Many women would find a date at a museum, even an empty one, boring. They’d probably just feign interest in the exhibits, or worse, ignore them all and use the fact that no one else was around as an excuse to make out right in front of them. I wouldn’t mind that if it was Jenna’s idea, but I doubt it’s even occurred to her. Not her. Right now, she isn’t even aware of me. Her focus is entirely on the marvels surrounding her.
Personally, I think she’s the greatest marvel in this room. Beautiful. Smart. Genuine. Fascinating.
Why did I ever let her go?
“I’m not one of the exhibits, you know,” Jenna says as she notices me staring, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“I know,” I say.
I’m not averse to keeping her locked away in a glass box, though, if that means I’ll never lose her again.
“So don’t stare,” she reprimands me. “Not at me, anyway.”
I try to avert my gaze from her to no avail, though I quickly look away when she glances over her shoulder.
“Why did you bring me to a science museum anyway?” she asks.
“Because I know you like science,” I answer as I take a step forward. “And I remember that you once wished you could visit a museum past closing time so you could take the time to look at everything without anyone standing behind you.”
Jenna seems surprised that I remember that.
Oh, but I remember everything. Every story she told me, every detail about herself, every date we went on, every movie we watched, every kiss we shared, every second of the amazing sex we had.
“We were at the Smithsonian that time, I think,” I go on. “I would have liked for us to go there instead, but it’s a lot farther and I don’t know anyone on its board.”
She says nothing.
“Remember that time? You were wearing new shoes and your feet hurt so I – ”
“Do you remember Gwen?” Jenna interrupts me.
I take a moment to conjure the memory of her face. Oval with blue eyes. Blonde hair with streaks of mint green.
“Yes. Why?”
“She signed up for the Army.”
“What?”
“Unbelievable, right?” Jenna raises her arms halfway and lets them fall at her sides. “I wonder if she’s still alive. I mean, she used to put up such a fuss whenever she broke one of her nails or got her coat dirty. Plus didn’t she nearly pass out when she got a paper cut?”
“She’ll be fine,” I say.
Honestly, I don’t really care about Gwen. Or anyone else from school. Right now, all I care about is what’s going on with Jenna.
“So you’ve kept in touch with your friends since graduation?” I ask her. “How did that go, by the way?”
She frowns at me.
Okay. So she doesn’t want to talk about that, either. Nothing about the past we shared and nothing about the past we didn’t share. Nothing about the past. Got it.
That’s fine. If we’re going to start over, we have to focus on the present anyway.
“So, how are things at NASA?” I ask her.
Jenna doesn’t answer. Without a word, she moves to the next room – one which focuses on zoology, with animal skeletons, bug collections and representations of creatures that have gone extinct. No dinosaurs, though.
Okay. So she doesn’t want to talk about work, either.
“Jenna…”
“Did you know that there used to be birds with wings shaped like balls, which when flapped, sounded like thunder?” she asks as she points to a wooden sculpture of a dodo.
“No,” I admit.
But I do know my patience is becoming endangered. If I were a lesser man, I’d turn beast and pounce on her.
“Wow.” Jenna turns her attention from me to another exhibit. “This skeleton of a flying fox is so…”
She stops as her glasses collide with the enclosure. She quickly steps back.
“Shit.”
I rush to her side. “Are you alright?”
She takes off her eyeglasses and rubs the part of her nose between her eyes. “Yeah. I just… I hate it when that happens.”
I know. I remember when it happened before. She was looking into a store trying to find someone and she bumped into the glass. She cursed then, too, and…
I stop reminiscing as my gaze falls on Jenna’s face, now stripped of her glasses. I never minded the fact that she wore glasses. They look good on her. Still, I always liked it better when she didn’t have her glasses on, not because she looked more beautiful but because it was the real her, the one she usually kept hidden. Indeed, the only times she wouldn’t have her glasses on were right before or after she took a bath, when she was sleeping, and sometimes when we were kissing. Oh, and that time when we had sex. Times when she let her guard down, when I was the only one around. Those times, I felt like I was being let in on a secret, welcomed into her world.