My throat grows tight, eyes clouding. I don’t want to see this. I don’t want to know—not right now, not today. Today has been a happy day.
Swallowing hard, I head to my bedroom, placing the flowers on my desk. I shake my head, ignoring the tension creeping into my shoulders, and pull my phone out of my pocket. There are the expected messages from Gretchen, of course. But there is also a text from Levi, to my surprise and delight. It’s the first text I’ve gotten from him, and it’s been almost a week since we exchanged numbers. (If you guessed that I’ve been dying of suspense this whole time, you’re right. It’s been a terrible week of waiting.)
Levi
Don’t be a stranger, Bianca.
Bee
Not sure who you think you’re texting, but my name isn’t Bianca. :P
Levi
You can’t stop me! I’m a name-finding machine.
Bee
You’ll never guess it! Mwahaha!
I immediately regret sending that. “Oh, God,” I groan.
I switch to Gretchen’s messages while I wait for his reply, my fingers fidgeting over the keypad.
Gretchen
My dad has a business trip out to Arizona next week and I am so upset. Because this means he will be so close to yoooouuuu and I can’t go with him.
Bee
UGH. Why can’t you go?
Gretchen
I wouldn’t be able to get off work. Besides, he wouldn’t drive/fly me out to CA just for a brief meeting. He’s too busy for that right now.
Bee
I’m thoroughly disappointed in him.
Gretchen
I know, right? I thought the parents are supposed to be disappointed in their children’s life decisions, not the other way around.
I almost reply that I’m laughing, but I’m not laughing. I’m not happy at all, and when not even Gretchen can cheer me up, I know it’s serious. On the other side of my bedroom door, I have a crying mother and a concerned father, and I can’t breathe when I think about it.
So I tell Gretchen. I tell her about the quiet talks and sniffling behind closed doors, and what feels to me like well-kept secrets and sadness.
Gretchen
Yikes, Bee. You okay?
Bee
I’m sure it’ll all be okay. They’ll be okay, I’ll be okay, etc., etc.
Gretchen
Please call me if you need to.
Bee
I will. I guess I’m just worried about them, like something unfixable happened between them. I don’t remember the last time they fought to the point of tears. I might have been, like, twelve.
Gretchen
Can’t you just…ask them? Ask them what’s wrong?
Bee
Working on that one. I think I’m just gunna go to TCP this afternoon. I brought home an arrangement, but maybe I should take it to them. And last time I got out of the house, it really helped.
I take a picture of the arrangement to send to her, but as soon as I do, I get the nagging feeling that this is a totally dumb idea.
Bee
Dude…I dunno. What if they just smile and nod, but secretly they think it’s ugly?
Gretchen
I’m rolling my eyes at you so hard right now. TAKE THEM TO HIM. He said he wanted to see something you’d made, right?
Bee
UGH. Why are you always right?!
Gretchen
Because I’m the best. Now GO GO GO!
There’s a text from Levi when I switch apps.
Levi
I’m seeing a maniacal side of you I didn’t know existed. It terrifies me.
Bee
I am no damsel in distress.
Levi
Now that I know, I won’t try to cross you. It might be dangerous.
Bee
Very, very dangerous. Also, I am coming to see you.
Levi
R U REALLY?!
Bee
Yes.
Levi
Sheesh, don’t get excited or anything.
Bee
Ha ha. See you soon!
If only he could see my smile, my cheeks flushed with red, and hear my swiftly beating heart.
My chest loosens as soon as I pull up to TCP, parking in the last empty spot. My hands, however, are still jittery as I grab the vase of flowers from the passenger seat and head inside.
There are more people in the lobby than I’ve ever seen at once, and they all look a little like parents waiting for the doctor to tell them the sex of their baby: both excited and terrified. Missy is at the front desk, appearing as lazy and disinterested as ever. Behind her are two Indian girls, one with thick, straight hair, the other with a short, curly bob. They don’t look like twins, but their mannerisms are so similar it’s uncanny. The one with the short hair is talking on the phone while the other goes through files, standing back to back, moving in tandem.
I approach the desk, tapping the counter to startle Missy into action. She clacks her manicured nails on the desktop and glares up at me. “What?” she snaps.
“Missy, come on,” I say, my words bouncing off the wall of her attitude.
She rolls her eyes. “Looking for Levi?”
“Yeah, actually, I am. And I brought these for the office.” I set the vase on the counter. “Can I leave it here?”
“Sure. Whatever.” Missy watches as I set up the vase to the side, near the window into the office.
“Is something wrong today?” I ask.
Missy lets out an exaggerated groan. “Yeah, my dad is a jerk.”
I wince. I know for a fact that I’ve opened up a can of worms I did not want to open. But it’s too late to close it now because Missy keeps going. “He took away my shopping privileges. How am I supposed to buy those Christian Louboutin crystal-embellished pumps on sale next week if he doesn’t let me have the card?”
I raise one eyebrow. (How the hell am I supposed to answer that?) “Um. How much are they on sale for?”
“Twenty-seven hundred dollars. Originally almost seven thousand! You do realize how important this is, right?”
I choke. As in, I actually choke. I turn away from her, hacking into the crook of my elbow to mask the sound. It makes sense now, why she’s here. To redefine the word important.
“What did I say?” Missy asks, over the racket I’m making. Everyone in the lobby is looking at me.
I might die.
A new voice interrupts, lightly but distinctly tilted with an accent. “Here, give her some water. Missy, please answer that phone.”
I take the water that one of the twins offers me, the one with short hair, and swallow it all in three gulps. The girl smiles up at me as my coughing subsides.
“I’m Suhani,” she says, holding out her hand.
I choke-laugh and set down the water cup. “I’m Bee.”
Suhani laughs with me. “Nice to meet you. Levi told us you would be in. Glad you didn’t die on account of Missy.” She whispers this last part as if we’re privy to some secret.
I laugh again, still shaking with aftershock coughs. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Thanks for the water.”
The other sister, who I assume is Nikita, comes through the blue door, followed by Levi himself. He’s shaking hands with another young woman (an applicant, I’m guessing) who looks incredibly sickly. She wipes her eyes (I see people doing that a lot these days) and at the last second, Levi pauses and pulls her into a hug.
Feeling intrusive, I look away until I hear the front door shut behind the woman and Levi calling my name.
(Cue: Breath hitch.)
“Hey!” He looks like he’s about to hug me, but then he stops short and raises an eyebrow. “Are you okay? Your face is…erm…red.
”
I clasp my hands over my cheeks. “Um, I’m fine. Just…choked.”
“You choked?” He rubs the back of his neck, obviously confused. Nikita whispers something to him and he laughs. “I see,” he says. “Guess what, Bee?”
“What?” I say.
“Nikita and Suhani aren’t actually twins.”
They both whack him hard on the shoulder. At the same time. (Very twin-like.) This, of course, only makes Levi grin wider.
“We are, too!” Suhani says in a harsh whisper.
“Are not,” Nikita counters. “I was born December thirty-first at eleven fifty-three at night, and Suhani was born January first, twelve ten in the morning. We were born in different years, which makes me older by far.”
I laugh in surprise.
Suhani hangs her head. “It’s not fair. Not one bit.” Then she raises her head, meets Levi’s gaze, and her mouth sets into a grim line. “You!” she accuses, poking her finger into his chest. “You promised you’d never bring this up, again!”
Levi raises his hands in mock surrender. “It’s payback for yesterday.”
Crossing her arms, Suhani juts out a hip. “Oh, right. When I called you a noodle-headed chicken man?”
I almost choke again. “A what?!”
Nikita wraps one arm around her sister’s waist, her expression all innocence. “Actually, I think you said he was a cowardly grandmother.”
“Are you sure?” Suhani asks, practically gleeful over Levi’s confused expression.
He sighs. “Come on, just t—”
“Oh!” Nikita interrupts, raising one hand in the air. “I think I hear the phone ringing. I should get it because we all know Missy won’t.”
“And would you look at that,” Suhani mutters. “The fax machine is flashing lights at me. If you’ll excuse me, boss.”
Levi throws his hands up, looking hopeless and exasperated. “I can never win.”
“What the heck is going on?” I demand, trying to hold back a giggle.
“They like to say things about me in Hindi and then never tell me what they’ve actually said. It’s exhausting. DOES EVERYONE HERE ENJOY PICKING ON ME?” he yells.
The entire staff—literally all six people in the office—yell back, “YES.”
Levi rolls his eyes. “Want to come back with me? I have a few more interviews.”
I nod, probably too vigorously, but my enthusiasm only seems to spur him on.
“I think you’re going to like this couple I have next,” he gushes shutting the blue door behind him. “Augustin and Ivanka. They moved here a year ago from the Czech Republic and are applying for the funds to get married. They need help organizing and planning as well, which is something I’ve never done with TCP, but I figured, why not?”
Levi ushers me into the Dreams Come True Room and continues, talking quickly. “I’m having them here a second time to finalize details. Their dilemma is that their family is flying in from Europe and that’s all they could afford. They’re currently living with a very low budget and need help to pay for and organizing everything. I’m also trying to see if I can gather enough funds to send them on a honeymoon, but that all depends on the fundraiser.”
I stare at him. (It’s hard not to stare at him.) “They are going to be so happy.”
“I hope so.” He sits on the loveseat, looking over the paperwork in his hands, absently patting the cushion next to him. “The only problem is, we have a clashing of dates. Their family bought tickets for a date I approved, but then the fundraiser got moved to the same weekend. It was out of my control. So now I have to figure out how to do both. In one day.” He laughs—a very pained laugh.
I grab the papers and scan over them. “You can get away with it, right?”
Levi bites his bottom lip, then says, “I don’t know. I think it might be too much in one weekend. I may have a lot of sponsors, but I’m doing most of this on my own.” He gives me a nervous laugh. “It’s times like these that my small number of volunteers seems painfully small. Maybe they’ll have perfected cloning by then. Think they can crack the code in a few weeks?”
I want to laugh at this, but he looks so…lost. I’ve only known Levi for a few weeks, but I don’t want to see him looking lost ever again.
“Look, we can figure it out,” I begin, but I’m cut off by the door opening. Nikita leads in a man and a woman I vaguely remember passing in the lobby. They’re young, only a few years older than me. The way they grasp each other’s hands and stand shoulder to shoulder and gaze at us with hopeful, happy eyes…it makes my chest squeeze. Levi looks genuinely happy to see them, but I can also see the distress in the curve of his mouth. He’s worried he can’t follow through, that he might disappoint them.
This kills me. I don’t want him to even mention the complications, and I especially don’t want him to tell them he can’t help them in all the ways they need. They deserve their happily ever after as much as anyone.
Levi hugs them both before inviting them to sit down. He stands there in front of them as if uncertain what to say, shuffling from foot to foot with his hands stuffed in his pockets. When he opens his mouth to speak, I panic. He’s going to tell them he can’t do it, that he has to change plans, that something’s wrong. Ivanka, with her long brown hair and round eyes, is grinning like she can’t stop, and Augustin has his arm around her shoulders like he won’t let her go.
They can’t know something’s wrong.
I grab Levi’s arm, hooking him close. “Will you excuse us for two seconds?” I ask them—then drag Levi into the bathroom and lock the door.
“What are you doing?” he demands, completely confused, shoulders slumped as he stares at me. I wonder if he’s starting to regret his decision to invite me back for interviews. I probably look crazy.
“You absolutely cannot let them know that something is wrong,” I say in a whisper.
Shock registers on his face. “What else am I supposed to tell them?”
“That everything will work out just fine.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
I put up my hand to shush him. “I’ll make it.”
“What?” He stops short, squinting at me, and I realize I’m still holding his arm.
I don’t let go. “I’m going to help. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure they get their wedding on the same weekend their family visits. I’ll organize it all, Levi. I know you’re stressed from running this place, and you have a lot going on with the fundraiser, so you need someone to come in and help with more than just office stuff. I want to do it. I’ll get the other girls to help, and we’ll put everything together. I’ll even arrange the flowers myself if I need to. But you cannot go out there and tell them anything except that you’re so excited for their wedding and you can’t wait to meet their families.”
I’m breathing hard, my fingers digging into his skin, my heart about to jump out of my throat. I’ve never been this close to him, and it makes me feel…alive. Like I’m all blood and veins and pulse, and I’m not going to stop, not ever. His surprised expression, his breathlessness, are like a bolt of electricity to my heart. I’m lost, so hopelessly lost, and then, and then—he takes my face in his hands and grins.
He takes my face in his hands. Suddenly, every doubt I’ve ever had about this, about him, disappears. I need this. I need it badly.
“Yeah,” he says, while I’m totally helpless to do anything but look at his face, which is much, much closer to mine than it’s ever been. “Yeah, okay. If you’re up for it.”
I make myself speak. “I’m totally up for it. I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.”
“Okay.” He drops his hands. “Don’t let me stand in the way, boss.”
Laughing quietly, I point to the door. “Now get out there and congratulate them. I’ve got a wedding to plan
.”
Chapter 16
Seeing Ivanka’s face as we discuss her wedding, watching Augustin’s eyes grow warm with thanks, is probably the greatest thing I’ve seen since I discovered Henry Cavill. (Levi tells them my name is Bonita, but I think I can live with that. I think.) At the end of the meeting, the bride hugs me tightly, her thin arms wrapping me close, and Augustin kisses my cheek like a true gentleman.
“Thank you, Bonita,” Ivanka tells me, hands clasped around mine.
Just behind me, so close that only I can hear him, Levi chuckles. I’m tempted (oh, so tempted) to turn around and hit him square in the chest. But instead I smile at Ivanka and say, “You know, everyone calls me Bee.”
“Bee is lovely.” Ivanka pulls me close again. “Will we exchange telephone numbers for contact?”
“Yes!” I exclaim, grabbing for my purse. I pull out my phone, quickly reading over a short text from Gretchen (I miss you! it says) and hand it to her. “Will you put your information here?” Then I give Levi a snide look that clearly says, You suck.
He chuckles silently, shaking his head, as if to tell me, I’m not going to stop.
We say goodbye to the happy couple at the door to the lobby—and that’s when I realize how long we’ll be here. The crowd of people here has just gotten bigger, which means we have a lot more work to do. Over the next hour, Levi invites three more applicants to the back, and all three leave with checks in hand. Four others turn in their applications and background check information, then go over specifics with Clary-Jane. Two more are sponsors who’ve come to check up on the place personally, make sure it’s running smoothly, and that their money’s being put to good use.
I sit back on the couch and watch it happen, completely in awe.
Eventually, after the last client is gone, Levi comes back into the interview room alone and slumps onto the couch beside me. “You good?”
I sigh loudly, feigning an attitude. “I’m good, but I can’t believe you’re still trying to guess my name.”
The Color Project Page 10
