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Mena
Mena loved living in New York City.
She was living with five roommates in Brooklyn. Yes, it was crowded and cramped, but she didn’t care because the excitement of living in the city and working her dream job made up for it.
This was everything she’d hoped for when she was younger. Of course, part of that dream had been marrying the boy she’d fallen head over heels for in college.
But, life wasn’t perfect, and she understood that she was difficult to love.
She knew that no-one outside of academics would get her passion. Sometimes, less polite people asked her if she was a toddler, still obsessed with dinosaurs. Friends tended to tolerate it, but they weren’t willing to actually listen to her dinosaur rants.
So, despite living in a city of millions, she felt more isolated than ever. The only people she was really comfortable aroundwere the other curators in the Allardyce, who were just as single-minded as she was.
Of course, her passion had an impact on her dating life too. On the rare occasions that she went on a date, guys might think it was cute when she mentioned her job, but they never actually wanted to hear any details. It wasn’t like she was obsessed, she could talk about other things
She’d only had one long term relationship and he’d certainly had no patience with her.
After that had ended in heartbreak and catastrophe, she’d decided she had too much self-respect to be with anyone who wouldn’t accept every part of her.
Mena would rather be single than be with someone who felt they had to tolerate the parts of her they didn’t like.
Right now she was focusing on the plans for a new exhibit. It was due to open next year, and Lisbet wanted it to connect to a younger crowd, and hopefully draw in more visitors. Right now the museum was still set up as Mr. Allardyce had left it, and it was, frankly, a little dry.
Lisbet, the Head Curator, had asked her to put a design together, which was a big deal. She’d have more control over this than anything she’d worked on so far. The idea that kids would be walking around, looking at and learning because of the decisions she made, was terrifying.
She didn’t know if she had the skill to do it.
She was trying to come up with ideas for the exhibit, but her mind kept on returning to her personal life. Perhaps because, she thought wryly, she’d failed to get friends and family interested in dinosaurs, how could she hope to reach complete strangers?
Mena had fossil cleaning to be doing, which would be hours of time consuming work that took her completeconcentration because she needed to be precise. Instead, she was brainstorming exhibit ideas.
Just then, there was a knock on her office door, and Craig poked his head in. Mena smiled, happy for the excuse to take a break.
“Sorry to interrupt. Man here asked to see you, says he’s a friend of yours. ‘Theo’ he says his name is.”
The only Theo she knew was her only real ex, the college boyfriend who broke her heart. She hadn’t heard from him in years, although she knew that he lived in New York.
That Theo was not the type to ever find himself in a cramped little museum backroom. But, she couldn’t imagine anyone else it would be and Craig was staring at her and it was easiest just to see who this stranger was.
“That’s fine, thank you for showing him back here.”
Craig hummed unhappily, but ducked out of the doorway.
She twiddled her pen, wracking her mind trying to remember any other Theos she knew, or who else would want to visit her at work.
One of her roommates had said she’d drop in to visit her at the museum sometime, but she never had. Of course, her name Amanda, not Theo, but maybe Craig had misheard her name.
Then, just as she started going through her other roommates names, and testing to see which sounded even slightly like Theo, her Theo came in.
It was her ex-boyfriend, standing there in the doorway. It was surreal, like seeing something completely out of place. All she could do was stare, not quite believing what she was seeing.
Strangely, he looked just as surprised as she felt.
He’d changed in the years since she’d last seen him. He’d lost the puppy fat in his cheeks, and that gave him a harder, more severe look, so that he looked even sterner than he used to. He’dgrown into his large ears as well. She used to love those cute ears, but now he was more conventionally attractive.
All at once Mena’s moment of calm of disbelief evaporated and then she felt a sudden rush of adrenaline. Her heart started racing, and she froze, still staring, glued to her seat.
“Everything ok?” Craig asked from behind Theo, as he watched her with concern.
