Chapter 300

We get back to the apartment and walk in to see Courtney standing in just her underwear with a bowl of cereal in her hands. She stops with the spoon halfway to her mouth. I smile a little, and then she just shrugs and continues to eat her breakfast. I’m surprised she’s actually up at this time. She doesn’t usually get up until about lunchtime.

Logan sits Ella on the couch and then sits down opposite her.

“What’s going on?” Courtney asks.

“What do you think?”

“She’s refusing to go to school,”

“Yep, and she’s learnt a new word,”

“Oh, what word?” she asks with a mouthful of chocolate cereal.

“Bitch,” I say, and she coughs, nearly choking on her cereal. I smile a little and walk towards Logan and Ella. I sit down on the other side of the L-shaped couch so that Ella is sitting on her own on the two-seater one.

“Why don’t you want to go to school?” Logan asks Ella. She shrugs and looks away and wipes her cheeks. “If you don’t tell us, how are we going to understand?” he asks her. She shakes her head and looks like she’s about to tantrum again. “Why did you call your mommy a bitch?” he asks. She scowls at me and then looks away. “It’s a naughty thing to call your mommy,”

“She said she’d take my books away,”

“Why?” he asks.

“Because I don’t want to go to school,”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t like it,”

“What’s changed?” I ask. She scowls at me again and then turns her body away from me.

“You can’t call your mother a bitch,”

“Why not?” she asks. “Auntie Corny says it all the time,” she says. Logan and I both look at Courtney. She looks at us and then puts her spoon in the bowl.

“You know, I think it’s time for me to get dressed,” she says and hurries out of sight.

“If you’re not going to go to school and you’re not going to tell us the reason why then you can go to your room,” Logan tells her, “And we will take all of your books and anything else you enjoy until you tell us and you apologise to your mother,” he says to her. Ella starts to cry and stands up.

“You're both so mean,” she says and runs away. “It’s not fair,” she cries. “I hate you both,” she yells as she slams her bedroom door.

“Thank you,” I say to him. He frowns at me, “For backing me, I thought you would have comforted her,” I say and watch him take his phone out of his pocket.

“Well, she’s being naughty. She needs to be punished somehow,” he says.

“So, did you just come to see about this noise complaint?” I ask.

“No, I actually came to discuss her schooling with you and to come up with a routine for seeing her,”

“What do you mean by her schooling?”

“Well, I’ve looked at some schools that might be a better fit for her, I brought some brochures to look over, but I thought we could discuss them together,” he says.

“Logan, I can’t afford any of these,” I say to him as I look at each one as they’re private schools.

“I’ll pay,” he tells me. I frown at him and shake my head. “She has to do a couple of tests to see if it’s suitable for her. What’s wrong? You look annoyed,” he asks.

“You’ve known about her for just over two weeks, and you want to change everything,” I state.

“No, I don’t,”

“Logan, you can’t just come into her life and start paying for things. I’m already in debt to Carlton. I’m not going to be in debt to you too,” I state.

“You won’t be in debt to me,” he says. I shake my head and stand up. “Megan, I’m serious,” he says, standing up and moving towards me.

“I’ll get the money to send her to one of those schools; just leave it alone,” I tell him and walk away from him. I’m not sure where I would get the money from. I’d have to do extra shifts at Masked or pick up another job. There is an easy option, but I’d never be able to live with myself. Many of the club’s regular members offer me money to spend one night with them, and they usually offer into the tens of thousands more than enough to cover a year of tuition at one of these schools.

“But Megan,”

“I said leave it alone,” I snap.

“No,” he says, frowning at me and moving his hands to my shoulders. “You don’t need to do this on your own. I want to pay for her schooling; she’s my daughter. Please let me,” he says. I sigh and look down. “I know you’re used to doing everything yourself and paying for everything yourself, but you don’t have to,” he quietly tells me as he moves his hands down my arms.

“I know, I’m sorry, I’ll look over the brochures,”

“We can visit some as well if you want,” he says.

“Ok, what else did you want to discuss?” I ask.

For the past two weeks, Logan has visited nearly every day. Whenever he wanted to see Ella and vice versa, I’ve not stood in the way. I’ve just let everything progress naturally. They spend a lot of time alone together, getting to know one another. He either meets us after school or comes to the apartment at night to read to her.

"I was thinking, I could see Ella on set days, maybe have her stay with me a couple of nights a week," he suggests.

"Yeah, sure,"

"It's up to her, obviously. I want her to want to stay over," he states.

"We can discuss it with her. Apparently, I'm the wicked bitch of the west right now, so she'll probably want to move in with you," I say sarcastically.

"She doesn't mean what she said. She probably doesn't know what that word means," he states.

"Well, she used it in the right context. She’s just never looked at me like that," I say with a sigh and go to make myself a coffee. I pull down two cups and put a tea bag in one.

"Maybe she's been bullied," he suggests.

"I asked her teachers, and they say she gets on with most of the students,"

“Hows her behaviour at school?” he asks,

“Ok, it’s here she’s acting out; my four-year-old thinks she’s 16. It’s fun,” I finish making our drinks and place a mug in front of him.

Picking up one of the school brochures, I sit down next to Logan and flick it. This was one of the schools I looked at, but I dismissed it as soon as I saw the price. Homeschooling came to mind, but at some point, I’d have to find someone that could teach her better than me. I can’t believe Logan had looked into a gifted school for her so quickly.

“She’ll have to be tested,” he states. I nod when I get to the pages centred around the accommodation. I pass them as she’s not going to need that. Testing her costs also. “I can get her booked in for next week,” he says.

“When did you do all of this research?” I ask.

“I had a bit of help, and I asked one of my assistants to look into several schools and to see what needed to be done. She found ten of the best, and I looked over them and narrowed it down to five for us both to look over together,” he explains. I smile a little and take a sip of my coffee. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be open to accommodation or not, but there’s a good one in DC,” he states.

“No, I want her home every night,”

“Me too,” he says with a small smile.

“Well, why don’t we have her take the tests and look at the close ones? This was the one I looked at when the school told me to look into it,” I say while holding the brochure of my first choice. “I mean, a brochure can only tell you so much; she has to like it too,”

“Yeah,” he smiles at me a little, and I feel his hand rest on my seat.

We have light grey faux leather back stools that match the kitchen worktops nicely. Courtney decorated pretty much everything in this condo. I’m surprised she didn’t take interior design, to be completely honest.

“What days were you thinking of seeing Ella?” I ask.

“Maybe every other weekend and Wednesday and Thursday,”

“So you’d pick her up from school on the days you have her and then take her to school the next days?” I ask.

“Yeah, so I’ll pick her up on my weekends, and every Wednesday, I’ll pick her up and take her on Thursday morning,” he explains. That means I’d hardly see her most weekends as she sees my dad nearly every other Saturday night. “What’s wrong?” she asks.

“Nothing, that seems good,” I say.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“She sees my dad nearly every other weekend, but it’s ok,”

“Oh,”

“It’s fine. I’m usually working those days so it won’t be much different,” I say and take a sip of my coffee,”

“What does Brett think of your job?” he asks. I gulp down my coffee and smile a little.

“That’s a loaded question. He hates it; naturally, he even offered to talk to Carlton and pay for my university fees, but I’d already started, and I didn’t want him doing that. He has money but not disposable money,” I say. “And if I don’t pay for things for myself now, when will I?” I ask.

“True,” he says. I move my leg up so I can rest my chin on my knee. “How did he find out?”

“I told him,” I move back a little and feel his thumb stroke my shoulder. “He lost his shit,” I pause. “He got angry at all three of us. Sara was able to get him to see it from our side, and he soon came round more when he met Elena,”

“He met Elena,”

“Yeah, she visits us sometimes, we throw parties a lot in the summer, and she loves Ella,”

“I know, she threatened to cancel the contract with me if you working at Masked was a problem for me,”

“Is it?” I ask.

“No, do I like it? No, but it’s your choice,” he says. “As long as you’re happy,”

“It’s not ideal, but I enjoy it, and it’s easy money,” I pause. “And just so you know, I don’t usually kiss customers,” I state. “I try my best not to touch them too much,” I say, and he laughs.

“Good to know,” he says with a chuckle.

“Stop laughing,” I know he’s only laughing because I’ve gone red. I feel my face get hotter the more he laughs.

“I’ll push you off that chair,” I threaten, making him laugh more. I push at his chest. He doesn’t move because he’s pure muscle. He grabs my wrists, and his laughter dies down.

“I’m sorry,”

“I was mortified and angry at myself for doing that. I was the only dancer to not make out with a customer, now I’m known as the dancer that made out with the new boss and nearly cost Elena a contract,” I say.

“Have you not cleared it up with any of the dancers?”

“No, I don’t talk to them. It’s very bitchy; Courtney and Yasmin are the only girls I talk to. It would worsen. Imagine, ‘Hi the new boss, yeah he’s my baby daddy,’ half of the girls want to sleep with you, so that’ll go down well,” I say.

“That’s how you would introduce me?” he asks. “My baby daddy?” he asks, shocked.

“How else would I introduce you?”

“Something a little better than that,” he says and moves his hand onto my legs. Those damn butterflies are awake and zinging around my stomach like they want to escape. We’re flirting. I should have sat opposite him or stood up. There’s a lot of things I should be doing right now, one of which is not letting him kiss me.

“Like what?” I ask. One hand moves to my jaw as he leans closer. I close my eyes and move my hands to his chest to turn my head away from him. “You’re engaged,” I tell him.

“I already told you,” he states.

“Yeah, you did, but the world still thinks you're getting married to some company heiress model,” I say and look into his crystal blue eyes. He’s looking at me the same way he used to. Like he loves me like I’m the only person for him. He sighs and presses his forehead against mine.

“Ok,” he kisses me on the forehead and then my cheek. Someone clears their throat. I jump back and look to see Courtney holding a teary Ella.

“Someone has something to tell you both,” she says.