Levi goes quiet, nodding his head slowly, his eyes scanning the park. I can tell he’s thinking. I wait quietly, wondering if he’s already regretting offering me the apartment to use, when he clears his throat and pulls his shoulders back.
“Since you mentioned it,” he begins, his energy suddenly vibing quite anxious, “there’s something I want to ask you for in return.”
“A littlequid pro quo, Clarice?” I tease, quoting from one of our favorite scary movies,Silence of the Lambs, but he’s still not smiling. “Levi, I just revealed my sad, sad backstory to you. You can tell me anything. You can ask me anything, we’re friends. We’re good friends—in fact, I think it’s fair to say we’re more than that. You’ve been one of the best friends a girl could ever ask for. You literally just offered me a place to live…how can Ihelpyou?”
He struggles with his words, his lips twisting and turning asif he’s trying to find the right thing to say. I don’t like that he’s suddenly so stressed, so I go back to silence and give him a little space. As I settle in on the bench again, his phone dings, pulling his attention to a text he’s suddenly focused on, so I stand up and stretch while he holds up a finger asking me to wait a minute.
“Sorry. It’s Mom, asking me about Duncan.” He nods to the phone in his hand. “I need to call her quickly.”
“I can wait,” I say as I pull out my phone. “I can keep myself busy with my own device, thank you very much.”
Levi hops up and disappears around a tree, talking in a hushed tone to his mother. I feel like there’s a small case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde happening here, where he’s gone from being super chill and relaxed to uptight and stressed, and it’s happened in a matter of moments. Seeing as his whole world has flip-flopped in the past few months, I’m sure the responsibility of having Duncan and stepping up to kind of be a dad can do that to a person.
As I flip through emails and my social media feed, I let my hand fall to my side to pat the top of Toto’s head. My man. My main guy. The one who will not leave my side. Everyone needs a Toto.
I let my eyes wander over to where Levi paces under a giant magnolia, the scent of its flowers wafting around me. I love them so much. Such a delicate white flower perched on a staunch tree. The fragile blooms supported by the strength underneath.
Levi’s shoulders hunch slightly and he keeps casting his eyes my way, making me wonder if the call is about me. Have I done something wrong? My own anxiety kicks in, and I question the offer for the apartment now. Maybe his mom had plans for it and he’s telling her that he’s letting me use it and now she’s upset?
He disconnects the call and slides the phone into his backpocket. The sun is all but gone from the sky; it’s getting dark now and I can make out the first firefly sightings of the night as bright lights twinkle off and on again in a slow cadence in the trees around us.
It’s actually quite romantic here, a thought I work to push to the back of my brain as Levi appears back in front of me.
“Everything okay?”
“Huh?” he asks.
“Levi!” This distracted version of Levi is so not him. Still gripping my phone in one hand, I stare at him. “At home. You said your mom texted you and you had to call about Duncan. Is he okay, is everything okay at home?”
“Oh, yes,” he answers me, visibly flustered. “Sorry. He’s fine. She’s fine. We’re all fine.”
There is nothing fine about that sentence. “Okay, now you sound really weird.”
“Sorry,” he apologizes once more as he begins again. “Where was I, you know, before Mom wanted me to call?”
“You had something to ask me. A favor in return for staying at your apartment.” I jump to my feet and put a hand on each of his arms, studying him as much as myself. “And look, if having use of the apartment is too much right now or if me needing help is too overwhelming, I get it. Just tell me it’s a no-go and I’ll go back to finding a motel where Toto and I can hole up for a couple weeks.”
“No, no. It’s not that…” Levi shoves both of his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and stares at the ground. I can feel my heartbeat in my eardrums, it’s that intense.
“Levi,” I begin, “you’re kind of freaking me out here. What’s going on?”
He smiles, he frowns. He looks up, he looks down. Through it all, he stays in front of me, allowing me to help brace him. It’s not much, but I feel like maybe mytouch is helping, but I can’t tell. He won’t look at me. He’s dropped his gaze to the ground, staring at our feet now.
What. Happened?
After what feels like an eternity, he slowly drags his gaze upward to meet mine.
“How would you feel about…getting engaged?”
NINE
Levi
Well, that escalated quickly.
It sounded good in my head, but in retrospect, I should have taken a moment to think about what I was actually saying with my mouth and how it was coming across before I opened that big hole in my face.
As soon as the words painfully tumbled out, I watched in super slow motion as Georgie lost her grip on the iPhone in her hands. It does a somersault in the air, sticking its landing with a crack, the pointy corner of the phone and its case managing to connect with her foot.
