Page 44 of One Last Time

And not far behind them came the start of the dinner rush. At this time of day, it was mostly families with little kids, just finishing up on the beach and needing to fill hungry bellies before they headed home.

I spotted May seating one all-too-familiar family over in Melvin’s section and grabbed him. “Hey, you mind if I take that table?”

“Uh, sure.” He looked where I was pointing and a knowing smile dawned on his face. “Isn’t that the guy you broke up with Flynn for?”

I groaned. “I told you, that was just a stupid rumor.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes,Melvin.”

His smile stretched even wider. He pushed his round glasses up his nose. “So why’s he staring at you?”

“What?” I turned to look over my shoulder, but Levi was studying his menu carefully. His cheeks were a little pink. I rolled my eyes at Melvin, who just kept grinning at me till I grabbed a water pitcher and marched over to the table.

I announced myself with a bright and unnecessary, “Hi! My name’s Elle and I’ll be your server today,” then started to pour their water.

Becca, Levi’s little sister, giggled. “We know who youare,Elle.”

“Didn’t expect to see you guys here.”

“Couldn’t waste an afternoon like this,” his mom said cheerfully. “My husband couldn’t get the time off work, so it’s just us three today. Levi keeps talking about you working here, so we thought we’d give it a shot.”

“Mom!” he hissed.

I bit my top lip, trying not to laugh as I saw Levi squirm out of the corner of my eye.

“Besides,” she said, unfazed, “we haven’t seen you around in a while.”

She said it with a certain gravity, like she was trying to make a point. A point I got loud and clear. Throughout senior year, I’d spent a lot of time hanging out with Levi. He’d come over while I babysat Brad; I went to his place while he was looking after Becca. A lot of the time we just hung out together, for no other reason than that we were friends.

And yeah, maybe we hadn’t been hanging out so much lately.

“Mom,” he hissed again.

“Well, you know.” My smile faltered and I shifted my weight to my other foot. “I’ve been busy with this job and…Noah’s home now, so…”

“Ah, yeah. The boyfriend.”

She shot a glance at Levi, which seemed to say something I really didn’t get, and he let out a sharp, exasperated sigh. “Mom!”

Okay, well…

This was weird.

“Shall I give you guys a couple minutes to decide? Or, um…uh, would…would you like to order drinks?”

They ordered drinks. Levi was slouched right down in his seat by now, although I wasn’t so sure what he had to look so embarrassed about.

“Are you gonna come hang out again soon, Elle?” Becca asked me, pouting, with puppy-dog eyes that werewaymore effective than Lee’s.

“I, uh, maybe. I’ll try! It’s just a little crazy around here right now. But I’ll come see you soon, okay?”

“Sorry,” her mom said to me. “She just really liked having another girl around to hang out with. You’ve had quite the influence on her, you know. And on Levi.”

“Right…”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to make of that. And I wasn’t totally sure it was a good thing, even if she made it sound like it was.