Chapter 0129
+25 BONUS
Logan walked through his front door after returning from the NYC trip that Wednesday night. He was exhausted, mostly mentally, from all of the things that had gone down between him and Hazel.
He couldn’t think any more about her tonight. His plan was to go straight to bed and sleep for the next ten hours straight.
His phone began to buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out with a groan and looked at the screen. Dylan was calling. He debated briefly on whether or not he should answer it, then finally pressed the accept button.
“Hey man,” Dylan said. “Did you make it back in okay?”
“Yeah, just got home actually,” he said.
“Great, great,” Dylan said. “So uh, you want to tell me exactly what the hell is going on with Hazel?”
Logan’s heart stopped. Did Dylan somehow know what happened in New York? “Uh…what do you mean?”
“Cut the bullshit. You know Hazel tells Maria everything. I just…happened to be around when it happened,” Dylan trailed off.
“What were you doing with Maria?” Logan asked, even more confused.
“I ran into her at the bar,” Dylan said. “But that’s beside the point. What are you doing with Hazel?”
Logan sighed. He didn’t know the answer to that himself. How could he possibly explain it to Dylan? “It was just a couple moments of…I don’t know. Weakness? Vulnerability? Look, I don’t even understand it myself, okay?”
Dylan scoffed. “Oh come on, you understand it just fine, you’re just in denial.”
Logan didn’t respond. Dylan had no right to come at him this way, this was between Logan and Hazel, it had nothing to do with him. How many times were they going to have this conversation.
“Nothing even happened,” Logan muttered, wishing Dylan would just stop and let him go to bed like he wanted.
“Not for lack of trying,” Dylan snapped. “You keep messing with that poor girl’s head. What are you going to do about it now? Huh?”
“What does it even matter to you?” Logan said more loudly and angrily than he intended.
“Well in case you haven’t noticed, I happen to actually like Hazel. But you keep interfering, keep kissing or almost kissing her, and now she’s trying to push both of us away,” Dylan also said loudly and angrily. “And it’s because you can’t be honest with yourself about her, instead, you just ruin anyone else’s chances with her because you can’t stand to see her with another man.”
“That is not…
“No? Tell me that’s not true. Tell me that the reason you were following her around and checking up on her was because of some moral high ground bullshit and not because you did not want to see her with anyone else,” Dylan said.
Logan remained silent. He wanted to tell Dylan that was true, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He knew it
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Chapter 0129
was futile
at this point, but he did not like admitting to himself the things Hazel made him feel, the way he wanted her so desperately sometimes. How it ate him up inside to have to force all those feelings down..
“Either be with her or leave her alone man,” Dylan said then hung up.
Logan hung his head, too tired to fight with himself on this one this time. He knew Dylan was right, he was trying to have his cake and eat it too and it wasn’t fair to Hazel. He would have to find some way to really, truly distance himself from her.
Thursday evening at exactly 5:00, I shut down my computer and grabbed my purse. I waved to Logan through the window of his office. He looked up and held up his index finger, then ran over to his office door and opened it.
“Hazel, I just wanted to say…actually, do mind coming in here a moment?” He asked, after looking around the office.
“Oh, sure,” I said. I set my purse back on my desk and walked into his office. He shut the door behind me.
“I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry for how I’ve acted recently. I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I was just…” he paused. Then, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said quietly. I looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry too, for the way I acted on the trip.”
He let out a small, sad laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “No, Hazel, you have nothing to apologize for.”
I waited another moment, unsure whether he was done or not. I wasn’t sure what to say to that, but I didn’t want to just dip out either.
“Um,” he said. “One more thing. There may be some changes here tomorrow. I just wanted to let you “know how much I appreciate you. You’ve been an amazing secretary, the best anyone could ask for.”
Why did it sound like he was firing me?
“Are…are you letting me go?” I asked.
“Oh, no! Nothing like that. I just felt like I needed to say that to you,” he said. “See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Good night, Logan,” I said. He wasn’t firing me…but I sure still had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
When I walked into work the next morning I swear the whole office was buzzing. Normally it was fairly quiet, especially just before the workday started, but today it seemed like everyone was whispering to each other the moment I stepped into the office.
I walked straight to Maria’s desk.
“Okay, what’s the scoop?” I asked her.
She looked up from the breakfast sandwich she had just unwrapped. “What?”
“Do you not hear the office all abuzz? Last time this happened I thought I was getting fire…” My eyes widened with a realization. “Logan said something really weird to me before I left last night.”
“What?” Maria’s word was muffled as she said it through a bite of her sandwich.
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Chapter 0129
“I have to go,” I said and started speed walking to my desk.
“Bitch! You cannot keep leaving me hanging like this!” Maria got up and speed walked behind me. “What did he say?”
I got to my desk. Everything seemed to be in order. All my things were still there. I peeked into Logan’s office. It was empty except for his things. So far everything seemed normal. I let out a small sigh of relief.
Maria cleared her throat behind me. I jumped and turned. I had forgotten she had hurried over with me.
“Well?”
“He just said there might be some changes today, and that he wanted me to know he’s really appreciated having me as a secretary,” I said.
“Well yes
yeah, you’re a damn good one,” she said.
“Yes, I know,” I said. “And thank you,” I added with a small embarrassed smile. “But no, what change? It sounded like he wasn’t going to see me anymore.”
“Um, here comes the change now I think,” Maria said, looking behind me.
I turned and looked. Logan was headed towards me with another lady in tow. She was beautiful, with her long, dark wavy hair and model–esque body. I felt like I was watching her walk in slow motion.
“Hazel, this is Sabrina,” Logan said. “From now on, she is going to be my lead secretary. You’ll go to her for instructions and for whatever you need.”
