Chapter 65
After Logan made up the couch for me and went to bed himself, I laid staring at the ceiling. The very high-vaulted, chandelier-covered ceiling. Seriously, this place was ridiculous.
I was suddenly wide-awake and felt stone-cold sober. This felt weird. And wrong. And every time I closed my eyes all I pictured was Logan in his skin-tight shirt grabbing me and kissing me again. So I forced them to stay open.
I doubted Maria was awake, but I opened my phone to send her a message anyway. I couldn’t wait to see and/or hear her reaction when she did open it.
“Guess where I’m spending the night. Hint: it’s not my parents’ place…” I pushed send and let out a small laugh.
My smile faded as I looked around the room. This place wasn’t for me. I was just the man’s secretary for God’s sake. I couldn’t let us be so comfortable around each other. I would never move past the kiss if we were.
I made up my mind about what I was going to do about it. I would execute my plan in the morning. The thought gave me enough relief that I was finally able to drift off to sleep.
My alarm went off at 5:30 am. I had set it so early so I could run home to shower, but also I wanted to sneak out before I saw Logan.
I rolled over to turn it off. I groaned and stretched my arms above my head. I hadn’t gotten near as much sleep as I would have liked, but I’d rather be tired than be in this house any longer than necessary.
I gathered my purse and laptop and tiptoed to the door. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to do that, I imagined wherever Logan’s room was in the house it was far enough away that he wouldn’t hear me sneaking out. I slipped my feet into my shoes and opened the front door.
A man stood on the other side of it. I screamed. Then he screamed. He stepped into the light of the porch.
“Oh my god Logan,” I said when I saw it was him. “What are you doing?”
“I just finished my run,” he said.
Of course he was an early morning runner. “Oh,” was all I could think to say.
“Headed out so early?” He asked. “I could make us some breakfast before you go.”
“Thank you, but I need time to get myself ready for work. I’ll see you in a little bit?” I said, brushing past him towards my car.
“Yeah, see you in a little bit,” he said, a hint of disappoint coloring his words.
As I suspected, Maria was waiting for me at my desk when I arrived at work. Her arms were crossed and she was tapping one foot.
“You look just like Natalie,” I said.
“Never say that to me again,” she winced. “And I’m not going to tell you again, you cannot just drop these bombs in texts and leave them without answers.”
I laughed. I knew that one was going to drive her nuts.
“So spill!” She said impatiently.
“Oh, you know there’s nothing to tell. We ate dinner, we worked way too late and I drank way too much wine, and I was too drunk to drive home. He made me stay on the couch,” I shrugged.
“Nothing to tell? You had dinner and wine together. I have news for you, that wasn’t just work, that sounds like a date,” she said.
I frowned. “Yeah. It kind of does, doesn’t it?”
She nodded, raising her eyebrows at me.
“I have to do better at keeping my distance,” I said. “Nothing else happened last night, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been tempted.” I remembered my plan and told her what I was going to do as soon as I saw him.
“Do you think he’ll buy it?” She asked. “I think you should wait a few days, maybe take a day off and say you have something you need to do? That would make it more believable. That is, if you are for sure you want to push him away for good.”
I bit at my thumbnail. I wasn’t sure. I just thought maybe an extreme thing like I had planned would make it easier to keep the necessary distance between him and me. “Okay, I’ll do that. That’ll give me more time to think it over too.”
“That’s a good idea,” Maria said. She looked behind me. “Ooh, don’t look now, but your man is coming and it looks like he brought you a coffee.” She winked at me. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
“It’s because he…” but she was already out of earshot. “Lost a bet,” I muttered the last part to myself.
“Hey,” Logan said once he reached me. He handed me my coffee. “To the victor go the spoils.”
“Mm,” I said as I took a sip. “Sweet, sweet victory.”
“I do hate that Ryan and Joe didn’t make it, but,” he shrugged, “you sure called it.”
“I have years of watching terrible reality shows under my belt,” I said. “You can see break-ups like that from a mile away.”
“I guess I have some catching up to do,” he smiled.
Oh, that smile…I had to go through with my plan. “Hey, would you mind if I take tomorrow off? I have…something I need to do,” I asked.
“Well…I do owe you for making you work so late last night,” he said. “Yeah, no problem. I think I can handle one day on my own.”
He gave me one more smile before stepping into his office. I sighed. As much as I enjoyed how things had become with Logan, I knew what I was planning on doing was for the best.
Two days later I stepped out of my car once I parked at work. I took a deep breath and adjusted the ring on my left hand ring finger.
Maria walked over to me from her car. I asked her to meet me a little early for moral support. “You’re sure about this?” She asked.
“I don’t see any other way to make things go back to normal,” I said.
She sighed. “I’m sure there are other options, but like…why do you want it to go back to normal? I see the way you two interact. You guys are so cute and playful and I don’t understand why you want to ruin that.”
“I didn’t tell you this part of the kiss story,” I said, turning to fully face her. “After the kiss, we both talked and we agreed it felt weird. And wrong. We told each other we would just forget it happened. The only way I can do that is if he stops acting like a friend and starts acting like my boss again.” I held up my left hand to show her the ring. “This should do the trick.”
She grabbed my hand. “That diamond is huge! Where did you get this?”
“Oh, it’s definitely not a diamond. I got it at a department store for like, ten bucks,” I said.
I looked behind her. Logan had just parked his car and was stepping out of it. He waved at me. I gave him a small wave back.
“There’s Logan,” I whispered. “Quick, act like I just gave you the news.”
“Oh my god!” She said too loudly. “I can’t believe this! Oh, congrats!” She pulled me in for a hug.
As I had hoped, Logan gave us a curious look and walked over. “Good morning ladies,” he said. “What’s all the excitement about?”
Maria grabbed my left hand and showed Logan my ring. “My girl went and eloped yesterday, the sneaky little thing!”
