13
Elvira
"YOU SLEPT WITH HIM!" Jess shouted.
I glanced around the cafeteria. Luckily, everyone else was preoccupied with their food and conversations to care what Jess had screamed out.
It had been three days since Levi and I were back from the United Kingdom, and when I arrived, Jess wasn't around.
She had gone to an interview, but as soon as she came back, she harassed me about all the details of my trip.
However, I got so busy I hadn't been able to talk to her until now.
"Not sleep like that. Actual sleep. Like closing your eyes and going into a semi-coma. Like snoring."
"He snores!"Jess giggled like a teenager.
"No! At least I didn't hear him snore. But we slept in the same bed and nothing happened."
Jess narrowed her eyes. We were in line for lunch, and when we got to the counter, our conversation froze as we both picked out our food and made our way to the tables.
"It's the truth. Believe it or not," I said as I took my seat on the barely cushioned chair. We chose a small table for four people, and Jess got into the chair opposite mine, slamming her tray on the table as she sank down into her seat.
"It's kinda hard to believe nothing happened, I am sorry. Especially with the way he looks at you."
"Like what?"
She cut her burrito in two like she always did, meat and cheese dripping onto the plate, and picked one half. Before she bit into it, she said, "Like he wants to devour you. Like this." She took a big bite.
I chuckled, my cheeks heating up. "I don't know about that.
" Although part of me was starting to get what Jess was referring to.
The way Levi had stared at my lips while we were in the Redwood Hall library had melted my insides.
But it was only in those instances, when he was about to kiss me, did I notice the hunger in his eyes.
Any other time though, Levi looked at me as though he wanted nothing to do with me.
Sometimes I wondered if he knew I was there.
"You're blind," she said after washing down her burrito with a swig of Diet Coke. "The man gives you a first edition, scratch that, a rare book that you've found out will be extremely helpful to your thesis and you think, he's just being what? A good guy? Sure."
After reading the book Levi gave me, I found out that it had a lot of information regarding Africans in the medieval period.
Sir Gregory Watson was quite the amateur historian, obsessed with documenting non-white people in historical records he found throughout his travels.
And unlike some amateur historians of the Victorian era, Gregory was meticulous in his references, making it easier to research the truth of his findings.
I showed my supervising professor the book and she had been amazed at how invaluable it was.
That one book had not only saved me time in my thesis, but it gave me a lot more information that I would otherwise might not have found elsewhere.
And when I told Levi I would return the book to him, he had simply said it was mine to keep.
"Do you know how much rare books like that cost?"
A lot, and I didn't want to think about it any longer. "I'll return it no matter what he says."
Jess frowned. "I mean, technically, what's his is yours. So."
"Jess!"
"Anyway. Enough about you lovebirds."
"Jess!" I tried to slap her, but she darted away before I could reach her.
Her laughter attracted the attention of a few tables around us.
Good thing I didn't tell her about the kiss.
That would only have led her into believing there was something happening between Levi and me.
But there wasn't, right? Those kisses meant nothing, as much as they had made me question my previous partners.
No one had ever come close to the way Levi kissed.
Every time his lips touched mine, my soul sang.
And whenever I thought of his kisses, my lips would tingle, yearning to feel him again.
"I can't believe those two were there," Jess said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "I know for a fact he does not give a fuck. Since when did Mr. Cicero care about medieval history?"
"Wyatt does love quoting Cicero a lot," I said, noting something I didn't realize about him. Wyatt was one of those guys who thought spouting famous quotes made them profound and not the parroting monkeys that they were.
"Ugh. I don't know how you could stand that guy for that long."
"Excuse me? You were the one who thought he was hot and sang praises about his jawline."
"Now that he's a cheater, I find his jaw to be too square, actually. He should put down the jawliner gum. Did you know that's a thing kids these days are into now? Chewing gum to boost their jaw muscles. They call it looksboosting."
"Looksmaxxing."
Jess frowned. "What did I say?"
I shook my head, hiding a smile. "Nothing."
Jess's face fell suddenly as her attention went to the entrance of the cafeteria. I was sitting with my back to it, so I couldn't see what caught her attention. "Oh, no." She dropped her burrito onto her plate.
"What now?"
"They never eat here, especially since." She snorted. "And now they're holding hands."
Tired of the mystery, I glanced over my shoulder to see Wyatt and Billie stroll into the cafeteria hand in hand. "Fuck." My appetite zapped in an instant, making the food in my mouth hard to swallow. I didn't want to be here anymore. Their arrival stole my joy.
I stood up, and immediately Jess shot her hand out and grabbed my arm. "Don't. It will only make you look like the guilty party."
I had forgotten about the rumor Wyatt spread about me and Levi. I sat back down and drew my tray away. "Still, I don't want to eat anymore."
"Just act normal." Her gaze was on Wyatt and Billie. I sat frozen, staring straight at Jess, my back stiff, refusing to look at them.
"Oh, oh."
"What now?"
"Why did people pick this day out of all boring days to make it eventful? Your husband just walked in."
My heart skipped a beat. I peeked over my shoulder again and saw Levi join the queue a couple of people behind Billie and Wyatt.
He seemed oblivious to them and to the rest of the world.
He was typing something on his phone as he absentmindedly shuffled along with the queue.
Billie and Wyatt got their food, scanned the cafeteria and pointed at us.
"Fucking hell."
They made their way to our section of the cafeteria and sat at the table next to us.
My entire body froze, not sure what to do.
Jess pushed my tray with hers and signaled at my food.
"Eat," she mouthed. I picked up the fork and dug into the salad.
It was hard to swallow at first, but I powered through.
Billie and Wyatt had chosen a table with a bench and sat so close together they were practically humping each other.
A red mist formed in the corner of my eyes.
And when Billie chuckled, I could not take it anymore.
I sent a text to Jess.
Me: I'm leaving.
Jess: Don't. The drama is only starting.
I was about to ask what she meant by that when I felt a familiar presence beside me.
Morning dew and oak filtered into my nostrils as Levi placed his tray beside mine and sat down on the chair next to me.
In all my years here, Levi has never eaten cafeteria food.
He orders his food from this town's only Michelin-star restaurant when he can't go there himself.
He had a burrito similar to the one Jess was eating.
And a can of ice tea. I don't think I've ever seen him eat anything that could be remotely called fast food.
"W-what are you doing here?" I hated how breathless I sounded. I still hadn't gotten used to not bringing up the last kiss we had in my mind whenever we were together.
"What everyone does in a cafeteria. Eat food."
"Can your stomach process that thing?" I said, pointing at the burrito.
A small smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.
He slowly unwrapped it, lifted it to his mouth, took a bite, and chewed.
Then nodded. "It seems to go down fine," he said.
Then, taking me by surprise that I wasn't sure was left in me, he draped his arm across my chair, a clear move of claiming me.
Jess shifted in her seat, enjoying herself.
"What are you doing?" I practically whispered to Levi.
"Will you stop asking that?" Levi said.
"It's not appropriate."
"Sitting next to you is not appropriate? What makes them?" He gestured to Wyatt and Billie, whose attention was now on us.
"Still."
"I thought we were a married couple," he whispered in my ear. "We even slept in the same bed. We would be considered married in the thirteenth century England."
"Ha. Too bad for you we're not in England."
He drew back with a smile and took another bite of his wrap like it was the most normal thing for him to do. The way he was sitting and whispering in my ear, one would think he was saying sweet nothings, like an obsessed boyfriend. Like a loving husband.
That's what Wyatt seemed to assume because he then said in a not so conversational voice, "Isn't it odd, Billie, that those two are dating like there's nothing wrong? I'm sure there's something in the rule book against professors dating their students."
"I'm not his student," I blurted out.
"Dating your teaching assistant also seems inappropriate. Don't you think, Jessy?"
Jess hated being called Jessy, and she ground her teeth before saying, "That's not an issue when the couple is married, Wyatt. Which," she gestured at us. "They are."
Billie snorted. "Show us the ring, then."
But her question was drowned out by the dean taking the most inopportune time to pass by, hear the last snippets of our conversation, stop and say, "Ha! I knew it was you two I saw at City Hall!"