“My friend from Seattle. She’s taking taekwondo, and she would slaughter you.”
“Ouch.” I try to speak to her like I’m indifferent. Like I’m not dying a little inside. Coco’s been yelling at me for four minutes straight. I clear my throat, pushing down the anguish that rises inside of me. “You’d let your friend slaughter me?”
“I’d give her your address. No, I’d drive her to the Bike-A-Lot myself.”
“Coco—”
“Meredith deserves better than this, Levi.”
And that’s when I stop with the jokes and the nonchalant talk. My throat tightens and my jaw clenches. “I know. That’s why I broke things off.”
“No, you fell in love with her. Got her to fall in love with you andthenyou broke things off.”
My body freezes and I stare at my phone. “She doesn’t love me, Cora.”
“Don’t first name me!” She yells. “I’m not the one in trouble here. You are.”
There’s a jingle above the door—ringing out to save me. Unless it’s Coco who has come to finish the job—in person.
“Gotta go,” I say. “Customer.”
“Levi,” she groans, but I drop the call.
“Hey,” says the young girl in a blue hoodie. Strings of thin brown hair stick out from beneath the hood that’s pulled up over her head.Nikki. She’s even rolled her blue hybrid inside with her.
“Oh, hey. Nikki, right?”
She nods. The chain on her bike sags down from the bottom bracket. “Meredith said you’d help me.”
One of the living, breathing butterflies residing in my gut dies with the mention of her name. “Sure.”
“She said you’d be nice and that you’d fix it and that you wouldn’t charge me.”
I clear my throat. “She said all that, huh?”
Another nod.
And another butterfly meets its maker.
“She was right.” My chest hurts with every word. I step out from behind the counter, but I don’t want to get too close. No need to frighten the girl. “Do you mind?” I point at her bike.
“Nah. That’s why I’m here.” She takes one step back from her bicycle, standing by its kickstand, giving me clearance to work on it.
“This will only take a second.” I turn the bike on end—right here in the front part of the shop. I won’t take Nikki in the back, and I want to teach her how to do this. “We’re gonna relieve the tension, like this,” I say, moving the jockey wheel. “This way we can manipulate the chain more freely.”
Nikki steps closer, peeking at what I’m doing.
“See these rings? We’re going to replace the chain onto this one.” I point to the largest ring. Holding to the jockey wheel, I move her chain back onto the ring of the wheel. “Now that the chain is on, we let go here.” I release the jockey wheel and give her pedals a spin. “And you’re good to go.”
I flip Nikki’s bike back over and wait for her to take it by the handlebars.
“Thanks,” she says. “She was right. You were nice.”
I swallow—and it feels like a box of rocks just fell into my stomach and murdered the rest of the butterflies still living there. “So, what else did she say?”
Nikki gives me a pointed stare, one brow popping up over her right eye. “She said you didn’t want to see her anymore. That’s why I came without her.”
“That’s not exactly right—I would like to see her. Technically she said she didn’t want to see me anymore.”