It was early evening before Levi and Zoe got back to Memphis. He hoped that Zoe wasn’t completely exhausted from the ride. Three hours, if you counted there and back, was a lot for someone who wasn’t a regular rider. He realized as he turned off the highway that he was starving. He’d been busy all morning, working with the brothers in the shop they’d “inherited” from Johnson before Zoe called him. He’d forgotten to eat.

When he came up to a stoplight he turned back to Zoe and said, “I’m starving. Do you want to get something to eat?”

“Yeah,” she said, “I’m starving too now that you mention it. I’m buying.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Zoe told Levi that Johnson had left her five one-hundred-dollar bills as payment for taking the envelope to Nicole. He got the feeling that she was feeling guilty about it somehow. He didn’t think she had anything to feel guilty about, but if it made her feel better to buy him a pizza, he wouldn’t argue with her.

“I know,” she said, “but I’d like to.”

“Okay, is pizza okay?”

“Pizza sounds great.” Levi turned right and a few minutes later they came to a small Italian restaurant called “From Sicily with Love.” The parking lot was packed and it took Levi a few minutes to find a place to park the bike. As Zoe slipped off the bike, looking like her legs were shaky once again, she said:

“I love this place. It’s the only pizza my grandparents will eat.”

Levi smiled as he got off the bike. “Me too. I actually almost regret trying it. Once I did, I couldn’t go back to your basic delivery.”

“I always wonder why they haven’t started delivering,” Zoe said.

“Look at how packed they are. They don’t need to. People don’t mind coming here to pick it up.” Levi pushed the heavy wooden doors open and Zoe followed him inside. The lights were low and it took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust. It looked like someone was having a party in the dining room; every table was full and people were milling about. Others stood at the counter, waiting for their take-out orders. “Wow, maybe this wasn’t a great idea,” he said. “How long until you have a table ready?” he asked the girl at the counter.

She looked a little overwhelmed as she said, “We just got a party of sixteen in…it might be hours, to be honest. I’m sorry.”

Levi looked at Zoe. “Maybe we could get it to go,” she said. “I’m kind of all tuned for it now. Can we carry pizza on a bike?”

He smiled. “We can carry almost anything on a bike if we want to badly enough. I want this pizza, bad.”

She laughed. “Me too.”

“Good, what do you like on top?”

“Everything,” she said. “Order what you like.” Levi ordered two large pizzas and when Zoe tried to pay he said:

“Just smelling the air in here is making my stomach rumble. I’ll eat a whole one myself.”

“I don’t care,” she said, “I’m buying.” She held out a hundred to the girl at the counter and stepped in front of him. He gave in, but he was happy when she let him order them a pitcher of soda while they waited and pay for that. Once their pizza was ready, Levi realized that they hadn’t talked about where they were going to take it to go. When they stepped outside he said, “Since I live closer and you have to hold onto the pizzas, do you mind if we eat at my place and then I’ll take you home?”

“Nope, the sooner the better. I might just start with a piece on the back of the bike.”

He laughed. “A girl after my own heart.” He drove them the few blocks to his apartment as Zoe balanced the pizzas on the back of the bike. Once they got inside, he found some paper plates and set them up on the coffee table in the living room. “You want soda?”

“Water is good,” she said. Levi came back with a Pepsi and a bottle of water. He sat down and waited for Zoe to take a piece of the pizza before he took one. After taking about three bites and washing them down with a swig of Pepsi he said:

“My Pops…my granddad…he drinks Pepsi like it’s water, or at least he used to before he got so sick he had to move in with my mom. He’s a diabetic and he’s already lost one foot. She keeps him in line like a drill sergeant. Sometimes I look at him and wonder if I should back off on the sugar myself...”

“And then you have another Pepsi,” Zoe said with a smile.

“Yeah, I guess that’s bad, huh?”

“Trust me, I’m not one to judge when it comes to bad habits. So, Zack and Nicole seem nice. She didn’t seem all that happy about the money and the house, though.”

“I don’t know her well, but I’m pretty sure that their money never meant much to her, even before everything happened. I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to use it that will benefit those kids, though; they seem like really good parents to me.”

“You ever think about having kids?” Zoe asked him as she started on her second piece of pizza. That question made Levi’s thoughts go to Krissy and without even thinking about it, he glanced up at her picture on the wall. “I’m sorry,” Zoe said. “That was a stupid question.”

“No, it wasn’t,” he said. “Krissy and I talked about having kids someday. Yeah, I do want kids. There’s just so much involved in this starting over thing. Two and a half months later and I’m still lost.”

“Two and a half months is no time at all. You’ll figure it out, I’m sure. You’re a strong man, Levi.”

He smiled. “Thanks. I’m thinking about making some big changes in my life. It’s just hard to think about…leaving people behind that you care about.”

“Leaving people behind? You’re thinking about moving?”

“Yeah. I have an offer to join a club in Massachusetts. It’s a great place and they’re not into all the crazy shit that Cheney likes to get us into. I think being somewhere new might help me get past all of this.”

Zoe smiled, but her eyes were telling him a different story. Levi could feel the energy between them and he knew that it wasn’t only him that was feeling things. From what he knew about her so far, she probably felt as badly about her feelings as he did. “That’s great,” she said. “Maybe that’s exactly what you need.”

“I asked my mom to go with me and bring Pops. She won’t go, though. I’d probably be back pretty often to see them.”

“Oh, that’s too bad that she won’t go.”

“Yes and no,” he said. “I guess most twenty-five-year-old bikers aren’t so attached to their mothers. It might do me some good to be really on my own for a change.”

“I think it’s nice that you’re so close to your mom. I always wished I had that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I had Nana and she’s always been amazing. I just took her for granted for a long time. I took everyone and everything for granted. I’m trying to change that.”

“You’re too hard on yourself. It seems to me like you’ve changed a lot of things in your life lately.”

“Working on it,” she said. “So, if you go, when would you leave?”

“I’m still working out the details with Cheney. He’s not happy about me leaving, but I don’t think he’s going to try and stop me. His life might actually be easier without me.”

She offered him another sad smile. “Well, I’m happy for you, but I’ll miss you. You’re the only real friend I have, except Charlie, and he’s drinking again.” She laughed, again, sadly.

“Charlie?”

“He’s an old vet that I knew from the streets. He’s the one that talked me into going to meetings to help me stay sober. He’s a really neat old guy when he’s not pickling his brain and liver. I ran into him today just before Mr. Johnson came in. He smelled like a bottle of old whiskey. He was doing so well; it makes me sad.”

Levi thought about the old veterans that he and Grant had thrown out of the meth lab that night and felt a pang in his chest. “I’m sorry. I hope he decides to clean up again.”

“Me too. He’s feeling frustrated because he can’t get his checks from the VA without an address and he can’t find a place to live. I think he feels like he may as well just stay drunk.”

“Does he want a job?”

“Hmm…I don’t know. What did you have in mind?”

“I bet I could get him something at the club, maybe a room to stay in, if he was willing to do some cleanup work around the place or something. We only have a few prospects these days and Cheney keeps them pretty busy. There’s a lot of shit not getting done.”

“Wow, that’s really nice of you, Levi. I’ll ask him next time I see him.”

“Good. I’ll check with Cheney in the meantime. You want some ice cream?”

Zoe laughed and put her hand on her belly. “No, thank you. I might burst. The pizza was amazing as always.”

“Yeah, it was good. Thank you, Zoe. I needed this.”

She smiled. “Me too. But, it’s getting late. I should get out of here so you can get some rest.”

“You have to work in the morning?”

“Nope, day off.”

“Me too,” he said. “We should do something.”

“Sure…like what?”

He shrugged. “What do you like to do?”

She laughed and leaned back into the couch. “You know, it’s been so many years since I thought about anything other than surviving that I haven’t even thought about it.”

“You like cars? Your grandfather told me when you were younger that he used to take you with him to car shows.”

“Yeah, that was the one thing Papa and I could agree on. We both loved classic cars.”

“There’s a car show and some kind of festival down by the river tomorrow. It starts kind of early, but if you’re not an early riser, we can go later.”

“Early is fine. Why don’t I take a cab home tonight, though, so you don’t have to go out again and then come right back to get me in the morning?”

“No, I can take you home. Unless...you could stay here. I’ll give you my bed and sleep on the couch. That is, if you don’t think your grandparents will worry.”

“Um…yeah, I could do that if it’s easier. But I won’t take your bed. The couch is fine for me. I’ll just text Nana so she doesn’t worry.”

“Good,” he said, wondering if it was really good or not. He wanted her to stay, but was it for the wrong reasons? He looked at Krissy’s photo again and then said, “I’m going to put the rest of this pizza away and jump in the shower.”

“Go shower. I’ll clean up.” They ended up cleaning up together and then Levi showed her how to work the remote for his TV and went to get into the shower. He was getting undressed when he saw something move behind him in the mirror. He turned around quickly and he was suddenly face to face with Krissy.