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With every word that tumbled out of her mouth, Levi felt his heartache growing more keen, a sharpened edge that kept jabbing into the softest and most vulnerable parts of himself. He couldn’t help the way he began to recede as her panic overwhelmed him and he let his eyes drop just to look away from the pain he could see radiating from hers. Hurting her was one of his biggest regrets and while he had started to feel like he was getting control over his life again, he was realizing in that moment that there was another mountain to climb. It was exhausting.

But then her fingers reached out after his and slid her warm skin beneath them; it was a simple, gentle gesture but it was enough.

Levi shifted his hand so that he could twine his fingers within hers, sliding his longer digits between her smaller ones and letting himself relish in the way it felt to simply touch her again. It made him feel grounded even as he stared up at this new mountain and he knew, even if she couldn’t trust him, that there was nothing in Jade that could cause the avalanche.

“Maybe that would be true if you were anyone but who you are.” His eyes rose to hers again with a newfound challenge in them, even if it was small and weak yet. “I let go of the people who have nothing to offer me but temptation, we hired a new receptionist and moved some of my more unruly clients to new managers. If I, or even Chase, thought you were a bad influence then I wouldn’t be sitting here with you.”

He wanted her to trust him. Long fingers tightened around hers as he tried to puzzle out how to show her that he meant this. Maybe...

“Spend a day with me. Come be a fly on the wall in my life and let me show you how different it’s become. If you really don’t think there’s a place for you in it after that then we can just... call this quits?” The thought made him grimace even as he said it. “I know my word is hard to trust right now so that’s really all I can do, Jade, is show you instead.”

Levi honestly hadn't been sure that she would agree to his split second proposal or not; it was impulsive and maybe a little thoughtless, all the things that he should have been trying to avoid but it didn't matter. After an interruption that admittedly annoyed him, she looked back up at him and said the only word that mattered in that moment-

Okay.

It was odd that he was so thrilled over something so minuscule. It wasn't like she had promised to go on a date with him or that she had forgiven him for all of his faults but it was something. The start of something. Despite his best efforts, that little spark of hope began to grow and a contained smile pulled up the corners of his lips. He squeezed his fingers around hers one last time before withdrawing them slowly and picking up his fork so that they weren't those weird people in the corner of the cafe. The fork wasn't nearly so pleasing to hold onto though.

"Okay," he repeated her words and dropped his eyes to the eggs benedict that had been set before him. His mind was mulling over the hows and whens and he distracted himself by cutting into the yolk and watching as it spilled cleanly over the edges of his english muffin; a perfect poach. He knew that she wouldn't pick a garbage cafe.

"So," he offered, trying his damnedest to sound light-hearted and normal, "do you want to meet me before or after I go to the gym in the morning?"

A small, playful smirk tugged at the corner of his lip as she made her decision but he hid it behind a bite of his lunch. As he chewed it, his eyes watched her, picking out the little bit of playfulness that lingered there.

Their existence felt like a roller coaster of ups and downs, sad and happy, want and fear. He would take it though, this tumultuous ride that they found themselves on, because he knew it was better than having nothing at all. He had fallen into the darkest place of his life when she walked away and it was only the need to see her smile again that made him claw his way back out, tooth and nail. Well, that and a very overbearing General; he would have tried to find a way to thank the man if he thought he cared about anything anymore.

"That sounds like a plan then," he pulled his eyes away from her at last and dropped them to the brunch food he had ordered for himself, "just let me know what day you're free. I leave the apartment a little after 7."

Given everything that they had been talking about and all that lay between them, sitting calmly and enjoying his meal seemed like such a strange juxtaposition. He would take it though because, at least, there was some shred of normalcy in this - some little bit of them that he could hold onto.