“Logan didn’t say that was a requirement.”
She relinquished the chair to me as if just realizing it wasn’t hers. “You’re right, he didn’t. Anyway, I wanted to ask if I could borrow your uncoated swatch deck. Mine’s gone missing again.”
I dug through my drawer and pulled the fan of color swatches out. She took it and nodded thanks, but lingered. “Sorry, I just thought it was weird, seeing Logan and then you at Spiro’s, and Debbie said you’ve been in his office a lot recently.”
I shrugged, but inside I cursed nosy Debbie whose cube was closest to Logan’s door. “If I have, it’s to go over the GoodFoods account.”
A smile broke on her face. “Yeah, of course. You know Debbie,” she said, although I really didn’t. “Always spreading rumors.”
She began her trek back to her cube, but my word stopped her. “Rumors?”
“That you and Logan were friends, maybe more. I told her it wasn’t true.” She paused. “Unless . . . Are you?”
It wasn’t a lie, I told myself. Be convincing. “No. Logan Stone and I are not friends.”
She flashed me a smile, pulling her hair up into a messy bun as she went. “Yeah, I told her that’d be crazy.”
God, it was like being back in high school.
Logan and I ate frozen pizza at his place, and I debated telling him about my conversation with Jamie. I made it two slices before it spilled out of me.
“There’s a rumor going around the office that we’re friends.”
He blinked. “Wow, juicy.”
“Debbie thinks we might be more, just because I’ve gone into your office a few times. I mean, honestly, she thinks I’m going in there to get it on with you in the middle of the day?”
I could tell from his playful smile he wasn’t going to let me off easy. “Get it on? Is that what we’re doing?”
“Let me revise. Does she think I’m going in there to fuck your brains out?”
The smile widened into a full-out grin. “That does seem to be a more adequate description.”
“Stop distracting me from my worrying.”
“I’m sure it’s fine. They’ve been running low on drama in the department. When the PC staff comes on board that will give them more to work with.”
“Assuming everything . . .” How to phrase it? “. . . works out like you want it to, how long do we have to pretend at the office?”
He considered the statement. “We’ll have to play it by ear, but I would think a few months.”
It’s not like we were in some elaborate scheme, hiding our love. At the same time, I had lied today, and we’d lied to his family about how long we’d been together, lied to my parents about how we’d met . . . The lies were piling up.
“Is that okay?” He seemed to be trying to read my thoughts.
When Kathleen found out she’d been passed over the promotion she thought was in the bag, she was going to be upset. Finding out it went to me, who wasn’t even a senior, would leave her beyond pissed. If she had an inkling Logan and I were in a relationship, she’d go screaming to Jon about favoritism in a heartbeat. It would be a disaster, and no matter how Logan defended his position, how could he come through that unscathed?
“Yeah,” I said. “I can pretend that we’re not . . . getting it on.”
“Good. Oh, by the way,” he dug a hand in his pocket and set something down on the counter, “this is yours.” His palm lifted to reveal metal. A key.
Whoa. It wasn’t exactly the same as telling me he loved me, but it was pretty damn close.
“You sure you want to do that? All of your other girlfriends will have to go.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, mocking me. “And I had so many.”
Did he have a clue that being girlfriend number two to him made me feel like number one?