“What do you say, Tan? Up for it?”
Tanner had been nipping at Levi’s calves since they began their walk at Kelsey’s door, and now was no exception. He added a high-pitched happy growl that resembled a desperate whine. He was ready to go.
Levi bent down to rub under Tanner’s ears, which Levi knew was the dog’s weakness. Tanner lovingly shoved his head sideways into Levi’s right hand.
“You are definitely ready,” Levi said, smiling. “I have your jacket in case it starts raining harder. Your mom insisted.”
The sprinkles remained, lightly coating Tanner and Levi anytime they walked outside of the trees that lined the entire reservoir. With each step forward, Levi felt simultaneously lighter and more curious.
What menu items are we going to include in our second draft?
Virginia loved the food, just not the appetizer detail.
What would it take to win over Virginia?
What would it take to win over Sophie so that I could win over Virginia?
What am I going to cook for Mom, Dad, Ashley, and Brad?
What will it take—
His thoughts were interrupted by a young woman approaching Tanner.
“What a cute puppy! Can I pet him?”
“Sure, one second.” Levi bent down to prep Tanner, a common practice for when strangers wanted to show Tanner some love. He was friendly, but also weary of anyone moving too fast toward his walker.
The woman, dressed casually in jean capri pants and a loose white t-shirt, bent down to pet Tanner. As she looked up at Levi, recognition set in.
“Hey! Levi Adams! Are you Levi Adams?! Shirley! Levi Adams!” She promptly forgot about Tanner and stood, standing level to Levi’s shoulders.
The fan’s voice crescendo-ed with each syllable. Levi had picked up Tanner and moved his hand up the leash so he was holding closer to Tanner’s body. They did not need to repeat the incident from two months ago when Tanner charged—in a sociable way, but still definitely charged—a fan who descended on Levi at Columbus Circle. Levi made the tabloids for that one.
“Hi, nice to meet you,” Levi said, formulaic but friendly, while extending his free hand.
“I’m Violet. I’m a huge fan! I have your show set to DVR in case I’m not home to see it, but really I’m always home to see it. Shirley!” Violet directed her words behind her, all the while keeping her eyes on Levi. “Shirley! It’s Levi Adams!”
Levi saw whom he assumed to be Shirley come running toward them. She appeared to waddle more than walk as she hurried over to where he was standing. Her make-up was the opposite of understated, her hair was poufed around her face, and the brighter-than-bright pink pants were about as subtle as the perfume that followed her.
“Levi Adams! Oh my stars! Heavens be! I hoped we would see a celebrity when we visited the big city, but in my wildest dreams I never thought it would be you! Levi Adams!”
Levi’s genuine smile hung around through a heavily accented conversation. His Southern ears hadn’t been warmed up, since his last visit down South had been more than two years ago. He kindly signed their hats, wallets, and each of their day planners. He also obliged for a photo with each lady.
“How long are you in the city?” he asked, holding Tanner close to his chest.
“Two whole weeks! Glory-be, this heat is killin’ me. And the walkin’! Whew. But we are havin’ a fabulous time. Aren’t we, Violet?” Shirley placed her hand on the back of Violet’s shoulder.
“We are, for sure, we are,” Violet said, excited but in one, stuttering tone.
“What other plans do you have?” Levi asked, playing on the side of Southerners he knew would appreciate a genuine conversation. In all his years in the public eye, taking five minutes to have a human-to-human conversation with a fan had only steered him wrong twice.
“Aren’t you sweet to ask,” Shirley squeaked, lightly swatting him on the arm. “This is our third day here,” she said, holding up three fingers. “We went to the Bronx Zoo the day we got here and enjoyed a Yankees game yesterday. They were playing the Braves. It was a blast! We are working our way down the city. We toured Columbia University this morning, now this side of the park. Tomorrow will be the other side, and then on down from there!”
“You have yourselves all booked up, that’s wonderful,” Levi said, smiling for his audience of two. Tanner began to wrestle slightly in Levi’s arms. “If you have a chance, check out Cookie, Inc., on Madison Ave. It’s my favorite dessert place in the city.”
“Oh, we will! Thank you, Levi! Mr. Adams? Levi?”
Levi’s light laugh caused the ladies to blush. It was time for him to go. “Well I have to get back to my time with Tanner here. Thanks for saying hello,” he said before putting Tanner down and shaking both Violet and Shirley’s hands. “It was great to meet you. Enjoy your time in the city.”
Shirley surged forward from the handshake and insisted on a hug. Violet remained quiet and star-struck as they parted, which was confusing given how she had started the interaction.
Levi’s walk with Tanner suddenly turned into a light jog. Polite he could do. Autographs he could do. Sustained conversation with women who ogled him he could not do. Which is one of the many reasons he had so easily hit it off with Virginia. From the moment he heard her turn down that horrible pick-up line from a man who could not possibly know how tremendous Virginia really was, Levi knew he would like her. She had shown her smarts, her instinct, her tact, and her class in one short conversation that Levi had the pleasure of observing.
If someone had asked him halfway through his conversation on the plane with Virginia if she would answer ‘yes’ at the end of the day when he asked her out, he would have bet his next network paycheck on it. Their eye contact had been electric. There was an understanding that seemed to pass between the two of them, one that connected them far beyond the words that were being exchanged. She had given him all the right signs: the wide, can’t-help-it smile, the laughing, the soft hand on his arm when he spoke of how much Tutto Mangiare means to him. Not one bit of anything he had said had been meant to impress her; he learned his lesson through the guy who had been turned down. No, everything they had talked about, every emotion he had expressed, had been one hundred percent genuinely Levi Adams.
And still, she had said no.
To him and to his food.
Levi settled down his stride once Violet and Shirley were out of sight and earshot. With each foot forward with Tanner, Levi searched himself for the thing behind the thing—the real reason why a black cloud had hovered over him ever since the initial team meeting with Virginia. Even with their light teasing about Marie Rhodes’ pinched face, the sense of defeat within him after she had told him that the appetizers would not work had been real enough to keep his mood in a sour state.
He didn’t want to be a man who whined when he didn’t get what he wanted. Kelsey made it clear that was the path he was forging.
However, if she—and Seth and Virginia—could see behind the curtain, they would see that the fact that he had opened up his heart, even just a little, for a woman other than his mother and his sister had flipped his confident disposition on its head. He could care about children and families in poverty, even cry as they told him their stories on his Tutto Mangiare trips. But for a woman whom he had the potential to love? A beautiful woman who had personality to boot and hazel eyes that told a story of their own? Nerve-wracking didn’t even begin to explain the goo and jitters he had been experiencing since meeting her.
Still, Seth was right. He couldn’t let this detour be a distraction. He and his team had been hired because they were right for the job. This certainly wasn’t the first time his first draft didn’t make the cut. He, Kelsey, and Seth could easily come up with a new menu.
He could care about Virginia, he could even lightly pursue her from time to time. At the end of the day, though, he had a job to do. His team counted on him. Marie Rhodes and company were counting on him. More than five hun
dred guests were counting on him and his food.
With renewed vigor, Levi ran through the images he remembered seeing as he, Kelsey, and Seth had researched Christmas in 1935. He remembered the apples and potatoes, the almond butter cakes, the dinner rolls, and the cranberries. Like a mental matching game, Levi thought of the vintage dishes and what he could use to bring them into the modern day. His mind was reeling all the way through the rest of his walk with Tanner and as he made his way back to his office. He was surprised to find Seth and Kelsey still there when he walked back through the glass doors.
“What are you two still doing here? And not even in your own offices.”
“Well I don’t have an office here since I am seasonal help,” Seth offered with a light smile.
“Extremely valuable seasonable help,” Kelsey said. “I’ll never understand how you’re so engineer- and IT-minded, and yet can sous chef better than the best in the business.”
“If I’m better, why is someone else the best in the business?”
“Technically you’re not in the business,” Kelsey responded. She had her arms crossed but her face remained open and amicable.
“True story.” Seth remained on the couch opposite Levi’s desk and shifted his focus to Levi. “You look like you’ve taken a load off. Feeling better?”
Levi nodded. “Thanks for letting me blow off steam on the court. Sorry that meant you losing,” he said, smirking. “And Kelsey, Tanner and I had a particularly active walk. He did not need his jacket. He did, however, need three waste bags. What are you feeding that poor dog?”
“A healthy diet,” she said, dryly. “You also had quite a … should I say, social, walk, did you not?”
Levi cocked his head to the side in confusion. Kelsey held up her phone and swiped to show him three pictures of himself: one with Violet, one with Shirley, and one of his backside as he walked away with Tanner. To round out the mini collection was a video of Violet and Shirley explaining—in a high, fan-girl squeal—each photo.
“Met some of the cast of Designing Women today, did you?” Seth set down a magazine he must have been leafing through. He watched Levi’s response, which turned out to be a rush of a smile with his hands on his hips.
“Hey, my mom loves that show. And as a matter of fact, Violet and Shirley were lovely.”
“Lovely.” Seth raised his eyebrows to the sky. “Okay.”
“Whatever. They were fans, excited to see someone famous. They would have been just as happy to see … Miley Cyrus or Aaron Judge.”
“Except it was you they saw, and you to whom they have sworn their undying devotion,” Kelsey teased.
“Ha-ha, people.”
Kelsey and Seth smiled. “Hey, for real,” Seth started, segueing his tone to something more pressing. “Let’s talk about Virginia and what in the world got you to go so dark today.”
“Dark seems a little extreme,” Levi said. He came around his desk and sat on the edge of it, his arms and legs crossed.
“Not extreme,” Kelsey said. “You barely spoke on the way back from the meeting. You needed time afterwards to process something in that gear-turning head of yours. And you were brooding for three hours. Dark.”
“We’re going to need to know how much of an issue it’s going to be every time you and Virginia disagree. I’m all for love and beautiful women, man, you know that. But a: you barely know her; and b: we have a seriously big job to do.”
Yes, I barely know her. Until I look in her eyes and everything else fades away and all I want to is to sweep her up and spend the rest of my life making those hazel beauties dance with laughter.
Levi fixed his eyes on the canvas photo above the couch where Seth was sitting. It was his favorite view in the city behind the one from his own apartment. There was a restaurant on Central Park West that faced the park from the twenty-seventh floor of a four-building complex that was centered around a well-lit and well-planted parking lot. It was so high up that the regular city sounds—sirens, horns, whooshes, and squeaks—transformed to children playing at the park twenty stories below, trees rustling, and only some of the street noise. To the left and to the right, Central Park sprawls as far as the eyes can see. Behind it, buildings pop up like a three-dimensional game board that can be folded back into a box at any moment. From this view, the city was green, spacious, and conquerable. The restaurant had been Levi’s first job in the city when he first arrived after culinary school. He had taken the photo on his second day of work, when the novelty of the city was still fresh out of the oven. The photo reminded him of dreams realized, of possibility, and of always striving to do and be more. He tended to get lost in the details of the photo whenever a distraction was necessary.
“Earth to Levi,” Kelsey said, waving her hand in between Levi’s face and the photo.
Levi shook his head, sending the clutter away as best as he could. “I’m fine, Kels. I just felt kind of thrown for a loop when she and Sophie didn’t go for the appetizers. It’s fine. We’ve been told no before. We just go back to the cutting board, as they so aptly put it, and come up with something new and better.”
Kelsey and Seth looked at one another, unsure. Their expressions were enough to put a dent in the armor he was working hard to keep up.
“I mean, she’s beautiful in this rare, timeless sort of way. That doesn’t have to keep me from doing my best work here.”
Seth nodded. “She is a beauty, that is for sure.” His eyes remained fixed on Levi. The dent deepened.
“And she has a kind soul. I’ve seen her with people and with animals—there was a dog on the plane—and her goodness radiates.”
Kelsey nodded slowly before cocking her head to the side, leveling her eyes at Levi.
Levi pursed his lips and rolled his eyes while taking a deep breath. How much longer could he keep this from his two best friends? Could he make it at least until after his parents came and went next week?
Kelsey interrupted his thinly veiled attempt to keep his cards close to his chest. “And…?”
A slight pause, and then Levi’s words came rushing out like a river breaking a twelve-foot levee. “Fine. Fine. I want to marry her.”
Seth’s chuckle escaped and he briefly put his head in his hands.
“Laugh all you want, but I have never experienced this before. I’ve heard of it. I’ve heard of men and women seeing their future spouse for the first time and saying, ‘I’m going to marry that person.’ I always thought they were crazy. How could you know something like that without a ton more information? Now? Now I totally get it. It’s driving me crazy, and I don’t know what to do about it, but there it is. Mock away.”
“We are not here to mock you, Levi,” Kelsey said.
“Speak for yourself,” Seth jested.
Kelsey admonished him with a look, like a sister defending her brother from a playground bully.
“You know I’m kidding, Kels.” He turned to look at Levi. “Nothing to mock, Levi. You’re the only one of us who has never claimed to be in love. We get it.” Kelsey nodded in agreement. “There’s a lot at stake when you feel this way. We are here to make sure you stay on track, regardless of these feelings that are rattling your sense of stability and confidence.”
Seth stood up and moved next to Kelsey.
“Thanks,” Levi said, earnestly if shyly. “What do I do about liking her so much? She doesn’t seem to want what I want?”
Seth looked and pointed to Kelsey. “That’s your area of expertise.”
“I would say, do your job and do it well. If in six months you still feel the same, go for it. I think she feels the same way she just wants to stay focused on the opportunity. This is huge for her business.”
Levi took to staring at his Central Park West photo again. He knew they were right. He also knew how he came alive at the sight, even at the thought, of Virginia May Sharpe.
He had always come by his success honestly. He had always kept his integrity intact, a point of pride in a world where
every man for himself meant unethical practices came as easily as a Friday night fish fry.
If he wanted to have Virginia as his partner in life, not just on this project, he would have to play by his same rules. Slow and steady, one day at a time, one conversation at a time. Until she was wholly convinced that she didn’t want to live without him, as he had felt about her since their first hour on North American Airlines flight 602, service nonstop to New York City.
Chapter 12
“Levi! I love it here!” His mom, ever the encourager, ever the supporter, was commenting on his office. She stood petite and slender, as she had always been, and five years behind the fashion trends, as she had always been.
“It looks the same as it has your last three visits, Mom,” Levi said with a light smile.
“I know, honey. I’m just so proud of you.” She walked over to where Levi was standing, behind his desk and against the floor-to-ceiling window, and squeezed his arm.
“Thanks, Mom.” Levi bent down three inches to kiss his mom on the cheek. She happily accepted before straightening her orange-and-yellow flower print sleeveless shirt.
Levi’s family had arrived the day before, Brad in tow with his future in-laws. They had ridden the Staten Island Ferry at sunset, Levi’s dad’s favorite activity, and eaten at a diner near Cookies, Inc., so that they could go to everyone’s favorite dessert place afterwards.
Levi had set up the apartment to host everyone. He turned his own room into an oasis for his parents, complete with mints on their pillows and his parents’ favorite bottle of wine in the mini fridge; the guest room was for Ashley, where Levi had set up a box of I (heart) NY goodies she had yet to acquire—it wasn’t hard, new items came out every other week it seemed; and the sunroom that looked over Rockefeller Center was easily curtained off and made up with an air mattress bed for Brad. He appreciated the “room” and the local micro-brew that Levi had left for him on a small table.
Ashley and Brad were standing near the photograph above the couch, looking at it and trying to locate all the buildings they knew, Ashley from previous visits and Brad from Blue Bloods. Every time they got one right, they gave each other a high five.
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