Page 88 of Picking Daisies on Sundays

“I hate you,” I muttered.

“You love me,” he argued.

“I do,” I succumbed.

39

and when she speaks, I become a bee enthralled in

a field of daisies

When Audrey Hepburn questioned, “Am I so much in love with him that all others seem ridiculous?” inWar and Peace,it was all I could think of as Levi and I drove down the highway towards Sarah’s father-in-law’s beach house in the Hamptons. Black sunglasses sat on the brim of his nose, and he wore a short-sleeve button down with a few buttons undone, the ocean wind coming in through the car windows rustling his collar. Like some male model shooting for a car or sunglasses campaign.

“Lay all of your love on meeee!”Levi sang ABBA at the loudest volume from the driver’s seat. I was laughing like a kid in the passenger’s seat to the point that I couldn’t even get a breath in to sing the song myself—and Ilovedthis song.

Our packed bags were in the backseat with two garment bags—one with his suit, the other with my dress—for the weekend. The warm air came in through the windows, and the sun was beating down on our shoulders through the windshield despite all the symmetrical green trees we were driving in between. You could smell the salt water of the ocean nearby.Summer. It wasso close I could taste it in the air.

He held my hand over the console with his left on the steering wheel. His fingers were interlaced with mine. I couldn’t stop glancing back down at them and the way they squeezed mine. Every few minutes he would lift them to his lips and place a kiss on the back of my hand. It made me shiver. We hadn’t stopped touching each other since he showed up at my house with my letter and his book. “Making up for lost time,” is what he had said. What he had done after made me dizzy.

I tried to push away the reminder that all of this would be gone in a few months. I’d be in Paris and Levi would be here in New York. Seven hours and thirty-five minutes—that’s how long the flight was. I kept telling myself that it could be worse. This could be a 1700s period drama and we’d have to travel via boat to see one another, which took about six weeks and a chance of being killed by pirates or scurvy. In other words, it could be much worse.

We already talked about flying back and forth every few months. It was just one year. Twelve months. That was nothing in the grand scheme of life. Levi and I had already been apart for four years; what was a few months in between visits? The sadistic part of my mind reminded me of all the women that hit on him during those four years. The girls that asked him for his number, that asked him to speak in French, that grazed his arm and probably tried leaning in to kiss—

“You okay?” Levi asked, cutting off my inner turmoil.

I smiled quickly, “Yeah.”

“You can tell me if my singing is that bad, I won’t beoffended,” he said, poking my ribcage. He was trying to make me laugh. I appreciated it, but I could only offer a small smile.

Being around Levi’s family and the rest of the wedding party didn’t feel as stiff now that he knew I loved him. No pressure to pretend that I wasn’t really pretending. He must’ve felt the same way because he didn’t hesitate to hold my hand as we walked around the property, or to lift my chin up and plant a kiss on my lips in between Jeff and Sarah’s random arguments. I even found him twirling strands of my hair around his fingers as we sat by the beach, watching the bride and groom rehearse their vows. The day goes by quick when you’re part of a wedding party though.

By the time Levi and I finished with putting out the center pieces for the tables while everyone else worked on place sets, it was 8 PM and the sun was setting behind the ocean. The home we’d be staying in for the weekend was also the venue. It was also more than just a house; it was very much the epitome of luxury in the Hamptons. Three floors, a long gravel driveway that secluded the house from the neighborhood, and a private beach for a backyard. Tall bushes hid the house from its neighbors, which I assumed were also some variations of white or sandy painted homes with numerous windows. It oozed: set for a Nancy Meyers film.

“I’m going to see if Sarah needs anything else before calling it a night,” Levi commented.

I nodded with a smile before he pressed a kiss to my head, and we moved in opposite directions. I aimed for the foyer where everyone left their bags. Hearts, hearts, hearts—there it was. My duffel bag covered in tiny pink hearts was lying behind Levi’s blackbag. Maybe I’ll take his too—

“You’re rooming with Aparna down the hall.” My head snapped up and—oh.

“What?” I asked Bella. Maybe she wasn’t talking to me.

“There’s not enough room for everyone, and since we lost the softball game, the groomsmen get their own rooms. Remember?” Nope, she was talking to me, and I didn’t remember that. I completely forgot about the softball game.

She looked at me like I was half listening. But I was fully listening, digesting every word actually. Especially the way she hadn’t asked if I was staying with Levi.

“Oh, yeah, of course, I remember, yes,” I said with a smile, trying my best to cover my lie.

“I heard you’re going to Paris. Levi was just talking to Sarah about it. He seemed pretty happy.” My heart dropped. He washappy?My mouth was dry. Shouldn’t your boyfriend be somewhat sad when you’re moving across the world? I tried my best to lift a smile and say, “Yeah, I’m excited.” She nodded and then walked off.

I moved down the hall timidly, trying to find Aparna in one of these rooms. I could only deal with one stressful thing at a time. Instead, I found a large, quilted bag with her initials on it, and dropped mine beside hers. Anxiety grew in the pit of my stomach. This was going to be like some sleepover from hell. I didn’t even know where the bathroom was, let alone how we would decide who got to shower first—

Oof. “Sorry,” I immediately muttered before looking up and seeing Levi.

He latched onto my arms to keep me from falling. “I was

looking for you.”

“I was just dropping my things off,” I waved to my bag in the room behind me. I tried to not think about what he and Sarah could’ve been talking about.