The Intern

Chapter 14

Levi

"I like it."

I stared up at my mother as she fiddled with the white fabric around my neck, tying it into a familiar fashion. I was never able to get my little fingers to mimic the style, but the motions seemed to be second nature to her. She didn't even need to keep her eyes on the task to know that she was doing it perfectly. She was gazing at my father as her thin, delicate fingers moved the cloth and tightened it just enough to keep it in place while still leaving me the ability to breathe comfortably.

"I don't see why he can't just wear a tie like all the other boys," my father grumbled, his voice gruff. He was eyeing the cravat with a look of distaste, as he always did when my mother put it on me. "Ties are normal."

"Levi is not normal." My mother smiled at me as she said this, and I felt pride swell in my chest. To anyone else that would have sounded like an insult, but I knew it was the best compliment coming from her. I was special to her, and in my world that was all that mattered.

"He could be normal if you let him dress like the other boys."

"Do you want to be like all the other boys, mon petit ange?" She spoke only to me and didn't spare a glance at my father. It was like we were on an island separate from him, talking from a distance to someone who didn't really matter at all.

I shook my head, as she knew I would, and she swept my cheeks up in her palms and pressed a kiss to my forehead. Then she moved her fingers through my long black hair, tousling the strands. "This is getting so long. All the girls are going to be envious."

My father grumbled something else and took a sip of the golden liquid in his short glass. I knew it was a comment about the length of my hair, as he had been making plenty of snide remarks since I had started to grow it out. It had been a short-lived argument between my parents, ending with him relenting to my mother. He was fighting a losing battle every time he tried to argue in favor of things he thought to be normal. I never understood how someone as captivating and intelligent as my mother settled for someone as dull and average as my father. I couldn't imagine living my life with someone who challenged my happiness at every turn and tried to stuff me into a box I would never fit in. I didn't know how she could smile around him so easily when all he ever did was suffocate her.

"I can't believe the summer is nearly over," she sighed, fanning out the end on my cravat. "We'll have to do something fun before you start school next week."

"Like what, maman?" I perked up at the idea of any adventure with her. Her plans always started out simple and quickly grew into a day of events. One day she had suggested going out for some ice cream, but apparently not any ice cream would do. We drove for hours to a number of locations; sampling all the flavors we'd never tried before. In the end, we wound up on the beach and spent the day in the sand with the sundaes we had carried over from the boardwalk.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, although her smile suggested otherwise. There was always a mischievous glint in her sharp blue eyes whenever she was planning something, and I saw it there now. "I'm sure we'll think of something."

"Can we do it today, maman?"

"Oh, mon petit, I wish we could," she placed another kiss to my forehead before standing up and reaching for her cream colored woven scarf. It was the one she always wore when she was going out for the day, with a uniquely stitched diamond pattern that tapered off into small tassels held together by little silver beads. "I have a meeting today, and I want the whole day for us. We'll go tomorrow."

She smiled down at me and then pulled her long black hair out of the way to drape the long scarf around her neck, tossing one end over her opposite shoulder. She had on a sleeveless white shirt and a black skirt, all summer wear and appropriate for the weather outside. The cream scarf would probably look silly to everyone who saw her today. They wouldn't think it was normal at all, but she was not a normal person and neither was I. We weren't like them and we never would be.