His pulse quickened as he fat-thumbed his response and sent it quicker than he could think.
Levi:wiat no not buay!
Three dots appeared and disappeared again. He waited for an interminable minute, finally exhaling when her text came through.
Birthday Girl:You’re a terrible speller
Levi:Or just in a hurry to make sure you didn’t go
Shit. What was he doing?
Levi:We’re friends, Haddie
Birthday Girl:Ok
Birthday Girl:Just friends
Levi:Just friends
He typed the words quickly but making sure he spelled them correctly. And when he pressed Send, he felt something sink in his gut. Of all the hotel bars in all the world during all the weddings she could have semi-crashed, why did it have to be Tommy’s?
Birthday Girl:I can teach you, you know.
Levi:Teach me what?
Birthday Girl:Everything you’re trying to learn from Coach Lasso the night before your first practice. I played in high school and college. Promise I know more than the actor on the screen.
Levi groaned.
Birthday Girl:Swallow your pride, Coach. Consider it repayment for helping with my bed tonight. That’s what roommates do, right?
He sighed not only because she was right but also because he was pretty sure he’d fall flat on his face without her help.
Levi:Okay. But I’m already halfway through Season 3. I can’t NOT finish at this point.
He sent the text and held his thumbs above the keypad for several seconds before adding…
Levi:Wanna watch? If you can’t sleep?
As soon as he hit Send, he knew it was a misstep. You didn’t proposition a roommate to watchTed Lassoat almost midnight, did you?
His phone rang with a FaceTime call from Birthday Girl, and Levi almost threw it across the room. But he managed to compose himself before the call rang out and pressed the green video button to answer.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Haddie’s sideways smiling face—she was lying down—looked back at him.
“We can watch together like this,” she told him. Then she walked him through setting up the app so they could watch in sync because why would Levi have known how to do that? He’d never watched TV late at night with anyone before, let alone remotely with someone else.
“I love this episode,” she told him with a sleepy sigh when he finally pressed Play. “Jamie teaching Roy how to ride a bike is my Roman Empire.”
He laughed. “I thought you weren’t Team Jamie or Roy, that neither deserved Keeley.”
She hummed in response, a sweet sound that made him wonder if she was dozing off. “Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the beauty of their friendship.”
They watched in silence after that, and when the episode ended, Levi also ended SharePlay. Before he could ask Haddie if she was still awake, he saw her sleeping face on the screen, and his chest seized at the sight. He was lying on his side now too, and it was like she was there on the other side of his mattress, close enough to touch. Except no one had ever been further out of his reach.
He swore softly to himself, which made her stir. Then he swore again before quickly ending the call, the image of her beautiful, peaceful, sleeping face branded in his memory.
