I see her walking down the hallway, carrying her laptop in her arms, and I feel ashamed. "Shelly, hey."
"Levi, I'm late for class." She says to me, her voice with an edge to it.
"Listen, I'm sorry about leaving the other night without saying anything."
There's a bank of chairs attached to tables, restaurant style, off to the side. I offer for us to sit. "Have you got like two minutes to talk?"
"Fine. My professor is always two minutes late, anyway. It's not like I'll be missed."
Sliding a swivel chair around to face her, I gesture for her to sit. "I'm sorry. I was just a little bit caught off guard when you announced the news in front of my brother and his fiancé." I add, not taking the slight bite out of my tone. It was completely unfair that she did that, and I'm not giving her leeway on that.
"Well, it just came out, Levi. It's the hormones."
"I get that now. But I had to do some damage control, and now I'm practically the laughingstock. My brother and Billy don't even believe that you're pregnant."
I watch her face for a reaction. Part of me wants desperately to believe that she's lying about the pregnancy, but the other half is fighting with that half, since that would mean that my first girlfriend is one foot out the door. She stares at her fingertips, not at me. "Levi, this isn't easy for me, either. I mean, I never expected this to happen. I'm in school and having a baby is the last thing I want to do."
"So, don't do it, Shelly. We don't have to have this kid if it means fucking up both of our lives."
She sits there in silence.
I hear someone shout at me from above the mezzanine area. "Hey, Levi!" I look around and I can't see anyone, so I stand up, and that's when I see, in the area above our heads, a buddy ofmine from my architecture class. "I tried calling you, man!" Dave shouts.
I pull my phone out of my pocket, and the goddamn receipt from the picture floats to the floor, but it lands closer to Shelly, and she picks it up. "Shit." I mutter to myself as she looks at it. I'm half pissed off that she doesn't just give it back to me, instead of taking a look first. I shout back up at Dave. "My phone's dead. I'll see you in class."
He nods and I look at Shelly, taking the receipt back from her. "I bought it for the ranch."
"Using Billy's money?" She asks, lifting a brow.
"Well, no." I confess. "I bought it for myself, but it's staying at the ranch."
She blinks but says nothing. Her face is unreadable.
I level with her. "Shelly, you've got nothing to worry about, as far as money is concerned, okay. If we decide to have this baby, we will manage."
"Fine." She says, rising. "I really need to get to class, and so do you."
"Yeah. I'll see you later."
I go to give her a kiss, but she walks away before I can. I still don't know how to read her. There is so much about her that I don't know and that she keeps secret. But instead of sitting here, being completely oblivious, I decide to follow her to class, from steps behind. At least I could know what program my girlfriend is taking for chrissake. To be fair, I've never asked her, but I've never seen a textbook on her, so it's hard to tell. A lot of textbooks are electronic, like in my program. It's not as transparent as one would think. And the only classes she's ever referenced have been general education ones, which we all take, so instead of guessing, I follow her.
And I feel like an idiot about three minutes later, when she heads towards the business wing, and I realize that all this timeshe's just taking a business administration program. Asking her would not have been a big deal, but we haven't spoken much about school, and that which we have spoken about has been more to do with the people here. Class is great and I make up my mind to finally buy a drafting table for the ranch. But I've got to ask Billy and Piper first. I'd rather not have something that high in value at home so my dad can trash it. As I drive back into town and out of Dallas, I find myself driving down to the antique store again, and sure enough, Lennie is still inside.
It's late and the closed sign is up, but I see her in the back, working on something, so I tap the glass door stupidly, forgetting that she's deaf. The only way that she's going to know that I'm here is if the door opens and signals that red light to flash at the front desk. But then I remember Buddy is next door. He sees me a moment later, after I tap on the glass on his side, and he lets me in. "Levi, nice to see you. Twice in one week, eh. That's a record."
"Sure is. I was just coming back from class and I wanted to stop in to say hello."
He lifts a brow. "To me or to Lennie?"
"Both of you." I half lie.
"What's on your mind, Levi? Y'all want more of that there coffee?"
I lift a hand. "No, I'm good. Shoot, as it is, I'll be up for hours."
"Heard your daddy's up for bail."
"Yeah? I hadn't heard. I suppose Nash knows, but he probably didn't want to talk to me until after I was home from school."
