Page 4 of Mine To Honor (Southern Wedding)

“Call me when you get home,” I remind her as I open her car door for her. She gets on her tippy-toes and kisses my cheek.

“Are you even going to be alone?” she asks and I nod. Usually, I would try to meet up with someone, but not tonight. I am legit dead on my feet.

“I’m going home and I’m going straight to my shower,” I inform her as she gets in the car. “Drive safe.”

“Will do,” she confirms, and I close the car door as I step away for her to back up. I hold up my hand and watch her as she drives away, getting into my car and making my way home.

When I get to the parking lot, I enter the code as the black garage door slowly opens for me. I advance my car and drive to my assigned parking spot. I pop the trunk and take out my black bag before slamming it shut and heading to the door on the side where the elevators are.

I press the up button and wait for one of the two doors to open. The phone beeps in my pocket, so I pull it out seeing a text.

Marianna:Hey, you free tonight? Was thinking we could hang out.

That is code for she wants to hook up. Marianna and I have been hooking up for the past two years. Not frequent enough to call us a couple, but often enough for me to know that she is in the mood. I’m about to answer her when I hear a ping telling me the elevator is here. I step in and press the forty-four button.

I’m about to pull up the text thread and answer Marianna when the elevator door opens, and I see a couple of my neighbors who live in the building. We say hello to each other and chitchat about the weather right before they get off on the floor below me. I put my phone in my pocket when the elevator door opens finally at my stop. Grabbing the keys from my bag, I walk all the way down the hall to the end. Sliding my key inside the big brown door, I unlock it before I push it open.

The beeping alarm has me stop to put in the code. I toss the keys on the glass table at the door before turning on the lights. I walk into the open-concept condo, kicking off my shoes. The whole wall facing me is all windows, it’s why I bought the place. The sun comes at just the right time during the day and it has a wraparound terrace. The furniture is very modern, something that came with the place, which is another reason I bought it. The only thing I brought into this apartment was my bed. I walk to the right, heading into my room and turning on lights.

The king-size bed sits in the middle of the room in front of the black wall, the beige material headboard sticking up in the back. I walk over to the walk-in closet on the side, dumping my bag in there. The phone beeps again in my pocket and I take it out as I head back out to my bed, sitting down on it. I’m about to answer the text when Eva’s name comes on the screen that she’s calling. I press the green button. “Did you miss me that much?”

“Levi.” Her voice has me standing, shivers running up my back. My heart pounds faster than it was a couple of seconds ago and the only thing running through my head now is getting to her. I rush back to the front door. “Levi,” she says my name again, this time her voice cracking.

“Where are you?” I ask, running as I put my shoes on, the fear shooting up my spine. “Eva,” I call her name when she doesn’t answer me.

“Oh my God, Levi,” she chokes out again, and I’m grabbing my keys and slamming the door shut behind me. I pull up her contact on my phone and press location, seeing she’s at her house.

“I’m coming to you,” I assure her. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay,” is the only thing she says and all she does is sob quietly in my ear.

Chapter Three

Eva

I hear the car door closing from the phone and sit down on my couch. “Eva.” I hear his voice, tight and worried, my hands shaking uncontrollably. “Where are you?” I shake my head. “I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he reassures me softly. “It’s going to be okay.” The tears just pour down my cheeks without a way to stop them. “Everything is going to be okay. Whatever it is.”

“No, it’s not,” I whisper the words.

“What happened?” he asks and my stomach gets tight.

“I got a call from Lisa’s neighbor,” I start as my eyes close and two tears run down my cheeks, dripping off my chin.

“Your sister?” His voice is calm. “Is she okay?”

“I don’t think so,” I say, getting up. “Where are you?”

“Around the corner,” he states, and I grab my bag and rush out of the front door, down the two steps toward the street. I look right and left until I see two headlights turn onto my road. He pulls up to the curb, putting the car in park, and rushing out of the driver’s seat. His black hair looks like he ran his hands through it. His blue eyes that are usually clear look like they are clouded over, no doubt with his worry for me.

He pulls me into his arms without even thinking twice. “We have to go to Lisa’s house,” I sob into his chest, my arms by my sides.

“Let’s get you in the car,” he mumbles as he puts his arm around my shoulders and walks me to the passenger side of the car. He opens the door for me and slowly puts me in the seat, reaching across to buckle me in. “Put her address in the GPS.” All I can do is nod at him as I look over at the middle part of his dashboard and press buttons while he walks around to the driver’s side.

He gets in and all I can do is look at him. “Thank you,” I whisper, my voice cracking. He grabs my hand in his, not saying anything. I turn my head to look out the window, replaying the past twenty minutes. “The police are waiting for me,” I say, not turning my head. “They need to talk to me.” The lights go by in the distance as my eyes try to focus on one, but it zooms by. “It can’t be good.” He never lets my hand go, and when we pull up to Lisa’s apartment complex, I see two police cars parked in front.

“No lights are on,” I observe when his hand slides out of mine and he turns off the car. “That’s good, right?”

“Let’s get in there,” he urges, getting out of the car and jogging to my side to help me out. He puts his hand in mine again as we walk up the sidewalk. The same walkway I use every other Monday night when we have dinner. It’s every other week because we take turns. We also do it on Monday because it’s my day off, so I don’t have to rush.

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