She tilted her head toward Main Street that ran in front of the diner. “You don’t remember him always coming in here after school? He’d fill up my dining room with his posse of friends and order Cokes from you all afternoon.”
Of course, I remembered, not that I would admit that to Rosie. It wasn’t that she was wrong about Levi always coming in here, at least when he didn’t have practice. Because he did. He used to come in here all the time. He’d drag his football friends with him and they’d sit together in clusters of testosterone and make me refill their drinks one thousand times.
What I couldn’t tell Rosie though, was that he didn’t do it because he liked me. He did it to humiliate me. The pigheaded, smarmy boys in my class thought it was hilarious when the poor girl from the other side of the tracks had to wait on them. They never missed an opportunity to rub it in my face.
It wasn’t a crush Levi had on me. It was an incessant need to remind me of my place.
My stomach tightened, and my eyeballs grew hot with unshed tears that belonged to a different Ruby Dawson.
I wasn’t the poor girl trying to escape this town anymore. I was the struggling single mom that had made peace with Clark City. At least for the most part.
Levi’s return certainly didn’t help. But like I said, stick to the plan—ignore and avoid and all would be well.
“Rosie,” I scoffed, letting my conviction show, “Levi has never had a thing for me. Whatever it was you think you saw back then or today is not what you think it is. We’ve always just… hated each other. Today was only more of that.”
She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and tugged me close to her. Placing a rare kiss on the top of my head, I felt her chuckle vibrate through me. She smelled like Chanel No. 5 and maple syrup. I didn’t pull away.
“You know, Ruby, for a girl that’s so darn smart, sometimes you’re kind of stupid.”
My warm fuzzy feelings, for the small amount of affection Rosie showed me, disintegrated. “You’re wrong, Rose,” I told her, pulling away and using her real name so she knew I meant business. “Levi has never liked me, nor will he ever like me. We come from different worlds. There’s not a foot of common ground between us.”
“Attraction doesn’t need common ground, sugar. In fact, I think it thrives the best when everything’s against it.”
I smiled patiently at her but found customers in need of my assistance instead of answering.
My heart wasn’t in it though. I kept going back to Rosie’s words. Levi had never liked me. Never.
I tried remembering the past with a fresh perspective, but I couldn’t see beyond my bias. Because the truth was, back then it wouldn’t have mattered if Levi confessed his undying love for me in the middle of school assembly. I had never liked Levi.
Back then, seven years ago, I only had eyes for his older brother, Logan.
5
Brownies to the Rescue
Monday evening, a bang on my door interrupted our supper. The front door was thin and hollow, making the pounding sound echo through the small space of our home.
Max looked up from the quesadilla I’d thrown together and scowled at the sound through his smudged glasses. I let out a slow breath and debated whether I should open it or not.
The sound was angry. That much was obvious. And to be honest, I didn’t know what was waiting for me on the other side. It could be an angry neighbor. Mr. Cavanaugh from two trailers down always had something to complain about. Or it could be one of my mom’s associates come to collect… well, it could be anything. Money, stolen possessions, car keys from when she’d confiscated them the night before at Misty’s.
Mom was a lot of things, but she never let the men drive home drunk after a night of whoring. I always found that strangely admirable.
There was a short break and then the pounding started up again.
“Ruby, I know you’re in there!”
Damn, it was Ajax.
Setting my quesadilla down, I jumped to my feet. Ajax wasn’t going to go away. My car was out front, he knew I was home. If he wanted to talk, there was no stopping him.
Max made a grumbly sound and took a big bite of his supper.
“Be nice,” I whispered.
He rolled his eyes and pushed some tortilla chips around his plate.
“And eat your beans,” I ordered.
