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Even if the light in her eyes was dimmer tonight than he’d ever seen it.
He didn’t stay much later at Mina’s house, and, despite how much he wanted to crawl into bed next to her and wrap his arms around her, he walked across the lawn to his own house after saying goodbye to her parents.
Though he did stop in his driveway to look back at her dark bedroom and hope she was okay.
* * *
OVER THE NEXT two days, Mina pretended to have energy. She expressed an opinion when her mom asked what size turkey they would get. She said she wanted pumpkin pie over pecan, even though the thought of eating either sounded exhausting. But she didn’t even have enough energy to smile when Levi said he didn’t know stuffing and dressing were different, and her mom sucked in her breath.
As three of them walked and one of them shuffled down the aisles of the grocery store, her mom double-and triple-checking her lists every five minutes, it took all her energy to wave to a French professor they passed near the apples. She just dragged behind them, with barely a comment on what the best cheeses were to get for a vegetable tray.
Though he’d been up with her parents through the produce, now Levi was hanging back. When her parents turned the corner, he finally said something. “Are you okay?”
She’d been waiting for and hoping to avoid that question all week. “I’m tired,” she said, her fingers trailing over the price tags as she made her way down the aisle.
“I know.” He stopped. She made it almost five feet before she noticed he wasn’t following and stopped, too. He didn’t speak until she turned around to look at him. “You’ve been tired for over a week. Almost flu-tired. Is something wrong?”
Mina looked up at the row of canned soups, something she hoped to never eat again after living off them during both her bout with the flu and Levi’s. She touched the can of split pea and ham. Maybe that would be okay...
“Mina,” Levi said, his irritation clear in his voice, as was his attempt to hide it.
She didn’t want to talk about it. Not here, in the grocery store with her parents in the next aisle and some unknown student hovering behind her. Not ever, because she was twenty-seven and should know better and should be able to talk about such things with her boyfriend with a sangfroid that every French woman could be proud of.
But instead she wrinkled her nose until he marched up to her. His body trembled with the effort he was making to hold in his emotions. Those emotions she loved to watch spill over and out when he thought no one was looking. The overflow of love he felt for the people closest to him that he could only keep contained when he thought people were looking, but which came out like a river when he didn’t think anyone was paying attention.
Only now, those emotions weren’t positive. Frustration was what he wound so tightly around himself that a small touch would set him off. “Mina, whatever is going on, we have to talk about it.”
She lifted her head, so that she could look him directly in the eyes. He was right. Of course he was right. Only...
“There you are,” her mother exclaimed from behind them. “We were wondering where you had gotten off to. I was thinking of trying something new. What do you think about wild-rice stuffing?”
She didn’t think much. But arguing with her mother sounded too much like work, and she needed to save her energy for arguing with Levi. “Sounds good, Mom.”
* * *
STILL ON EASTERN Time and seemingly determined to stay that way, her parents went to bed early, leaving Mina alone with Levi. Since they hadn’t spent any time alone together since her parents had arrived—the couple of minutes in the grocery-store aisle didn’t count—she should be thrilled. Instead, she kept thinking about her bed and her down comforter and her soft pillow.
And she couldn’t ignore the fact that her reluctance to talk with Levi wasn’t simply emotional cowardice. He was right; her tiredness was unusual and a sign that something was wrong.
As soon as her parents shut her guest bedroom door, Levi turned to her with a brow raised.
“Can we at least sit down for this?” she asked.
Normally the fact that he wasn’t saying anything wouldn’t seem like a big deal, but his gesture at her couch felt like they were back at the beginning of their relationship. With her about to babble on and on, standing on his stairs while he stood there, silent and with his brow raised in an expression she couldn’t pinpoint.
