You want to meet up? Coffee? Dinner maybe?
Logan scratched at his chin. Shit, what was he going to do now? Why had he even started this in the first place? There was no way they could meet. As soon as she saw him, she would think he’d been playing some sort of game. At best, she’d be briefly mad at him for messing around. At worst, she might hate him for fooling her. But there was also the possibility she’d guess he was doing neither of those things, that she’d know what his real intentions were. Christ, how would he explain that?
Another message came through.
Sorry if this seems sudden. I’m not sure how these things work. I’d really like to meet you. I’ve been thinking a lot about you these last few weeks.
Logan put his hand over his mouth as he stared at the message. Fuck, he needed to end this, now. It had already gone on too long. But instead of blocking her, or blowing up his account, Logan typed back…
Been thinking about you, too.
Logan pressed send before he had a chance to come to his senses, and immediately regretted it. Think, goddamn it! He typed out another message.
Things are a bit hectic at the moment. Maybe in a couple of weeks.
He reread it and cringed at how lame it sounded. Damn it. Deleting it he typed another.
My schedule is a little tight, when were you thinking?
Seriously, his fingers weren’t connected to his brain!
Logan tossed the phone down, and went to shower, hoping it would clear his head, and he would come up with a solution. The solution he settled on was to ignore his phone. Logan managed to avoid looking for replies for the next couple of hours, however, the suspense was killing him. But so was the prospect of meeting Harriet and having to admit he was L.J.
He should do it, explain everything. Make out it was all a joke. They’d have a drink, laugh about it… yeah, that’s what he should do.
Except what he should do and what he wanted to do were two different things. Now that he’d started this, he found he looked forward to Harriet’s regular messages.
An hour before the lunchtime opening, he went down to the bar. He was going over the accounts at a table when Sarah came in through the door and leaned back against it as she shut it. Flapping her hand by her face, she scrunched up her nose. “Ugh, it’s so hot today. I swear every sweaty guy in the whole of New York, decided to stand next to me on the train.”
As soon as Logan looked up at her, he got that feeling of déja vu back. That dream from last night hijacked his thoughts, and he froze. For a moment, he remembered him and Harriet leaning against that door, his mouth on hers, and Harriet tugging him closer as he kissed her.
The color drained out of his face, and he groaned. Shit, that kiss wasn’t a figment of his imagination. It had been real.
“You okay, Logan? You look like you have seen a ghost.”
Logan buried his face in his hands, and the whole, terrible incident played out in crystal-clear clarity in his head. He’d watched Harriet kiss her date, and an overwhelming jealousy had gripped him. As that jealousy knotted in his stomach, MatchMate guy disappeared around the corner. Fuck. As they’d entered the bar, Harriet had reached for the light, and he’d backed her against the door and kissed her. Oh, God! He’d confessed how he felt about her, he was sure of it.
Logan closed his eyes in shame, but then something struck him. Harriet hadn’t pushed him away, she didn’t slap his face, or laugh. She kissed him back.
“Logan? Are you feeling ill? You’ve gone ever so pale.”
He looked up at Sarah. “I think I’ve done something very stupid.”
12
Logan
Sarah went straight to the bar and poured some coffee from the pot. A few minutes later, she placed the cup in front of him and sat down.
“Okay, define stupid. Did you lose the bar in a game of cards? Puke in a taxi? Come on, out with it, what level of stupid am I looking at?”
He opened his mouth and she stuck out her hand. “One moment.” She picked up the cup of coffee and took a large gulp. For a second she savored the taste, then she put it down. “Okay, go on, I’m ready.”
“I kissed Harriet.”
Sarah laughed. “That’s it?”
He nodded, unable to say anything else, because admitting it out loud made it so much more real.
Sarah put her hand on his forearm. “But that’s good, isn’t it? I mean, it was bound to happen. You said yourself the other day that you really liked her. And let’s face it, you are living together. How could she resist you?” She winked at him.
“No, it’s bad. Terribly bad.”
Sarah took another gulp of coffee. “Why? Oh, God, did she slap your face?”
“I-I don’t think so.”
“Well, she either did, or she didn’t. Why don’t you tell me what happened while I pour you a coffee?” She looked at his ashen face. “Or do you need something stronger?”
Logan was tempted, but then his low-grade headache and unsettled stomach reminded him of the heavy night last night. “Coffee would be good.”
While Sarah fetched it, he ran through what he could remember again. Yup, he definitely kissed her, and, nope, Harriet never slapped his face. She wasn’t the one who stopped kissing, either. That was him, he was certain of it.
“Here. Now, why don’t you start from the beginning.”
“When I got back last night, I saw Harriet kissing the guy from MatchMate.”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders. “They were in here
