Flight (The Crescent Chronicles #1)

Chapter Ten

By lunchtime, I decided that as much fun as I had hanging out with Levi, I needed to take a break. The hurt I felt at his remoteness made me realize that I was moving into caring too much territory. The whole reason I had sworn off men was to avoid that kind of drama.

Natalie came out of her office around noon. "Hey, you want to grab some lunch?"

"Yeah, sure." I jumped at the opportunity. I needed to cool my thoughts, and some lunch conversation sounded like a good cure.

We decided to eat right at the hotel restaurant to save time. Over Cajun chicken salads, we shared some small talk.

"Are you from around here?" I asked.

"I'm originally from Baton Rouge. I moved to New Orleans after college and never left."

"Do you have any family around here?"

"I have some cousins in the city, but my parents and brothers are still in Baton Rouge."

"Oh, okay, at least that's not so far."

"Very true. Do you miss your mom?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely. But this is good practice for starting school in the fall. Even though I'm only going to be about two hours away, I don't want to be that girl who goes home all the time."

"Hey, I went to college in the same city I'm from and it was still a hard adjustment. There is nothing wrong with needing to see your mom once in a while."

"I know; it's more the principle."

Natalie paused, like she was choosing her words carefully. "If I can give you any advice about starting college, it's that you need to do what's right for you and ignore what anyone else thinks, because in the end you are the only one who has to live your life."

I thought over her words. "Thanks Natalie, I'll keep that in mind."

"And if you ever need someone to talk to, feel free to call. It hasn't been that long since I was in your shoes."

"Thanks, that's really nice of you to offer."

"You ready to get back to work?"

"Sure. Thanks for lunch, it was fun."

"We need to do this more often." She smiled.

After lunch, the afternoon crawled. Waiting for the clock to hit five signaling the end of my workday, I happened to be staring at the elevators when Levi walked back into the lobby, this time alone. Noticing my gaze, he smiled and waved in greeting before heading over. As tempted as I was to disappear into the back office and avoid him, I wasn't going to run.

"Hello there, beautiful. How was your day?" Levi leaned an elbow against the counter directly in front of me. I glanced across the way to see Alex staring at us from the bar.

"It was work; I had a nice lunch though."

"Did you have company for this nice lunch or was it solo?

"I had company." I decided to let him draw his own conclusions and eyed Alex over Levi's head, giving his stare right back to him. Levi turned around to see what held my attention.

Scowling, Levi drew in a breath. He evidently thought my lunch was with Alex, and I decided not to correct his assumption.

"Do you want to hang out tonight?"

"No, thanks." I turned to head into the office.

A hand on my shoulder made me jump. I had expected Levi to take the hint and leave, not follow me back. Obviously, I was delusional. This was Levi.