Levi’s phone rings, and he pulls it out of his pocket. He puts it on silent and sets it on the floor, ignoring the call. “Same as you. Haven’t had much time lately. But whenever I can’t sleep, I normally find myself in my studio.”
“You have your own studio?”
“When I moved, I got a place with rooms instead of a studio high rise for that very reason.” He readjusts, his attention never leaving me. “I learned the hard way that the more cluttered my space was, the more stressed I’d get and that would pour into other aspects of my life. And when I had to designate a corner of my old place to my makeshift studio, things got a little out of control. So, when I moved, I built my own studio in one of the spare rooms.”
“I get that. I always feel better and more at peace in my space when it’s clean and tidy. Everything has its place.”
Levi nods in agreement, glancing down at his watch for a moment before lifting his blue eyes to mine. “I’m glad that we have that in common. Time to figure out the ninety-three other things that we agree on.”
“Percentage doesn’t equal commonalities.” I laugh gently. “We might only have thirty things in common that got us to that percentage.”
“Well,” he says, crossing his legs now as he rests his elbows on his knees and leans closer to me. “I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
“Everything?” A smile tugs at my lips. “I don’t know if you can handle knowing everything.”
“Try me.”
I only shrug in response, raising an eyebrow in challenge. His own eyes narrow, a playful grin covering his thin lips as he twirls his thumbs together.
“All right, let’s start easy.” He runs his tongue along his bottom lip. “Rapid fire question and answer, but you can’t ask the same question that I ask you. Think you can handle that?”
I nod. “Sure.”
“Okay.” He sits a little more upright. “Favorite color?”
“Yellow.” I answer. “Favorite movie?”
“Tommy Boy.” I smile and point at myself, holding up two of my fingers and his grin intensifies. “Really? Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had someone else agree. All right. Favorite television show.”
“Friends. If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?”
“Tacos. You want to watch a game on TV. What sport are you watching?”
“I’m supposed to say soccer since my best friend’s boyfriend is a professional soccer player, but I’d rather watch hockey.” He chuckles. “You finally get to go on your dream vacation. Where are you going?”
“Iceland. You look at your calendar and realize your favorite holiday is approaching. Which holiday is it?”
Thinking of Claire, I respond, “Christmas. Who is your favorite television show duo?”
“Nick and Schmidt from New Girl,” he replies without hesitation. “You find yourself in a sticky situation. Who is the first person you call?”
I’m about to say my sister but stop myself as that all too familiar pang of grief hits me. My face must give me away because Levi’s smile fades as he studies me. Before he can inquire about the sudden change, I say, “Blue. My best friend.”
“Ah, Blue’s Clues,” Levi nods, thankfully choosing not to ask about my hesitation. “I remember. Quick pause. How’d that nickname come to be?”
“Well,” I start, but once again, it was Neve who came up with that moniker for my best friend and I scramble to come up with an answer, not wanting to talk about her or my father. Not yet. “Honestly? I don’t remember. Sorry that there’s not a more exciting story there.”
“Some of the best nicknames are the most random,” he says simply, and I give him a small, grateful smile. “It’s your turn.”
“If you could have dinner with one celebrity, who would it be?”
“Truthfully? No judgement?” I nod. “It wouldn’t so much be the celebrity I’d be interested in—it’s the food they’d provide, and from what I’ve read, The Rock has some really amazing cheat meals.”
I can’t help it as I laugh. “Fair enough.”
We go back and forth for quite a while longer, learning the most random things about one another. I discover he doesn’t like cheese but really loves cheeseburgers, only watches horror movies if they have a good plotline, had five dogs growing up until he moved to New York when he was eleven years old, he played football until his junior year of high school, and he hasn’t had any alcohol or smoked a cigarette since the night he met me on the roof.
I tell him about how I had named all of my childhood pets after Disney characters, that I broke my ankle when I was younger playing keep away with one of the dogs, I prefer to dip my pizza in ranch, played softball until I graduated high school, tried writing a book a few years ago, and that I always make it a point to have fresh flowers in the house because they bring me joy.
