Say You Love Meby Maude ZbornakGingerRose Week #2, Venus (Love and Beauty)In which Armitage proposes

Say You Love Meby Maude ZbornakGingerRose Week #2, Venus (Love and Beauty)In which Armitage proposes to one woman and ends up with a different (better) one.ALSO ON AO3He planned the entire day to the very last detail. He wanted to look back on this glorious Saturday and remember its beauty, its fragrance, and the sheer perfection in his ladyfriend’s smile when she said yes.He triple-checked the forecast to ensure a sunny, seventy-two degree midmorning. Arrived at her apartment at nine with her favorite continental breakfast–tall latte with one pump lavender and one pump vanilla, no extra sweetener; cranberry walnut bagel, medium toasted with plain cream cheese. Joined hands at her kitchen nook table while streaming the new episode of her favorite podcast.He arranged for his buddy Rey to admit them to the Mothma Gallery before regular opening hours. The art museum was home to a beautiful meditation garden, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. A more romantic spot did not exist in Chandrila, and he was determined to begin the first of many happy days for them right there.So it happened that Armitage Hux–kneeling on a gravel path in his Burberry slacks, open ring box cradled in his hands–nearly threw up on the lap of his dream woman when she said, “I’m in love with somebody else.”He snapped the box shut and stood, brushing away the grit before it permanently damaged his best suit. Eight hundred bucks for the pants alone, tailored. His soon-to-be ex hugged her clutch purse to her chest like a useless shield, all fluttering lashes and  mea culpas.  “I’ve been meaning to tell you for some time. It was so hard to, you know, find a moment,” she said with a smile designed to placate. To Armitage it resembled pure cringe.“How long?” he asked, all emotion gone.“Six months.”Six…  How many bagel breakfasts was that? He’d taken her to Naboo on a holiday weekend in that time, too. The  actual  love of her life was certainly an understanding soul, or else staying in a neighboring suite. Come to think of it, she  had  booked an eyebrow wax at the resort’s spa and was gone for three hours… “Please call a rideshare to take you home,” he said, and sat on the bench she vacated. “The museum isn’t open yet. I was invited. You’re trespassing.”He was still moping among the cherry blossoms when Rey tiptoed through the garden toward him, carrying a large thermal tote. “I brought champagne,” she sang, and peered at their surroundings. “Where is she? In the ladies’, taking mirror selfies of her ring?”Armitage held out the velvet box and delivered an expletive-laden soliloquy on his failed proposal. Rey handed him a glass flute and popped the cork. “Let’s get wasted,” Rey said. “Fuck her.”“Job’s been given to somebody else.” Armitage drank anyway. “And aren’t you working today?”“I’m a docent. I only have to be sober enough to make sure people don’t sneeze on the paintings.” Rey downed her first helping in one long gulp and refilled. She watched the sparkling foam rise and dissolve in her glass to reveal an inch of golden liquid. “Anyway, I’m drinking in protest today. They have me walking the second floor instead of the main exhibit hall. Never mind that I know more about the artifacts on display than the idiot they assigned.” Rey groused. “Just because I’m not sleeping with the head curator…”“That’s a good thing, Rey. Always remember that.” Rey slept with Armitage’s best friend, because they loved each other. After they split the champers he asked, “Will my Mercedes be safe in the car park? I’m drunk.”“You’ll be fine, but come see the new exhibit before the crowds arrive. You deserve a treat.”An exhibit in irony, Armitage realized as he passed the banner announcing  Venus: Love and Beauty in Every Form. Paintings and statues from ancient civilizations to contemporary masters filled to lower exhibition space. Kisses and caresses and naked people making love and cavorting with angels. Meanwhile, Armitage’s plans beyond this now included going home to masturbate. Every day. For the rest of his life. Alone.“I hate everything in this room,” he told Rey, sneering. “Please burn it to the ground.”“We can’t afford the insurance hike. Let me show you my favorite piece.”They stood before a statue of a woman. Life-sized and short, maybe a scotch over five feet. She wore an ancient Roman-style dress with her hair styled up with tiny flowers like a tiara. What struck Armitage most about the work was the amazing detail. Rey explained the statue was the oldest artwork on display and they were fortunate to have it on loan.“The artist is unknown,” Rey said. “It’s very different from statues of the same era, which are smoother and cut from other materials. Whoever created Rose had it in mind to preserve her exact look.”“Rose?” Armitage bent for a closer look at the woman’s face. She was beautiful, with a sad smile and a faraway stare. Her creator definitely captured a sense of melancholy, out of place with her companion exhibits. “Is she supposed to represent heartbreak?” he said. No wonder the statue attracted him.Rey walked slowly around the statue, panning her gaze up and down. “We don’t know if Rose was an actual person, but she comes with a cool story. Legend has it she was an acolyte of the goddess Venus herself. More of an apprentice on Earth,” she said. “Venus tasked Rose with matchmaking couples, but apparently her choices didn’t align with the goddess’s.“When Rose used the powers given to her by Venus to mate a second-son prince with a servant girl, the prince’s mother was furious. She intended to marry her son to another noble house to raise their station. The mother prayed to Venus for vengeance.” Rey reached out a hand as though to touch Rose’s shoulder but drew it back. “It’s said Venus turned Rose into a garden statue as punishment.”Armitage studied Rose’s face. “That explains her expression. I wouldn’t want to be frozen in time and have to look at all this, either.”Rey laughed. “For centuries, the legend grew. It’s said only Rose’s true love can set her free, but nobody is quite sure how to break Venus’s spell. You see this?” She pointed at a number of faded marks along the hem of Rose’s dress. “People would kiss the hem to see if she’d come back to life.”“That’s odd.”“Well, Rose used to stand on pedestals. About as high as one could reach, I suppose.”Rose’s true love would have thought to use a ladder and give her a proper kiss. Armitage looked around. He and Rey remained the only people in the exhibition room, until somebody called for his friend.“I’ll just be a moment, Arm.”“No, give me a minute. I’m right behind you.” When Rey left the room, Armitage turned to the statue of Rose. He noticed the position of hands. The left one was raised, fingers spread and palm out as though indicating how Rose must have pleaded to Venus for mercy before receiving her punishment. “I suppose I can somewhat relate to your dilemma,” Armitage told the statue. “I don’t know that I’ll ever find true love. I thought I had and she played me for a damned fool. I’m not made of stone but it seems my heart is forming into one.”He shoved his hand into his pants pocket and hit the ring box.  Ugh.  He wanted to walk across the street and hurl it into the nearby river. Why poison a passing fish with it, though? Armitage took out the diamond solitaire and, after checking for security, placed it on the ring finger of Rose’s left hand.“You may as well have something nice to look at while you’re stuck for all eternity,” he said. “It’s not much but it’s yours.” Just for grins, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Rose’s for a brief kiss.He expected to touch cold stone. He didn’t. Rose felt warm and inviting. Strange for a figure made of stone.“Did you hear that?” Rey asked him as he was leaving the gallery. “Loudest crack of thunder ever. I’m surprised the sky didn’t split in two.”Armitage looked out the front glass doors. No rain, just a warning shot from the gods perhaps. “I think I’m okay to drive,” he told Rey. A slow ride home in the pouring rain seemed the perfect cap to a shitty day.~*~Armitage ignored his phone on the drive. It stayed face down on the dash at every red light and vibrated in his pocket during his detour at the grocery store. He filled his cart with ice cream and wine, and waited until he was settled on his couch before checking his messages. If his ex experienced a change of heart, he wanted her to suffer a bit.No such luck. A dozen missed calls from Rey interspersed with text increasing in capital letters and anxiety.  WTF DID YOU DO???? Kriff. Was it illegal to kiss a statue? He rang Rey back and dropped the phone on her screech of a greeting.“She’s gone, Armitage!”“Who?”“Rose!” Armitage heard muffled chaos in the background as Rey ranted in his ear. “I’m looking at a velvet rope border surrounding an empty riser where the Rose statue ought to be standing. There is  nothing here  now.”Now, Rey had as much champagne as him, and she was smaller and therefore a probable lightweight. He was about to ask if she was in the correct room when Rey sent a photo of Rose’s spot. Nobody there.“Rey,” Armitage sounded uncomfortable to his own ears now, “why are you telling me this? You saw me leave the gallery. I didn’t have a six-hundred-pound stone statue strapped to my back.”“You were the last person in the exhibit space, Armitage. You tell me,” Rey said. Her voice cracked. He hoped his friend didn’t lose her job over this. “Did you see anybody else lurking?”“No. I just had one last look at Rose,” he said, and his thoughts wandered. He gave Rose the engagement ring. Maybe a museum worker spied on him, and tried to get the ring off. Had an accident, tipped Rose over and smashed her to bits. Cleaned up the evidence before Rey came back to the exhibit.Armitage had kissed her. Rose. He remembered Rey’s silly legend.He turned at the sound of his doorbell. He had no recollection of ordering takeout.“Armitage?” Rey called out to him. Armitage set down his phone. Rey’s tinny voice followed him to his front door. “ Armitage! ”Armitage didn’t hear it for the sight on his doorstep. A beautiful young woman, just a scotch above five feet with a flower tiara in her dark hair, smiled up at him. Her left hand, pressed against her heart, bore a sparkling diamond solitaire.“Is that…?” He pointed at the ring that cost him a week’s pay.“Hello,” Rose, stone made flesh, said to him.“You speak English.” A dumb thing to say, perhaps. His first question ought to have been “ How?! ”Rose nodded. “When you’ve spent the last few millennia traveling the world, you pick up on a few things,” she said. He could only stare. He pinched himself after a second to see if he woke. Nothing. This was real. “H-how did you know to come here?” he asked, and looked past her to find no rideshare pulling away.Rose glanced skyward then back at him. “I got directions from a, ah, credible source,” she said. “May I come in?”Armitage turned back for a quick glance into his home. Rey’s voice continued to rage in the distance. “I,” he stuttered, coming back to Rose, “I don’t know what to say.”“You broke the spell.” Rose tilted her head, smiling now. A much better look on her. “Why not say you love me so it sticks?”“I love you.”This time when they kissed Armitage felt the warmth clear down to his feet. -- source link

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