He was cute. A lithe young man wearing white capris and a tight blue shirt. His boyfriend was obviously in the closet, though, silently cursing me when he caught me checking out the adorable little blond man he was trying so hard to keep an appropriate distance from. Why? What was the point? There were so many beautiful men to be had, and I was going to make it a point to sample as many varieties as possible before I dropped dead from fatigue.

The little blond held my gaze longer than any straight man would dare, and that made me pause. Was the boyfriend as serious as he appeared? Would this couple survive the storm that I would undoubtedly cause between them? The coming drama made me smile. I loved drama. I winked as we passed them on the stairs, barely containing the laughter when the closeted boyfriend glared at me. Just as we reached the top, my gaze returned to the young blond with a silent invitation.

“Can’t you keep your dick in your pants for one afternoon? We’re supposed to be celebrating my birthday here, cowboy.” Leila, normally easygoing, was furious with me at the moment, glaring at me with frustration. She was absolutely right that I was being a shitty friend.

“Sorry, love, my bad,” I apologized, and stopped flirting with the much younger man. Leila deserved to have my full attention, even though Jeff and Shawn were with us. They knew way more about the Egyptian exhibit than I could ever know, outside of what I’d seen on cable history shows, before they were replaced with alien documentaries.

“Seriously, though, Dorian,” Jeff chastised, “can’t you go out once without finding a pretty little thing to bump uglies with?”

Shawn lightly shoved his partner in an effort to shush him, but we all knew it was in jest. The two had been together for years before I met them and another few decades before that. It was truly disgusting that they were still so much in love. It couldn’t have been natural.

“Bump uglies? Really?” I asked. “Who talks like that anymore, grandpa?”

“Sure, you call me that now, but when you’re old and wrinkly in your rocking chair at the end of a long hall of senior citizens, you’ll regret not taking the time to learn any of their names.”

“Enough! It’s my birthday, and I’m declaring that the only one getting laid tonight will be me.” Leila sounded pissed and I didn’t want to encourage her wrath any more than was necessary. While on the surface she appeared to be a raging volcano, on the inside she was nervous for today and didn’t want to let on how important tonight was for her. She’d been preparing for her birthday all week and was the type to want every little detail to go as planned. I couldn’t blame her, but I wasn’t going to ignore any opportunity to meet someone new.

“Not likely,” Shawn muttered in a stage whisper toward Jeff.

“You two disgust me. Now I insist that the three of you lavish me with love and kisses for the remainder of our outing, or I won’t invite any of you to my next wedding.” She crossed her arms over her ample chest and furrowed her brows, in a telltale sign that she wasn’t happy with our antics. I’d seen her angry with us countless times, and since it was her birthday, it was doubtful that we’d let it go too far. She was in a good mood, but she didn’t want to let on. This new man in her life was good for her, judging by the smile that had been plastered on her pretty face every time she spoke of him. Right on cue, we rained kisses on her sweet-smelling cheeks, and were quickly back in her good graces.

I’d known this wonderful woman my entire adult life, and if someone had the ability to make her this happy in this short amount of time, I was going to be on my best behavior when we finally got to meet Prince Charming for drinks, after our museum tour. She’d had her share of heartache and deserved all the happiness in the world. Until we finally could meet with her new boyfriend this evening, Leila’s misguided nervousness was displaying as a short fuse, though we tried to make light of the situation.

“Didn’t you just meet this new boyfriend a couple of weeks ago? It only recently became serious, right?” I smirked evilly.

“You’ll meet my sweetie tonight. I had to make sure he was perfect before introducing him to my most favorite people in the whole world.”

“My dear,” I addressed Leila while bowing and kissing her small hand. “You are the most cherished and beautiful one of us all. He’d better treat you like the princess you are, or there will be hell to pay.”

“That’s better. Now let’s go see the Asian exhibit before heading to Egypt and the cartouches.”

The life-size replicas of the ancient Asian homes were extraordinary, and it made me wonder how many of these impoverished people were still living in homes such as these on the outskirts of cities. The structures had a circular outer wall comprised of wooden poles strapped together with a cutout door and a simple thatch roof to shelter from the elements. Low-income families living in squalor and slums while the rest of the world was living in the lap of luxury. Geographically speaking, we were all neighbors on the same planet, but socio-economically speaking, we were worlds apart. It was the deep thinking that could make a man crazy. It was also damned depressing, so we made our way to the Egyptian display, and the pretty young blond caught my attention.

“I’m Dorian,” I whispered to him.