Page 171 of Manhattan Bossholes

“Sure,” she said. “A drink would be great.”

She smiled up at me, and I could tell how forced it was. She was anything but fine.

CORA

Aiden had barely left my side when Levi appeared, like a demon that had crawled right out of my nightmares. Only this was no dream I could wake up from. This was Levi in the flesh: brown hair, brown eyes, cheeky smile. He’d dressed up. He never used to like getting dressed up. I wondered if his new boo had that effect on him. I looked past him, expecting to see Sally hovering at his side. Not that I knew what she looked like. We’d never met. And, God willing, we never would meet.

Though if God was on my side in all of this, Levi never would have shown up tonight in the first place.

“Cora,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you all night.”

“Sort of wish you’d kept waiting,” I said, getting to my feet. My legs were wobbly. I’d only had one drink, but it suddenly felt like the alcohol hit me all at once. My skin prickled unpleasantly. Horrible memories surfaced in my mind of the last time we were together. Damn you, Levi. I was not going to cry here. I was not.

“Excuse me,” I said, stalking past him. I crossed the gymnasium as quickly as I could, darting between people trying to relive the glory days of the “Single Ladies” dance. I batted a balloon out of my way as I shoved through the gym door, escaping into the near silence of the hallway.

It felt like I could breathe again. Then the door swung open.

“Cora?” Levi called.

I bit down on my tongue, barely holding it together.

“Please let me explain,” he said.

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Listen, I’ve come all this way⁠—”

A hand touched my shoulder, and I wheeled around, taking a step back as I did, putting some distance between us. “I couldn’t care less about why you’re here, Levi. I don’t want to have this conversation with you—or any conversation, for that matter.”

“Please, Cora,” he said, begging in a way that pissed me off. What right did he have to beg me for anything after the way he treated me? I could still remember watching him pack his suitcases, all while I pleaded with him to talk things through, to try to find a way to work things out. He’d had no time for me then. Well, I had no time for him now.

“Save it.”

“I can’t. Don’t you understand? I have to tell you⁠—”

“God, Levi!” I snapped. “What? What could you possibly have to tell me after all this time?” He blinked down at me, maybe taken aback by my outburst, but I didn’t care. I was on the verge of tears again, and I wasn’t going to let this man see me cry. I’d shed enough tears over him. “Say whatever it is you came to say and get it over with.”

“I…I wanted to say,” he frowned, shaking his head. “No, I wanted you to know that leaving you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. The biggest mistake of my life.”

I scoffed, crossing my arms to keep them from shaking. “That’s rich.”

“Really,” he insisted. “I was an idiot. I let myself get blinded by infatuation. I believed I loved Sally, but it wasn’t real love. Not the kind we always had. It took me some time to realize that. And I do now. I see how wrong I was, and I want to try again.”

“Try again?” I said, my voice climbing an octave. Was he out of his mind? Where was this even coming from? I could only imagine Sally must have gotten bored of him, and now he was crawling back home, expecting to be able to pick right back up with the life he ditched when he left—including me. Well, screw that! And screw you, Levi!

“Yes,” he said earnestly, reaching for my hand. I squirmed away. “I want you back. No, I want us back.”

“There is no us, Levi.”

“But there could be. I moved back to the city to show you how serious I am. I want you in my life, Cora. Don’t throw away fifteen years⁠—”

“I’m not the one who threw away anything!” I shouted. “You shouldn’t have come back tonight.”

He looked a little sheepish. “I’ve been in New York for a few weeks, actually, but I didn’t try to track you down because I knew I’d be seeing you here. I thought it would be romantic to have our reunion here—to begin again in the same place where it all started.”

I couldn’t believe he thought it would be that easy or that I would be desperate enough to jump back into his arms. On second thought, I could believe it. After the relationship ended, after I’d removed those rose-colored glasses, Jennifer had helped me realize that Levi never spent much time considering other people’s feelings or what they might want.

“What do you think?” he said, smiling at me hopefully.