Imperfect Desires

Sitting in a corner booth, Xiu and Darren gave their order to the waitress. When the waitress left, Darren picked up the glass of water to take a sip and asked, "Why do you keep looking at me?"

"I was wondering aren't you uncomfortable here?" Xiu asked curiously.

"Why would I be uncomfortable?" He retorted back as he traced the seam of the glass with his finger. 

"You're getting all kinds of stares. Some even look like they're ready to eat you," Xiu said as she pointed around at the women who had their eyes glued on Darren.

"You had the same look on Friday night when you got drunk." Xiu choked on air at his words.

"Liar! When did I have such ideas?" Her voice turned sharp.

"But you don't even remember what happened that night. How can you say that I am lying?" he lowered his voice and added, "Don't tell me you're lying about forgetting everything."

Xiu was stumped for words. She neither could accept nor deny it. Both ways, she'd be in trouble. 

"Anyway, I still think I didn't go that far." Xiu tried to reason.

"How can you really forget? You called me handsome and you even wanted to come to my place for the night." Darren had an inkling that she remembered that night very well. But to hide her mortification, she was feigning forgetfulness. He was testing the waters with her now.

"I used to think it's a miracle that you're single with those good looks and Greek God-like body. But now, I think it's no wonder that you're single." Xiu glared at him hatefully for reminding her of those stupid antics that she did being all drunk. Could she just have a memory loss like other normal people?

"How can you say I am single?" Darren didn't even spare a glance around at any other woman even till now. He had gotten unnecessary attention from his teenage years, he had become accustomed to it by now.

"You're sitting here having dinner with your neighbor in a small diner. If you had a girlfriend, you'd have been having dinner with her instead." Xiu replied matter-of-factly.

The waitress came back with their orders and left after placing it on the table. 

"Don't assume things, it's also possible that my girlfriend isn't in town." Darren made his point after waiting for the waitress to leave.

Xiu dug into her meal and spoke with a mouthful, "I don't think so." She seemed really certain with herself.

Darren shook his head at her in amusement. He watched her eating and asked, "Did someone starve you or something? Eat slowly." Taking a brief pause he added, "Don't tell me that your boss did something again."

Xiu slapped her chopsticks on the table. The reminder of Dylan irked her to no end. "Don't talk about that little dum-dum! He exhausted me physically and mentally. I feel emotionally strained as well now! I ran around so much and then had to think of a million excuses for one lie. It was a tiring day."

"Little dum-dum?" Darren laughed out as he said, "That's a very unique name for your boss. That brings me to the point, what do my employees call me?"

"You're way better than him. I'm sure your employees won't you call you by names." Xiu said and picked up steamed broccoli with her chopsticks.

"You know me as a friend, not as a boss. I might be worse than your CEO." Darren spoke in a bright and serene manner. As Dylan often said, Darren had different personalities for different people. And as a boss, he was a completely different person as well.

"I still think you won't be as unreasonable as him. He's just too much!" Xiu insisted again. There was no way she was gonna accept that someone could be more unreasonable than Dylan. "Although you have your own negative points, these points are still better than him."

"I have negative points? How many?" 

"One." She raised a finger to reply.

"I have only one negative point? Really? Didi will have a lot to say about that." Darren chuckled softly.

"Didi?" She looked at him inquisitively.

"Oh. Didi is my best friend. His name is Hedi, but I call him Didi." Darren elaborated and Xiu nodded in response. "Anyways, why do I have only one negative point?"

Xiu drank the soup directly from the bowl and after placing the bowl down, she said, "Because there is one thing I hate about you. But that same thing about you makes you a good friend."

"Really? Now, I am really curious." Darren gave all his attention to her. 

"You're candid and forthright. Your truthful personality is a little too much. But that same quality is redemptive as well." Xiu's reply made him silent. "It's a good thing that you don't twist your words. I have come to hate those people who have something else in mind and say something entirely different."

Darren gave her a small smile but said nothing in reply. He silently finished his own meal.

"By the way, what do you do?" Xiu asked out of the blue as she realized that she had no clue about Darren's profession. 

"I'm a mechanical engineer," he replied but kept the rest of his history to himself.

"Woah! Smart kid." 

"Kid? I'm older than you." He pointed out the age difference.

"What are you saying! You look 27 to 29 at most. We're almost the same age." 

"I'm 27 and I don't think we are of the same age. You look like in your early twenties." His words reminded Xiu that she was indeed 23 now. Even though she was really 27 years old, she was still in the body of a 23 year.

Xiu awkwardly called for the waitress to bring their bill and said, "I meant, I am an old soul. It doesn't matter how young I look. My soul is of a withered old woman." 

Darren was gonna pay the bill when she held his hand to stop him. "Let me pay the bill. I might earn less than a smart engineer like you but I still have enough to pay for a simple meal."

Darren backed off and let her pay. He didn't push it because of her stubborn nature. She didn't like owing people and she wasn't shy about it either. 

While they exited the diner, they passed by a small store and Xiu could hear the news playing out on the tv, "Today PassionArts Entertainment lost the Flick City project to RX Studios. The Flick City project was named one of the most expensive and largest projects of the entertainment industry. Almost eighty percent of the movies and shows will now be filmed in Flick City."

Both Darren and Xiu's expressions changed. Darren's turned solemn while Xiu's turned dazed. PassionArts Entertainments wasn't an unfamiliar name to both of them. Especially Xiu who had signed with that company from the age of fourteen. 

She found it weird that even being the top entertainment group in the country, they actually lost a project to someone else. However, what she didn't know was that PassionArts Entertainment was doomed to failure because their fight now was with Darren. And Darren was fighting for someone else' sake, how could he not give his best?