The Boy Who Fell Off a Lawn Mower | Watty's '18

7. Dinner Time

Chapter 7

Dinner Time

*the next night*

"Dani! Aida! Help your father out!"

The booming call rang through the halls of the colossal mansion. It had bumbled straight from Jay Erikson's large belly and up through his large lungs to meet their ears on the third floor, even over the shrill sound of the lawn mower outside. Within a few minutes, both his girls had run down the two flights of intricate stairs and met him in the kitchen. He was quite the cook, even before the death of Aida's mother it had always been him who made the meals in the house.

"Help me bring everything to the dining room table." He scratched his short grey beard and smiled at his work. It was a hardy meal that he was excited to eat, like any man who's been hungry and working all day. The girls complied easily and moved the pots, plates, and silverware from the open-style kitchen listening to their father speak. "Aida, you asked your friend over right? When should he be arriving?"

Aida had panicked last night at the party when she'd run into Connor a second time. They'd endured a painfully awkward silence and she rushed his dinner invitation by inviting him over for the following night. She earned herself a mental face palm again for that, but Connor seemed too eager to accept.

"He should be here any minute. I think you finished dinner a bit early," she ventured in a peaceful manner.

"You're right, I did. I was just excited to cook." He sat down at the table but did not serve himself yet.

"Or excited to eat," muttered Dani under her breath, throwing a matching dirty blonde lock over her shoulder as she sat adjacent to him.

"You got that right!" he said jollily, eyeing his masterpiece with greed. Aida prepared to sit down, but suddenly the doorbell rang and she left the room to answer it, preparing herself to let Connor in. It wasn't necessarily a date, but she had treated it like one, getting herself ready by doing her hair nice and wearing her favorite purple shirt. Aida wasn't particularly thrilled by Connor but she was allowing him to shoot his shot and see where it went.

She stood before the door, pushing the ruffles from her clothes and taking a deep breath. With a bit of a huff as she pulled the old, heavy door open, she was shocked.

Levi.

"Uhm, hello?" she said, stipulation lacing her voice as she locked eyes with him.

"Hi there," he answered, clearly unbothered by the encounter. He had grass stains all over his white shirt and reeked of that awful summer sweat stench, but still had a slight tinge of oak scent about him.

Aida looked at him for a solid fifteen seconds, unsure why he was so formally standing at her front door. He must have noticed the confusion in her face because he added to his short statement. "Pay day," he chimed.

"Ah," she said, secretly disappointed he wasn't looking for her, but also knowing he wouldn't have a reason to be. "Follow me."

"I thought you wrote the checks," he said tartly before he moved.

Aida looked back at him. "Funny." They started walking down the hall, Levi right at Aida's heels.

Before they entered the dining room, out of earshot from Aida's family, Levi spoke. "By the way, you look nice today."

Aida stopped dead in her tracks as he walked past her into the room, not further acknowledging his statement at all and not even glancing at her.

"Hi sir, how are you?" asked Levi to Jay. He spoke very peacefully – it was painfully nonchalant and that made his comment to Aida so much more intriguing to her. She listened as he made easy chit chat with her father.