A Man Worth Shaving For: A Sweet Romantic Comedy

by Michelle Pennington

  “Close the window and come watch this with me,” I said.

  He gave a funny side-nod and closed the window with a sweet and speaking determination. As he came over to the bed, I pulled back the duvet for him, but he yanked it back up and pushed it against my side. “Yeah…no.”

  “Well, stop being a baby because we’re going to have to sit close if we’re going to watch this on my phone.”

  His jaw clenched like I’d just given him some kind of life-or-death mission as he sat on the bed and scooted over next to me. I helped him adjust a couple of pillows behind him and set another one across my raised knees to prop my phone on.

  “Can you see?” I asked after hitting play.

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, so I sat back and tried to relax.

  After a while, I felt him relax next to me. Then he started asking questions—a million questions—about the show. When the first episode ended, he was the one to hit the button for the next episode. I smiled victoriously and relaxed as well.

  In fact, I relaxed too much. Soon, I had to fight to keep my eyes open. I thought I was doing a good job until I jerked awake mid-head-bob.

  Logan must have noticed too. He put his arm around me and tucked me closer to his side in the perfect position to rest my head on his shoulder.

  As I gave up and let my eyes drift shut, I said, “Wake me up in a little while, and I’ll go see if Madi is still awake.”

  “Okay.”

  Then I heard a little click, and the light on the other side of my eyelids dimmed. I opened my eyes just long enough to determine that he’d turned off the lamp on his side so there was only one lamp left to light the whole room. I closed my eyes again, already dreading having to wake up to sneak him out.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  As it turned out, I didn’t mind waking up.

  In fact, it was sublime.

  The sun shone through the still-open curtains, across the bed, turning his hair a lighter, more golden shade of brown. His arm was around me, draped across my hip, and relaxed. I shifted, too drowsy to question the perfection of the comfort I found myself in, and snuggled into his chest. He didn’t wake when I moved—he just took a deep, sleepy breath and pulled me closer.

  That was hard to do since the duvet lay wedged between us, but sometime during the night, I’d kicked my leg free and flung it across his as if claiming my territory.

  He was so pretty when he was sleeping. As I stared at the sculpted line of his cheekbone, his sable-brown lashes, and the dark stubble on his jaw, my drowsiness vanished. After a moment of hesitation, I bit my lip and eased my finger through the space between us, slowly lowering it to his face. As softly as I could, I ran my finger across his skin, exploring the smooth skin of his cheek and the wire-like prickle of his stubble.

  “Don’t wake me up,” he whispered, not opening his eyes. “I don’t want reality to ruin this.”

  “Why are you still here?”

  “I guess I fell asleep too.”

  I snorted. Not a romantic sound at all, so I clapped my hand over my mouth, but his lazy grin made me laugh again. “I can’t believe we spent the night together.”

  He finally opened his eyes and laughed softly. “It’s the first time I’ve ever woken up with a woman in my arms. I like it.”

  “Can we stay here all day?”

  Lifting his head slightly, he swept his eyes over my face. “There you go, trying to tempt me again.”

  And then the door opened suddenly...and I realized in horror that I hadn’t locked it behind me when I came in with the food last night.

  With a gasp, I turned and saw Madi coming in with a mug in her hand. She froze, her mouth gaping open as her eyes took in Logan and I in bed together. And then the screaming began. So. much. screaming.

  I scrambled to sit up, but Logan just turned onto his back and covered his eyes with his arm.

  “He’s in your bed!” Madi screamed. “Why is he in your bed?” Her eyes opened even wider—which I wouldn’t have thought possible. “You mean he was here the whole night? Oh my gosh, you’ve been sneaking around with him behind my back!”

  This was going to be…difficult.

  I climbed off the bed and rushed over to grab her arms. “Madi, calm down. I’ll explain if you’ll stop screaming.”

  “I’m not screaming!” she screamed again.

  “Yes you are. Look…this is what happened—”

  “This should be interesting,” Logan said behind me.

  I turned around and found him on his side again, propping his head up on his fist as he watched us. “Why don’t you do something helpful?” I asked. “Like get out of my bed.”

  He shrugged and got up. “I need the bathroom anyway.” As he walked past Madi, he turned sideways and tried to put as much room between them as he could while passing through the narrow space between her and the dresser to get to the door.

  When the bathroom door closed behind him, I turned back to Madi. “Okay, so, nothing happened. We just fell asleep while we were waiting to sneak him out last night.”

  Madi let out a high-pitched whine. “But why was he here? I’m so confused. Have you been dating him all this time?”

  “We’re not even dating now.”

  She huffed and pointed at the bed. “That definitely looked like dating. He had his arms around you, and you were definitely about to kiss.”

  I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to sit down on the bed. As I sat down next to her, I tried to figure out where to start. “You know he came back here that night after our date—the one you set us up on, remember? We kind of connected in a weird way, and he…kissed me.” Why was I talking so quietly? Even if Logan could hear us from the bathroom, it wasn’t like any of this was a secret to him. “We weren’t expecting to ever see each other again. But on Monday, he was at my office. The company he came to consult for was Booms and Nibbles.”

  “You’ve been working with him? But you knew I wanted to see him again!”

  “Yes. But I...Madi…he wasn’t interested in you.”

  “But I was interested in her,” Logan said, walking slowly towards us. “Too much so. It’s been nearly impossible to get any work done with her around.”

  Madi stood up and looked between the two of us. “I don’t understand. Tessa, he’s not even your type. You’ve always hated hot guys cuz you say they’re always jerks.”

  I looked up at Logan—remembering his sincerity and the sweet way he paid so much attention to me. “I realized that I have been judging people on their looks just as much as people have judged me. So, I decided not to hold the fact that he’s beautiful against him.”

  Logan smiled. “We have to come up with another adjective for you to use—especially since I’m claiming that one to describe you. Now, I hate to leave, but I need to go back to my hotel before I can go to work, and you two will no doubt figure this out better if I’m not around.”

  He walked toward me as he spoke, then swooped down to kiss me—just a quick one. He probably didn’t want to rile Madi up anymore, but still…I felt cheated. “Don’t forget your things.”

  But he was already going to get them. Madi and I watched in silence as he slipped his shoes on and gathered his things. “Okay. I’ll see you at the office.”

  “I’ll be there soon.”

  Pausing in the doorway, he sighed and leaned his broad shoulders against the door frame—looking heartbreakingly handsome with his messy hair, wrinkled, unbuttoned shirt, and his tie draped around his neck. “Good. Because you and I need to talk too.” My worry must have shown on my face because he quickly added, “Nothing too serious, but nothing either of us will like it.”

  What could it be? I’d been so focused on this situation with Madi that I had no idea where his thoughts had been tracking this whole time.

  “Bye,” he said softly.

  “Bye.”

  Madi and I stayed silent until we heard the front door close, and
then she erupted. “No wonder you told me to move on the other day. How could you get involved with a guy when you knew your best friend liked him?”

  “How could you get so obsessed over a guy you exchanged a few words with? Besides, I was his date that night. From that moment on, I would have had dibs anyway, but you didn’t even think about that, did you? Or the fact that he’d come home with me that night? Like I said before, it didn’t even occur to you to find out first if I was interested in him before you were chasing after him.”

  With a wild, angry flush on her face, Madi jumped up and stood in front of me. “You have never been interested in men like Logan, and I wouldn’t have thought you’d be his type either.”

  “Why? Because of my size? I thought you always said guys were stupid for not going after me.”

  “Well, yeah, but…”

  My stomach clenched. This whole conversation was bringing back all my doubts, even though last night should have been enough to lock them away for good. Maybe they’d always be there, under the surface, ready to destroy my happiness.

  But I wasn’t about to let that happen. “I know. Logan is on a whole different level than me, huh? He deserves a girl with a perfect body who dresses perfectly and fixes her hair and puts makeup on and shaves her legs all the time and all that other crap. But you know what? I don’t think Logan cares about that—because despite the fact that he’s seen me with mascara all over my face, my hair in a messy bun, and sloppy clothes on my big, round, squishy body, he still wanted to hold me and kiss me last night. And I’m pretty sure he wanted to do more than that, but he pulled back because he’s strong like that.”

  It was like my brain had exploded and streamed out of my mouth. When I finally paused for breath, I realized Madi was staring at me like a bomb had gone off in front of her face. “Uh…Tessa?”

  “And I have no idea what’s going to happen,” I said, jumping in again. “I might lose your friendship, everybody at work might hate me if they find out we’re dating or say that I seduced him to save my job, and he doesn’t even date because his job keeps him so busy. This is probably all going to end up in a big, epic disaster that’s going to break my heart. I never should have let it get this far, but I just couldn’t help it because I like him, Madi. I really do. Maybe even more than like him. I’m scared and excited and totally stressing out right now.”

  Madi’s face scrunched in concern. “I can tell.” She sighed and came over to wrap me up in a hug.

  For a moment, I stayed still and rigid—but in the end, I relaxed and sank into her offer of comfort.

  “I’m sorry,” she said as she rubbed my back. “Here I was trying to apologize yesterday and then I screwed up again. I was just so shocked to find him here and realize you’ve been keeping all of this a secret from me.”

  “I only did it because I truly thought it would end up hurting you and annoying Logan if you went after him. I had no idea all of this was going to happen between us.”

  “I get it.” She pulled back and met my eyes. “And for the record, I do understand why Logan wants you—and I mean, wants you wants you. And, girl, the way he looks at you…man, I hope I find that someday. But I’m starting to think there’s something wrong with me.”

  As I studied her, I wiped my damp cheeks—I didn’t even remember crying—and grabbed at her hand.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “To the bathroom.”

  “What?”

  I turned on the light and pushed her inside ahead of me. With my arm around her shoulder, I pointed at the mirror. “See that woman there? Do you remember who she is? Do you remember the little girl who used to know she was beautiful and perfect before the idiots of the world made her doubt it?”

  “Tessa—”

  “I’m serious. Look—I’ve spent my whole life trying to heal from other people’s opinions. The only thing that got me through was making friends with the girl in the mirror instead of hating her. Look into her eyes instead of obsessing over every imperfection. Get to know her again, Madi, instead of listening to stupid, opinionated people who don’t know you.”

  As she stood beside me, looking at herself in the mirror, her eyes filled with tears. Soon, I doubted she could even see at all. She covered her face with her hands and bent forward over the sink, her shoulders shaking as she cried.

  And I just stood beside her and rubbed her back like she’d done for me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Once I got to work, I only saw Logan in flashes. I didn’t know where he was working, but it wasn’t in his office. Once, as he passed, he stared at me for long seconds as he passed by, his eyes communicating with me on a deeper level than words ever could.

  I missed him—the connection I felt when we touched, his warmth and strength surrounding me. But on another level, I understood. He had a job to do.

  That was when I realized that the electric urgency that had emanated from him had been missing for days. Today it was back. I saw it in his long stride, his decisive movements, and the complete absorption he gave his work the few times he was in his office. And that was good. If the future of Booms and Nibbles rested on his shoulders, I wanted him to give it his full attention.

  I refocused on my work too, until Angela came to my office. I hadn’t seen her as much with Krista keeping guard over Logan’s office.

  Looking at her across my desk, I saw immediately that she was worried about something. “What is it?” All at once, I realized she’d shut my door as she came in. It seemed significant.

  “There’s a rumor going around about you,” she said, her voice cautious.

  My heart clenched in my chest. “Okay. Tell me.”

  “People are saying you and Logan are seeing each other. No one would have believed it except for the roses and teddy bear you got yesterday. Well, and because Bree says she walked in on you in a conference room on Friday.”

  “How sweet of her.” I took a deep breath. “I know all about Bree’s suspicions.”

  “So they’re just that?” she asked. “Suspicions? That’s what Dawn says. She doesn’t think you’d ever stoop to trying to influence him by sleeping with him.”

  It was impossible to sit still, since I was freaking out. I paced around my office as internal alarms blared in my brain. I needed to think. “Sleeping with him? It’s that bad? Wow. I knew Bree hated me, but I never thought she’d take it that far.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t have,” Angela said, watching me as I paced. “But I was worried because there have been a few times when I’ve wondered…well, sometimes he’s looked at you like…”

  When even Angela, one of my only friends in the whole office, was wondering if Logan and I were seeing together, I knew I had to do something drastic. So I turned back to face her and spit out the first solution that came to my head. “I’m dating someone else.”

  “What?” Angela asked. But already I could hear the relief and excitement in her voice. “Girl, why didn’t you tell me? I would have loved to rub the truth in their faces.”

  “Go ahead and do it now.”

  “Of course I’m going to. I doubt they’ll believe me, but at least it will give them all something to think about.”

  She was right. I needed to prove it somehow. Immediately, my brain went to work trying to figure something out, so I barely noticed the rest of what she said as she left again.

  A few minutes later, I still hadn’t figured it out, and no amount of staring at the ceiling helped. I was so absorbed in my thoughts that another knock on the door almost gave me a heart attack.

  “Come in.”

  Krista’s serious face as she came in reassured me to a degree. “Mr. Jennings asked me to set up a meeting with you for five-fifteen.”

  An after-hours meeting? It was our usual thing to wait around to see each other after work. Why did he feel like he needed to make it official? Had he heard the rumors too?

  “Miss Young?”

  I blinked at Krista, only th
en realizing she was still waiting for my answer. Instead of responding, I went to the door and closed it. “The meeting is fine. Can I ask you about something else?”

  “Yes.”

  With my hands gripped in front of me, I settle uneasily on the edge of my desk. “Have you by any chance heard any rumors about me around the office today?”

  She thought for a moment. “No. But then, I’m not exactly friends with anyone. I doubt anyone would tell me even if there are.”

  Nodding, I took a moment to consider whether or not to say something more, but I was fairly certain that if she was loyal to anyone in the office, it was me. “Angela told me that people think Logan and I are having a fling.”

  Krista’s lip twitched, just the tiniest bit. “Well, unless they were all blind, someone would be bound to notice eventually.”

  “And here I thought we were being careful.”

  “Well, it’s not anything you’ve done. It’s just something that sort of hangs in the air between you two.”

  “Ugh. What should I do now? I can’t have everyone thinking that, and I’ve just told Angela that I’m dating someone else, but how do I make them all believe it?”

  Krista fell silent as I sat in deep thought, surprising me when she came up with the solution. “Clearly you need to bring in the guy you’re dating.”

  ***

  By the end of the day, Krista and I had worked out all the details. Apparently, she had a smokin’ hot friend who would be happy to do her a favor—especially one as easy as meeting me for lunch in the office tomorrow so everyone could see my ‘boyfriend’. It was kind of a crazy plan, but at this point, it was the best option I had.

  “Don’t act like he’s a complete stranger when he shows up tomorrow,” Krista cautioned me as she put on her coat and got ready to leave. “You’re going to have to sell it.”

  I winced. “Yeah. I’ll try.”

  She looked at the clock. “And don’t forget about your meeting with Mr. Jennings.”

  There was no way I’d forget that. I’d felt jittery waiting for it all day, because not only did I want to see him, I needed to see him.