Page 58 of Despite It All
Anna glances at her phone. “Shit, yes.” She quickly stands and takes her stuff to the kitchen. I turn to head to my room down the hall when there’s a knock at Anna’s front door. “Hey, J, can you get that?” Anna hollers.
“Yeah,” I toss back. I open the door, and Levi stands on the other side in his uniform. That seems kind of odd. “Hey, is everything okay?”
Levi seems confused for a moment then remembers it’s seven in the morning and he’s a cop coming over unannounced. “Oh yeah, sorry. I just got off work but I had something to give Anna.”
I talked to Levi quite a bit at the beach this past weekend. He seems cool, about my age, and I’m gathering he’s into my sister. “This early in the morning?”
Levi holds up a small package. “I know, but she’s just really going to love it.”
I’m about to let him in and go get her when she walks up, pushing me out of the doorway. “Hey, Levi, what’s up?”
When he sees her, I have to wonder if it’s how I look when I look at Wyla? Yeah, I think he’s definitely interested in my sister. “Hey, guess what came in the mail yesterday?” He hands her the small package.
I’m pretty sure at this point I’ve now become invisible to both of them. I’d love to leave but when Anna pushed out of the doorway she backed me in between her and the entryway table. Unless I want to push Anna over… I’m stuck. Great.
“Shut up!” she squeals as she pulls out a book from the bag. “Is this for real? How’d you get this?”
Levi laughs. “Being she’s my sister, it’s not super hard to get copies of her books. She sends me early copies every release.”
Anna is practically beaming at this book. She studies the cover intently then flips it around to look at the back. “Levi’s sister is my all-time favorite author. I’m dying to read this book next month. Thanks for letting me see it, Levi.” Anna takes one more look over the book and hands it back to him.
Levi chuckles, not taking back the book. “Why don’t you check the title page inside?”
Anna raises an eyebrow, but flips open the book. “No way… she signed it to me!”
“Yeah, I told her how much you loved her books, so she sent me two copies. One for me and one for you.” I can’t really see Levi from this angle but I know that fucker is beaming at Anna’s reaction.
“Thank you, Levi. I love it.” Anna moves to gives him a hug, and I take my opportunity to get the hell out of there. I head into the kitchen and grab a bottle of water and an apple.
After another minute, I hear the front door close and Anna passes through the kitchen still marveling at her book.
“So… Levi?” I ask, as I take a bite of my apple.
“Hmm?” Anna asks looking up finally. “What about him?”
“What’s going on there?”
“Nothing,” Anna squeaks, then clears her throat. “We’re friends, and he knows how much I love his sister’s books.”
“Anna, come on. Friends? Really?” I raise a challenging eyebrow.
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah… friends. I think you’ve heard of this concept before.” She gives me a smartass look.
I know she’s throwing the whole “friends with Wyla” thing in my face but it’s not making the point she thinks it does. “Right, you mean the friendship where the main goal is to get her to fall in love with me. That friendship, right?”
Anna purses her lips. “What’s your problem?”
“No problem.” I shrug. “He’s clearly interested in you, though.”
“He is not, J. Levi brought me a book, not a marriage proposal,” Anna scoffs. “Don’t you have a family to annoy or something?”
I choose to not respond to that comment with words… but I do flip her the bird instead and head out of the kitchen.
“Hey, fuck you too,” Anna yells after me.
Damn, good luck to Levi.
After I shower, I throw on some gray sweats and a white t-shirt, then swing by the kitchen to grab the container of eggs that Anna left. I notice there are some fresh strawberries too, so I cut some up and put them into a smaller bowl of Tupperware. I grab my keys and start to head to Wyla’s when she calls.
