whole thirty-seconds. Once it was ready, he turned and sat opposite her at the table.
“I noticed you never put cream or sugar in your coffee,” she said shyly. “That’s why I didn’t offer you any. But if you do want some…”
Levi held up a hand to stop her. “No, it’s okay. This is fine. Thanks.”
Then it was quiet.
Awkwardly quiet.
“Um…I don’t want you to feel like you need to rush out or anything,” Willow began, “but Mrs. Moore saw us get back last night and texted me early this morning. I’m going over there at nine to watch Josh.”
Glancing around, he asked, “What time is it?”
“Almost eight. But like I said, don’t feel like you need to rush. If you want to shower or do anything…”
“I’ll probably just wait till I get home to do it. All my luggage is in the car, so…”
“Gotcha.”
More silence.
He cleared his throat. “So, uh…you think you’ll come to McGee’s Friday night?”
“Oh, um…I guess so. Obviously I haven’t talked to Donna and Jen yet, but…”
It was small talk.
Painfully awkward small talk.
“Right, well…” He took another sip of his coffee and tried to think of how to say what he wanted to say. Putting his mug down on the table a little too forcefully, he hissed as the hot liquid splashed on his hand. Willow immediately handed him a napkin. “Thanks.”
“Levi…”
“Willow…”
They looked at each other and laughed at how they both started to speak at the same time.
“Sorry,” she said. “You go first.”
Now he was almost afraid to, but he knew if he didn’t–if he left here without telling her how he felt–he’d regret it.
“Willow, you know I’ve always thought how amazing you are,” he began and saw her expression fall a little. “I want you to know that…”
“No,” she quickly interrupted. “Don’t. Please.”
“Don’t what?”
Her shoulders sagged as she looked up at him with a sad smile. “I know what you’re going to say, and if it’s okay with you, I’d really rather not have to sit here and tell me what a good friend I am and how fun this all was…blah, blah, blah.” She waved her hand around. “I know we talked about this back at the hotel and all and I get it. We’re still friends, Levi. And…I’ll be okay. Really. It’s not your fault that I started to think of it as something more.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” he said, shoving the coffee aside. “Are you saying that…you’d like to be more than friends?”
She looked away, but not before he saw the flush of her cheeks. “Come on, Levi, don’t make me say it. It’s embarrassing enough…”
Reaching for her hand, she jumped and spilled her coffee. They both stood up, and when Willow went to reach from some paper towels, he stopped her.
“Levi, I need to clean this up!”
“Not until I say what I need to say,” he said firmly.
With a huff, she looked at him, but her gaze kept straying to the coffee that was now dripping off the table and onto the floor.
“Okay, fine. We’ll clean this up, and then I’m saying what I need to say!”
Way to sound firm, dude.
Together they quickly cleaned up the mess, but he didn’t let her sit down. Instead, he took both of her hands in his and waited for her to look at him. “I want you to know that it’s important to me for us to be friends.”
She started to pull her hands away, but he held on.
“But I also want more, Willow. I realize it was all supposed to be make-believe, but…there were real feelings there for me. I don’t want things to go back to the way they were before. I want to see where this goes. I want you to be my friend and my lover.” He tugged her in close. “I want you to be my girlfriend for real.”
Her eyes went wide. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“Oh, okay then.” Her smile grew as she moved in closer. Levi released her hands, and her arms immediately went around him. “In that case, I’d really like to kiss my boyfriend good morning.”
“And as your boyfriend, I’m totally on board with this.”
Up on tiptoes, Willow pressed her lips to his, and it was the perfect kind of lazy kiss to start the day. And he couldn’t wait to start more of them this way.
Things escalated quickly, and as much as he knew he needed to leave and she needed to get ready for work, that didn’t mean they shouldn’t commemorate this change in their relationship by doing…well…pretty