14. Levi
Levi gently guided Alexis into his apartment and got her settled on the couch.
‘I’ll be right back,’ he said, leaving her sitting there to get his first aid kit.
He didn’t think it was serious, but she looked like she was in a lot of pain. How had she managed to save him like that? If she hadn’t pulled him out of the way…
He shuddered. Wasn’t your life meant to flash before your eyes when you had a near-death experience? His hadn’t, and he didn’t know what to make of it. Did that mean he had no regrets? Or did it mean that his life didn’t amount to much?
‘Here we go,’ Levi said, putting the first aid kit on the floor in front of the couch. He kneeled in front of her. ‘Let me see.’
Alexis didn’t give him her arm. ‘What is that?’ she asked instead.
Levi followed her eyes to the first aid kit. ‘My first aid kit,’ he replied, frowning. ‘Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Do you know what day it is?’
‘That’s a first aid kit?’ She looked at him like he was an alien. ‘Are you about to perform surgery on me?’
‘What?’ he asked, frowning.
‘That thing is freaking huge. Who on earth needs a first aid kit as big as that?’
Levi looked at the large red backpack. Sure, it was not dissimilar to what rescue workers used… okay, it was exactly what rescue workers used. He’d got it because it was the same one they used.
‘Do you want me to treat your arm or not?’ he asked, embarrassed by her reaction.
She nodded and gingerly held out her elbow, wincing as she tried to straighten it.
Levi pulled on some gloves and then inspected the wound. It was a bloody mess, but it looked to be just a bad graze.
‘I don’t think it’s too serious.’ He opened the bag to get some wipes and disinfectant. ‘But you should probably get it X-rayed tomorrow just to make sure.’
Alexis hissed as he dabbed at the wound. He softened his touch and blew on the wound. ‘Sorry,’ he murmured. ‘It might sting a bit more. Looks like you have a few bits of gravel in it.’
She exhaled long and slow. ‘Okay.’ Her voice sounded small. It wasn’t something he was used to hearing from her, and he looked up into her eyes.
‘Are you okay?’
Alexis bit her lip and nodded. ‘Not a big fan of blood. Or pain. Or falling over and making a fool of myself twice in one day.’
He smiled as he looked back down at her arm. ‘You didn’t make a fool of yourself. You were a hero.’
‘Hardly.’ She shrugged, then hissed again at the movement.
‘Might want to keep still,’ he said, pulling out a pair of tweezers. ‘I’m going to try and get as much of the gravel out as I can. Are you okay with that?’
‘Yep,’ she said with a determination he admired.
He worked quietly, focused on the task at hand, but his head was brimming with questions.
‘Does this happen a lot?’ he asked when he couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
‘Rescuing bystanders?’ she asked with a crooked grin.
Levi blinked. She’d never smiled directly at him before. She’d smiled at Theo and at Evelyn, but never at him. She’d even smiled at Chloe despite the teenager’s bad attitude.
He cleared his throat and turned back to his work. ‘No. I… uh… I mean, falling over.’
Alexis snorted. ‘Just because it happened twice, doesn’t mean I’m clumsy. Besides, the first time was the stupid chicken feet—such a ridiculous costume, and I will definitely not be doing that ever again—and the other time was technically your fault.’
He looked up at her with a frown. ‘My fault?’
She nodded decisively. ‘If you had been more observant of your surroundings, then I wouldn’t have had to rescue you.’
Levi blinked at her and then laughed. ‘Whatever, Slick,’ he said.
‘Slick?’
‘Would you prefer Lexi?’
Their eyes caught, and one of those weird stretched-time moments happened again. He must be hungry or inhaling too many fumes from the disinfectant.
She looked away first. Levi drew in a slow breath and lowered his eyes back to her arm. It was clean and germ-free and ready to be covered in a bandage.
‘Keep it protected for a couple of days,’ he said. ‘And apply this cream every time you change the dressing. It will prevent scarring and will help it heal faster.’
Levi stuck the bandage in place and then handed her a few more bandages along with a tube of ointment.
‘Thanks,’ she said, her voice soft.
‘The least I can do,’ he replied.
‘In answer to your question,’ she said. ‘I actually don’t fall over that often. I’ve got pretty good balance. Probably from the years of being a dancer when I was younger.’
‘You were a dancer?’ Levi asked as he packed away the first aid kit. ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,’ she replied with that crooked smile again.
Levi leaned back on his hands and looked up at her. ‘Like what?’
‘Like I haven’t always been a concierge.’
‘You mentioned being a concierge when we first met. What exactly does that entail?’
‘You know, house-sitting, cleaning, watering the plants?—’
‘Wearing chicken suits?’
Another smile from her and his heart rate increased, the thump of it loud in his ears. Was he having a heart attack?
‘Rest assured, I have never done that before and will never do it again,’ she said with a groan.
‘So what did you do before becoming a concierge?’
Alexis rolled her lips together and looked over his shoulder and out the window behind him. Her face got a faraway look as she replied. ‘I worked in the family business.’
Levi’s eyebrows rose. ‘Okay, so I know I’ve told you I work with my family but I’m pretty sure I didn’t make it sound like I worked for the mob.’
Her eyes snapped to his for a moment, startled, but then she relaxed and smirked. ‘I could tell you, but then I’d have to…’ She mimed cutting her throat and then winked at him.
Levi laughed. He couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d laughed, not a real laugh, not one that he felt with his entire being.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked.
‘Starving,’ she replied.
‘Should I order some fried chicken?’
She swatted his knee with her good hand. ‘Don’t you dare.’
He grinned. ‘How about Thai?’
‘Sounds good.’ She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. ‘But I have to be home by seven.’
‘You have a curfew?’
‘Evelyn doesn’t like Tofu to be left alone for too long.’
‘We could eat at your place…’ He watched her frown. ‘Or not.’
‘It’s just… ugh. It’s Evelyn. She set two conditions for my stay. One is that I’m not allowed to have visitors, and the other is that I have to be home by seven at night.’
‘That’s kind of… rough.’
Alexis shrugged and then winced again. ‘What can I do? That’s the job. And Evelyn calls every night to check I’m home and alone.’
Levi glanced at his watch. ‘It’s still early. We could have dinner here, and you could still be home by seven.’
She hesitated for a moment, and he was about to withdraw his offer when she nodded. ‘Deal.’
Alexis sat backin her chair and patted her stomach. ‘I’m stuffed.’
Levi smiled as he watched her. It was the first time he’d ever shared a meal with someone in his apartment. It was surprisingly nice. His apartment had always been a place he could escape to, and the last thing he wanted was to have anyone disrupt his oasis, but this was different. He liked having Alexis in his space.
‘So…’ he said, toying with his glass. ‘The family business…?’
‘What about it?’ she asked.
Had she become guarded, or was he just imagining it?
‘Is it your entire family? Mother, father, siblings?’
‘It was just me and my dad,’ she replied and then took a drink. ‘What about you? You’re a plastic surgeon, right? Where do you work?’
‘My parents run a private clinic. And unlike you, my entire family is involved. Well, all except my younger brother.’
‘Younger brother? Does that imply there is also an older brother?’
‘Yup,’ Levi replied. ‘The golden child. What about you? No siblings?’
Alexis shook her head. ‘No siblings. It’s just been Dad and me for a really long time.’
‘What happened to your mother?’ he asked and then winced. ‘Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.’
Alexis didn’t respond for a long moment. ‘I don’t know what happened,’ she said. ‘One day she was there, and then the next day…’ She trailed off, her gaze fixed on the drink on the table.
Levi shifted uncomfortably. ‘Have you ever… tried to look for her?’
‘No,’ she said quietly and then stood up, looking at her bare wrist. ‘I should get going. Evelyn will be calling soon.’
‘Right.’ Levi got to his feet and cursed himself for ruining the very pleasant dinner they’d shared.
Alexis stepped away from the table and looked around.
‘Your phone,’ he said, handing it to her.
Their fingers brushed, and he sucked in a quiet breath. The feel of her skin hadn’t affected him when he’d been treating her wound, so why did this innocent touch make his nerves buzz? He couldn’t make sense of his weird reactions around her.
‘Thanks,’ she said, moving away from him and toward the door.
‘Remember to change the dressing in the morning,’ he said, at a loss for what else to say. ‘And get an X-ray, just to make sure there’s no fracture.’
‘Yes, Doctor,’ she said. ‘Take two aspirin and call me in the morning?’
‘No aspirin,’ he said, missing the joke. ‘Paracetamol or ibuprofen if the pain is too much.’
She smiled. ‘Thanks, Levi.’
‘For what?’
‘For fixing my arm and for, well, for dinner. I should have bought you dinner, though.’
He shook his head. ‘You saved me. The least I could do was buy you dinner.’
They stared at one another for another long moment before Alexis shook herself and opened the door. ‘See you around, neighbour.’ She headed for the elevator without looking back.
‘Yeah,’ Levi breathed. ‘See you, neighbour.’