My phone buzzes. Levi’s name on the screen.
I stare at it. Let it ring. Watch it go to voicemail.
Ruffy tilts his head at me like,You’re really not going to answer that?
“Don’t judge me,” I tell him. “You eat garbage.”
He doesn’t argue, which is fair.
I pick up the thing again. Study it. Try to see something I missed, some sign that it’s not what it looks like.
All I see is Mia Monroe’s arms around the man I love. Her flawless face and body. Her hand on his back like it belongs there.
My phone vibrates again. Voicemail notification.
I should be mature about this. I should call him back and ask calmly, like an adult,Hey, quick question, why is a pop star draped all over you like a designer throw blanket?
Instead, I call him back and say none of those things.
He picks up on the first ring, and we talk, and the whole time I’m staring at that photo and waiting for him to mention it. To explain. To say something, anything, that makes sense of what I’m looking at.
He doesn’t.
He tells me about the meeting. About Mia Monroe and a potential duet. About her asking him todinner.
“I said no,” he says. “Obviously. I told her I’m with someone.”
I want to believe him. I really do.
But I’m staring at evidence that tells a different story, and he hasn’t mentioned it. Hasn’t explained. Either he doesn’t know it’s out there, or he’s hoping I won’t find out.
Neither option makes me feel better.
He tries to make me laugh, something about the fish that attacked him, about how he was thinking of me the whole meeting. It’s sweet. It’s exactly what the old Delilah would have melted over.
The old Delilah didn’t have a gossip article in front of her with photographic evidence that she’s kidding herself.
“I should go,” I hear myself say.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just need to think.”
“Think about what? Delilah, talk to me.”
But I can’t. How do I explain that Penelope Waters waltzed into my flower shop with a photo and twenty years of insecurities just fell on my head like a cartoon anvil?
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I say, and hang up before he can argue.
My phone starts buzzing immediately. His name, over and over.
I silence it.
Then the texts start coming.
Levi:Please talk to me.
Levi:Whatever it is, we can figure it out.
