Living It

Chapter 1 Davion Chen walked around the museum on Tuesday morning to inspect the sculptures among other valuable pieces of artworks to ensure everything was ready before the place opened to the public at nine. He had been in the museum for close to an hour then, having reached his office exactly four minutes before eight o’clock. As the museum curator, he was expected to be there from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon, even though the museum itself would be off-limits to the public by four. “Davion.” He turned toward the source of the voice calling out his name. “Hey, Liz. What’s up?” Elizabeth Whitley, one of the archival document managers, wasn’t only his colleague. She was also one of his dearest friends. “Not much,” Elizabeth replied before winking at him. “Just had another wonderful Sunday with Mia, if you catch my drift. It’s too bad Mia has to work on Monday. Otherwise, we could have another day of fun.” He rolled his eyes. “Rub it in, will you?” He wasn’t angry, but he was definitely a little envious. Elizabeth and her lover, Mia Henderson, had been together since senior year in college. They celebrated their eighth anniversary the previous week, two days before Valentine’s Day. He was thirty years old, the same age as Elizabeth and Mia, but he was still single. In fact, he had been single for a very long time. It wasn’t as if he stopped trying to get himself a nice man to settle down with. He had gone out on at least ten dates over the last three weeks alone, but none of them clicked with him. He was starting to think he might be destined for the single life for the rest of his existence on this planet. Being single wasn’t a terrible thing, but he would like to have someone to come home to and spend time with, especially on his days off from work, which happened to be Sunday and Monday when the museum would be closed. Elizabeth snorted at him. “You would be in a disgustingly sappy relationship of your own by now if you could stop being so picky.” He glared at Elizabeth. “I was not. That’s a slanderous judgment on my character.” “Uh-huh. Tell me then. What’s wrong with Theo?” “He’s a slob.” Elizabeth snickered at him. “And you got that after one date with the guy?” He ignored Elizabeth for a few seconds and proceeded to check on the remainder of the sculptures in the room. “I can tell from the way he dressed himself during our date.” “Oh, Davion. Fine then. What about Patrick?” “He talked too much.” “Edward?” “Immature and misogynistic.” “Christopher?” “Egotistical and boastful.” “Isaac?” “Too pretty.” Elizabeth tugged his arm and halted him from moving any farther. “You’re kidding, right?” He shrugged. “Nope. I like my man to be more rugged.” “And hairy.” “That’s right. You know me so well.” “I do.” The silence stretched on for a minute or so as they continued to look around the room side by side. “Davion?” “What?” “You do realize that calling Isaac ‘too pretty’ is ironic, right? I know you hate hearing this, but you’re one of the prettiest men out there.” He glared at Elizabeth in annoyance. “I most certainly am not. I’m…I’m…I may not have the classical handsome appearance of some men, but I’m not a pretty face.” “Nothing wrong with that.” “Of course not.” He would rather die than admit how irritated he was with his face and its accompanying features. He had heard enough over the years about his well-groomed eyebrows, which he never did anything to in his entire life, his long and curled eyelashes, and his sexy, cocksucking pinkish lips. It didn’t help that he had a lean, athletic build, along with naturally curvaceous hips and a perky ass. Fortunately, he was quite tall, being six feet even. “They’re wrong. You know that, right?” He shut his eyes for a second and nodded. He didn’t have to ask Elizabeth to clarify what she was talking about. They both knew. “Thanks, Liz, but I’m over them.” Elizabeth got in front of him and raised her left eyebrow. “I believe you, but your last three relationships left a horrible scar inside you.” He inhaled and exhaled a couple of times before responding. “I’m fine now. They’re all in the past.” “Are you sure about that? You haven’t been in any serious relationship for three years now.” He smiled at Elizabeth. “I’m really okay.” Elizabeth gazed into his eyes for a moment. “I’m going to repeat myself. They’re wrong, especially your three ex-boyfriends. There’s no shame in being a pretty face. You can’t help the way you look. We have been friends for years. I know you. You will never do anything s****l or even remotely flirtatious to encourage other people to stare at or hit on you while you’re involved with somebody in a relationship. Your ex-boyfriends are insecure assholes. They don’t deserve someone as kind and empathetic as you.” He nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate your support.” “Good. Anyway, I’m going back to my office. You better do that, too. It’s one minute to eight o’clock.” He glanced at the watch on his right wrist. “Yeah. See you later at lunch, Liz.” “Sure thing. Save me a seat in the pantry if you get there before I do.” “Will do. Bye.” Elizabeth waved at him and walked away in the opposite direction since their offices were located at different ends of the building. He headed toward his office and put his earlier conversation with Elizabeth to the back of his mind for the time being. He had a job to do, some of which required his full attention. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything else. It was time to get busy.