Page 68 of XOXO

“Hey!” he answered cheerfully. “How’s it going? I'm very tempted to go to the Amalfi coast before I hit Greece.”

I chuckled, my uneasiness going away from hearing his voice.

“It’s going good, the coast is amazing as always,” I said, climbing on my bike. “You should come and see my mother's house. It’s amazing.”

“I talked to my dad and he was ranting and raving saying we should buy a house, and then Yoona said this was our house,” he chuckled.

I loved my mother and her generosity with her friends. If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t know what kind of upbringing I would have had and if my mother would have found love again.

“It’s big enough for all of us. The house has six rooms and there is still a small house behind the main house,” I said, running my hand through my hair.

“Damn, I’m almost done here,” he sighed. “I’m stuck on one part of the program that keeps failing and it's driving me insane. I need fresh eyes on it and I might send it to someone so I can leave early.”

“You’re actually going to let someone help?” I was shocked.

Levi never let anyone help him.

“Yeah, I trust this person and well, she’s the girl we were hanging out with at the festival,” he said quickly like he was nervous to tell me.

“You’re going to let a stranger look at your program?”

“She’s not a stranger,” he snapped, taking a deep breath. “We’ve been talking and well, I don’t know what it is, Ru, but things feel different with her.”

Matteo had mentioned something about Levi falling too soon, but I didn’t believe him.

“Do you love her?” I tried not to sound shocked.

“No,” he said quickly and unconvincingly. “I don’t think I do. I like her a lot and if she wasn’t just in town for the festival, then I could definitely see us together, but⁠—”

“Levi?” I checked my phone to see if we were still connected when he stayed silent.

“Since we slept with her at the festival things have been hard,” he mumbled. “And while I loved doing that with Matteo, I feel like my feelings have been a mess since then.”

“You haven’t talked to Matteo at all?”

I was still slightly in shock that they had a threesome.

“No. Well, we have, but it's been weird and they are always short calls or texts that never really amount to anything,” he sighed. “I feel like I fucked up our friendship.”

My other line beeped and I saw Matteo’s name.

“I don’t think you did. You need to talk,” I said. “He’s calling me on the other line. Should I merge the call with us?”

“No! Talk to him and then call me back!”

He hung up before I could say bye. I shook my head, shooting Matteo a text I was driving home and I would call him in a bit. If I was going to mediate between them, I needed to be home and not sitting on my bike. My trick had worked. Well, maybe. I still thought of Violeta, but my friend’s drama would help.

19. Levi

I’m a chicken shit, tell me something I don’t know.

The Milan Milpensa Airport was calm as I exited my plane from Paris. It was a smooth flight, nothing exciting except I was sweating bullets because in just a few minutes I was going to see my best friend. We hadn’t talked for more than a few minutes at a time since the festival and I was afraid we had ruined our friendship because we slept with the same woman.

I sighed, adjusting my glasses as I looked for my connecting flight gate. Matteo and I were sharing a flight in seats right next to each other. I wouldn’t be able to ignore him anymore and I was afraid that our relationship would no longer be the same. My worst fear was coming true.

I found my gate that was getting ready to board and Matteo was standing in front, scrolling on his phone. He looked sexy in chinos with a polo tucked in, looking like a damn model who had just gotten out of a photo shoot. My heart beat faster as I walked closer to him.

“Hey man,” I said, feeling idiotic for being so nervous.