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Zombie status. I was on autopilot. Giving report for the last of my four shifts never felt so good. Well, maybe not as good as sleep. Oh, sweet sleep. I wiped my chin where I swore some drool had already fallen.
“Rainey Matthews?” I squinted my bloodshot eyes and saw a man in front of me holding a dozen roses and a large coffee from the diner across the street.
“That’s me.” He gave me something to sign, and I took the flowers. Jean and a few of the other ladies from the shift came over.
“Who are those from?” Jean smiled widely.
“No clue. But there’s coffee.” I took a sip and moaned. Jean snatched the card and read it out loud. “Hey!”
“Raindrop, I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you. I know your addiction to caffeine, so I’m sure the coffee will make you happier than the flowers. Next time I’ll just send a bouquet of Keurig pods. Yours, Levi.” Jean held the card to her chest. “Well, isn’t that the sweetest thing I’ve ever read.”
I snatched the card from her hand and read the words with my own eyes. The fact that he was thinking about me, that he went through the effort of sending me flowers, meant more to me than all the coffee in the world.
“Are you guys dating?” Mary, another nurse, asked.
“We aren’t anything but friends.”
“Uh-hum. Sure. He wants to be more than friends. You better snatch him up before someone else does,” Jean said with a wink. “All right, let’s get back to work. New shift, start!”
Before heading home to pass out for the day, I pulled out my phone and sent Levi a text.
Me: Thanks so much for the coffee. Oh, the flowers were nice too . How about dinner tonight at my place? I’ll cook!
I watched the three little dots dance across the screen.
Levi: Sounds good. I’m out at 5. Let’s say 7?
Me: Perfect.
Gathering my flowers and coffee, I had a bit of extra energy. It’d been a while since someone did something for me like Levi did. It was a good start to a new day and a new life.
***
I managed a solid three hours of sleep before I stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out what I was going to make for dinner. I wasn’t a horrible cook, but I lived on simple and easy, especially with Parker being gone all the time. Salads, frozen Healthy Choice meals, and sometimes I just ate a protein bar and called it a day.
I settled for something easy and less likely for me to burn. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. I prepped everything and then focused on myself. Levi had seen me more in my scrubs than anything else; tonight I wanted to make an effort. He’d tried since the first day I met him, and that was refreshing, to have someone care enough to send flowers and find out how I liked my coffee. To listen when I said I hated pepperoni on my pizza. Those things mattered to me, and I was happy to finally have met someone who valued that.
My cell rang, and I put it on speaker so I could chat with Ava and put on some makeup.
“What’s up? I feel like I haven’t spoken to you in forever,” Ava said as she munched on something.
“We spoke yesterday, and what the hell are you eating? It’s so loud.”
“Stupid carrots. I’m just a girl standing in front of a carrot, asking it to be a damn piece of chocolate cake.” Ava groaned. “I hate dieting.”
“Then don’t diet. Balance.”
“Okay, Obi-Wan. What are you doing? I sound like I’m on speaker.” I pulled my hair back so I could see my face to apply eyeliner.
“Currently putting on eyeliner.” I stabbed myself in the eye, sending tears streaming down my face. Taking a piece of toilet paper, I dabbed my eye and started over. “Or trying to.”
“Oh shit! You have a date.”
“Mommy, you said bad word,” I heard Amelia, one of Ava’s daughters, say in the background.
“I did. Don’t listen to Mommy,” Ava said.
“I invited Levi over for dinner. Get this, he sent me flowers and a coffee this morning after my shift.”
“Girl—” Another loud crunch sounded in my ear. “—he’s amazing. Tell me he has some flaw?”
I managed to get a thin line of eyeliner on my eye. I didn’t wear makeup much. In my line of work, simple was best. By the end of a shift, I’d look like a raccoon anyway if I applied too much cosmetics.
“Nothing that I know of. I’m sure there’s something. It’ll reveal itself in due time.”
“Maybe he has a small pecker,” Ava suggested.
“Mommy, what’s a pecker?”
I laughed. “You better watch it, Amelia will be walking around talking about peckers at three years old.”
“She said fuck the other day. In the correct context. Pretty sure Beckett and I aren’t winning parent of the year anytime soon.”
I applied a neutral color to my eyelids and pink gloss to my lips while Ava and I continued to chat. I still looked natural, just enhanced, which was what I liked for myself anyway. I wasn’t one of those women to bother with contouring and changing the shape of my nose and cheeks. I didn’t know how if I wanted to, anyway.
“Just be careful, okay, sweetie? I want you to be happy, but sometimes your....”
“I know my depressive moods come out of nowhere. Levi has already seen that side of me, and he didn’t run away. That’s saying something.”
Ava sighed. “It is. It really is.”
The doorbell rang, interrupting our conversation.
“Shit. He’s here.” I fumbled to throw all my makeup in the drawer to make the bathroom look less of a mess.
Ava laughed. “Have fun. Use protection, and I hope his pecker isn’t small.”
“Pecker! Pecker!” Amelia repeated in the background.
“Jesus, Ava.” I laughed. “Chat later. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
With a deep breath, I took one last look at myself. My simple jeans and tight red halter top hugged my body just right. I’d opted for flats over heels because my feet were still hurting from my four shifts. They probably would be until right before my next shift. Such was the life of a nurse.
“You can do this,” I said out loud to myself. I opened the door, and Levi stood there, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a bottle of wine.
“I wasn’t sure what you drank, but you didn’t strike me as a red wine girl, so I settled for white.”
“It’s perfect.” I took it from his hand. “Come in.” I walked toward the kitchen with Levi following.
“I hope you don’t mind spaghetti. It was the easiest, and I knew I wouldn’t burn it.”
“Spaghetti is perfect. So, what can I do to help?” Levi washed his hands in the sink. It was like he was comfortable in my kitchen, making himself right at home. For some that might have been disconcerting, but for me, it brought comfort. I didn’t do awkward well, I didn’t know many people who did, and having been out of the dating game for so long, I worried how I would do with all the preliminary things, the getting-to-know-you phase that always seemed to reveal so much about a person. I was getting to know Levi, and so far, like Ava said, it seemed like he had no flaws.
“Want to open the wine? I hate the popping sound it makes. The opener is in the drawer to the left.”
Flashing me his dashing smile, he nodded. “You got it.”
I poured the pasta into the boiling water, stealing glances of Levi as he opened the wine bottle. His toned arms strained against his plain white T-shirt—my weakness.
“You enjoying the view?” Levi grinned as the cork popped out. I shut my mouth that apparently had been hanging open.
I blushed, averting my eyes from his.
Levi poured two glasses of wine and handed me one.
“I like that you were checking me out because it shows that you’re interested in me. Well, at least in my incredible muscles.” He flexed and pretended he was posing for a bodybuilding competition.
I brought the wine glass to my lips. “You’re right, I am interested, but like a fine wine, time makes it all better. The attraction between us just grows, and once we get together, it’ll be explosive.” I took a sip of the wine, grinning ear to ear. Levi placed his glass down and positioned his arms behind him to hold himself up on the counter. He smiled.
“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever heard,” Levi said as he looked me up and down.
Turning around, I grabbed a noodle from the pot and chucked it against the wall.
Levi ducked, and I giggled.
“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at the noodle attached to the wall.
“That’s how you check to see if it’s done. If it sticks, it’s ready.”
“Huh?” he said. “Learn something new every day. Let me try!” Giddy, he ran to the pot and took out a noodle and threw it. Looking at me, he smiled.
This was what I wanted. The simple things. Cooking dinner together and living life with someone you cared about. There was so much that people took for granted, but I never would, not when I never had it.
“What?” he questioned, tilting his head to the side.
“This is nice, that’s all. Cooking dinner with you.” I strained the noodles, the steam from the hot water surrounding me.
“I’m glad, Raindrop,” Levi said, bringing the two plates over to me. “Because this is only the beginning.”
Trying to fight back my shit-eating grin, I hoped he was right, because this was what I had been waiting for.
