by Messe, Ellie
My eyes look to Logan who’s got a smile that promises endless teasing. “It’s alright,” He says, smiling broader, “I’m gorgeous.”
“You’re alright looking.” I shrug passing, careful not to trip over the new furniture to set my box down.
“As if.” Amy scoffs, “Logan’s a god among men.”
Twisting, I give her a ‘what the hell?!’ expression while Logan chuckles.
“Look at this man,” She says approaching him like Vanna White. Stepping behind him, he slightly raises his arms, glancing behind himself. Her arms come around his ribs, and my mouth drops open. What the hell is she doing?! Grabbing handfuls of his gray t-shirt, she pulls it up, “A god.”
Logan’s smile hitches on one side at the show she’s putting on. I try so very hard not to look at his stomach, I really do, but it’s damn near impossible to avoid. He’s got tan skin stretched across a series of well-developed abs, not to mention one of those V things.
“A god.” She repeats, smiling wickedly as she lets go and step back, “What about you, handsome?” She eyes Caleb.
“My wife hasn’t complained yet.” He says politely. My eyes immediately search his left hand, spotting the gold band I’ve never noticed before.
“Damn.” Amy sighs, “Dee gets to have all the fun I guess.”
Laughing, I raise my arms, “What fun? Logan’s preparing me for Cole.”
“Hard enough to forget Cole with any luck.”
My eyes bulge at her innuendo, “We’re not sleeping together.”
“Probably should, I’d hate for you to go through life without knowing what an orgasm is.”
“AMY!” I shriek, my body burns as a fine layer of sweat gathers in my palm.
“What? We’re all friends here.” She shrugs like she didn’t just break about a million friend rules, “Hopefully some of us will get a little...friendlier.”
I can’t look at Caleb or Logan; I’m so embarrassed I could cry while strangling the life out of my former best friend.
“Where would you like us to move the couch?” Caleb asks after the silence becomes thick with my embarrassment.
“I don’t care, against the window maybe.” I point blindly across the room.
“You’ve always had it in here though.” Amy pipes up.
I’ve about had my fill of her today, “Yeah well, shit changes.”
“Jeez.” She snides, dropping a box at my side, “Who peed in your oatmeal.”
“You did.” I whisper harshly, “What the hell was that?”
“Oh, chill out. It’s not like they knew I was serious.”
“Yes, they did! If you’re so hard up for Logan, why don’t you take him and leave me out of it, huh?”
“I don’t want Logan; you guys are obviously hot for each other, I’m just giving you guys the nudge.”
“I don’t want to be nudged. He’s helping me get Cole, that’s it.”
Knowing she’s not going to see the wrong in the situation with a room full of people, I pull myself to my feet and busy myself in the bedroom until she comes in to apologize.
It takes the hardheaded asshole over an hour to do it, but eventually, I get the groveling I deserved.
“I’m wrecked.” I sigh, flopping back on my new sofa later in the evening.
“At least we’re pretty much done,” Amy says from her spot on the floor.
“You guys want to order in? My treat.” I offer, look at Logan and Amy in turn. Caleb ran off during my bedroom retreat earlier.
“Sure, what do you want Logan?” She looks up at him.
“I’m good for whatever.”
“Italian or Thai?” I ask.
“Italian.” They answer at the same time.
“You know, one day I’m going to replace you both with friends who like Thai food.”
“Awe, we’re friends, Duck?” Logan teases, sitting down next to me.
“When you're not an ass you are.” I smile, pulling the online menu up.
“Why do you call her duck?”
“You already know why.” I say with a warning in my tone. She promised earlier not to meddle and here she is, meddling.
“No, I know why you think he calls you that.”
“And why does she think I call her Duck?”
“Cause I’m ugly,” I respond to her, still scrolling through the app.
He laughs, his hand landing on my knee to give it a quick squeeze, “I made a joke, and the name stuck.”
“What was the joke?” She inquires further.
“That I was turning her into a swan.”
For reasons unknown my stomach does this little flutter, I shift in my seat to rid the sensation, “Okay,” I say sitting forward, “Here’s what they have.”
We dined inside, choosing to watch a movie on my new smart tv until the night grows closer to dawn. Logan sits between Amy and I, with the exertion of cleaning and moving all day; I keep myself balled up in the corner of the couch to avoid another cuddle incident.
“I’m falling asleep,” I say, climbing off the couch. “You guys can crash here if you want, I’m going to bed.”
“Already?” Amy yawns, it appears she’s trying to pretend like she didn’t fall asleep against Logan’s leg an hour ago.
“Yeah, it’s almost four.”
“Kay, I’ll come with you.” She says, stretching.
“You need anything?” I ask Logan who shakes his head, ‘Okay, you know where everything is. If you leave just lock the handle.”
He nods, his eyes holding mine for a moment too long, “Good night.”
After another awkward moment of starring, he pulls himself together, “Night.”
Slipping into my new bed, my mind tries to figure out what he was thinking when he zoned out on me. For a second I wonder if it was because I was taking Amy away from his lap when an unsettling feeling looms in my stomach, I try to shake it as fast as I can. I then lay awake in bed for an hour wondering why the hell that would bother me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I feel rough when I wake up the next morning. We stayed up too late, and thoughts of weird feelings lead me to a very vivid dream about Logan, one that makes me blush thinking about it; don’t worry the guilt of having such a dream while pining after Cole is enough to chase the thoughts away each time. Dunking my head under the stream of hot water, I try to forget about it, which is a little hard when it took place in this very stall.
“Logan here?” Amy asks, walking into my bathroom.
“I don’t know.”
“I have to pee,” she says sitting down, “I left my phone out there last night, but I don’t want to go out there looking like a hot mess.”
I roll my eyes like that’s even possible. She’s photo ready twenty-four seven; I swear she’s never had a bad hair day in her life, not even as much as an angry pimple in high school, nothing.
“You look fine,” I tell her, yelping when the water turns to ice from her flushing.
She laughs angelically, leaving me curled against the wall, trying to avoid the spray.
Once the water is tolerable, I finish quickly, hopping out to dress in warm clothes and brush my teeth.
Wrapping a towel tightly around my hair, I follow the sounds of voices to my kitchen.
“What the hell is that?” Logan says by usual way of greeting.
“Clothing,” I say, grabbing a bagel out of the blue box that I’m assuming Caleb dropped off. “What are you guys doing today?”
“I work at four,” Amy says typing away on my laptop while Logan glares at me for talking with my mouth full, I give him a cheeky grin. “What about you Mr. Millionaire? Empires to build?”
“Nah, I did that last weekend, gets a little redundant after a while.’
I catch myself giggling and quickly stuff more bread into my mouth to stop it. What the hell is wrong with me? If Logan weren’t here, I’d be talking to Amy about my dream, but she’s got a shit record at keeping secrets at the moment.
&nb
sp; “You guys wanna go see a movie?”
Logan looks to me, telling me he won’t answer until I do, “I don’t know if you want to.”
“Logan?”
“I’m fine with whatever you guys want to do.”
“Good, movie it is. I’m going to get ready, so I can catch a cab to work afterward.” She places the laptop on the counter next to me as she stands.
“I can have Caleb run you home if you need clothes.”
“No need, I’ve got some here.”
He turns to me for an explanation while my email loads, “One of those suitcases yesterday was hers. We leave clothes at each other’s house for sleepovers-OH MY GOD!” I scream, jumping up, a shrill stream of excited pours from my mouth.
“What?” Amy and Logan both demand at the same time.
Ignoring them, I continue reading the email as my feet bounce up and down in a happy dance.
I scream again, looking at their confused faces then back to the screen. “Oh my god. Oh, my GOD.”
“What?” Amy demands half annoyed, half already excited.
“I got an email.” I shrug with a failed attempt at nonchalance. “Someone wants to hire me for their upcoming release.”
“From who?” Amy asks walking slowly towards me, the smile she wears growing in size as her excitement escalates, even Logan moves around the counter in curiosity.
“Oh,” I shrug again, an enormous grin plastered on my face, “Just Aimee Noalane.”
The second her name leaves my lips, Amy screams just as loud as me, if not louder. Racing over, she links her arms in mine while we revert to our adolescence selves; jumping up and down.
In my moment of pure joy, I leap into Logan’s chest, nearly tackling him to the ground. He wears a broad, yet slightly confused smile while he stabilizes my body.
“I’m very happy for you, but who’s Aimee Noalane?”
My entire body goes as stiff as the pillars separating the two rooms, “You’ve never heard of Aimee fucking Noalane?”
He shakes his head, amused by my shock.
“She’s only my favorite author of all time!” Pulling away from, what I now realize as a very inappropriate embrace, I rush over to my bookshelf pulling my beloved signed editions from their shrine and hand them to him, “She wrote the No Regrets series. I was so devastated that Damian was only a character that I actually cried when I was done.”
“Is that like the main guy or something?” He asks, looking at each cover.
“Well, no. I have a thing for the bad boys in books, and he’s totally swoon-worthy.”
“Ugh, whatever, Oliver is way hotter.” This is the only series I ever got Amy to sit down and read and the little traitor didn’t even ship the same guy as me.
“Okay, well that’s just not true, but I’ll let it go, if I don’t we’ll get into another fight.”
“You guys fought over fictional characters?” Logan’s brow puckers incredulously.
“Yeah,” She walks backward, out of breath from our freak out. “That’s why I do my best to avoid books; I prefer the movies.”
Logan hands me back the books that I gently place back in their rightful place, artfully draping the string of orchids across the spines.
“Aimee Noalane!” I squeal yet again.
Oh man, this just turned into the best day of my life.
Not going to lie, I have no idea what that movie was about, I was checking my phone every three minutes waiting for the email that included Aimee’s manuscript. She’s seriously the sweetest human being alive, and I just want to tie her up in my dungeon and make her feed me all the words. I’m declaring myself now; I will convince Aimee to write me a book about Damian one day, I'd be happy with a novella, shit even a short recap of his life events will do. It’ll happen.
“So you know how you said we were friends?” Logan interrupts the silence while I fish around for my keys.
“Yeah?”
“I have an event next month, and I need a date. Would you be willing to do your old friend a favor and be my plus one?”
“Like a date-date?” It’s a stupid question, of course, it’s not a date. What’s dumber is the fact butterflies are spinning around my stomach in anticipation of his answer anyway.
“No, not a date.” He chuckles, deflating my stomach like a balloon.
“Oh, yeah, okay.”
His lips curve to the right, “Can you come to my place Friday so we can go over what’s to be expected?”
“I’m not going to see you until Friday?” I manage to keep the disappointment out of my tone. What is up with my emotions today? Maybe I forgot to take my birth control, and my hormones are screwing with my head.
He gently taps the top of my phone with his finger, “You’re expecting something very exciting. I figured I’d give you the week off of boot camp to indulge.”
A smile ghosts my lips, “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll see you Friday, Duck.”
Smiling, I push through my front door. He really is sweet when he wants to be.
Dropping my purse on the counter, I dig through it until I’m holding the little dispenser of pills, clicking open the dial I survey the dates. Sure enough, a little blue pill sits untouched. Breathing out a breath of relief, I pop it from its aluminum prison and swallow it.
For a minute there I thought I was developing feelings for Logan, good to know it was just a little hormonal imbalance. The pill is swallowed, and all will be right in the world tomorrow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It’s stupid how excited I am to be going over to Logan’s. Not that my week break wasn’t amazing, I’ve read Aimee’s new book more times than I can count, devouring every line like a starving animal, my dungeon idea is becoming more of a life goal at this point.
Kicking the door, I wait, arms extending.
“Happy Friendiversary!” I cheer when the door swings open.
Logan, steps back with an amused grin, “Hey.”
“I am tragically overdressed it seems,” I say, taking note of his lack of clothing.
His chest is devastatingly bare, his muscles flexing with every moment, I blow out a breath while attempting not to gawk.
“No one’s stopping you from walking around topless.” He smirks, taking the cake from my hands.
“Well, it might be awkward for some people.” A sing-song voice rings out behind him, and my stomach falls to my knees.
“Oh, my God!” I cover my mouth, “I’m so sorry! I should have told you the time I was coming over.” I rush out, taking a step back, “I’m so sorry, text me when you want me to come back, or if you want me-”
“Duck.” He says loudly, cutting off my ramble with a deep rumble of laughter, “Get in here.”
“No, really, you’re...busy.” I wave to his bare chest, retreating further.
Stepping into the hall, he grabs my wrist, tugging me dangerously close to his bare skin.
“Joanna, this is Duck.” That incredibly gorgeous blonde from Logan’s Facebook steps forward, her kind eyes match her smile as she extends her hand to me. “Duck, this is my sister, Joanna.”
“Oh!” I didn’t mean to say that out loud, righting my features, I take her outstretched hand, “Hi, I’m Devina.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
“So, what the hell is a friendiversary?” Logan asks, pulling out a knife as he inspects the blue frosting.
“We became friends four months ago,” I shrug, trying to fight the blush against my skin, “It’s a cheap excuse to eat cake.”
“How come I didn’t get a cake for the first three?”
“Well, cause that’s what I’m calling your ‘asshole faze’. You don’t get cake when you’re mean to me.” I push him out of the way with my hip, taking the knife out of his hands.
Joanna laughs, “I’m going to go check on Stacey, I’ll be back.”
“Who’s Stacey?” I ask the bitter little green goblin i
n my stomach rearing its ugly jealous head.
“The clothing designer,” He says, stepping against my back, his hand comes around to adjust my hand, moving the knife, he pushes against my hand to cut a larger piece, “Jealous?”
I’m having trouble breathing. I think he’s flirting with me, I mean, he’s flush up against my back, his face dipped low, so his breath moves my hair with each word, he has to be flirting, right?
Swallowing hard, I shake my head like I don’t notice, “Nope.”
“Liar.” His free hand pushes my hair over my shoulder, and my lungs stall, his breath grows warmer, the closer his lips get to my neck. Oh, fuck. He has to hear my galloping heart.
I need to stop him; this is wrong.
A small gasp steals my thoughts when his mouth presses into my neck. Oh, Christ.
“What are you doing?” I whisper when his lips leave my skin.
His hands twist my hips, putting us chest to chest.
“This.” His hand threads in my hair while his eyes search mine, looking for any signs of protest, I’m ashamed to admit I don’t have any. My face leans into his touch, his thumb gliding over my cheek. Oh my God, he’s going to kiss me.
“Hey, Logan?”
Snapping out of my trance, I spin quickly in his arms, busying myself with cutting as Joanna reappears, “Whenever you guys are done she’s ready.”
“Okay. Hey, give us a sec?”
Her eyes travel over us suspiciously before nodding, turning on her heel she goes back the way she came.
“Hey,”
“Plates?” I ask as nothing happened.
“Devina,”
Braving my face, I turn to face him, “We can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
Stepping into me once again, I fight with myself; my rational head against my traitorous body.
“This,” I look down at our conjoined bodies, “This can’t happen.”
His fingers toy with my throat, “Why not?”
Swallowing, I release my bottom lip, “Because I think I might like it.”
The corner of his mouth lifts while his eyes drop to my mouth, “That sounds like encouragement.”