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Working tonight? Texting wasn’t new to Levi, but texting while dating was. If someone had asked him a few weeks ago what he thought of texting the woman he was seeing, he’d probably have sounded like a grumpy old man complaining about kids these days.
Instead, he loved it.
Yes. :-( Need to return the pieces Tuesday so students have time to read comments before next assignment is due.
Want company? I’ll make you dinner. Since she left for work before he did, he came out and wished her a good day each morning. He had gone over to her house on Monday night, and they’d shared dinner, a drink and some kisses. And texting made all of this incredibly easy to arrange.
If his dad said to him that a man didn’t woo a woman this way, well, he’d just tell him that Mina had started it. He was just enjoying it.
Hmmm... I do need dinner.
That was all the encouragement Levi needed. Hded to the store for supplies. Be there in thirty.
* * *
THE PLASTIC BAGS in his hands crinkled as he lifted his fist up to knock. He stopped noticing the way the handles cut into his skin the moment the door opened, and Mina stood there in a smile and her T-shirt, but no bra.
“Come in,” she said, opening the door and stepping back. “What’s for dinner?”
“Spaghetti and a green salad okay?”
“Of course it’s okay! You’re bringing dinner to my door and cooking it for me.” She closed the door behind him, and then he followed her to the kitchen. Her dining room table was covered in papers, a laptop open in the middle of them all.
“Sorry about the mess,” she said, catching where his attention had gone. “I also have quizzes to grade for my Russian language course.”
“With all that grading, three classes sounds like a lot to teach.” He put the bags on the counter and looked over at her.
“It is.” She wrinkled her nose, and her head waved from side to side. “But we’re a small department, and I’m the low woman on the totem pole. Plus, I really wanted to teach a graphic novel course, so that got added on.”
“How much work do you have to do tonight?”
She shrugged. “A lot. But the only thing I need to get done are the quizzes. And I was hoping to work while you cooked. I don’t have many left.”
“All right. Get to work, then.”
When she lifted up on her toes and pecked his cheek, satisfaction spread throughout his body, warming him from his toes to the tips of his ears. And then he got to work, too.
Every time Levi found a break in dinner prep, he’d glance over to where Mina sat at the table. Her head was bent over her papers, her hair obscuring her face. He smiled at her concentration.
This was nice, he thought, as the water came to a boil. Comfortable. He reached for the box of noodles and dumped the whole pound in. Dinner would be more than enough for the two of them, and they would have leftovers, which he always needed. Making dinner while Mina worked was something he could imagine doing regularly.
Like he had with Kimmie.
Giving the pasta a quick stir, he shied away from that thought. He didn’t want what he’d had with Kimmie with another woman. He wanted something new and different. Worse, comparing Mina to Kimmie would cause nothing but problems. He’d gotten himself into trouble by thinking about their two illnesses the same, and this thought was better, but not great. No matter the details, comparing the two women sold them both short.
Cooking dinner for Mina might be similar to what he’d had with Kimmie, but the feeling of contentment swelling in his chest every time he looked over and saw her head bent over her work was very different. Not better, different. More solid and suited for the man he was now, rather than the man he had been four years ago.
While the pasta cooked, Levi cut up vegetables for the salad. He was so immersed in getting all the carrot cubes close to the same size that he didn’t notice that Mina was finished with her work until she came up behind him and rested her hand on his back.
He jumped. And the pressure of her finger pads against his skin was enough for a tingle of arousal to race through his nerves.
Kissing her wasn’t enough. Or it was good enough for now, while he was giving her time to trust him. But he thought about her every night, usually with his hand under the covers, giving the barest hint of realism to his fantasies.
