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“I fall sometimes. I’d hate to have a broken leg from being clumsy and not have insurance.”
He slowly nodded, but his eyes lingered as if he were trying to figure out the truth.
“Don’t worry about it,” I added with a laugh.
“I think this is one place where I’m also not good at taking orders. Why did you ask?”
Great. Now, I had to lie. “Maybe I’m a high fall risk. My house is old, and sometimes I find out about issues by falling through the floorboards.”
“Really?”
“It was one time. I was fine, but I had to get the subfloors replaced, and it was not cheap.” I shuddered. I was still paying off that particular credit card. “Owning an old house is expensive. And my gram did as much as she could, but things aren’t perfect there.”
“I’m telling you, you won’t have to work after this.”
“And I’m telling you that I have to.” I played with my hands under the table as his eyes narrowed at me. But I wouldn’t break. Not about this. I could still hear the way Mom, Dad, and Calvin always made my pain feel so insignificant. Like I was a burden no one would ever want to bear.
“We’ll revisit this later. The food is coming.”
And thank God for that. I smiled, thanked the waitstaff who brought it to us, and then turned my focus to my pain-inducing chicken.
I loved this place so much, but they were so inconsistent with the spice of the chicken that it was akin to gambling when picking out the same heat level. I liked to joke that whoever was in the kitchen hated everyone whenever they added extra spice to the dish. Today’s chef must have had a vendetta against humanity.
I coughed when I took the first bite, yet it was still delicious. A lot of the hot chicken places in Nashville went for pain only, but Prince’s always had delicious flavor behind the heat, and that’s what made me come back for more.
“I’m fine,” I muttered to Levi. “Just let me die.”
“Do you want me to avenge you?”
“Yes. Make an entire movie franchise out of it. And make sure no one knows that I technically asked for this.”
He laughed and ate a fry.
I’d love to say that my mouth eventually got numb to the heat, but it didn’t. It only grew as I ate, and by the time I was halfway through, I was chugging water. Nothing could make me more hydrated than hot chicken.
I glanced at Levi, hoping he was in the same amount of pain that I was.
“What the—is it even affecting you?” I asked.
“It’s hot, but not the hottest I’ve had.”
I gaped at him. “How?”
Levi smiled. “My stepmom is from Thailand and makes traditional dishes. Not everything is spicy, but she adds it. One time I told her to make the hottest thing she could and she almost killed me.”
“So you and your stepmom get along?”
“It was rough in the beginning, but now I love her to death. Her cooking has made me numb to a lot of other things, though.”
“That’s unfair. I wanted you to cry.”
“You’re crying enough for both of us.”
I flipped him off and took another bite of chicken. He was right. Tears streamed down my face, and it was an insult that he wasn’t crying with me.
I thought he would rub it in. Instead, he let out a quiet chuckle and took another bite.
“Back to the wedding?—”