Chapter 157

Despite all of my hoping that time would freeze or Tina would cancel on her own, the day of Logan and Tina’s date eventually arrived.

I was a ghost all day at work, barely present, barely conscious. I moved on auto-pilot. I finished my work okay, but mentally, I was totally checked out.

My thoughts were entirely consumed by images of what could happen on this date between Logan and Tina.

Even though my work didn’t suffer, Logan still noticed my distraction. Once, he even walked behind me and chanced placing a hand on my shoulder. He squeezed while gently rubbing his thumb across the base of my neck.

He was trying to comfort me, but I’d only truly feel better once this horrible night was over.

That night, after work, I went straight to Logan’s house to help him get ready, though mostly I sat on his bed and watched him pick out a nice suit. He held up a pair of shirts for me to pick from, one blue and one green. I picked the blue, albeit somewhat begrudgingly. He really did look good in that blue shirt.

Logan went through all the motions. I turned my head as he changed. It felt wrong to watch somehow. Logan was my husband, but… knowing he was preparing for a date with someone else turned my stomach. I didn’t want to subconsciously connect the joy of seeing him shirtless with that ugly feeling.

Logan changed in a hurry. When I looked at him again, he buttoned his shirt the whole way up to the top, hiding his collarbone.

“Should I wear cologne?” he said

“Why ask me?”

“So I don’t overstep,” he replied.

This whole thing was a massive overstep. Even if it was necessary, he couldn’t think there was anything he could do that would make me feel more comfortable with this – short of canceling the whole thing.

Still, I grumbled, “No cologne.”

“Okay,” he said and went to the bathroom to fix his hair. When he returned to the bedroom, his hair was combed back.

I tried to convince myself that he was going to some work related meeting or conference.

This wasn’t a date with a beautiful, wealthy woman. It wasn’t. It couldn’t be.

But then why did I still feel like I was about to lose him?

“Hey,” he said, looking at me. He held open his arms. “Come here.”

I hesitated. “I could transfer my perfume onto you.”

“So be it,” Logan said. He inched closer. “Come here. Please.”

At his insistence, my willpower crumbled. I stood and stepped into the warmth of his arms that closed around me. He tugged me tightly to his chest. Instinctively, my eyes closed and I sunk into him. I wrapped my arms around his waist. And buried myself in his closeness, as close as I could get.

“You are my wife,” he said. “Tonight isn’t going to change that.”

“Most wives don’t send their husbands off to date other women,” I said.

He dropped a soft kiss to the top of my head. “That’s not what you are doing.”

I inched back to look up into his face. “Isn’t it?”

He held my gaze with his own. His was fierce and earnest. “Nothing is going to happen tonight, Hazel. I will go out with Tina for appearances sake, and then I will return to you.”

“I’m not going to sit around waiting for you,” I said.

“Good. Go out with your friends. Have a good time, and don’t think of this at all.”

I frowned. He had to know I would be obsessing about this the whole time I was out with friends.

“I’ll text you the minute I’m free,” Logan said. “So we can reconnect. Then I’ll tell you all that happened. There will be no secrets between us.”

I didn’t know if that made things better or worse. Ignorance was bliss, truly. But maybe it would be worse not knowing, as then my imagination would run wild.

Logan lifted his hands to cup my face. Then he kissed me deeply, temporarily stealing my breath and my thoughts. When he stopped, however, everything came flooding right back.

“You are my wife,” he said again, but it still didn’t make me feel any better.

Later, after we parted ways, I sat in the bar with Rachel, Maria, and Megan. We’d already finished one bottle of wine, and was waiting on a second.

Logan’s date wasn’t set until 8. It was only 7:30 now. I’d left him early, unable to sit around and wait for the worst night of my life to begin. I’d rather be drunk for it. Or, at least, be buzzed. I was trying not to get super drunk anymore, since some of my earlier antics got me into so much trouble.

Buzzed, I could handle some of my overwhelming feelings without totally losing myself.

I’d hoped to find support in my friend circle, but they were all varying levels of outraged. Even though I’d shared what was happening several days ago, they were still as furious now on my behalf as they had been when I first told them.

“You know which restaurant he’s at,” Rachel said. “We should just show up.”

“No,” I said firmly, waving my glass back and forth in emphasis. “We’d ruin everything. I’m not suffering like this just for it to all go to waste.”

“Yeah, okay, sure,” Megan said. “But you have to be worried…”

“I trust Logan,” I said, frowning.

“Trust him, fine,” Megan continued. “But what about her? Do we know anything about her? What if she expects him to spend the night after a first date?”

“Megan,” Maria hissed. “That isn’t helping.”

“We’re all thinking it!” Megan said, swaying on her seat. She arrived first and drank most of that first bottle. “Those rich girls always just take what they want.”

As loathe as I was to allow such thoughts to enter my brain, they sneaked their way in all the same.

I did trust Logan, but I knew Megan was right. Women of high society could have anything they wanted, whenever they wanted.

What if that expectation also applied to their dates?

What did I really know about Tina St. Louis? Other than what was printed about her family, nothing.

“Maybe…” Maria started, then paused. She was watching me closely. I nodded for her to continue. “I mean… would it hurt for you and me to just happen to walk by? We don’t have to go into the restaurant. We’re just looking…”

Megan clapped her hands together. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“If he’s as trustworthy as you believe, then he shouldn’t have anything to hide,” Rachel says.

“That’s a terrible idea,” I said. “The worst idea I have ever heard.”

Twenty minutes, Maria and I stood on the sidewalk across the street from the restaurant where Logan and Tina had their reservation. Maria and I were attempting to be inconspicuous, pretending to window shop at the candle store across the street.

I wasn’t sure how well we were pulling off nonchalance. I doubted most people stared at the same window display for ten minutes.

“Oh, there’s his car,” Maria whispered.

I glanced over my shoulder in time to watch Logan step out of his car and hand his keys to the valet.

Suddenly, a bouncy brunette burst from the front of the restaurant. “Logan!” she called.

“That’s Tina, isn’t it?” Maria asked. “How long has she – oh.”

Tina ran right up to Logan, threw her arms around his neck, and planted a kiss right on his lips.