He closed his wardrobe door and went into the kitchen. Across the apartment, he could hear Harriet in her room. Was she wondering what to wear? Was she getting dressed up? Was she excited? Nervous?
Her door opened, and she appeared, catching him off guard. Harriet was dressed in skinny jeans that showed off her long legs, and she had a cute strappy top on. Her hair was down, and swept over one shoulder. She’d put on make-up, just light, not too much, and she was wearing perfume.
“Oh, hi, Logan. Not in the bar tonight?”
He shook his head, but couldn’t look at her.
“You look nice. Are you going out?” she appeared next to him and he felt so disloyal.
“Yeah. You? You look beautiful. Another blind date? Did Lori set you up?”
She blushed a little, and he admired the color it put into her cheeks.
“Not Lori. Um, someone from Tinder.”
“You be careful.”
“I am. We are meeting in a Starbucks.”
“Huh, well, have a nice time.” Logan glanced at the clock. He hoped she would hurry up and leave, he had to get all the way across town to meet her. He’d been careful to choose somewhere not on their turf, because he still wasn’t convinced she hadn’t worked it out that it was him.
“So, what about you? You meeting a date?”
“Um, just a friend. Actually, I should get going. Have a nice time, Harriet.”
Logan almost fled out of the apartment. Okay, he really should have thought this through more. Everything about this night was going to be a disaster.
Logan stood across the road from the Starbucks where he planned to meet Harriet. He’d been there for over twenty minutes before she arrived. His stomach churned, and as soon as she appeared, he lost his nerve. Why had he thought this was a good idea? This was the shittiest idea he had ever had.
He watched her walk inside, and a few minutes later, she took a seat in the window. He licked his dry lips as he continued to spy on her. She glanced up and down the road every few minutes, sipping on her drink. Logan stepped back into a doorway, hoping the shadows kept him out of sight. The longer she waited, the more uptight her body language became—but still Logan couldn’t make himself go over there.
His phone pinged, and he pulled it out.
Hey, L.J. did I get the time wrong?
He brushed his fingers through his hair. This had gone on long enough. He clicked on the message. Sorry, not going to make it.
He pressed send, then turned around and went back to his apartment.
Logan stayed in his room all night. Even though he heard Harriet return a few minutes after he had, he didn’t come out. He couldn’t look her in the face and carry on like everything was normal. Not yet. He’d be there for her in the morning.
He checked his phone to see if she had replied to his last message, but there was nothing. Feeling pretty rotten about the whole thing, he sent another message.
Hey, how’s things? Really am sorry about earlier.
He waited for her reply and when it still hadn’t come by midnight, he suspected he’d totally fucked this up. Harriet wasn’t going to give L.J. a second chance, and he couldn’t blame her. He opened up the Tinder app and contemplated deleting his profile. This was over, it was time he grew the fuck up. But somehow, he couldn’t quite bring himself to delete it. Perhaps, in a few days, when Harriet calmed down, she might just message him again.
In the morning, Logan still couldn’t face Harriet, and he waited until she had gone to work before getting up, dressing, and making his way down to the bar.
Sarah was already there. “Hi, boss.”
He walked past her into the office, too preoccupied and wondering how Harriet was taking being stood up, and whether she would ever message L.J. again.
“Someone’s Mr. Bright and Breezy this morning.”
“What?”
“You look like your cat died. Oh, Christ, Marlow is okay, isn’t he?”
He frowned at her. “Marlow is fine.”
“Then why so freaking glum?”
“Because…” he hesitated. He’d already confided in Sarah way too much. “Nothing. Coming down with something, I guess.” Then to change the subject he smiled. “How was last night?”
“Same old, same old. Busy at happy hour, quietened for a while, and then bucked up again around nine-thirty. Oh, Lori and her boyfriend were in, I had a nice chat with them.”
“I didn’t know you knew Lori.”
“We just met, she’s nice. Actually, she invited me on one of their girls’ nights out.”
“That’s nice.” Logan wasn’t really that interested in the conversation, but Sarah’s chatter distracted him from Harriet.
“Harriet came in, too.”
He tensed. “Oh, nice.”
“She was upset.”
“Why?” It took all his acting ability to play it cool.
“Seems that Tinder guy stood her up. But then I guess you knew that.”
He looked up from his work, but as soon as he made eye contact with Sarah, he realized there was no use pretending.
She leaned on his desk. “Why did you stand her up?’
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. Harriet said she was meeting L.J. but he was a no-show.”
“I…” He clammed up because he had no idea how to explain himself.
Sarah pulled up a chair in front of the desk. “Logan, talk to me.”
He sighed. “What’s there to talk about? I took your advice, decided to meet her and come clean.”
“So, what happened?”
He rubbed his face with his hand. “I couldn’t go through with it. If she finds out that was me… I don’t want to fuck things up with her.”
“So, you thought standing her up was the best solution?”
“No . . . yes. Well, honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking. But L.J. is gone. I’m going to delete the account. If I ever go back on Tinder, I will do it under my real name, and if she’s interested…”
“Oh, Logan, she won’t hit you up that way.”
“I know.”
“So, you have changed your mind about moving
