Levi laughed. “Jeez, Audrey, no. I want you to be my friend with benefits.”
Audrey let out a soulless laugh, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be friends with benefits. It’s with you, Levi, I want a relationship. I want to get married. We’ve been doing this dance for eight months; don’t you think it’s time?”
“No, and I won’t tomorrow or the next day either,” he said, standing up. He ran his hands over his buzzed hair, looking up at the sky. “I don’t understand why you are keeping yourself from me. I know you want me. I want you, so let’s do this. Why keep us apart?”
“Because you don’t want all of me! You just want my cooter!”
Levi shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yes, I want it, Cupcake, but I want to spend time with you, too. Give me another chance.”
They looked deep into each other eyes as the room stayed eerily quiet. It seemed so easy to take his bait, to be his puppet for the rest of her life. She wouldn’t have to worry about the rejection from another man; she wouldn’t have to worry about finding someone who wouldn’t want kids because Levi didn’t want them at all. Levi was her out, her easy cowardly out.
But like everyone had said, she was better than that.
Standing up, Audrey shook her head before saying, “I love you, Levi Moss—”
“Now, Audrey, I’ve told you about that word—”
“No! You shut up and let me finish!”
Levi’s eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I love you. I do, but I am not going to settle for crap and want more when you want nothing but sex from me. I am a good woman. I would take good care of you, and I deserve more than this. If you are ready to give me that, when you are ready to love me and give us a chance, then call me. I’ll come, ’cause I love you, but not until you tell me you’re ready to give us a real fighting chance.”
Audrey couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding against her chest. Levi shook his head, his hands resting on his head before looking up at the ceiling. When he looked back down, his eyes a soft brown color, Audrey thought she had won.
But then he said, “I don’t want you like that.”
Feeling beaten, Audrey’s shoulders slumped and she looked down at the desk. Willing the tears to stay at bay and begging herself to stay strong and confident, Audrey looked up and said, “Then get out of my office.”
Chapter 11
“I’m totally messed up.”
Audrey said it to no one in particular, alone in her kitchen popping popcorn and nursing a forty-ounce beer. It had been a forty-ounce-beer kind of day. But even with her feeling like her heart was about to break, she was proud of herself for not crying. It was the first time in weeks that she hadn’t cried over Levi. Maybe telling him what was on her mind was closure or something. She had always been so agreeable, let him run things. But for once, she stood up to him, and it felt fantastic! Yes, her heart was broken because of his rejection, yet in her heart she really felt that he was coming around. He was finally beginning to understand Audrey’s mind-set, and he was finally getting that Audrey wanted what she felt she deserved and wasn’t going to settle for less than that in any relationship, even with him.
He loved her. She just knew it. Now he just had to realize it, or keep doing what he was doing and Audrey would walk away.
“I don’t know why,” Piper said. “I really don’t understand what you see in him or what you are waiting for. He doesn’t treat you right.”
“But he does sometimes, and those times are really good.”
Piper let out a frustrated breath. Audrey could just see her rolling her eyes. “Explain to me the nice things he has done ’cause every time I’m around y’all, he is a dick.”
Audrey was the one to roll her eyes this time, before saying, “When we are alone together, he is so sweet.”