Page 9 of Better than Revenge

Am I beaming? What does that even mean? Is it really Levi that puts whatever look Shirley thinks she sees there? I start overthinking every word Shirley says as she goes to the back to put in my order and turn right into my ex-friend.

“Making up fake dates now, Tamsin?” What a bitch? “That’s so like you to try to make Zane jealous with some pathetic attempt to…”

When my phone starts buzzing, I dive for it and answer with no thought to manners. Fuck her. She doesn’t get my best manners or my attention anymore.

“Oh hey, are we still on for tonight?” God, I hope so because I just bought a shit ton of food and there is no way I’m going to be packing all of this away by just myself.

“Yeah, I’m actually on my way over right now. I just wanted to know if you wanted me to pick something up for us.”

“Oh crap. I’m actually picking something up for us at my favorite place, Honey’s over on…”

“No fucking way. That’s where I was going.”

I giggle like I’m fourteen and this is my crush on the other end, “Are you okay with their chicken planks?”

“Uh, better than okay. I fucking love those.” I can’t help but laugh again since those are my favorites too. No suave moves and flirty behavior for me. I’ve turned into a total goob.

“So, I’ll see you in a few minutes?”

“Yeah. See you then.”

I hang up and look over to see I’m in luck, Shirley has my bags of food ready with a smile on her face. “Whoever he is, he looks good on you, baby girl!”

“Thanks, Shirley. Bye.”

I turn to leave and walk around April leaving her standing in the diner with her stupid mouth open. Operation: Revenge is going better than I could have imagined. And somehow, me and Levi are selling this whole couple thing with ease. But is it too easy? And will Zane fall for it? Can I actually do this, or will it turn out to be nothing more than a huge embarrassment?

When I pull in, Levi is already there, leaning up against a motorcycle looking like a teenage girl’s wet dream. And even though I am not quite a teen by like one year, he still looks pretty tasty to me…or maybe I’m just hungry. Either way, Levi still looks good in blue jeans with a rip at the knee and a tight black t-shirt stretched across his chest like a lover’s hands and those cobalt blue-gray eyes that shine like some rare jewel any woman would want to possess for herself.

Hell, I don’t even like jewelry all that much and I want to own those pools of blue too. Not that I plan to go all serial killer on Levi and do something awful so owning them is only in a metaphorical sense as HE would be mine since his eyes would kind of go where he goes and if he’s mine…no, it still sounds like it is bringing serial killer vibes to the party.

“You okay? You look kind of…indecisive.”

Shit!

“I ran into April at the diner when I was picking up our food.” This seems like a better thing to talk about than what was actually going through my head, and I don’t want Levi to think I am indecisive about our operation or to find out how freaky I am since I just thought about owning his eyes. Pretty sure that would end Operation Revenge before it begins.

“April? The ex-friend who fucked your ex before he was your ex, right?”

I nod. “She thought I was making shit up when I told her I had a date I was buying food for.”

“The fuck? She thinks you’re going to eat all this shit by yourself?”

“That’s pretty much what I asked. She accused me of trying to make Zane jealous so I could get him back which is stomach-turning but kind of what we’re doing.”

He throws his head back and laughs. “You tell her who your new boyfriend is?”

I shake my head. “I didn’t think we were ready for that.”

“Yeah, I think you're right. Let’s practice a little more. I kind of want to be with you when he finds out and he confronts you about it.”

Confronts me? That sounds…far more serious than I actually want it to be. He takes the food out of my hands and carries it while I fish the keys out of my bag so I can open the door for us, “Oh, so you can see the look on his face, right.”

“No. So I can make sure he doesn’t try to lash out at you because we made a fool of him.”

“Lash out?” Shit, I never even thought of that happening and that is way more serious than I was prepared for. “I never really…”

Realized what I was getting myself into?

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