same beach as her.
It gave me a lot to think about. And all those thoughts
revolved around Levi. I had to talk to him. To make sure that
we were still friends. That we’d still be able to be in the same room together when I got home.
Fortunately, my grandparents were out, so I was able to go
right to my room and dial Levi on my laptop the second I was
dropped off. I did the math and knew he would, hopefully, be
getting home from morning practice. My leg was shaking by
the third ring.
All I kept thinking to myself was Please be home, Levi.
Please be home.
The screen lit up and I saw Levi’s naked chest in front of me.
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“Um, hello?” I asked, feeling my cheeks get hot at the sight
of Levi’s body.
“Hey!” He adjusted the towel around his waist. “Sorry,
just got out of the shower.” He walked out of view for a few
seconds and returned with a T-shirt on. His hair was wet and
sticking up in different directions.
“Hey, you!” I was smiling ear to ear.
“Well, hello to you!”
“Buggy and Floyd are doing a Christmas special!” I blurted.
His eyes lit up. “Are you serious? That is bloody brilliant.”
He winked at me.
“Ha. Ha.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
“I see being abroad has really helped with your maturity.”
“Totally.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but then he tilted
his head as if he was studying me. “Are you okay?”
It was the same question Liam had asked me not thirty
minutes before. I gave him the same answer. “Yeah.”
But here was the difference between Liam and Levi: Levi
knew when I was full of it.
“What’s wrong?” The genuine caring on his face almost
made me cry.
“Just a little homesick,” I admitted.
I was surprised by Levi’s reaction. He smiled.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “Are you enjoying my misery?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s . . . you always seem so happy
whenever we talk, and I want you to be happy, but I also
want you to get home already. I miss having someone to laugh
at my lame jokes. And, well, I miss you.”
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“I miss you, too.”
There was a silence between us. Not because we were
uncomfortable but because we didn’t really need to say anything else. We both felt the same thing.
I finally spoke. “But, hey, I’m sure the next three weeks
will fly by.”
“Actually, it’s sixteen days,” he corrected me.
“Oh, so you’re counting?” I teased.
“Duh. It’s on my calendar. Macallan returns and life offi-cially doesn’t suck anymore.”
“So are you saying your life would suck without me? I’m
assuming you’re quoting Kelly Clarkson because you miss
having such a strong, independent girl like myself around.”
“Ha! Nicely played. But of course.” He paused. “Here’s the thing, we started out friends . . .”
I laughed. “Wait, are you now insinuating that since I’ve
been gone, you can breathe for the first time?”
“Wait, no!”
I shook my head. “You really are becoming unraveled
without me.”
He had that familiar crooked smile on his face. “I know.
See, you go away and I can’t think straight. It’s amazing I
can even get up in the morning.”
“Oh, how I miss your dramatics.”
“Nobody else appreciates them like you do.”
“I know.”
“So let me make sure I get this,” Liam said to me as we waited
in line at Murphy’s to get some ice cream a couple nights
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later. “Your best friend is a guy. He likes you as more than
just a friend. And your response was to run away to Ireland?”
“Well, when you put it that way . . .” I tried to joke, but I
started to feel a little silly. “There was a lot more going on.”
“Ah, right.” He nodded. “He started to hang out with his
guy friends.”
“And was ignoring me.” I reminded him.
I’d decided to open up to Liam about Levi. I figured nothing was going to happen between us; we both had too much
baggage. So maybe it would be helpful to get an outside opinion on the subject. But unfortunately, I had a feeling he was
going to take Levi’s side.
I guess bros gotta stick with bros.
We placed our orders. Liam always got Guinness and
brown bread, which didn’t taste as bad as one would think. I
ordered my favorite combination: sea salt and honeycomb.
After we grabbed our cones, I decided to make one last
plea for my case. “And remember, I basically don’t see him for
months, then we get into a fight and then he comes over and tells me he loves me. It was so out of the blue.”
Liam took a lick of his cone. “Was it really?”
My response was to be really into eating my ice cream.
Which I was, but I also didn’t have a proper response.
“But you only think of him as a friend,” Liam stated, and I
could tell that he didn’t believe me. “You’re not attracted to
him at all?”