Chapter 307

Walking out to the bar, I see Logan stood talking to one of the waitresses. I sit next to him and look at Lewis, the bartender. He walks over to me and pours me my usual drink as I sit and wait for Logan and the waitress to finish talking. By the look of things, she’s flirting with him, and it’s glaringly obvious. I wonder if he gets this more now that he is so well-known. He must enjoy it, having women just throw themselves at him and having people fall over themselves to be noticed by him. People are money hungry and would do anything to get a fraction of his wealth.

“I get off work in an hour,” the waitress hints.

“I’m meeting someone,” he says to her.

“Well, if you get bored,” she pulls the pen out of her hair.

“I’m alright, I won’t get bored,” he says to her. I smile a little. How can he be so sure?

“You never know,” she tries.

“I know,” he says.

“Well, maybe you can call me afterwards,” she says, and I hear the frustrated sigh leave him.

“Are you ready?” I ask, saving the girl from a scathing reply from Logan. He turns and looks at me, and so does the waitress. She scowls at me, and then realisation appears on her face.

“Finally,” Logan says. I smile a little, and the waitress gives me a small smile.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hi,” I say to her and look behind her to see a couple looking around for a waitress. “I think you’re needed somewhere else,” I say to her and point to the table of the annoyed-looking customers. She looks and then purses her lips. “Elena is on the floor also,” I tell her slyly, threatening her with possible disciplinary action for chatting up a customer rather than doing her actual job. She rolls her eyes and then looks at Logan.

“Maybe next time,” she says with an innocent smile and leaves. Logan looks at me.

“Elena isn’t on the floor.”

“She doesn’t know that,” I pause, “shall we go?” I ask.

“Sure,” he says and walks me towards the elevator. “Thanks for that,” he says once the elevator doors are closed.

“I didn’t do anything,”

“Saved me from hurting her feelings,” he tells me.

“You wouldn’t have hurt her feelings,” I say and walk out of the building with him. “I’m sure you get that all the time,”

“I do. It doesn’t mean I have gotten any better at turning them down,” he says as he walks towards a waiting car. I see the ‘Uber’ sticker on the side and frown. “I ordered it while I was waiting.”

“No, David, tonight,”

“No, I managed to sneak out,” he says with a glint of humour in his eyes. “I think he’s convinced I have a target on my back,” he opens the door for me.

“Why would he think that?” I ask as I get in the taxi.

“Because I piss people off with the truth most of the time,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders. I frown and look at him.”But it’s all words said out of anger over losing millions,”

“So it’s nothing to worry about?” I ask.

“No, I still speak to them all, he just thinks I’ll piss off the wrong kind of person one day, but most people love me,” he says with a grin.

“Strange you’re not more worried about any of this.”

“What’s the point in worrying?” he asks. “If I die, then I die, no point worrying about death. After all, it’s coming for all of us,” he says

“True,” I say and look out of the window. “So, where are we going?” I ask.

“There’s a hotel I own with an excellent bar on the Upper East Side,” he says. I nod and feel his arm move over my shoulders. I wonder if he realises he does this a lot or if it’s just a natural habit for him. Either way, it stirs the butterflies in my stomach. It almost makes me want to find the damn butterflies and give them a stern talking.

His fingers trace small circles on my shoulder, making me look at him. He’s looking out of the window in thought. I need to put an end to the flutters in my stomach.

“What’s your fiancé like?” I ask.

“She’s a bitch,” he says. “Sly, snake-like and I wouldn’t spit on her if she were on fire,” he adds.

“Strong feelings for her then,” I state. He looks at me, and for the first time, I don’t know what he’s feeling.

“I’d rather not talk about her,” he says calmly, but I have a feeling he’s anything but calm.

“Ok,” is all I say, and silence follows. It isn’t until we get to our destination do I feel him relax. What has this woman done to make him hate her so much? I’ve never seen Logan show hate like that, so outwardly. Even when he spoke about Jonathon, he hid his hatred well.

We get out of the car, and Logan takes my hand as we walk into the hotel towards the bar. He makes a beeline for the bar, snapping up two seats. The place is still busy. There's a crowd of people standing in front of the bar getting drinks, and nearly every table is occupied. Music plays in the background, adding to the ambient atmosphere of the place. Candles sit at every table, and a warm glow of lights spot around, giving the place a cosy feel.

The barman comes to us pretty much straight away and places two menus in front of us. I see why it’s pretty busy; it’s a cocktail bar.

“An Old Fashioned, please,” Logan tells him, and the bartender looks at me.

“Urm,” I look through the menu. “I’ll have a pornstar martini, please,” I say. He nods and starts to make our drinks in front of us. “I need to text Courtney. I’m usually home by now,” I say as I take my phone out of my bag.

“Is Ella ok?”

“Yeah, I put her to bed before I went to work. Hopefully, she’ll sleep through. She has a habit of waking herself up so that she can see me when I get home,” I tell him.

‘I’ll be home late. I’ve gone out for drinks,” I text Courtney.

‘Ooo, who with?’ she texts back.

‘A friend,’

‘Mark?’ she sends with an eggplant emoji and a tongue.

‘No,’

‘Tell me,’

“This girl is so nosy,” I say with a smile and look at Logan to see he’s watching me. “What?”

“Nothing,” he says, “why won’t you tell her you’re with me?” he asks.

“Because she won't approve,” I truthfully tell him and look at my phone as other texts come through.

‘I’ll text Sam and ask him,’ I sigh and put my phone back.

“Doesn’t matter, she'll find out anyway,” I say, and he frowns at me.

“Why wouldn’t she approve? It’s just drinks,”

“You know why,” I say as the barman places our drinks in front of us. Logan takes a sip of his drink as he hands the barman his card. “I’ll pay for mine,” I tell him. He shakes his head and places his glass on the bar.

“I asked you,”

“What do you usually do on a Friday night?” I ask.

“Work out. If Carl isn’t dragging me out, I do a lot of phone calls, so I try not to go out,”

“What changed tonight?”

“I’ve left my work phone at home, and I knew you were working. It seemed a better option than staying home alone. When I go out, I either leave early, get drunk, or sleep with some random girl. My life is pretty boring,” he tells me.

“Oh,” is all I say. He sounds lonely.

“What about you? When you’re not working?”

“When I’m not working, I have a date night with Ella, which usually consists of us watching a collection of Disney movies, pizza and ice-cream,” I smile as I remember the last time we had a date night. “She usually falls asleep, tries her hardest to stay up all night, but she can’t. The last time I woke up before she did and she had a slice of pizza stuck to her face,”

“How?”

“No idea, the kid is a sprawler, I think she got up to go to the toilet and decided she wanted some more pizza and fell asleep while eating it,” I say, and he chuckles. “I can’t tell you how many times she’s fallen out of bed,” I say and sip my martini. The sweet flavours of the mango, passionfruit and the smooth smokiness of the caramel fill my mouth. “You laugh but just wait until she’s sleeping at yours, and you wake up with a foot in your face,” I say, and he continues to laugh.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he laughs. “But she can have her own room,”

“Yeah, you’re getting a foot in the face. I redecorated her room to get her to stay in. She still climbs into my bed in the middle of the night,” I say with a slight chuckle.

“You love it, though,” he says.

“Yeah, she’s very cuddly, even more, when she’s had a bad dream,” I say.

“How are your dreams?” he asks.

“Better, since he got sentenced, it’s been much better. I get one now and then, Ella tends to hear and wakes Courtney or Yasmin up, and they all end up in bed with me,” I explain.

“Max and the cats, too?” Logan asks.

“Yeah, Max is always on my bed.”

“I bet Mark loves that,” he says. I sigh and look at him. “What? From my memory, Max is a cock blocker,” he adds, and I chuckle.

“Yeah, he is. He’s worse with Mark. He follows me. I have to lock him out on the terrace or give him a big animal bone; otherwise, he sits at the door barking and howling,” I explain. Logan laughs. “He hates Mark,”

“Remind me to give Max anything he wants,” he says as he downs his drink. “So what else about you has changed?”

“What do you mean? I’ve not changed,” I ask.

“You have multiple tattoos, piercings in places I never thought you would have, you have multiple sex friends, and you’re a stripper; a lot about you has changed.”

“Wow,” I say, “you make me sound so good.”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” he pauses and sighs. “Sorry, I meant you’ve changed, you’re so much more confident. It’s nice to see, I like seeing how confident you are with yourself,” I finish my drink and look for the bartender. “I’ve upset you,” he says.

The bartender comes back, and I order a Long Island iced tea. Logan orders another drink and then looks around the bar.

“There’s a table,” he says and stands up. I look to where he’s looking to see a waitress cleaning the table and then looking over at us. “I texted beforehand that we were coming, they said my usual booth was occupied, and they’d free it as soon as they could,” he explains.

“Ok,” I say and follow him towards the white leather circular booth. The booth looks out to the whole bar but still gives some privacy. I notice a guy looking at me, and it seems Logan saw too as he moves his hand around my waist.

“You’re hot as hell,” Logan says to me. I roll my eyes and move into the booth. He sits next to me and moves his arm behind me, so his fingers touch my shoulder. “Still pissed at me,”

“No, I get what you’re saying. I guess I have become more confident. If it helps, I have ten piercings and six tattoos,” I tell him.

“Where’s the other piercing?” he asks. I smile and look away from him. A waitress places our drinks in front of us, “keep them coming,” Logan says. I shake my head and take a sip of my cocktail. This is stronger than the martini, full of alcohol but tastes super sweet. It’s amazing.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I ask.

“No, drink as much as you want or don’t want. It saves us from having to ask is all,” he says.

“What about you?”

“Nothing’s changed, you know pretty much everything,” he states. “I work most of the time. I try to keep myself busy. I’ve just accepted a teaching job at NYU for a year,”

“Oh, what subject?” I ask

“I’m going to be the guest lecturer for Business Management,” he tells me, and my eyes widen.

“No, kidding?” That means he’s going to be my lecturer.

“What are you studying?”

“Psychology, Business, and computer science,” I tell him. He smirks, and I feel his fingers stroke my shoulder.

“So I’m going to be your teacher again,” he states with a very sexy smirk. “You’ll have to call me Sir,” he adds, and I smile a little. “I like it when you call me Sir,”

“Stop flirting,” I say and take a sip of my drink. I don’t think this drink is cold enough to cool down my overly hot hormones.

“I’m not flirting, just stating a fact,” his hand moves up to the back of my neck, making me shiver a little. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me. I cross my legs as I feel myself become flustered. This night cannot end in sex or anything more than maybe a hug. I’ll have one more drink, and then I have to call it a night.