hand on my lower back, rushed in with his left hand on my neck and pushing into the rain to kiss me, thrusting me into the paneled walls that were making the building. His kiss had been so long missed on my lips. He pulled me closer and closer and all I could care about was the spark I had missed for oh so long. I could not tell if it was the rain or true tears but the love was seeping from our hearts and onto each other like something from a fairytale.
Both of us crying while our lips playing with each other. I wrapped my hands on his cheeks and just could not stop the emotions running through my veins.
“You came for me!”
“I couldn’t live without you any longer.”
“How did you know I would still be here.”
“I didn’t but I had to try.”
He smiled and continue to kiss me. He finally pulled me into the house still kissing me. He grabbed my bag off my back and threw it to the ground. He slammed the door and picked me up. Him stepping all over the broken glass and not even caring. He locked the door and pushed me up against it.
“I can’t believe you are really here.”
“I can’t believe what you did to the place” Kissing him and giggling a little.
“It was all just a reminder you were gone. And now that you are back nobody can say what we get to be.”
I looked so deep into his eyes when he said that and grabbed his face and started kissing him once again. It was like our lips were forever intertwined.
He kept pushing me into the door just like he had done at the gym when we made love. Me rubbing my hands all over his arms noticing that he had gotten a little bit more lean muscle on them, wondering how that was even possible.
We continued to kiss so effortlessly, so passionately. As he walked away from the door, I took off my hoodie, having it hit the floor causing a puddle beneath it. Him still holding me on his hips. His hands started to seep up my back. He used his foot to discard some of the upsetting debris on his couch and threw me on there.
We laid there with the rain pouring onto the windows just being one with each other. His hand going slightly down my thigh. My hands scratching his back from shoulder to hip almost as if I did not believe he was really there. He slowly took down my pants, then his. We made love until the night would end.
Not a question asked, just two hearts finally right where they were meant to be, with each other.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE POINT OF NO RETURN
T he next morning was a dream come true. Waking up in his luxurious bed with nothing but his warm body next to mine was nothing short of pure serenity. The window above our heads kissing the wall with the sun just starting to rise. Right in front of the bed was a closet with broken paneled door frames as if someone, I wonder who, was trying to punch their way to Narnia. To the left of me was an old broken down door to the rest of the world that Atlas now called home, and to the right the bathroom which had an open window letting all the forbidden noise into our ears.
His breathtaking wave of muscles and warm tapestry of skin rolled to mine, he brushed my hair from my face and tucked it behind my ears. His lips touched mine as if it was the softest whisper being told from his skin to mine. I started to open my eyes to gaze into his beautiful soul. That moment of true love seeping from our hearts to our eyes and onto the bed was nothing but a pure sense of fulfillment.
He looked deep into my eyes and said he was still on the mission and was so close to obtaining the drive to bring it back to the states. He told me he was going to get it today and then we could leave. He told me to stay here and he would be back in the night and we could pack up and leave. His plan was to destroy the drive and everything that had something to do with it. He would bring it back to RED destroyed since he was the only one who could actually destroy it.
Atlas was astonished that I had come and I for the
fact that he had not moved on, or left this God forsaken dump of a place he called home because of the note he gave me at the end of it all. He got out of the bed thumping his feet onto a cold damp wooden floor while tucking my body back into the dark grey silk sheets to keep me relaxed and comfortable.
Pulling the white thin blanket from the floor to put it at my feet. Atlas walked his way over to the broken closet and pulled out his outfit for the day. He told me that they could not keep us apart any longer. As he went to the restroom to finish getting ready he kept looking at me as if I was not actually there, I just smiled and spun back in the sheets to dim my eyes one more time. When something truly is meant to be you just know and this was something I was more sure about than my own name.
Atlas was finally finished getting ready so he kneeled at the side of the bed and grabbed my hands while looking so deep into my eyes, “I can’t believe you came back Mel, I promise we will make us right this time, they can’t keep us apart any longer.” He kissed me and left. I swear this man makes me feel so alive I can barely contain myself.
I remember birds chirping in the air and the smell of jungle rain coming my way. Me curling back up in the silky sheets, feeling the breeze coming down my back. Such a great memory. But that is all that is now, just a memory.
After a little bit longer of lying around doing nothing in the bedroom I decided to do some work around this place he was calling home. I eventually got up to shut the shuttered breaking window in his bedroom as the rain was starting to settle in. I stretched while gazing out into the jungle he had been imprisoned to for years. Some would call this paradise, but I could tell in his eyes he thought it was hell.
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