Katherine's house was the typical family home you would see in a movie: a light yellow two-story home with a white picket fence and a two door garage. Her and Peter also had a small, cream colored Pomeranian dog, which was sun-bathing outside on the lawn as I walked up to the home.
"Hey, Fluffy!" I greeted the dog, bending down to pet him. He barked back, his tail wagging wildly. "I'm just here to give your mom some food our mom made."
Walking up the steps of the porch and into the front door which was open, Fluffy followed me into the kitchen. It was empty, but I could hear the voices of Katherine and her friends from outside in the backyard. I left the tupperware of food on the kitchen island and stepped out to the backyard, Fluffy skittering past my legs and down the porch steps, onto the green grass, running in circles.
Katherine was wearing a light yellow floral-printed sundress and was laughing at something a friend of hers said when she noticed me. "Hey, Nova!" she greeted.
"Hey," I said, waving to a few of the people here who knew me. "Mom asked me to drop off some food to you guys. It's on the counter."
"Thanks," she said as Peter waved at me from the grill, where he was barbecuing stuff that smelled amazing.
"Nova, hey!" he said. "Stay a bit and eat. The food is almost ready."
"Thanks for the offer, but I have to go meet Ava," I told him.
"That's a shame," A new, deeper voice said from behind me. I turned my head to see Levi looking down at me, the corner of his mouth lifted in a slight smile. "I thought we would be able to talk a bit."
I blinked at him. "What are you doing here?"
He chuckled. "Remember I told you Peter is one of my best friends? I'm here for the cookout." Lifting his right arm, he gestured to the box of beer he was carrying.
"Oh, right," I said. "I forgot about our meeting at the beach. Thanks again for that," I told him, referring to the incident with the creep.
"Don't mention it." He handed the case of beer to someone else before leaning against the wall. I noticed he had a bandage wrapped around his right forearm.
"What happened?" I asked, pointing to the bandage.
He glanced down at it. "Oh, this? I got burned at work; I'm the owner as well as the head chef at my restaurant called, Taste of Levi."
I raised an eyebrow. "Really? You're so young with a restaurant of your own, that's cool."
Staring at me a bit, he laughed. "You think I'm young?"
"Well, I figured you're the same age as Peter. Twenty-nine, right?"
He nodded. "Yeah, it's just my little nieces and nephews like to call me 'old.' So, it was a change to be called young."
I laughed. "They'll realize your age isn't 'old' when they grow up."
"So, what do you do?" he asked me. "Are you in college?"
I shook my head. "Nope, I decided not to go. I felt like a didn't need to. So, right now, I'm just a barista at this coffee shop, where I get all the shitty people in the morning."
Watching me, it seemed like a thought crossed his mind before he opened his mouth. "Actually, a waitress just quit on me. Have you ever waitressed before? If you're interested, I'll hire you."
I chuckled. "You're not being serious, are you?"
He shrugged. "Why not? I need someone and you hate your current job. Also, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'd like to say I'm kind of an awesome boss to work for."
"Well, I don't know. I'm kind of clumsy so I don't know if you should trust me to be carrying heavy plates of food." It's true. The reason why I never considered waitressing before is because all I can picture is myself slipping on some non-existent banana peel on the ground, dropping everything onto the floor and giving myself a head injury.
Levi laughed. "You'll be fine, trust me. If it's too heavy, I have metal carts the employees can use to roll the food out on the floor on."
My eyes widened. "Really?!" I exclaimed. "Cool! Then, I'll give the job a shot."
He laughed as he pulled out his phone. "What's your number? I'll text you a day and time start."
With that, I officially quit my job as a barista and was now working for Levi, the best friend of my older sister's fiance.
---------------------------------------
"Here you are," I said, placing the plates of food onto the table. "Can I get you guys anything else?" I asked the couple.
The woman shook her head. "This is perfect, thank you!"
"No problem." I smiled at her and her husband before I walked away, pushing my trusty cart to the kitchen with me. "Man, I love this thing," I said as I entered the kitchen and patted my metal cart.
Sasha, an older-women who was one of the chefs here, chuckled. "I still can't believe you tripped on your first day here last week! We were all surprised at the crashing sounds from the plates."
I cringed. "Please don't bring that up, I'd like to erase that moment from my memory forever." That day, I told Levi he should never have offered me the job because I was right; I did end up tripping and breaking stuff.
"I knew this was going to happen," I mumbled after the incident, as I sat in the break area.
Levi chuckled. "It's fine, you did warn me." He was wrapping a bandaid on one of my fingers that had gotten cut. "Well, there's always the cart."
Yes, indeed there was the cart, which I had been using ever since that day, telling no one else to use it, which they were all fine with since none of them ever used it anyway.
Later that night, once it was closing time and everyone else had gone home except Levi and I, since I had to give him an invitation envelope to Katherine's wedding. He walked into the kitchen as I was finishing up wiping down the counters. "Hey, Nova," he said to me. "You can leave if you want, thanks for your hard work."
"Thanks, I just needed to give you something before I left," I said. "It's the invitation to the wedding."
"Sure, let me just go lock the doors up."
I watched as he walked out of the kitchen, the door swinging behind him. Tossing the kitchen cloth into the sink, I walked over to the lockers for the employees and grabbed my things, when I heard a loud voice coming from the main area of the restaurant.
Worried, I hurriedly walked out to check on Levi, when I saw him standing there with a woman with beautiful, long blonde hair and was wearing a red dress. "Levi, please. I'm sorry," she said. "It was a mistake. I won't make it again!"
Not expecting a scene like this, I stood there surprised for a second before realizing the situation and ducked down, hiding behind a table.
I heard Levi sigh. "Carson, I told you already. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. It's over. It's been over for two months."
"Still, I can't stop thinking about you!" she exclaimed. "I feel horrible about what I've done, I shouldn't have cheated on you! Please, give me another chance."
I scrunched my nose. Ugh, been there done that.
"No," he said. "I'm sorry. Now, leave before I call the cops."
There was a moment of silence before I heard her heave a sigh and turned, her heels clacking on the floor as she ran out of the door.
I stood up slowly as Levi locked the doors, sighing. He turned to look at me, causing me to jump a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just thought there was a crazy person out here with all that yelling and I wanted to make sure you were okay."
He chuckled. "She is a little crazy, but I'm fine. She just doesn't know when to give up."
I nodded slowly as he walked over to me. "Well, that sucks. I mean, that she cheated. My ex-boyfriend cheated on me, too."
"Really?" His eyebrows rose in surprise. "You're a great girl, I can't fathom why a guy would that to you."
I laughed shortly. "Thanks, but apparently he didn't think I was so great." Shrugging, I sighed. "Well, I don't care anymore. It happened a while ago."
"I'm sure you'll find someone else just as great as you, who won't cheat on you," he told me, smiling. "Anyway, we should go. It's getting late."
I held out a white envelope that was sealed with a wax seal to him. "Here, before I forget," I said. "It's the invitation."
"Thanks," he said, taking it. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he shook his head slightly. "Let's leave now. As much as I like being here, I'd love to go home and relax before coming back tomorrow."
I laughed. "Alright, let's go."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: Well, I'm back with another update! How do you guys feel about Levi?? Do you think Nova and him will be cute together?
As always, vote/comment if you liked so I know I should update more!!