meraki.

Artemis and Adonis

Harry's exam day had finally arrived.

It felt kinda surreal, if both him and Anna thought about it, to be quite honest. If they stopped for a moment and dwelled on the thought that by the end of that day Harry would've been done forever with his university exams - the next goal being his graduation day - that almost sounded like a made up story.

They knew that that day would've come, sooner or later, but it felt way too soon.

It felt like yesterday Anna had woken up to her phone ringing loudly and had spoken to Dr. De Angelis about the tutoring program; it felt like yesterday she had stepped into the study room and placed all of her books in perfect piles on top of the farthest table from the door; it felt like yesterday she had met Harry for the first time, refusing to call him with his actual name because she didn't think it was possible that his name wasn't Harlod.

It felt like yesterday she had been living her life without Harry being in it, as a constant presence, and not only the student she should've tutored once or twice a week to get the maximum grade on her dissertation score.

It felt like yesterday she had been stuck and secure inside of her hand-made safety bubble, away from all types of human relationships and possibilities of developing feelings for anyone. And looking back at it, during those four days leading up to Harry's final exam, Anna had realized what a sad and privative existence it had been.

It sounded stupid, but since she had met Harry her life on Earth had started feeling a little bit better and more natural, after those 84 years spent in complete solitude, to keep her heart guarded and save lives.

She had been smiling more, having more fun, connecting with people and letting friendships develop with the people that had surrounded her for the past 4 years. All of that had happened because she had opened up a little bit with Harry.

Rolling around on her bed, to check the time and see if she could've lounged around a bit longer, Anna stretched her arms over her head and grabbed her phone from the nightstand.

The other side of the bed was empty. Harry hadn't slept with her since Monday night, the same day where she had had the confirmation that his feelings for her had changed.

Their lunch had been better than Anna had expected it to be, because Harry hadn't been weird around her, he had simply acted like he always did whenever she was around: charming, nice, caring, captivating, smiley and easy to be around. The thing had only confirmed to her that the change in his heart dated back to some time prior, and she had only felt even dumber because she hadn't noticed it sooner.

Fortunately enough, Harry hadn't turned sour with her after her hesitance when he had asked her if she wanted their lunch to be a date.

The only thing that had changed had been that that night he had went to sleep inside of his bedroom instead of jumping on top of their now-shared bed inside of Anna's room. Anna had associated it with the fact that perhaps he had gotten upset by her answer, but he also knew that she would've needed some time to come to terms with her feelings and whatnot, and had chosen to give her some space to process everything.

If only he knew the truth.

Unlocking the phone to check the time - it was 7.30am - Anna saw the notification for a text message and tapped on it to open it and read it.

It was from Dr. De Angelis, sending her a bunch of documents she would've needed to fill in order to be done with her job application. Once she would've filled those papers and submitted them to the Getty Museum's human resources office, they would've sent her everything she would've needed to know before actually getting there, plus her plane tickets and a map of the place she would've lived in.