Chapter 21

LEVI I was so damn sore.

Note to self: never teach anyone to ice skate ever again.

“Levi, you can’t miss New Year’s Eve too,” my mother declared over the phone, and I stepped out of the room, closing the door behind me.

“Mom, I’m busy.”

“With what? Your case is over. Congratulations by the way, since you didn’t even bother to call home. This family has never missed a New Year’s Eve together, and I’m not having it now.”

“Mom—”

“Please,” she pleaded softly, and I ran my hands through my hair in frustration.

Going meant I had to leave Thea, and I didn’t want to, especially not at the start of the New Year. I had planned for us to be in bed, wrapped up in each other’s arms when the countdown began, not at a party.

“Son.” all of sudden my father voice was in my ear.

“Seriously? She gave the phone to you? What am I, twelve?”

“Who is she?” he asked, and I froze.

“What?”

“You’ve never missed a family New Year’s, not even when you had upcoming cases. There can only be one reason. So, who’s the lucky lady?”

I wanted to tell him, just not yet.

“Dad, give the phone back to mom.”

“Fine. Fine. But you can’t keep her a secret forever, your mom will sniff her out.”

“There is no lady. I’m taking my students out.”

What the hell? Was that the best I could do?

“Really?” my mother asked, as she took back the phone. “That’s great hon, bring them along, I would love to meet them all.”

“Mom—” I whined.

“Make sure you let them know it’s a masquerade ball.”

And with that, she hung up.

“God damn it!” I shouted to the dead line.

“Is everything alright?” Thea asked, rubbing her eyes as she came into the living room.

“I somehow managed to invite the entire class to my mother’s New Year’s Eve party.”

Moving into the kitchen, I searched for something to drink. I listened as her feet marched against the floor, rushing towards me.

“Tell me you’re joking!”

“I wish!”

I poured the wine she brought.

“Why?”

“My mother wanted me to come home. I lied and told her that I would be spending time with my students. Next thing I know, she invited everyone. Which means that I need to write an email to the class, and you need a dress,” I said as I poured her a glass.

She didn’t say anything, and I could see her mind turning a thousand miles a minute.

“The place will be packed and everyone will be drinking. No one will be thinking about us…” I said, trying to reassure her and alleviate any anxiety that was surely building.

“Actually, I wasn’t worried about that,” she replied, seeming as shocked as I was by her own revelation. “I was just thinking that I would be meeting your parents, but your point is more important—”

“No. I like where your thoughts are going,” I said, moving in closer to her.

She tried to look away from me, but I wouldn’t let her.

“You’re starting to think like my—”

“Don’t say it. If you say it you will jinx it,” she said, eyes wide.

“Girlfriend,” I finished with a grin.

She sighed, dropping her head on my chest in mock distress. “You said it.”

“I did,” I admitted as I held on to her, “and I want to stay here longer, but we have to get back before everything closes. You need a dress and a mask.”

“A mask?” She looked up and frowned.

“The party is really more like a masquerade ball.”

She rolled her eyes, and kissed my lips before breaking away from me and heading back to the bedroom. “I’m going to go pack. You should hurry up and write that email. But then again, no matter when you write it, we will all jump to your beck and call.”

She was the only one I wanted to jump at my call.

Focus…I thought to myself, taking out my phone and opening my email. It was short and quick.

To The Twelve Disciples, tomorrow, at nine o’clock, you are to be at 193 Commonwealth Ave for my last act of kindness for the semester.

Professor Levi Black.

Note: It’s a masquerade.

Thea read from the door of the bedroom. “Your last act of kindness?”

“Too much?”

“This thing we’re doing—”

“Dating?” I teased.

“That. It makes emails like this seem non-threatening, you know that right?” She frowned.

“Believe me, once classes start again, Ms. Cunning, you will not be saying that. I can keep the two parts of me separate.” I said it with a serious tone, trying my best to sound menacing, despite the fact that I couldn’t help but touch her now.

My hands traced the side of her curves from her hips to her chest.

“How?” she asked.

I had finally figured out why it was that I didn’t treat her any differently when we were in class.

“Because I want to make you the best damn lawyer I possibly can. Which means I will be pushing you at every turn. You’ll want to take my head off, I might even hurt your feelings, but at the end of the day, if it helps you to become a better lawyer, then it’s worth it to me.”

“Thank you—”

“You don’t have to thank me, just prepare yourself,” I replied, picking her up and taking her into the bedroom.

“For class or for—”

Kissing her, I unbuttoned her jeans.

We had both taken a hot bath and she crawled into bed before I could even stop her. The snow was coming down too hard for us to leave just yet any way. The moment I got into bed with her, I noticed how tightly she clung on to me. She was different. We were different. But we were also living in a bubble. What would happen when we got back to the real world, and class started? I was afraid that she would run away again.

Tomorrow would be our first test to see if we could actually do this. Could we really be together? I was well aware of the consequences, but when I weighed them against the alternative of letting her go, the risks far outweighed a life without her.

Reaching for my phone, I texted Bethan.

“Thea is going to need a dress for the New Year’s ball.”

I didn’t even have time to put down the phone before she replied.

“You’re bringing your student/girlfriend? Welcome to the dark side, brother.”

“I invited all of my students, and who said she was my girlfriend?”

She was, but Bethan, with her big mouth, didn’t need to know that.

“So you always help your female students shop for dresses when they’ve been invited to our parents’ party? Is that like a special side gig professors do?”

“Bethan, can you help or not?”

“Fine. But first, I get to meet her.”

“No.”

Thea was not going to go for that.

“So how do you expect me to get her a dress if I don’t even know what she looks like? What size she is, or even what styles she likes?”

“Her favorite color is teal.”

Moments later, my phone’s ringtone echoed within our tiny cabin space.

“Urgh,” Thea groaned in her sleep, turning away from me.

I answered the phone before it could ring a second time. Getting up, I went to the window and whispered into the phone, “I texted you instead of calling for a reason Bethan.”

“I need to meet her,” she whined. “Tristan already knows her, and you obviously care about her. I need to get to meet her before you act like she’s just some normal student at the party. Why are you being all weird about it?”

“I’ll talk to her about it, okay?” I wasn’t sure why I was being “weird.” I was just worried about how Thea would react. She was still a flight risk.

“Talk quickly…” she said, then trailed off as a tiny, shrill cry rang out in the background. “Shit, I woke her up.”

She hung up on me as her daughter’s cry reached full volume.

Shaking my head, I turned back to the bed, only to find Thea sitting up, glaring at me. I laughed at the look on her face.

“What’s more important than sleep?” she demanded.

“Sorry. I was trying to get you a dress.”

Her face softened, even though she pretended that she was still mad with me.

“You didn’t need to do that. I’m sure I would be able to find something nice for myself. I have a few dresses back home that should be okay.”

“Would you happen to have any dress made by Giorgio Armani, Stefano Gabbana, or Prada and Miu Miu?”

She looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

“I have a Prada clutch?” she said slowly.

“At the risk of sounding like a materialistic ass—”

“A Black Family party is for high society folk. Right.”

She shook her head looking somewhat dazed and amused.

“My sister, Bethan knows people. She can help, and at times she can even prove to be useful.” I laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood for the bomb I was just about to drop on her. “She just wants to meet you first,” I said, and waited for her reaction.

“Okay,” she replied, laying back down.

“Okay?” I blinked.

“Okay. I’m going to meet your family anyway. I’d rather not do it in my dress from Macy’s. Plus, if I meet them separately, it won’t feel overwhelming and I won’t panic.”

“There’s no need to panic. Bethan is loving the fact that we’re together. Her big brother is finally breaking his own rules on life.”

She didn’t look like she believed me.

“You’ll be fine,” I smiled.

THEA

“I am not fine,” I said to him as we drove to his sister’s condo.

We hadn’t been able to leave the cabin until the following afternoon. The pipes had frozen over, which left us with ice cold water to shower with. To top it all off, I didn’t have anything nice to wear. Just jeans, and a bright yellow sweater—which made me look like Big Bird. And to make matters even worse, we had been stuck in traffic for three hours, before we were finally able to get into the city, all because fallen trees had blocked the roadways at various points.

“I’m a mess. Please drop me off at my place so that I can change… please…” I pleaded.

“There’s no time,” he replied.

He didn’t seem to get it.

“The party isn’t for another five hours, there’s still plenty of time.”

He looked to me like he couldn’t believe I had said that.

“How long does it take you to pick out an outfit in the morning? You change at least three times. On top of that, you flatiron your hair, and always manage to do one side of your make ‘wrong’ so that you have to end up redoing it. Let’s not forget about your jewelry and accessories which is basically just you being frustrated with the fact that it doesn’t match your outfit—”

“Okay, I get it. Excuse me for wanting to look nice.”

“I’m not complaining, but my point is that we just don’t have time for you to go home to change, so that you can meet my sister only for you to pick out a new outfit and change again. The issue really is that we only have five hours. Besides,” I chuckled, “Bethan is the last person who will care. After all she wore black slacks and a cardigan to prom. Also, we’re already here.”

I looked up at the condo building, as he pulled up to the front doors and handed his keys to the valet.

All I could think about as he held open the door of the building for me was— Am I making a mistake? What was she going to think about me? Levi kept saying that there was no need to worry, but I couldn’t help it. What did we look like from the outside? After all, I had met her husband because I’d wanted to get drunk at a bar… her bar. And now, I was sleeping/dating a man, who happened to thirteen years older than me, oh, and I was also his student. I couldn’t even tell her that I had a job other than interning at Levi’s office.

After college I had gotten a job, teaching English in a middle school. I had wanted to help Selene pay for college when her time came, amongst other things. But after finding out about our father, I decided that I would use that money to pay for law school. And truthfully, that money wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere, it was the scholarship that had saved my life. Because of it, I didn’t need to continue working and I could just focus on school.

“She’s having a panic attack,” Levi said to the woman, as she opened the door.

“You should be, you guys are late!” She looked at me and frowned.

Her eyes were the same green as Levi’s and her hair was just as dark. The resemblance between them was almost uncanny.

“There was traffic Beth,” Levi said, as she made space to let us in.

“Beth-an. It’s just two extra letters, you don’t have to abbreviate it,” she snapped at him. “And, you haven’t been answering any of my calls.”

“Why would I bother answering you, if I knew that we would be having this argument anyways? Besides, Beth, Bethan, Bethany, does it matter?”

“Just because you’re named after jeans, doesn’t mean you have to take it out on the rest of us with normal names.”

“Ha!” I snickered out loud. They both turned to stare at me and I quickly shut my mouth. “It was kind of funny,” I shrugged and smiled.

She grinned. “See? Not nervous anymore.”

Levi smirked as well, and they did a little fist bump.

“Annoying, isn’t it?” Tristan sighed, as he bounced a big-cheeked little girl in his arms. “They play fight like that all the time.”

Bethan walked over, wiping the drool off her daughter’s cheek. “We used to do it at parties when we were younger so that our parents would send us to our rooms early. Sorry about the place, it’s a little bit of a mess,” she said, motioning around the room. “This little one doesn’t give anyone a break.”

“Er—It’s nice to meet you, I’m Thea.”

“You ready to go?” Tristan asked as he nodded to Levi.

“Go?” I turned to him.

He nodded, “Tristan, Little Bellamy, and I, are heading out to give you both time to get ready. If you need me for anything, call.”

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine, you guys get going,” Bethan said, as she pulled me to her side before I could say another word.

He came over to me and kissed my cheek.

“Aww…” Tristan and Bethan said at the same time, and he glared at them.

“Bye,” he whispered to me.

“Bye.”

Neither of us moved.

“Seriously? This isn’t the Titani; you’ll see each other again,” Bethan said to us.

Levi finally managed to break away from me, and headed to the door, with Tristan and Bellamy in tow.

“Anything she says about me is a half-truth,” he added before Tristan pushed him out.

“Jeez, I’ve never seen him so attached to anyone,” she said as she exhaled deeply. Turning to me, she stretched out her hand and smiled warmly. “It’s so nice to officially meet you Thea. I hope we haven’t freaked you out too much.”

“No. It’s… you’re so lively, it's nice.”

“Some people say crazy, but thank you. Would you like some wine?”

Yes.

“No, I’d rather not get buzzed before the party tonight.”

“Oh, then we’re completely different. I can only get through these things if I’m buzzed.” She grabbed a bottle from her kitchen before walking towards the back of her condo. “The dresses are back here,” she called.

The whole living room floor was covered with toys and baby items, but once we got to the hallway, I finally began to see how nice her place was. She had framed records of everything from the Beatles, to Led Zeppelin on her walls like photographs.

“Nice music,” I said when we stopped at the door.

“Thanks, I’m sort of a fanatic… here we are, the room of dresses past,” she said as she opened the door to a bedroom now doubling as a closet full of beautiful gowns.

Not just any dresses… dresses that I could not even fathom buying. When Levi had asked if I had any Armani or Gabbana dresses laying around, I thought he was crazy. I even later Googled how much those gown would cost and the cheapest one was almost four thousand dollars? Who would have those just ‘laying around’?

Apparently his little sister.

“My mother bought me dresses all year round before I got married in the hopes of classing me up. I just don’t have the heart to tell her that I’ve never worn any of them. Thank God you have boobs, or none of these would fit.”

These look like they cost much more than four thousand dollars…

“Bethan I can’t—”

“Levi said you’d be difficult,” she sighed. “He also said to remind you that have no other choice and to say…” She pulled out her phone from her pocket, “…would you really want to miss an event where all of your classmates will be trying to make a name for themselves?”

“Levi,” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose, a habit that I had only recently acquired from a certain someone.

“He’s in love, it’s kind of cute,” she laughed and my eyes widened at the word… unfortunately, she noticed. “Oh, you guys haven’t dropped the L word yet.”

I was going to have to get better at controlling my facial expressions.

“No did he say—”

“No, I just guessed. He’s just really happy. I don’t remember him being like this with his ex-wife. Which is why I just had to meet you.”

“And?”

What did she think so far?

“If you aren’t serious, don’t stay,” she said earnestly as she stood directly in front of me. “You’re beautiful, smart enough to get into Harvard Law, and earn his respect. He wouldn’t keep you as a student just because he was attracted to you. He’s serious about that sort of thing.

“Tristan told me he tried putting you through the wringer and you still fought to make it. So you’re strong to boot. Levi doesn’t have a chance in hell. He will stay with you to the end of time and back, it’s just the type of guy he is… until he gets hurt.”

“Like with his ex-wife.”

She nodded. “He wasn’t perfect, no guy really is. But what she did to him crushed him. So, if you aren’t serious… if you can’t fight for him as much as he’d fight for you, then please end it before he gets in any deeper.”

“I’m in deep too,” I muttered, the back of my throat dry. “I’ve been with a lot of guys. More than I’m proud of, really. Black, white, it doesn’t matter. They come, we have a good time, they go, and I move on. But with Levi, it’s like I’m rooted to the ground, and those roots grow stronger and deeper with each passing day.

“I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I want to fight for him. Which is why I need a dress, because even if your parents don’t yet know that we’re together, I still want to make a good first impression. I want them to like me.”

She grabbed a dress off one of the many racks. “Then let’s get started. When you walk into the room, no one will be able to forget you.”

I liked her.