Logan

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Well, we did talk to him about making furniture for VAS. I can talk to him about that again.”

  “That’d be great.”

  The conversation turned back to more light hearted topics and I did my best to not stare at Cece the whole time.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Cecelia and Logan

  Cecelia

  I was completely blindsided by Logan’s hostility towards me the last week we were together. He flat out ignored me most of the week and when I saw him at the cafe, he gave me a nod. That’s it. After all we had been through, suddenly I was getting the cold shoulder. I tried all week to figure out what was going on with him. I began to think that he was avoiding me, but his total indifference to me in the cafe led me to believe it was more than that.

  When he called me up and asked me to meet him at the club Saturday night, relief flooded my body. He must have been having a bad week and just didn’t know how to handle it. I got all dressed up for him, making sure to look my absolute best and went to the club. He didn’t arrive when he said he would and I was left waiting at the bar for him. When he did show up, he dragged me out on the dance floor and ran his hands all over my body, but he didn’t speak a word to me. Still, I figured that he was still just having a rough time of it.

  Even as he pulled me from the dance floor to the girls’ bathroom, I let him ravage my body. I knew that something was definitely wrong when he fucked me hard, leaving out all emotion. Logan was never like that with me. He always had his mouth on some part of my body and his hands always caressed my skin. I watched him in the mirror, seeing the hard set of his jaw and the anger in his eyes. It was like he was hate-fucking me.

  For the first time since I had been with Logan, I didn’t come. He took me hard and left me unfulfilled and then started walking away. I quickly pulled myself together, but I didn’t understand any of it. Then he spoke those hateful words to me, calling me a slut and telling me I wasn’t good enough. For the second time in my life, my heart shattered into a million tiny pieces, all at the hands of the man I loved. Logan.

  The first time, I wasn’t good enough, woman enough for him. This time, I was too slutty for him. I fought back the tears and stood tall, knowing that no matter what I did, I would never be good enough in his eyes. I was through with him and I wouldn’t allow myself to cry one more tear over him.

  I walked out of the club that night with a renewed purpose. I was moving on with my life and if I found a way to get my revenge on him, I would take it and leave him in the dust. Men like him didn’t deserve my tears and they sure as hell didn’t deserve my body. I would never be so stupid as to fall in love again. It just wasn’t worth it.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  A few weeks after my break up with Logan, I was at work going over a new marketing campaign when one of my bosses, Mr. Johnson, came into my office with a rather large file folder.

  “Mr. Johnson, what can I do for you?”

  “Hi, Cece. We’re getting ready to meet with Cassandra Crawford about marketing for the new VAS building. This is the pro bono job I was telling you about when you signed on.”

  “Yes, of course, I remember. Are those the files?”

  He handed me the folder with a smile. “Everything you need to get started is in there. The meeting will be next Friday afternoon and I’ll expect you to have some ads drawn up by then. Not anything concrete, but give her a taste of what she can expect from you.”

  “I can do that. Is there anything else?”

  “That’s it. Thank you, Cece.”

  He walked out of my office and I opened the folder to go over what VAS was all about. Something niggled at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t remember what it was. I pushed it away and spent the better part of the day going over the folder and making notes about possible marketing strategies. I was almost done for the day when I came across some notes about the builders they were hiring.

  A huge grin spread across my face when I saw that Jackson Walker Construction was in charge of construction and design. Logan had unknowingly placed himself directly in my line of fire. I had so many contacts in the marketing world that I could make sure he never got another job again. I didn’t even feel bad about it. Well, I felt bad about the people that may lose their jobs, but Logan had brought this on himself. He had toyed with my emotions one too many times and I wasn’t going to take it anymore.

  I called a few friends in the marketing industry and spread small tidbits of gossip into the conversation that would eventually trickle down to VAS and possibly get them fired from the job. If not this job, future jobs would be difficult to obtain.

  Smiling to myself as I drove home, I walked into my apartment happier than I had been in a long time. Vira was sitting on the couch watching TV when she saw the ginormous smile on my face.

  Holding her hands up in front of her eyes, she mocked me. “Ahh. You’re blinding me with that smile. Stop! It’s too much.”

  “Haha, Vira. I just had a fantastic day.”

  “Nooner at work,” she said as she waggled her eyebrows at me.

  “Nope.”

  “Went to the gas station and had the attendant fill your tank?” she added suggestively.

  “Not even close.”

  “Spontaneous orgasm from the vibrations in the car!”

  I laughed at her humor. “Sorry, nothing to do with orgasms.”

  “Well, then this story isn’t going to be nearly as good as I hoped for.”

  I plopped down on the couch and let out a contented sigh. I leaned back into the cushions and twirled a piece of my hair around my finger, imagining my handy work taking place right this minute.

  “Bitch, don’t hold out on me. Tell me what happened!”

  “I got my revenge on Logan.”

  Vira stared at me for a moment. “How?”

  “Remember that one of the stipulations for my job was to work on a pro bono project?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it’s this new building in town for a private military foundation called VAS. Guess who the contractors are?”

  An evil smile curled her lips. “No way.”

  “Yes way. I called a few people in marketing and I may have slipped a few rumors about the company. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost the job, but it most definitely should hurt their future contracts.”

  “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

  “Hey, he had this coming. I let him push me around the first time, but he won’t get away with it again.”

  Logan

  Something strange was going on over at VAS. We were scheduled to meet up with Cassandra to go over some final details for the project, but she put us off, saying the investors were having second thoughts. We waited for a few days without hearing anything further and I called back on the fourth day. If we were going to get this project off the ground, we had to get moving.

  “Cassandra Crawford’s office. How may I help you?”

  “Hi, this is Logan Walker at Jackson Walker Construction. Can you please put me through to Ms. Crawford?”

  “One moment please.”

  I waited on the phone, trying to figure out why the investors would be backing out of the deal at this point. They had loved everything we had presented to them, so this must have to be more to do with Cassandra’s end.

  “Mr. Walker, I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. We’re in a bit of a mess over here.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  There was a pause on the line that gave me a bad feeling. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to go with a different contractor. Some things have come to light and the investors are not willing to go with your company.”

  “What things?”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s all I’m willing to say right now.”

  “No. We have a contract. If you’re backing out, then you’re going to tell me why. Otherwise, you will stick with the contract or we’ll take you to court.”
<
br />   Again, there was a pause. My gut was churning, wondering what could have happened to make them back out of our deal.

  “We’ve heard some disturbing things about your company. There have been people saying that your company has been overcharging for materials and keeping the difference. There are also reports that you don’t build to code, but nobody has been able to prove it yet.”

  “That’s all bullshit. Who’s been saying that?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s coming from the investors. I haven’t heard anything first hand, but the investors insist that we go with someone else. I have to start looking all over again. Mr. Walker, I really hope these rumors aren’t true, but the damage is already done. I really thought your ideas were fantastic, unfortunately I am under obligation to the investors.”

  “How much time do you have to find a new contractor?”

  “I have a few weeks.”

  “Will you give me that time to find out what’s going on? Don’t hire anyone else for the next few weeks. Just give me some time to investigate these accusations.”

  “Mr. Walker, I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll give you the time. You’ll need proof that these accusations are false for the investors to come around.”

  “I understand. Thank you, Ms. Crawford.”

  I hung up the phone and slammed my fist down on the desk. What a clusterfuck. Who would do this to our company? It had to be the competition. Nobody else would have a reason to do this. Now I had to go tell Ryan the bad news and then get on finding the source. I walked down to Ryan’s office and sat down in front of his desk. He looked up at me and frowned when he saw my face.

  “We have a huge problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I just spoke with Cassandra. She said the investors don’t want us anymore for VAS. Apparently, there are rumors going around about us padding material expenses and not following building code. They don’t want to take the chance it’s true.”

  Ryan threw his pen down on the desk and ran a hand over his face. “Who the fuck would do that?”

  “I’m guessing a competitor. Cassandra has a few weeks to find a new contractor and she told me she wouldn’t hire anyone in those weeks. We have that long to come up with proof that these accusations are false.”

  “Shit. This is bad. This could destroy our business.”

  “I know. I’m gonna get on the phone and start to figure this out.”

  “Alright. Keep me updated. I have a few people I can call also.”

  I left his office and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. Other companies were calling and starting to question us also, so I told them I would show them invoices for their materials and answer any questions they had about building codes. Most of them were willing to hear us out. All of my time on the phone with those other companies was that much time I couldn’t spend investigating. Ryan was having the same luck on his end. Even employees were starting to come to us. Word had spread fast and we had to find out what was going on now and plug this leak or we were going to sink fast.

  It was a week later when I finally got some answers. Apparently, the source of the rumors was coming from someone over at JNP, the company Cece worked for. I didn’t even stop by Ryan’s office to let him know what was going on. I was pissed and I was going to find out within the next hour what she thought she was doing.

  I stormed into her office building, forgetting that I had to bypass security first. I didn’t want to alert her that I was coming, so I had security call her boss and tell him that I was here to surprise Cece. He let me up, probably not knowing that we weren’t together anymore.

  I stormed into Cece’s office and she stared at me in shock before finally coming out from around her desk.

  “What are you doing here, Logan? I don’t want to see you.”

  “Yeah, well I’m not too fond of seeing you either, but see, there are rumors going around about my company that is set to destroy every contract we have and tank our company. Do you know how many people would be out of work?”

  She quirked an eyebrow at me, but didn’t give anything away.

  “I know it was you. I have contacts too and they tell me the source is out of this company. Now, who would want to do damage to my company other than you?”

  She paled a little at that. Yeah, I’m betting she was thinking she wouldn’t get caught. She didn’t look so self-assured now.

  “Nothing to say? Do you really hate me that much that you would destroy a company that Ryan and I built from the ground up?”

  She didn’t say anything, just looked away as she crossed her arms over her chest. I stalked up to her and got in her face.

  “You hate me that much for breaking up with you? I had no idea you were so vindictive.”

  “You broke me,” she yelled at me. I could feel the anger emanating off her now. I took a step back and huffed out a laugh.

  “I broke you? I heard you that day in the bar with Vira. I heard you tell her that you didn’t love me and I would always be the person that hurt you.” My voice grew louder with each word. “I heard you tell her that you were using me until you had your fill. That’s why I broke up with you. I was ready to ask you to move in with me. I was going to tell you that I loved you. After all that went on between us, I meant nothing to you.”

  She took a step back and dropped her head. When she looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes.

  “You broke my heart the first time around and then you did it again to me. What was I supposed to think?” she whispered. “I only told Vira that stuff because I was scared. I thought for sure you were going to walk away from me like you did the first time. I was trying to protect myself.”

  “Well, you did a good job of that.”

  Her head snapped up to me again. “It was a private conversation. You weren’t meant to hear me.”

  “But I did. You didn’t think Vira might say something to Sean? That maybe it would get back to me either way?”

  “Vira would never betray me. If you had told me you loved me, I would have come around. It was a mistake.”

  “Yeah, well too little too late. You need to find a way to fix this. We could lose everything if you don’t. The investors for our VAS project need proof that this is all a lie. You do whatever you have to do to convince them that it is, or I will be sure that your boss hears every last word of what you did to us. There won’t be a hole you can crawl into to hide from this.”

  Her head bobbed in a jerky nod, then moved to look at the door. Her mouth fell open and her face turned deathly white. I turned to see her boss, Mr. Johnson, standing in the doorway with a guarded expression.

  “Mr. Walker, I don’t appreciate you talking to my employee in this manner. I think it’s time for you to leave.”

  “Mr. Johnson, this is a misunderstanding on my part. Logan was just informing me of it. I assure you, everything is fine.”

  Mr. Johnson didn’t say any more, but moved to the side of the door frame as if to tell me he expected me to leave. I turned back to Cece one more time.

  “I expect a call when this is fixed.” I turned and stalked out of the office and headed back to inform Ryan of the newest developments. I was beyond pissed, but at least now I had a chance of fixing this mess.

  Cece

  Mortification didn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling at the moment. Not only was I responsible for potentially destroying Logan and Ryan’s company, but the whole office witnessed our argument. After he left, Mr. Johnson asked me if I was alright and I put on a fake smile an assured him I was fine, but the minute he left my office, I headed to the bathroom to pull myself together. I had no idea how I was going to fix this. I could call the people I originally leaked the information to, but that wasn’t proof.

  After spending the rest of the day with my stomach in knots, I had a course of action to take. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it seemed like the most straightforward approach to the whole si
tuation. I called Ms. Crawford at VAS and asked her to set up a meeting with her investors, sighting a marketing meeting.

  She called me back the next morning with a meeting set for the following Monday. That left me the whole weekend to stew over what I had to do. It also gave me the opportunity to prepare myself to fix this mess. Most likely, I would be going down in flames. I couldn’t imagine that my boss would keep me on staff after word spread about what I had done. And word would spread. I would be blackballed from the marketing industry. What I had done was definitely something that was frowned upon, but more than that, it made me untrustworthy and by extension, the company I worked for.

  I packed my stuff up and dragged my sorry ass home. Vira was going to be busy all weekend, with little time for me, so I would be left to think this over on my own. I wished that I hadn’t let my past with Logan have so much power over my future. I wished that I’d had more faith in Logan, but most of all, I wished I had been brave enough to tell him how I’d felt.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Cecelia

  By Monday morning, I decided the best approach was to go speak with my boss, explain what I had done, apologize profusely, and hand in my resignation. I hadn’t been there long enough to have any kind of pull with the company. No company in town would hire me. In fact, I was pretty sure my days in marketing were done. I was going to have to find a completely new job where my reputation wouldn’t matter.

  I also had to consider that I may have to leave town and start over somewhere new. What would my parents say? They were going to be so disappointed in me. It’s not that we were overly close any more. Ever since I changed who I was, I could see that they weren’t proud of my choices. They were proud of my accomplishments, but they knew that I wasn’t their baby girl anymore. Luckily, since I hadn’t lived here in town for ten years, they weren’t privy to gossip about just how promiscuous I had become.

  The more I thought about it, the more disappointed I became in myself. It’s like the last ten years had led me to this moment in time where I stooped so low that I almost destroyed another person’s life. I had no one to blame, but myself. I made those decisions and now I had to stand behind them.