Flowers, Fame and Unforeseen Facades

Chapter 17

                                                              Bittersweet:Family
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Zoe's POV

The next day was relatively better than the previous one. I woke up, showered, got dressed, ate breakfast and went to work. I was in an exceptional mood, and spent the entire day humming to music as I gathered flowers and turned them into beautiful bouquets. Why was it that not every day could be like this one?

The customers were cheerful, except for this one guy who'd recently lost his mother, and a little kid who had walked up to the counter, grabbed my pen, and popped it into his mouth, making his entire face blue. But to my complete surprise, his mother didn't freak out.

As I finished any work that I was supposed to do, I decided to close the shop earlier that day. Harley picked me up, excitedly babbling about Jacob. She seemed really happy with him, and I was happy that she liked him.

Unfortunately, Harley didn't always make the best choices when it came to men. There had been multiple occasions when she had burst into my apartment, tears streaming down her face, clearly drunk and back from a party. And every single one of those nights, I would help her get back up on her own two feet, and spend at least a week eating ice cream with her while watching re-runs of some of our favorite shows.

It kind of reminded me of Alyssa. Was she also heartbroken like this? Did Riley leave her for someone else, like he was bound to? Despite everything she had done to me, I always felt a little heartbroken at the thought of her being alone. But I would always push that part of my heart down, telling myself that that was in the past, and I was a whole new person now. Bringing comfort to Harley was a bit of a coping mechanism for me. I felt like I was helping a sister. And she was always grateful, unlike Alyssa.

As the two of us reached our apartment building, I eagerly got out of the car, clearly excited to see Levi. But then I stopped myself, telling myself that I shouldn't get so excited over a boy. Harley clearly noticed, because she elbowed me, a smirk clear on her face.

As usual, I blushed, utterly mortified. She started guffawing, and I speed-walked into the building, getting away from one of the many embarrassing situations that I put myself in. Why was every person so hell bent on embarrassing me? Harley usually said that it was because I looked cute when I blushed, but I wasn't so sure. I mean, I surely looked like a rotten tomato!

Harley raced after me, recovering from her hearty laughing fit, and quickly squeezed into the elevator through the gap between the closing doors. I got off at my floor, waving goodbye at Harley, and she did the same, making a... uhm... inappropriate sign with her fingers. Once again, I blushed brightly. Seriously, these people needed to stop.

I walked towards my apartment, turning the key in the lock, and walking inside. What I saw made my blush brighten, probably making me resemble a cherry. Levi was in his boxers! I yelped, and turned around, mortified. My heart was beating loudly in my chest, and I heard Levi chuckle behind me.

"You are so cute, Zoe!"

Was it possible for my blush to become a few shades darker? Anyway, i could definitely feel the heat on my cheeks increasing. Sometimes I wondered if I had some sort of an illness which caused me to blush. Surely I couldn't blush as many times as I usually did. Or could I?

I could hear Levi coming closer to me, and felt two hands on my shoulders. He turned me around, and my eyes meet his azure blue ones, filled with amusement. As usual, a smirk adorned his face. His smirk was definitely his trademark. Or maybe he was just always smirking around me.

"Don't worry, Zoe. You can look, I won't mind."

I looked down from embarrassment, and shrieked when my eyes landed on his toned abs. This time he laughed loudly, and moved away, quickly putting a shirt and some sweatpants on.

Trying to recover from the mortifying situation that I had put myself in, I said, "Uh... next time, can you warn me if you're walking around half naked please?"

He turned towards me, his eyes still filled with amusement, and said, "Not if you burst in on me like you just did. But it's your house, so I can't say anything."

I sighed, giving up, and walked towards the bathroom, washing my hands and face. When I had walked into the bathroom, the room was filled with Levi's amusement over my embarrassment, but when I walked back out again, the mood had changed. Suddenly, it didn't feel as laughter-filled as it did a few seconds ago.

I quickly looked towards Levi, trying to gauge his mood, just to see him staring at his phone with an intense frown on his face. Oh no... the last time he had looked at his phone like that was when he... un-friended me. I walked towards him, slowly, as to not startle him, and carefully placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Levi? Is everything okay?"

As he looked at me, I could clearly see the anger in his eyes dissipating slightly, and I inwardly let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't going to suffer through one of his I.E.D attacks again.

His eyes locked on mine, and as he opened his mouth to say something, the doorbell rang. Levi's eyes widened, making me confused. He stood still as a statue, his jaw dropped open. Before he could say anything, I started walking towards the door, looking through the peephole to make sure that it wasn't some creep.

But what I spotted wasn't a creep. In fact, the woman standing in the corridor looked like a friendly, smiley woman. I opened the door, and there she stood, her red hair shining, as if she was still in her twenties. Although she had clearly aged very well, the smile lines were signs of her actual age. She looked at me and smiled brightly.

Holding out her hand, she said, "Hi! You must be Zoe! I'm Celine Jaxon! Levi's mother!"

My eyes widened. This was his mother?! And as I looked towards Levi, the angry look in his eyes clearly showed that he didn't have a good relationship with her.

Uh oh...

Oops! Sorry for the cliffhanger! Please don't kill me! XD Did you guys like the chapter? Let me know in the comments. Also, what do you think will happen next? Make sure to press the little star icon, and thank you so much for reading! Love you guys! Peace out!