Better Than My Ex novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Honey and Milk

At a closed airport coffee counter Mara collapses into Levi's arms, tells him everything, and he takes her home and makes her tea the way she likes it.

The last flight from Santa Barbara landed at 12:40 in the morning, and every coffee counter at SFO was shut.

I stood in front of one anyway, holding my bag, in the black dress I'd worn to a funeral.

"Mara?"

I knew the voice before I turned around.

Levi Shaw stood by the windows with his tie pulled loose and his jacket over his arm.

His shirt was wrinkled. Levi's shirts never wrinkled.

"What are you doing here?" I said.

"My flight to New York got cancelled. Storm over Denver." He crossed the floor and stopped in front of me. "Forget that. What happened?"

"Do I look that bad?"

"You look like you've been awake for two days."

I tried to laugh and it came out wrong.

He didn't push. He just waited, the way he had in college when I'd come into the bakery job after a bad exam and not say why.

"Bryson?" he said quietly.

I opened my mouth to say I was fine.

"He cancelled our trip," I said instead. "He said Lydia was falling apart and couldn't be alone."

Levi's face went very still.

"She posted stories from a resort in Santa Barbara. He was in every one. I flew down this afternoon, and they were having dinner on the sand."

"Mara."

"She was wearing my necklace. The one he told me I'd lost."

My voice cracked on the last word.

"He fed her strawberries, Levi. He said, 'I missed us.' To her."

I couldn't hold it any longer.

My knees went, and Levi caught me with one arm around my back, and I put my face against his wrinkled shirt and finally cried.

I cried harder than I had on the plane or on the couch.

He didn't say anything until I was done, and then he said only one thing.

"I'm so sorry."

"I'm so stupid," I said into his chest. "I defended him for four years. I told my mother I understood."

"No."

"I stood in my own kitchen and made excuses for him."

"Look at me."

I looked up.

"You trusted someone you loved," Levi said. "That doesn't make you stupid. That makes what he did worse."

Three years ago he had told me he loved me, in a parking lot outside a wedding.

I had said I was with Bryson, and he had said he understood.

He had never mentioned it again, not once, not even to make it awkward.

He picked up my bag.

"Come on. I'm taking you home."

"You have a flight."

"It's cancelled."

"You have another one."

"Then I'll deal with it tomorrow."

"Levi."

"You are not going home alone like this," he said. "Don't argue with me."

I didn't, and I was surprised by how little I wanted to.

The drive up the peninsula took forty minutes.

He did not ask for details. He did not tell me it was for the best, or that I would feel better in the morning.

He drove with the heater on, and when I fell quiet he let me stay quiet.

My flat is above the bakery in Noe Valley, up one flight of stairs that smell of yeast even at two in the morning.

I unlocked the door and stopped in the middle of the room.

Thanksgiving was still there.

The cheddar and crackers were in the fridge. The Merlot stood on the counter next to the crumpled cabin confirmation.

The cardigan I'd packed was folded on the arm of the couch, and I had no idea who it was for anymore.

"Sit down," Levi said.

"You're bossy."

"Tonight, yes."

He went into my kitchen and I heard the kettle.

When he came back he put a mug in my hands.

I took a sip. Honey, milk, no sugar.

I looked up at him.

"You remembered."

"You've had it that way since we were nineteen."

It was a small thing.

Bryson had forgotten my birthday dinner, our anniversary, a cabin booked for months. Levi remembered my tea.

I held the mug in both hands, and Levi sat down beside me.

Something about him had changed. His shoulders were tight and he kept turning one hand over in the other.

In ten years of knowing Levi Shaw, I had never seen him fidget.

"What is it?" I asked.

He drew a breath and let it out slowly.

"There's something I have to tell you," he said.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend