Page 81 of Picking Daisies on Sundays

“Daniella, if you want things in life, you need to take the extra help. That’s how this industry works: fighting tooth and nail and cutting some corners when necessary.” I sat there horrified. He was an esteemed designer, a training academic, and now he was talking about cheating?

He pushed off his desk and leaned over me. My body immediately reacted like a tide in a storm, pushing away. My back collided with the cushion of the chair as his hands gripped the armrests, caging me in. Air stopped traveling through my lungs. His face was only inches away from mine, and I could smell the gum he was chewing; it made me nauseous. I clamped my mouth shut.

He cocked an eyebrow. “Well, if you’re not going to ask her, you could always ask me…”

Who was this person?I refused to look into his eyes. His hand

moved from the armrest onto my knee as my heart sped up and my mind reeled.How did I misjudge him? I thought he was trying to help me.

He kept talking. I squeezed my eyes shut as his face came closer. “We both know you need the help. Your designs are fine, nothing special. You don’t even make any of the designs for yourself.” I cringed and he laughed. “You think I didn’t notice? I know you better than you think. Not using your mother’s name because you don’t want to be compared to her; the constant need for approval; never designing clothes that fit you because you don’t think your body is good enough.” My throat was closing in on itself and my eyes burned from closeted tears. The muscles and bones in my body were fusing together, too scared to move an inch. I was paralyzed. “I doubt I’m the only who’s noticed, but I am the only one who is willing to help you.”

“Please stop,” I whispered.

He laughed quietly before his lips reached the crest of my ear. “Maybe break up with that boyfriend and I can make my own call to Lazaro for you.”Levi. I was this close to him last night, but it felt nothing like this. He should be on his way.

But he wasn’t here right now.

Ethan moved his hand further up my leg, and I reacted with a jolt, like a torch was tapped against my leg, burning my skin through my denim. I lifted my knee up with as much adrenaline as I could. He grunted and fell forward. I shoved him off of me and ran out the door.Breathe, breathe, breathe. Breathing was too difficult, between processing what just happened and running out the door and sobbing at the same time.Levi, Levi, Levi, was all I could think, all I couldhope.

I ran down the stairs of the building and through the exit and—

I ran straight into Levi’s chest. His smile quickly fell and turned into a worried look. His hands latched onto both sides of my jaw, cradling my face upward. “Daisy, baby, what’s wrong?”

But I couldn’t answer because tears were clogging my throat. I was gasping for air in between sobs. He pulled me into his chest, and I held onto him like he was keeping me above water. I cried, and I cried, and I cried, soaking his shirt. He brushed my hair with his hand trying to calm me down and pressed his lips to the crown of my head. Slowly pulling away, he held my face in his hands, my heart in his hands as he looked at me.

He wiped away my tears as they fell. “Baby, I need you to breathe, okay? We’re going to take a deep breath in, just like that, and exhale. Good, give me one more.” I obeyed, trying to slow down my heartbeat.

“Now tell me what’s wrong, I’ll fix it.” His voice was so sincere, so quiet, so worried. Wrinkled skin between brows and a sloped frown.

My voice was trembling like I was a frail shed made of straw about to blow away. “We need to leave, now, right now.” I was so terrified that Ethan was going to come running through the door.

Hisface was a storm of emotions, shifting from sweet concern to quiet rage. He stilled and I watched the gears turning in his head. He spoke with an even, assertive tone. “Daisy, what’s wrong?”

“He, I, Ethan,” I stuttered, I couldn’t say it, I couldn’t say it, or it’d be real and then I wouldn’t be able to pretend like it never happened.

Levi looked as if I slapped him. “Ethan? What did he—” he exhaled, trying to collect himself. I’d never seen him so angry. “What did he do?”

“He…he tried to,”sniff, “he tried to touch me.” My eyes were filling like wells again.

Whatever internal battle Levi was fighting in order to stay calm, he had just lost. He lookedruined. Ruined, and vengeful, and sick.

His lips were pressed in a tight line as he uttered, “I willkill him.”

He dropped his hands from my face and moved to walk back into the building. “No, Levi, no, please, please don’t leave,” I begged.

He stopped. His face went slack, looking at me with sadness and conflict. He wanted to go back in and do something. He glanced at the building one more time before looking at me and bringing me into his arms.

“I am going to take care of this,” he insisted as I clutched onto him. The tears kept coming.

It was the end of an era of my life. I was rejected, again, by something I loved. Lazaro didn’t want me. And someone who I thought I could trust had thought nothing of me.

Levi continued to run his hand over my head and through my hair, whispering to me, trying to soothe me. “You don’t deserve this, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. You’re spring, baby. You’re more radiant than flowers and the sun and no one can take that away from you.”

He was peppering the top of my head with kisses as he held onto me like he was the one who needed to be reassured. The second that thought appeared in my head, I noticed how he was shaking.

I pull away and look up to find him teary-eyed. It punctures a hole in my heart that I didn’t know I had any spaces left for. Every inch of my heart had been for him though. It has always been punctured and repaired by him.

When his eyes met mine, my hands started moving before I could think the movements through. My thumb was brushing his tears away, and now it was moving to the side of his head where I touched his hair, and then I was reaching for the nape of his neck. The instant my hand was on the back of his neck, it was pulling him towards me, closing the space between our lips.