“No! No, I just meant…I hope it wasn’t because of me. That’s kind of why I’ve been avoiding you. I thought you’d hate me, because…if I messed things up and caused any trouble between you guys…”
“You didn’t,” I reassured him. “I think it was always going to end like that, you know. Me and Noah. It’s okay.”
(It wasn’t, really, but it was getting there.)
Levi nodded slowly, uncertainly.
We hadn’t spoken in weeks, so I decided not to waste time being delicate or beating around the bush. “Do you still have a crush on me?”
Levi cracked a smile. It was small, and tired, and lopsided. “I think I’m always gonna have a little crush on you, Elle.”
“Well, if you can keep a lid on it and not kiss me again, I’d really, really like it if we could go back to being friends. Imissyou. But I get it if it’s, like, too hard for you to—”
“To be around you?” Levi beamed, throwing his head back in laughter. “I said I have a crush on you. I didn’t say that your womanly wiles are so irresistible I’m putty in your hands and will kiss the ground you walk on. I’ve been your friend for the past year. I miss you, too.”
“My womanly wiles?” I echoed, trying hard not to laugh.
Levi pulled a face, head wobbling side to side as he pretended to consider it. “They’re not that great, sorry to break it to ya.”
I clutched a hand to my heart. “How will I ever recover from such an insult?”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of distractions in Boston to take your mind off it.”
“Actually, I’m not going there anymore.”
I explained the whole thing to Levi, stopping a few times when an actual customer came in and needed serving. His manager came over at one point to tell him to socialize on his own time. I left him not long after that, but only once we’d made plans to hang out in a couple of days when we were both free.
I reallyhadmissed Levi these last few weeks, and I was glad to have finally cleared the air. It would’ve sucked to lose him as a friend, especially when I would be staying in California for college.
I’d break the news to Lee soon. He’d need a little cheering up once the beach house sale went through, and this was sure to do the trick. As for Noah, he’d understand, and I didn’t think he’d blame himself. He was too smart for that.
Last year the distance between us had been awful; I had a feeling that this time, it was exactly what we both needed.
I knew that I should’ve felt worse. I should’ve been disappointed and sad and had that hollow feeling in my chest because everything was ending. But at some point today, it had stopped feeling like that. If anything, it finally felt like it was all falling into place.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“You’re here!” Lee cried.
He dropped the duffel bag, raced across the street, and threw himself at me, his arms engulfing me in a hug that lifted me clean off my feet. I laughed as he set me back down. I pushed some of the hair out of his face.
“You didn’t think I’d let you get away without saying goodbye, did you?”
He beamed at me, blue eyes sparkling. “I thought you were at work!”
“Yeah, well, May let me go early so I could see you off.Andshe asked me to give you this….”
I opened my purse and reached in to give him the crisp sheet of paper. A printed certificate with the Dunes logo on it, signed by May, declaring Lee Flynn—
“Employee of the Month!” he read aloud, and hooted with laughter. “Aw, man. Give her a hug from me, will you? And tell her this will be granted pride of place on my wall at college. I want everybody to know.”
“She’s so excited you’ll finally be out from under her feet. The employee who never was.”
“The best non-employee she’s ever had,” he agreed. He’d been spending so much time with me lately that a lot of it had been at work—and while Levi’s manager was never happy to see me, May just rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air whenever Lee came to the restaurant, where he’d inevitably get stuck with helping the rest of us out.
We started walking back to his parents’ car, which was piled high with boxes and bags, ready for Lee to move into his new dorm room. Noah had flown back to Boston a couple of days ago. “So you’re all set?”
“All set,” he confirmed. “I mean, I’m planning to come back next weekend. Pick up my car and anything else I’ve forgotten. Hey! You could always drive up to bring me back? I could show you the place, introduce you to whatever people I meet this week.”
