𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐇 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 [slow updates]

𝟑𝟏

CINDY

EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY.

It's been two hours of reading, two hours of no messages or calls from Levin. I'm going to freak out.

What if he's, like, dead on the side of the road? He always answers. Always.

My rational side is aware he's probably caught up in a meeting still, or maybe training, or busy with something work related. But there's that crazy part of me that is about 80% sure that I'm about to get a phone call from whoever telling me my boyfriend fucking dropped dead.

I finished reading like ten minutes ago, and now I have no idea what to do. I can't check in on him because he's obviously not going to answer, just like he hasn't been answering for the past couple of hours.

What I'm not going to do is pace like an idiot for the next... well, who knows how long. I'm going to spend my time doing something productive. Is that, for example, cleaning? No. I'm going to watch TV.

❄︎❄︎❄︎

A few more hours go by with still no word from Levin.

I FaceTimed Hope a few minutes ago when I started on dinner. Me and Baby are hungry, and I'm going to start sobbing if I have to wait any longer to eat.

All I have is stuff for pasta, so that's what I'm having... again. It's basically all I've been eating recently, and I'm not by any means complaining, but I'm kind of sick of it.

Unluckily, it's the only thing I know how to cook aside from microwave mac and cheese.

"Are you okay?" Hope asks me quietly.

She has to whisper to me because Aaliyah fell asleep on her while they were watching a movie and I didn't want to talk over text. I need to talk to someone right now.

"Um..." I shrug my shoulders a little too high as I stir my sauce. "Yeah? Yeah, I'm okay."

"You sure? I feel like you were so excited about this. And now he's ignoring you and ruining your dreams and—"

"Hope, he's not ruining anything." I chuckle, shaking my head a little. "He's busy with work."

"Please tell me if I'm pushing a boundary here, honey, but isn't that what you hated when you were with Thomas? That he didn't make time for you because of work? And now Levin's been busy all day, doing the same shit, and you're not saying a word about it."

I shut my eyes.

She's right. She's so so right. I haven't complained to her about him once.

"Choke," I mumble.

My friend laughs, snorting just loud enough for Aaliyah to make a whiny sound. Hope pales, freezing in her spot until Aaliyah settles.

I mouth "karma" and she flips me off.

"So? Do you think he's incapable of being a crap boyfriend, or what?" She eventually asks me.

It takes me a long second to say:

"I don't think that."

"Okay, then—"

"It's not like this all the time!" I insist, hating how annoyed I sound, how defensive. "With Tommy, it was everyday, twenty-four-seven. Me and Levin are attached to the hip, Hope. He isn't super busy with work all the time."

"Yeah, but he will be. You know what he does for a living. His schedule is going to get packed before you know it, and this will be an everyday thing. What are you going to do then?"