“Fuck, I wish I was there, baby.”
“Me, too. Not much longer, right?” she asks, her voice still dripping with sex.
“No, not much longer.”
It takes all he has to hide the fact that he’s coming home the next day. Logan can’t wait to see her look of surprise.
“Ok, well I need to clean up. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure thing. I miss you, Logan.”
“I miss you too.”
The next day Logan’s relief arrives around three in the afternoon; just after he finishes setting a broken arm due to a car crash. Logan waves to Brooks on his way out and eagerly jumps in his car, thrilled to head back to Carson.
It’s around six when he arrives home and since it is Thursday, he expects to find Avery just getting home from the office.
As Logan opens the door he doesn’t think twice about the smell of spaghetti wafting through the air or the candles lit around the house. No, his attention is drawn to the man’s jacket draped over his couch. A jacket he recognizes.
Rage builds quickly in his gut and he has to work hard not to explode: losing his temper would make him no better than the man that called himself his father. But as he walks around the corner into the kitchen his desire to tamp down his rage evaporates. The feelings of betrayal, hatred, and broken trust erupt from his chest. Images of Shannon run through his mind.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Logan shouts, his hands gripping the back of one barstool, turning his knuckles white.
Before him Avery stands beside the table, leaning over, bringing her chest at eye level to the man she’s entertaining. At his outburst, Avery stands quickly, practically falling over herself as she turns around startled. Austin pushes back from the table and puts his hands up as if surrendering.
Too fucking late for that!
“Logan, you’re home. I wasn’t expec…”
Cutting her off, Logan bellows, “I can see that you weren’t expecting me.” Pacing from the kitchen, he runs his hands through his hair, completely tormented by the vision of Avery and Austin. “God, how long did you wait? You’re all the fucking same - liars and cheats. I should have known all along.”
Logan can see the tears building in Avery’s eyes, but his anger is so overpowering that he can’t stop himself from spewing hatred.
“Logan, I…” she exclaims as she cries out his name.
“Was I not enough for you? What more did you want from me?”
Austin goes to stand beside Avery, but smartly she steps away from him.
“Logan,” he says loud enough to override Logan’s temper, “it’s not what you think.”
“Sure it’s not. You fuck everything with two legs anyway, so you needed to add my girlfriend to your list. Both of you get the hell out of my house.”
Logan turns to walk away, ready to toss everything of Avery’s out of his bedroom. As he closes the bedroom door he can hear Austin console Avery and his heart breaks even more. Logan loves her more than anything, far more than Shannon, and he was ready to marry her. No, Avery tore out his heart and disintegrated it in her palm.
He sits on the end of his bed, unable to touch a single thing of Avery’s, petrified of how he’ll feel if he removes her completely from his life. Instead, Logan sits and thinks.
Why would she do this to me? I thought we had something special, something remarkable, something people search their entire lives for. How was I so wrong? We’re just one more statistic, one more break-up on a long list of break-ups.
Logan hears Avery’s car exit the driveway and then the front door closing, followed by boot-laden footsteps on his hardwood floors. A knock on his bedroom door startles him, but he makes no move to answer.
“You completely fucked this up. That girl loves you more than anything and you completely threw her away.”
Logan continues to sit in silence, hoping that Austin will take the hint and go home.
Instead, he continues, “I know what you’ve been through, Logan, and I know what it looked like when you walked in, but don’t be a fucking dick. When you’re done pouting like a little sissy ass baby, come out here and I’ll explain why I was here and hopefully that will give you enough time to fix this.”
At the sound of Austin’s footsteps retreating Loga