She’s a good driver, I think as we head toward Miracle Mile. She’s confident behind the wheel and doesn’t even seem to need the maps app. Something about that is kinda hot, but I know I’ll embarrass her if I say anything about it. I think it would qualify as perceiving her. I turn back toward the window to hide my smile and the laugh that wants to escape. Heaven doesn’t need to know how obsessed I am. She doesn’t need to know that princess isn’t a good enough nickname for me. Only Goddess of My Universe will do.
I snort, pressing my knuckles against my lips.
“What?” Heaven says.
I turn around and look at her. She’s kind of tense gripping the steering wheel. “Oh, I was just trying to think about how to convince you to watchLove Islandwith me again.”
“I thought I was your friend,” she says, relaxing a little bit. “Why would you want to do that to me?”
I just shake my head and smile. How can I not like her? She’s so cranky and cute. So cute that I’m actually looking forward to spending the day at a museum with her.
“I’ve already looked up some of the exhibits,” I tell her. “And I want to check out the gift shop.”
“Not a problem,” she replies as she turns down Fairfax. “The museum is big, but like, not that big. We can check out the whole thing and go to the gift shop. I promised my dad I’d grab him something too.”
“Okay,” I say, bouncing in my seat a little. An artsy day date with the artsy girl I am not at all dating. It’s gonna be amazing.
Heaven parks in the underground parking garage. I smile to myself as she tucks the parking ticket carefully in the checkered crossbody bag she has with her. I smile wider when I realize it’s a Vans bag. She should really talk to them about a brand partnership. We take the elevator up to the courtyard and join the other people milling about. It’s a weekday, so it’s not packed, but there are plenty of people around.
We walk by these cool sculptures,Circle of Animals, detailed metal sculptures of animal heads of the Chinese zodiac. I learned that from the museum website. Heaven pulls out her phone and takes a picture of the rooster and the rabbit before we keep walking. We make our way over to the ticket podium and then head up the escalator to the top floor. I look down at the light installation facing Wilshire, thinking of how Cristine Ford would make us spend at least an hour out in the heat making content with those lights.She’s done it before. Of course, we made content at the museum and never went inside. Still, I take a cool picture of the light posts from above. I take a nice picture for me to enjoy myself, not to show off to millions of randoms on the internet.
“We can make content on the way out,” Heaven teases. I look up at her, two moving steps above me, wondering how she read my mind.
“Uh, no thank you. This is a content-free day. My mom tried to get me for an ‘outfit of the day’ video this morning, but I refused.”
She doesn’t say anything back. She just bites her lip and looks down at my phone clutched in my hand. I slip it in my back pocket like I’m making a promise to us both. We get off the escalator and turn into the modern art exhibit. There’s an older Black woman in a dark blazer standing by the entrance. I say a quiet hello to her, and she tells us to enjoy ourselves.
We make our way through the first room. There are so many cool pieces. Sculptures of human figures on platforms. Heaven stops and looks at different pieces, but she doesn’t say anything. Around the next corner Heaven stops at this big painting of what looks like three adults with deep brown skin and a baby praying. There are bright white calla lilies behind them. Heaven takes a picture of that one.
She keeps walking, and I stop and look at the information on the artist. I scan the QR code and take a picture of my own, so I don’t forget. Heaven moves across the room and stops in front of a painting of a cow skull with a rose.She seems pretty focused on it, so I take a quick selfie in front of the big opening that leads to the next part of the gallery. I quickly send it to my mom so she knows we are actually at the museum. When I look up, Heaven has turned back around and she’s watching me.
I flash a big smile in her direction and tuck my left hand behind my back and tuck my cast against my chest. I walk over to a wall of photographs, recent portraits of different people. I stop and look at one of a beautiful Black woman with dark skin and short locs. I kinda get lost staring at her face and her bright green shirt.
“Why are you walking like that? You look like my grandpa out for a morning stroll,” Heaven asks quietly. I look over my shoulder, not expecting her to be right behind me.
“Walking like what?”
“Like my Korean grandpa checking on his garden.”
I straighten up and drop my arms. “I don’t know. I’m just keeping my hands to myself.”
“Is not stealing a painting that hard?” she whispers like she’s actually worried I’m planning an art heist.
“No.” I bite my lip to keep from laughing too loud. “I have to do something with my hands. I’m touchy-feely, remember? You think it’s so gross when I’m always touching my friends. I’m sure you would think that includes hand-holding. I’m just holding myself, I guess. And yeah, touching some of the art is tempting. I wanna see if the paint is still gooey even though I know it’s not.”
Only one of Heaven’s eyebrows shoots up. “So, if you were here with one of your friends, like Bethany or Tatum orwhatever, you’d walk around the museum holding their hand?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“What if—if people think you’retogether? Like a couple,” she asks in the cutest way ever. How does she not know how adorable she is?
“Who cares if people think we’re together? If I’m holding Bethany’s hand or Tatum’s, it doesn’t change the fact that they are actually dating other people.”
“Hmmm, I guess you’re right.” Heaven tucks her lips in like she knows she should drop it, but she doesn’t know if she can, and now I’m curious.
“Does it bother you that much?” I ask her.
“No. No—never mind.”