Love Me Tomorrow (10 page)

“Are you all right?” Julia asked, ripping Levi out of his inner rant.

“Think I just stood up too fast,” he said, frowning upon the realization that that made zero sense, so he added. “Probably forgot to eat lunch and had five or six too many coffees.”

“Let Jake look at you, he’s an EMT.”

“No!” Levi yelled, staring back at the three of them who were startled by the outburst. “I mean, like, totally not necessary. I’ll just get out of your hair so you can visit with your brother and his
husband
.”

Jake’s eyes closed for one or two seconds too long to be considered blinking. Part of Levi would’ve loved nothing more than pointing a finger in the man’s face while screaming
cheater!
, but not enough of him that he was willing to fuck up the massive commission he would receive upon completion of the Freeman-Kingsley anniversary extravaganza—which would undoubtedly further cement him as the new party planner/event organizer extraordinaire in Wilde City.

Cheater-butt was not going to fuck this opportunity up for him!

Cheater-butt could sit around fretting over whether or not Levi was going to fuck up his entire world at any moment by telling his husband that Jake was in fact, a cheesy-ass, cheater-butt!

Cheater-butt needed to stop looking at him that way with those fucking cheatery-blue eyes of self-proclaimed innocence!!!

“Let me get the cook to rustle you up something to eat,” Julia insisted. “We’ve got loads of party-talk to discuss and I’d love to have my baby brother weigh in as well.”

Before allowing him the opportunity to object, Julia turned and fled the room, leaving Levi alone with Jake and his stupid husband, both of whom he was attempting to stare down with the death-ray eyes he wished he’d had, in that moment.

Levi likely would have found Victor attractive had he not been the current cause of the stabbing sensation in his head and chest. He was a big guy, beefy, but very well-manicured in an Anderson Cooper kind of way—groomed within an inch of his life—the epitome of business casual, dressed in light grey dress pants and a navy cotton pull-over.

All Levi wanted to do was run over and mess up Victor’s hair. Albeit a particularly infantile reaction, but the thought of doing so made him feel a teensy bit better as the shock began to wear off and his anger began to really kick into high gear.

“I’m going to run to the restroom, babe,” Victor said, tapping at the screen of his smart phone, not even bothering to offer any sort of greeting to Levi.

What an ass-hat! Look at me…,I’m so busy and important that I don’t have time to look up from my phone and be a decent human being.

“Okay, sure,” Jake said quietly, not taking his eyes off of Levi, who was admittedly spiraling into an anger-ball of epic proportions over the absolute betrayal of it all.

Before he managed to get a single word out, Jake was shaking his head and holding up a hand as if that might somehow stop the words from coming out.

“I can’t believe you’re
married
!” Levi hissed.

“Technically, gay marriage isn’t legal here yet, so the accurate statement would be that I have a boyfriend.”

Levi reared his head back in complete shock and awe.

“Not an important distinction,” Jake said. “I see that now.”

“Why?” Levi asked, “I mean… like,
why
?”

“First of all, nothing really happened between us.”

“You almost kissed me.”

Jake swallowed, wincing at that. “Almost doesn’t count.”

“You had your hand between my legs,” Levi pointed out.

“Completely innocently, let me remind you,” Jake said.

“I can’t believe you’re going to stand there and act like nothing was going on between the two of us that night.”

Jake’s forehead crinkled up and he ran the palm of his hand over his face.

“Why did you even come to the theatre?”

“I… I don’t know, damn it,” Jake admitted, tossing his arms into the air. “Honestly, Levi, I do not know why. I showed up because I enjoyed meeting you—thought perhaps we might make good friends.”

“Oh puh-lease, you don’t almost kiss your friends.”

“That may be true, but I didn’t show up there intending to kiss you, damn it. But after the movie… I don’t know what happened.”

“Whatever, like I can believe anything you say at this point.”

“I am sorry, Levi, I promise that I never intended to lead you on.” Jake glanced back to see if his sister or boyfriend were anywhere within earshot. “You’re funny and you made me laugh. Add Miss Ruby to the equation and I wanted to get to know you—that’s it. That’s all I know for sure to be true. It was just a movie for Christ’s sake. Then you had to go and look at me with those pleading, kiss me eyes, and I lost myself for a moment.”

“So it’s
my
fault?” Levi asked, shaking his head. “You’re a real peach.”

“Do you guys know each other?” Julia asked, coming back into the room followed by Victor who was hot on her heels and finally found a reason to tear himself away from his phone.

“Sort of,” Jake said.

“He was the paramedic called to my mother’s house earlier this week.”

“Oh my God,” Julia said, her face going white. “She’s okay, your mother?”

“Yes, sorry, Julia—didn’t mean to freak you out there. My mom is totally okay.”

She looked at her brother as if needing his confirmation that all was well.

Jake nodded.

“Glad to hear that,” Victor said, sidling up next to Jake while shoving his phone into his pocket. “My hero once again saving the day, huh?”

“Wasn’t really one of those life-threatening situations, babe,” Jake said, no doubt doing his best to avoid further attention being aimed his direction.

Levi rubbed at his chest, hearing Jake refer to Victor as
babe,
making it difficult to breathe. He glanced down at his bag, which chirped, signaling he had a message.

“I should take that actually. Make sure it’s nothing urgent with my mother.”

“Of course.” Julia motioned he could step into the next room if he liked.

He wasted no time, grabbing his bag off the floor and deciding he needed to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible. He was way too pissed to be able to hide it indefinitely and at the same time, Levi was second guessing himself. Maybe Jake was right. It was Levi who had made more out of going to the movies than he should have? Maybe it was he alone who had inadvertently attempted to turn something completely innocent on Jake’s part into something he’d never intended it to be?

Was it wrong that Jake almost kissed him? Absolutely! But Jake may have been telling the truth. They’d never referred to it as a date, and really, did a movie without the accompanying dinner even qualify as a date? Or was it just a movie?

Either way he came at the situation, Levi ended up being the buffoon, and that made him feel like a complete shit.

Fishing his cell out of his leather messenger bag, he noticed a missed call from Ruby and two texts from Valerie, who wanted him to come out with her to Wilde City’s premiere drag club, the Masquerade de Cabaret, later that night.

“Not a chance, Val,” he muttered, redialing the missed call from Momma.

“Hey, sorry I missed your call, Mom, what’s up?”

Jake was staring at him from the other room and Julia noticed, turning to see what Jake was looking at. He waved at the two of them before turning away.

“I’m calling because the nurse never showed up this morning and I wanted to tell you so I don’t get blamed for it.”

“Are you sure you shouldn’t be blamed for it?”

“I barely know this one, for Christ’s sake. I haven’t even had time to decide whether I like her or not.”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s nearly one-thirty, momma, so why am I now just hearing about this?”

“Good grief, I took a nap so I’m a little late realizing that she isn’t here.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Well, I’m coming out to stay with you for the rest of the weekend. Monday morning we’ll see what can be done to find you a replacement.”

“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Levi. Let’s not forget which one of us is the parent and who is the child.”

“Agreed, Ruby, so please start acting your age for once and stop fighting me at each and every turn. Contrary to what you think, I’m not trying to steal your independence from you. I’m doing everything I can to ensure you’re able to maintain it, but that is going to require your cooperation. You cannot continue to live alone, that is a fact. I know you don’t want to leave your home, but if you continue to run off everyone I hire, I’ll be forced to move you into my loft with me.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Ruby said flatly.

“We can discuss this further when I get there, okay?”

“Fine.”

“Do you need anything?” he asked, feeling bad for making her angry.

“A more sympathetic and understanding son wouldn’t fucking hurt.”

Levi laughed. “You’re a real piece a work.”

“Goodbye,” she said, before hanging up on him.

He sighed, turning around to find Jake standing a few feet away.

“We need to talk.”

“I’m going to have to go,” Levi said, forcing himself to stop chewing on his lip.

“Your mom?” Julia asked, coming up behind Jake.

“Unfortunately, yes. Her home health nurse didn’t show up so I’m going to have to go stay with her until Monday.”

Jake smiled, and Levi knew he was operating under the assumption Ruby had run off another nurse.

“You can wipe that smile away, mister, it’s not funny.”

Julia’s eyes widened slightly.

“She’s quite a character,” Jake said, clarifying things for Julia.

“She’s diabolical.” Levi lifted the strap of his bag onto his shoulder. “Rain check on the party talk?”

“Absolutely,” Julia said. “You can pop by for dinner one night this week, perhaps?”

“You’ve got a date,” Levi said, awkwardly glancing at Jake, whose eyebrow hitched as if to say,
So you make everything into a date, I see
.

“Give Ruby my best,” Jake said.

Levi smiled but made no promises he’d do anything of the sort considering he wasn’t all that sure Jake’s so-called ‘best’ was good enough for his mother at this point.

Chapter Five

Monday morning had rolled around way too quickly, Levi thought, glancing at his watch. It was a little after ten and he was already yearning for five o’clock to roll around. Not a good sign considering how much work there was to do.

The building that housed Goode City Event & Party Planning had been built in 1867. The entire waterfront, including the boardwalk and most of the docklands, had burned to the ground several years before. Following the fire, cast-iron, brick and stone had become the building materials of choice, and while most of the buildings throughout the six block area grew in height, the advent of the more modern day skyscrapers had still been several decades away.

The main floor featured large, arched storefront windows that looked out over the cobblestone street toward the large boardwalk and piers just beyond. Sixteen foot high ceilings provided an airy, spacious feel to the otherwise narrow interior. The original copper ceiling tiles had been stripped and restored back to their original luster as had the wood floors, which still creaked when he walked across them—something that initially annoyed him—though he’d since grown to love it, deciding it was the building’s way of speaking to him. A solid wood carved retail counter sat just inside the front door along the north wall, and had been converted into a reception desk.

Now I just need to hire a receptionist, he thought, staring blankly at the wisp of a girl currently seated across the boardroom table from him and Valerie.

They’d been trapped inside the glass-walled conference room all morning long, as the onslaught of potential new hire interviews continued—for what Valerie referred to as her minions. It was the last thing he wanted to be doing, while Valerie appeared to be enjoying herself immensely—her favorite part being the subsequent trashing of each candidate as soon as they left the room. She was completely cutthroat, and while her opinions weren’t necessarily incorrect, she could have found kinder turns-of-phrases for the poor unfortunate souls, if she’d tried. Of course that would require extra effort on her part, so Levi wasn’t even going to bother asking.

In truth, he was more than a little bitter, still stinging from the knowledge that Jake Freeman, the man of his dreams, belonged to someone else. He felt it like a slap across the face as he continued replaying the scene over and over in the back of his mind as Julia introduced him to her twin brother, Jake…
and his stupid husband!

Levi was completely devastated and depressed, which was kind of idiotic considering: one, he barely knew Jake; and two, he was a grown ass man, and as such, should have matured beyond the post-pubescent, Tammy-Tragic, overtly emo stage many, many moons ago. Instead, he sat there staring blankly out into space, barely paying attention to the people they were interviewing. Worst of all, Levi found himself looking forward to the moment each person walked out of the room so he could feed off the evil commentary Valerie spouted off like some sort of sicko-succubus.