“I’m not going to be vicious about a fifteen-year-old, even if she is cruder than porn.”
“Is it possible to be cruder than porn?”
“Depends on the porn,” the bartender said with a cheeky smile as he put my whisky in front of me. “Tab?”
I thought about Logan and Sharon. “Yes, please.”
“Back to the subject at hand,” Chloe said. “I don’t want to stop you from falling for this guy. Personally, I think he’s good for you.”
“How can you possibly think that? You haven’t even met him.”
“I know that you have this fire about you that I’ve never seen before. You have these new people in your life. You have Maia, whom you clearly adore.”
I decided it was time to tell her about Sharon the American.
“Och, that’s nothing.” Chloe dismissed it with a wave of her hand as soon as I was finished telling her about the events of the evening.
I was affronted by the dismissal. “You’re clearly not listening. I am not Logan’s type. At all. And he’s not even my type. I don’t know how this happened. But I do know that he’s never going to see me as anything but a friend, and I’m going to end up getting my heart broken if I don’t do something quickly.”
Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Did you hear what you just said? He’s not your type. And yet here we are discussing how you have feelings for him. Who is to say that he hasn’t developed feelings for you?”
I shook my head, frustrated by her attempts at encouragement rather than discouragement. “He flirts with women he finds attractive. I’ve witnessed it. He has never flirted with me. Ever. Chloe, all of his women look the same. And they don’t look like me. If he’s not looking to get serious with his type, he is definitely not looking to get serious with me. He’s just going to have shady hookups on the side with women he doesn’t want to bring home to his daughter. I’m not going to be a shady hookup, and I wouldn’t want to be.”
Chloe scowled. “What the hell is it you want me to say?”
“I want you to help me get over him. Before all of this I’d been on one bad date after another. A few of those you sent me out on. I’m asking you to dig deep and search hard and find me the best bloody date you’ve ever found anyone. It’s time to remake the magic of Aidan and Juno.”
My friend did not look happy. “But —”
“But nothing. Logan is a dead end. Find me a through road!”
Her eyes widened with amusement. “Fine. I’ll find you the most perfect date ever.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” I clinked my glass against hers, feeling better already.
As Maia helped me load the dishwasher a few days later, she turned to Logan, who was sipping a beer at my counter. We’d just finished dinner together. Again. “Since it’s Friday, can we watch a movie tonight?”
“Have you done all your homework?”
“Most of it. I thought I’d finish the rest on Sunday. There’s not much to do. Ask Grace.”
I glanced over my shoulder to find him looking at me questioningly. “She speaks the truth.”
His lips curled up at the corners and his eyes slid to his daughter. “Then we can watch a movie.”
“You too, Grace. Dad bought a new armchair and it’s awesome, but I’ll let you have it.”
I chuckled at her generosity.
“No chick flicks, please,” Logan added. “Don’t need the two of you ganging up on me.”
“We’ll vote,” Maia said. “And I promise not to vote for a chick flick. They’re crap anyway. It’s always about two idiots who apparently don’t understand the art of communication.”
“There is nothing wrong with a good chick flick,” I argued, but I did it laughing at her assessment of the chick flick. “But unfortunately, I can’t vote because I can’t come over tonight.”
“Why?” Maia looked disappointed.
“I have plans.”
“Oh. Well, change them.”
I laughed, but Logan said her name with warning and shook his head at her. “Perhaps Grace is spending time with her other friends, Maia. Remember she has those.”
Maia snorted. “Oh yeah. I forgot she had a life before we took it over.”
The two of them smiled mischievously at each other.
“You two are so funny,” I said dryly. “And wrong.”
“About?”
“My plans. I’m not seeing my friends.” I felt a fluttering in my belly and I knew it was part nerves for the date tonight and part excitement that tonight might mean the end of my infatuation with Logan. “I have a date.”
My announcement was met with utter silence.
Maia was looking at me horrified, and Logan’s face had gone blank.
“A date?” Maia spat out as if it were a dirty word.
I gave a huff of laughter. “Yes, a date. I do go on those sometimes. I have to hide my horns and cloven feet to do it, but somehow I manage.”
“With who?” Logan practically barked from across the counter, his expression no longer blank. He was glowering. Hard.
I blinked rapidly in surprise at the bark. What was this? Was Logan daring to play protective big brother?
Oh God, could my life get any more pathetic? I’d been relegated to “familial” in his book.