Chapter 4 #2
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 watch Ted Lasso at 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.
His Roman Empire.
***
The next morning, Levi woke up early to the sound of someone moving around in the living room.
It took a second to register before he remembered that he did not live alone anymore.
He had a roommate…a roommate who fell asleep watching Ted Lasso with him on FaceTime like it was the most normal thing for her to do while he lay awake for a good hour or so after silently cursing himself for how much he enjoyed it.
He got dressed and made his way out to the kitchen, where Haddie was already brewing a pot of coffee.
“Good morning,” she said with a smile.
“Good morning,” Levi replied, returning her smile.
“Stayed up later than I meant to last night, so I think I’m saving my run for when I’m with my team today,” she told him.
He glanced down at absolutely nothing on the floor and scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry if I… I mean, you should have said something about your morning runs if—”
“Don’t be silly, roomie! Coach Lasso is always worth a little sleep deprivation,” she interrupted, all cheer and zero awkwardness while Levi felt like…like what? Like they’d had some special moment watching TV?
That’s what roommates do, dumbass. Hell, you coined the phrase. Now get out of your feelings and get your head in the game because you are hitting the pitch for the first time today.
“Wait…” he continued. “So, we both have practice this morning?”
Haddie nodded. “Nine to noon for me. How about you?”
“Same,” Levi replied, brows furrowed. “So our camps are running at the same time? Does that mean we have to split the field?”
Haddie shrugged as the toaster dinged, and she slid out a toasted English muffin. “Hope you don’t mind,” she told him, slathering peanut butter over the golden tops of the muffin. “I’m famished and have, like, zero groceries anywhere. I’ll go shopping later today after I pop back home to shower.”
Levi watched Haddie as she took a bite from her muffin, smearing a bit of peanut butter on the corner of her lip.
He stifled a groan and shifted his weight, trying to will away the sudden urge to wipe it clean with his thumb.
Or worse, with his tongue. That definitely wasn’t something friends or roommates did, was it?
“What?” Haddie asked. “You’re looking at me like my fly’s undone. Spoiler! There are no zippers on soccer gear.”
He only realized now that she was wearing a purple Muskies soccer jersey paired with fitted black running shorts. Jesus, she wasn’t playing fair.
Get it together, man!
“You just…” he started. “You have some…” He rolled his eyes and pointed to the corner of his own mouth. “You have some peanut butter—”
Haddie gasped. “Oh god. I eat like a slob, don’t I?” She scooped away the glob of peanut butter with her thumb and then licked her thumb clean.
“Yep,” Levi said stiffly. “Total slob.”
She grinned, oblivious to his inner turmoil that he knew was just a physiological reaction to a woman who—friend or no—was objectively attractive, and he’d just have to get used to it.
She polished off the rest of her muffin in record time and filled a travel tumbler with coffee.
“I’m gonna head out,” she told him. “See you there?”
She moved toward the door as he poured himself a cup of coffee, her energy and maybe a bit of haste giving him whiplash.
“Wait!” he called after her. “Should we, like, drive together or something? I mean, we are going to the same place.”
“Nah!” she called back. “It’s beautiful out, so I think I’ll walk.” She popped her head back around the corner and into the kitchen. “But if the field is free after we’re done with the kids, maybe we can scrimmage.”
He coughed as he tried to swallow his first mouthful of coffee, hot liquid dribbling out of the corner of his mouth in a display he was 100 percent sure was not as sexy as the recent peanut butter incident.
Haddie covered her mouth, clearly stifling a laugh.
“Sorry!” she cried with a wince. “I know it’s going to take some getting used to the fact that your peanut-butter-mooching roommate knows more about your new job than you do, but I promise to make our time together as painless as possible.”
Levi swiped his forearm across his mouth, which for sure made him look like a caveman, but he was who he was, and Haddie should probably know that from the start.
“Sounds like a plan,” he told her, forcing his mouth into the best version of his postgame press conference smile. “See you there.”
“See you there, roomie!” she cried, with so much pep and vigor that Levi decided she was the most morning person to ever morning. “It’ll be great. I just know it!”
And with that, she was out the door before he could reply.
Would it be great? Did she really know it? Because the only thing Levi knew was that he knew nothing about navigating this new friendship and crossed his fingers they’d figure it out together…after he hid any future peanut butter jars.