Page 49 of Breaking the Habit

The car was quiet while she changed lens and readied her camera, save for the soft hip-hop coming from the speakers. He didn’t do anything while the shutter clicked softly. She inspected the screen, then shot some more. He was just driving—one arm propped up, leaning in his seat.

This was so regular. So mundane. But he liked to think that she wanted to remember their night together. Because he did too.

He just wasn’t sure what should come after.

She guided him to her place, which was a cute little stucco house tucked into the recesses of Los Feliz. He turned off the engine in her driveway, which caused her to lift a brow.

“You want to come in?”

“You saw my bedroom, now I should see yours,” he said. “Fair is fair.”

He could tell she liked this idea. She led him toward the house by his hand, and when they entered the tiny foyer, conversation and laughter filled the house.

Someone happened to enter the hallway—and then shrieked.

“Riley, I wasn’t expecting you!”

Riley toed off her unlaced combat boots. “Sorry if I scared you. Nikki, this is Levi.”

“Oh my gosh,hi.” Nikki glided toward him, extending her hand. Already he could tell that she was a good one. “I was at your fight last night. It was…incredible. You did so incredibly well.” Still shaking his hand, she twisted around. “Ma! Danie! Come here!”

Two more women entered the small foyer, and Riley was sort of pushed aside as Nikki herded her family toward him to shake hands.

“This is a really cool and famous fighter who Riley works with, and he isascending the chartsright now, if you know what I mean,” Nikki explained while her mother and sister shook his hand. Riley laughed into her palm down the hallway.

“What is it that you do?” Nikki’s mom asked, squinting at him. “Afighter?”

“I beat people up for a living,” Levi affirmed. “And, you know, eat really well and work out a hundred times a day.”

“I’m going to show him the house,” Riley blurted, snaking through the small crowd to grab his hand. “Are we getting ready to go? I can be ready soon.”

More chatter erupted as Riley led Levi down the hallway and into a bright living room connected to a modern kitchen. Their backyard was lush and green through the sliding glass doors, with lots of lounge chairs placed intermittently. He loved the place but could already see five different accessibility hurdles when it came to Gage. It was shit like this that made leaving the house so stressful for his brother. Why he didn’t love going new places. Why he hesitated to see the matches.

Everything was harder for him, comparatively. And no matter how hard he tried, Levi couldn’t make Gage’s experience in life equal to his own.

“That’s the woman we would have kept up last night with our shenanigans,” Riley whispered as they stood in front of the sliding glass door.

“You mean traumatized,” Levi teased. “You could have woken the dead.”

She scoffed, swatting at him. “Um, excuse me? You’re the one who groaned like a dying bull. It is not my fault you—” She shook her head, shutting up suddenly.

Levi snaked his arm around her waist. “Tell me more about the dying bull.”

She laughed, melting into his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. “I can’t. We’ll need to go do something about it if I do.”

They stayed like that, hugging each other, for long enough that Nikki’s group wandered back into the kitchen.

“Oh!” Nikki soundedverysurprised. “Don’t mind us. I’m going to make more coffee.”

“Oh my god, make some for me!” Riley pleaded, launching an arm toward her roommate. “I need it.”

“I want you to know, I made coffee for her this morning.” Levi might as well try to clear his name. “But apparently I don’t know how.”

“It’s not apparently. It’sdefinitely.”

Levi tightened his arms around her waist to get her attention. She snapped her gaze up to his.

“You sure you have to go with them?” Levi asked in a quiet voice. He suddenly didn’t want this to end. He could see them spending the whole day together. Lazing around her bedroom, having sex sweet and slow and then rough and fast while Nikki and her family were gone. Take a shower together, then enjoy dusk on the patio while they waited for food delivery, which obviously he’d pay for. He’d call Tammy—Gage would be fine.

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