Bear called me that morning to check on me after I’d spent the better part of two days in bed with what I’d decided now was some strange virus. I told him I was going to run to the grocery store and pick up some other things and run a couple of quick errands and coming right back home to bed.
Which was true.
I just happened to leave out the fact that I’d agreed to have dinner with Levi tonight.
He called me twenty minutes before Bear had, telling me he had some good news for me. I couldn’t resist agreeing to meet him.
I’ll just hear him out, I told myself.
But now, here I was, all dressed up because the place he’d told me to meet him had a fucking dress code for fuck’s sake. It was a far cry from our lunch at the deli. I’d have much preferred meeting him in his office, but I had no choice. He’d already made reservations, he’d told me.
The hostess led me to his table and my breath caught in my throat when I saw him spread out in a booth, looking as relaxed in his tailored suit as he had in his jeans days ago. He was incredibly handsome and the hostess winked at me as she turned away, leaving me there with him. His hair was down tonight, flowing around his face in loose waves, bordering his gorgeous face.
“Chloe!” he greeted me, standing up and pulling me close as he hugged me then planted a kiss on my cheek. The smell of his cologne wafted over me and I couldn’t help but inhale a little deeper. Heat rolled off him and I resisted leaning into his warmth.
“Hi, Levi,” I said, sliding into the booth across from him.
“Have you been here before?” he asked. I looked around, taking the place in. Sushi Azabu was located in Tribeca and tucked underground. It was dark and intimate, with only a few tables lining the walls and three tiny booths in the back, one of which we were sitting in. Levi sat across from me, but we were very close to each other, our knees touching under the tiny table.
“No, I haven’t,” I said, eyeing the enormous sashimi rolls at the next table. I was starving. I hadn’t eaten much in the last few days, because every time I put something in my mouth, I felt like it was going to come right back up. I was hoping for better luck tonight.
“They serve the best sushi in town. You do like sushi, don’t you?”
“I love it,” I said, smiling at him.
“Excellent,” he said. “Sake?”
“Sure,” I asked, as he poured sake in a teeny tiny cup for me. I sipped it, the bitter rice wine hitting my tongue. I put it down, reaching for my water instead. So far, it was the only thing that didn’t make me feel like I was about to lurch up my intestines.
“So, you have news?” I asked Levi.
“Yes, I do. And I think you’ll be very pleased.”
I looked over at him, blinking, waiting, but he just smiled at me, not saying a word.
“And?” I said, finally.
“Oh! C’mon, Chloe, you know I like to keep business for the end. Let’s eat first, and then we’ll talk. It’s much easier to enjoy your food that way, don’t you think?”
“Sure, I guess,” I said. I picked up the menu and scanned it, looking for the blandest thing I could find. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much that qualified. I finally settled on a few simple rolls and some miso soup.
“So, how’s Bear doing?” he asked.
“Bear’s fine,” I smiled. “Very busy with work.”
“Yeah, that guy’s a workaholic, isn’t he?”
“I guess a little. It takes a lot of work to be that successful.”
“Sure does,” he nodded. “He’s made a lot of sacrifices.”
I nodded, not sure what he was referring to but wishing that he would stop talking about Bear because I still felt guilty about not telling him I was here with Levi.
“He’s a strange bird, isn’t he?” he asked, not letting up.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, he’s always been a bit of a domineering ass, to be honest.”
“Levi, listen, I don’t know what went on between the two of you, but I don’t need to get in the middle of it. It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
“What went on?” he asked, laughing. “What did he tell you?”
“He didn’t tell me anything really,” I replied.
“That means he told you something,” he said. “I bet he told you about Zoe, didn’t he?”
My ears perked up at the sound of Zoe’s name.
“Zoe Rothchild?” I asked.
“You know her then,” he said.
“I’ve met her a few times,” I said, trying not to clench my teeth at the thought of her.
“Zoe and I are old friends.”
“I see.”
“We were from opposite sides of the city. I was poor. She was rich.”
I nodded politely, wishing I didn’t have to hear anything more about Zoe.
“We met at Central Park one sunny afternoon in the Spring when we were teenagers. We fell in love. She was everything to me, but we were still just kids. Still in high school. Her parents hated me, for obvious reasons. They wanted her to date someone with a pedigree, well-heeled. Someone like Bear.”
I nodded again, not sure where this was going.
“We all ended up together at Yale. I worked my fucking ass off to get a scholarship so I could be with Zoe. It worked. Things were great.”
“That’s wonderful,” I said, sipping my water. I’d abandoned the sake completely.
The waitress arrived and we ordered. She left quickly and he dove back into his story.
“Bear grew up getting whatever he wanted handed to him on a silver platter. He had a bad habit of just…taking…whatever he wanted, with absolutely no consequences whatsoever.”
He stopped, gulping his sake down and filling his cup with more.
“If Bear wanted a good grade, he just had to be nice to the teacher. He was charming, I’ll give him that. Still is. He could charm the pants off the most stern professor and have them eating out of his hand in no time. Everyone loved him. That’s why they let him get away with things that most people wouldn’t. He was a like a snake that bit you while he was smiling at you, you know? You didn’t even feel the bite till he was way out of sight.”
I nodded again, completely clueless how to respond.
“Zoe fell for his charms. My beloved Zoe.” My stomach sank when he said that. I knew there was more between Zoe and Bear than just a friendship. I wished again that he would just stop, I didn’t really want to know all the gory details.
“The girl I’d done everything I could to impress, the girl I’d fallen head over heels in love with. The girl who I thought loved me too. And you know, that was the hardest part of it all. I do know she loved me. But, it was like Bear put her under some sort of trance, where all she could see and think about was him. Not long after she met him, she left me, kicked me out of her life completely.”
“That’s awful, Levi, I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks,” he nodded, his eyes clouding over. “It was really hard back then. I’m over it now, of course. It’s been years. And they didn’t last long at all. She came running back to me after a while, but the damage was done. I could never trust her again. We’re friends now, but that’s all it we will ever be.”
“I see,” I said, nodding. “Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be?”
“No,” he shook his head firmly, “it wasn’t. Bear changed everything. He changed the course of Zoe’s life. He changed the course of mine. We had all these plans. Marriage, kids, all of that. It was like he bulldozed over us and then just went on with his life like nothing ha
d ever happened.”
I stared across the table at him, once again unsure how to reply. Bear had made it sound like his beef with Levi was no big deal. Obviously, to Levi, it was.
“Anyway,” he said, sensing my discomfort, “let’s not talk about all of that unpleasantness.”
I nodded, smiling across the table at him, agreeing. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about this. I didn’t like thinking about Bear and Zoe together, but now I couldn’t help it. She’d told me she’d just had sex with him once, that first time I met her in the bathroom. Now, it seemed like their relationship was much more involved.
I pushed it all away, convincing myself that it was all in the past and none of it mattered anymore.
Our dinner came and we dove in, talking about New York. He told me about all his favorite restaurants and the best places to shop in my neighborhood. Bear wasn’t mentioned again the entire night, and I was thankful for that. I felt bad for Levi. Obviously, the whole situation had affected him greatly and even though I didn’t want to talk about it, I still felt bad for him.
Finally, after our plates were cleared, he changed the subject to business.
“Okay, so I showed your designs to my boss. Technically, I’m the one who recruits new talent, but it’s a concerted effort with my team and we all have to agree on something before moving forward. There’s always a lot of push and pull in these situations and nothing is ever set in stone before a contract is signed, but this is how all this starts out.”
“Okay…”
“So, I showed two people your stuff and they loved it. In fact, they’re over the moon about it. Sara, my assistant, can’t wait to meet you. And, I’d love to get my hands on anything you have completed so we can show them to everyone.”
“Sure, of course,” I said.“I have several pieces at home.”
“Perfect,” he said. “I think this could really go somewhere, Chloe. We’ve been looking for someone like you for a long time.”
“Someone like me?” I squeaked, my heart pounding in my chest.
“Yes! An unknown name is very valuable in this game, if you can believe it. People are always looking for something new and fresh. New and fresh are synonymous with hip and trendy, you know?”