Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
ALLIE
EXTENSION?
We grabbed Rachel and a shocked Royce when he heard what had happened before and flew out the door. Peace out Wienerlicious.
“I think Kristina could use some fresh air anyway.”
Rachel elbowed me in the boob. “Yeah, she’s probably had her fill of liquor and wants to forget the last hour.”
Kristina gasped. “Are you kidding me? You punched a chick, and we almost went to jail? I love tonight.”
As we all scrambled out onto the sidewalk I locked arms with Lexi.
I knew she would keep me thinking clearly, especially after Levi’s words with the security guard which were sweet.
The best thing for me would be to go back to the house and lock myself in the bedroom until sunrise.
Nothing good happens after midnight. Enough todaying for today.
Lexi walked ahead of us and screamed. “An ice rink!”
In the distance was an ice rink with people skating around. There was an enormous Christmas tree in the center of the ice lit up with red and white lights and giant silver ornaments while Jingle All The Way drifted through the air.
I cleared my throat. “It’s getting kind of late.” I looked at my watchless wrist.
Rachel spun around. “Jeeze Allie, you’re younger than me. Don’t be a fuddy duddy.”
“By three months, crazy lady. I just think some people might be sleepy and maybe don’t want any more craziness.” I pulled down my coat, almost feeling Levi’s laser eyes a few people behind me.
I peeked over my shoulder and my eyes met Levi’s and his brow arched. I clearly needed to get away from this man. “But Rach, you should care about how the rest of us feel.”
She laughed and started skipping. “I actually cared earlier but you missed it.”
Levi’s crooked grin reminded me that I needed to be anywhere he was not. “And it’s cold.” I threw my arm around Kristina. “I think this little lady might be chilly.”
Know it all Lexi pulled out her phone. “It’s unseasonably warm, it’s like a heat wave for Colorado.”
“Well, I don’t feel super skatey. I’m just going to watch.”
Rachel pinched my arm. “Just try to be happy. If I give you a straw, will you go suck the fun out of someone else’s night?”
Royce yelled from behind me. “Rachel, you can’t make people be happy. You’re not vodka.”
I was losing patience. “Warning to all, I’m having a moment where I just really need some therapeutic stabbing. Don’t push me.”
Lexi did a little jump. “There she is!”
Our crew got skates, and I found a chair sitting on the ice across the rink. Perfect. I planted my butt in it and watched Rachel laugh and hold hands with Evan while I pushed images of hot Levi from my cerebrum.
Rachel and Evan; the perfect pair. She was the sun to his shine. The cheese to his macaroni. The dirt to his gutter. The booze to his hangover. The vomit to his party. I should probably stop here, you get it.
My eyes skipped over to Lexi skating hand in hand with newly divorced Kristina who was laughing her ass off.
She was Kristina’s answer. Isn’t it weird how one person being put into your life can flip the script?
I pulled on my gloves and inhaled the crisp Christmasy air and watched our crew for ten minutes in peace.
Then my chair moved.
I looked over my shoulder as Levi’s chuckle hit my ears.
“What are you doing?” I held on. “You stop this right now or I’ll tell Lexi on you!”
I felt his breath on the top of my head as he laughed. “I know you really don’t want to sit in a boring chair. You need a little thrill.”
His words cranked my tummy tight. “No, I don’t need a thrill. I’m an adult, and I don’t want any of that.”
“Wasn’t it Hemmingway who said when you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead?”
I held on tighter as we picked up speed. “You quoting Hemmingway is shocking enough to provoke death. But I don’t need thrills or fun.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
Good question. With that he whipped the chair, and I sailed across the ice while screaming with laughter. By the time I slowed he was right behind me and whirled me in the other direction but even faster as I clung to the chair. “Stop it!”
He skated over, placed his hands on the chair beside each of my legs and leaned down. “You don’t want me to stop. Do you?”
I needed to stop all of it. My brain had the clarity of a muddy water after a storm.
“You ready, pretty girl?”
I went sailing past the Christmas tree and suddenly wondered why my ladies weren’t stopping the shenanigans. I turned my head, and the girls were entering a little gift shop next to the ice rink. That was when my chair was pushed again, but this time to the end of the ice arena and behind a wall.
I stood and planned to walk away, but the intelligent organ inside my thick skull stopped working. It had too many tabs open and just froze up, leaving me standing there chewing on my lip.
He took a step closer. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“I’m sorry about what happened in the alley at Wienerlicious.” The corner of his mouth turned up. “Now there’s a sentence I never imagined coming out of me.”
I nodded at the eyes that held the promise of forbidden pleasures. Forbidden pleasures I knew were over and done with but still made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“You’ll always make me crazy. But we agreed to a day of closure. We both have our lives to get back to.” He grabbed me by the front of my coat and pulled me to him. “So this is it.”
Relief washed over me; we were on the same page. This was what I wanted. Farewell Allie and Levi forever. Adios. Au revoir.
Forever. Yes, I’d leave Colorado and never see him again just as it was supposed to be.
While I waited for a sense of calm to fill me, it did not. Instead, a rigid strain in my upper chest cavity arrived.
The flirting, my flirting, the kisses, and longing to be as close to him as possible was something I had to release into the universe and move forward with a new sense of peace in my life.