“Please look at me. Tell me we’re okay.”
I turned to see him standing with his tie loosened and his sleeves pushed up, devastatingly handsome. My body wanted him regardless of what my mind told it, but thankfully my mind was stronger. “I’m not going to tell you we’re okay. I’m not going to lie to you.”
His approach was too rapid to react to, and hands scooped under my arms, lifting me to my feet. “Then tell me what I can do.”
“I love you, but I’m not happy. You have to let me be unhappy about this. I lost that promotion because of what you said.”
Logan loved compliments, but he didn’t like anyone to point out his faults. “It was a simple mistake. We both know you’ve made one before.”
I could only imagine the shocked look that splashed on my face, and I shoved his hands off. I didn’t need a reminder of my disaster with the legal disclaimer, and not today of all days.
“Fuck. I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry.” He tried to pull me into his arms, but I would have none of it. I backed up a few steps, but then the wall was flat against my back, and it left me with nowhere to go. His hands trapped me there beneath his intense gaze. “I’m so sorry. I love you. Please tell me how I can help.”
His mouth lowered to mine, but I shifted away. His lips were the most persuasive when they weren’t talking. My head tilted back and thudded against the wall while he mouthed aggressive kisses down my neck.
“Logan, no.” My eyes fell closed. I was still too upset, too conflicted. “You can’t fix it that way.”
It was like I’d just punched him, he was that stunned. “I wasn’t trying to. I love you and I can’t help it,” he said, his eyes pleading. “I can’t stand that I did this to you, that I hurt you.”
Once those three words passed his lips in the office, he didn’t have any trouble saying them, but part of me worried this was manipulative.
“I need space,” I said. “You have to let me work through this on my own.”
“Space,” he repeated with horror. “How much space?”
“I don’t know. A few days.”
His chest lifted in a breath. He didn’t want space, but I wasn’t going to back down on this, either. The struggle in his eyes as he faced his first ever compromise from me was fierce.
But it was blinked away and the hesitant words from him were whisper quiet. “All right. I can do that.”
He brushed a hand over the back of my head, pressing my forehead to his lips in a chaste kiss, lingering. “Are you sure?”
I nodded, but said nothing as he left, his shoulders sagging.
Logan had only had one girlfriend in his life before me, and he’d been the one to walk away, which meant he’d never had it end on someone else’s terms. Not that it ended between us. At least, I didn’t think.
I had intended to maintain radio silence for one day, but one night became two after I watched Kathleen gloat around the office. No one spoke to me. I was literally sleeping with the enemy as far as they were concerned. After his declaration of love, he retreated into his cold, professional version like someone had deactivated the other part of him. On Thursday night he asked hesitantly if we could get dinner.
But I still needed more space. I couldn’t get past the failure. For once, Payton and Blake saw eye to eye, and they both told me I needed to forgive Logan and stop blaming him for a decision I probably would have made if the roles were reversed. I wanted to forgive him. I missed him, but as more time went by, it became harder and harder to find a way back to what we had.
When I rounded the corner into my cube on Friday morning, he was there, leaning against my desk. That same steel-colored button down and gun-metal gray tie he’d worn the day we’d gone into his office . . . and later that night he’d become my boyfriend. Outwardly, no one would notice the drastic difference in him, but not me. He hadn’t shaved. The faint lines around his eyes and the way his shoulders hung told me something was wrong.
“The train was late,” I said. If it hadn’t been, I might actually have been on time this morning.
“Can we talk in my office?” He asked it softly, and it filled me with unease. He didn’t move until I nodded.
I sat down and heard the dull thud of his door shutting behind me.
“Evie, I promised I wasn’t going to keep things from you, so there’s s
omething you should know.” He came to stand in front of me and leaned back against the desk, his face serious. “I’m giving Will my notice today.”
What the hell was he talking about? “You’re leaving?” He’d been in talks with another company and hadn’t told me? I jumped right into anger. “Where are you going?”
He sighed. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“What?”