Right Now, I'm Anyone's

“Hello?”

“Hey.” The sound of Levi’s voice made me smile. “You ready for me to come over?”

“Yeah,” I smiled, forgetting all my frustration. “What are we doing anyway?”

“Well, I was thinking I could cook you dinner,” he said. “And then we could watch some films or something.”

I smiled again. “That sounds perfect right now.”

“Okay,” he laughed. “I’ll see you in a little while.

I put the phone down and jumped around like a schoolgirl. Levi was really amazing. He was tall, lean, with dark hair and beautiful green eyes, with good cheekbones, a straight nose and pale skin. I used to daydream and practically drool everywhere when I first met him. He was at Flux one night sometime last January and we got talking, he asked for my number and called me a few days after. We’ve been together since the beginning of February, so that’s about nine months.

I made my way into the bathroom and hastily washed my hair over the side of the bath, before running to my room and drying it quickly, just leaving it to set into its natural, loose curls. I changed out of my work clothes and found a charcoal grey tube dress. I’d just finished fixing my make-up when there was a knock on my front door.

I actually ran to answer it, checking the peep-hole. I saw Levi standing there with plastic bags in his hands. I smiled and opened the door to him, letting him walk into my flat and dump the bags in the kitchen.

“Hello,” he smiled, wrapping his arms around my waist while I put mine onto his chest. He kissed my lips lightly as another greeting, then let me go, picking up the plastic bags and placing them on the counter. I helped him take everything out of the bags and put some of it in the fridge, while he kept all the things he needed for dinner out. He wouldn’t let me help him with anything else, and insisted that I go and wait in the living room part.

A good hour or so later, I felt tired and hungry. I could smell Levi’s cooking from where I sat on the couch, with a glass of wine held in my right hand which he’d given to me a couple of minutes before. I glanced over to him and he caught me, smiling.

“Come on, then,” he said, coming over to take my hand. “It’s done.”

We walked back around the counter, into the kitchen. He pulled out a stool for me at the counter and went to grab the food. He came back with two plates of vegetarian lasagne and placed one in front of me. He kissed my temple lightly before he sat down beside me.

Seriously, the best lasagne I ever ate.

*****

I was falling asleep, I could feel it. The amazing food, mixed with the four glasses of wine I had was making me want to just fall asleep, right there on Levi’s arm. We were watching Coco Before Chanel – even though I knew he hated it – and he was a little bit fidgety. With his arm around my shoulders, he traced light circles on my back, not exactly making it easy to stay conscious.

“You okay?” I yawned.

“Yeah, just thinking,” he murmured. “How long have we been together?”

I glanced up at him; did he forget? “Nine months.”

“That’s a long time.”

“I know,” I whispered. Where was he going with this? I looked at him again and he was smiling contently. So, there was definitely nothing wrong...what was going on?

“I just wanted to know something,” he said, tilting my head to look at him properly. “I love you, you know that?”

I nodded. “I love you too.”

“Good,” he smiled again. “So, what would you say if I asked you to marry me?”

I stared at him, my mouth wide open. He bit his lip after a while of me just sitting there, opening and closing my mouth, getting more worried. How can any woman be prepared for something like that? Seriously?

“Well...?”

“I-I-” I stuttered. I closed my eyes and breathed for a couple of seconds, trying to gather my composure. I exhaled my deep breath and opened my eyes, looking at him steadily.

“Levi, I do love you,” I said. “But marriage? Now? At twenty-two and twenty-three? It’s far too soon.”

“Why is it?”

“Because we’ve got the rest of our lives to do that.” I paused. “I mean, say feelings changed.”

“Mine wouldn’t.”

“They might,” I said, wrapping an arm around his back. “You don’t know. How about we leave it for a while, and see how it goes?”

Levi thought for a while before he smiled and nodded his head in agreement. He pulled me up to him and kissed me deeply on the mouth, holding me around my waist. I tangled my hands in his hair and he pulled me over to straddle his legs. His hands moved down to grip my hips and I laughed slightly, feeling them pushing my dress up slightly.

“You’re lucky I’m not abstinent,” Levi smirked. “Then you’d have to marry me.”

I giggled and nipped his lip gently as he stood up and wrapped my legs around his waist. He captured my lips again and starting walking us to my bedroom, dropping me down on the bed once we got there. I could still hear Audrey Tautou nattering on in French in the living room, but I didn’t care. All I could focus on was the gorgeous man, currently nibbling on my neck and pulling his shirt over his head at the same time.

I felt him smirk as he kissed my jaw lightly, his hand fumbling in my bedside table for protection. “Happy birthday, babe.”

*****

I groaned, slapping my hand around on my bedside table in an attempt to put my alarm clock on snooze for another five minutes. Getting up early really was not my forte. I shifted a bit further away, towards the edge of the bed and felt Levi’s arms tighten around my waist. I smiled and leaned over him, pressing a light kiss to his lips and thinking over last night.

He didn’t wake up, so I grabbed his discarded shirt off of the floor and slipped that on, pulling my underwear up my legs afterwards. I made my way into the kitchen and almost jumped out of my skin when I saw Dimitri standing there, smiling like the Cheshire cat with a mug of coffee in his hands.

“So, you had a good birthday?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows and making his pervert face.

I rolled my eyes. “It was great.”

“So, give me the details!”

I raised my eyebrows. “Never, Dimitri will I tell you what happens during mine and Lev-”

“No, not the sex! Dirty bitch,” Dimitri laughed. “What did he do?”

“Oh, he cooked me dinner, we watched Coco Before Chanel,” I said. Then I smiled. “And he asked me to marry him.”

I heard the crack of cheap crockery when Dimitri dropped his coffee. He was staring at me, his jaw on the floor and his eyes wide. I ignored it for a minute or two, turning to boil the kettle to make Levi some tea.

“Are you serious?”

“Completely.” I turned back around and leaned against the kitchen counter.

“So, my little princess is engaged?”

I smiled. “No.”

“Uh, what?”

“I didn’t say yes.”

“Oh...Why the fuck not!?”

“I’m twenty-two!”

Dimitri nodded and told me his dad was married by nineteen to his mother.

“I’m not your dad.”

“Yeah, I’d be severely concerned if you were a Russian man with a beard.” I laughed and finished up making the tea. I wondered if Georgia was still in bed, and if she was, it was extremely unlike her. I wandered back to my room and immediately forgot about anything else, except for the scruffy man, spread out in my bed with his hair sticking up everywhere. I smiled and placed his mug down near him, before sitting on the bed next to him and brushing his dark hair out of his sleeping eyes.

“Morning,” he mumbled, opening his eyes slightly and smiling at me. I smiled back and greeted him with another small kiss, sipping from my tea afterwards. He sat up in my bed and grabbed his own mug. We sat and talked until about half past eight, when I had to start getting ready. Levi hung around in the living room with Dimitri until I was ready to leave.

“Come on, I’ll drive you to work,” Levi said, holding his hand out to me. I smiled and took his hand, shouting a goodbye to Dimitri and making my way out of our flat.