He stood there looking at me, I could tell I was getting to him. I made the excuse of needing to use the ladies’ room as everyone was leaving the restaurant so I could get away from him.
I’d asked Anna and Dad to meet me at the airport. I told them I wouldn’t be far behind and watched as all three of them left. I ducked into the bathroom, quickly washed my hands and checked my makeup. Once I was sure they would all be gone, I made my way out the door. I was almost across the parking lot when I heard my name called from behind me. I didn’t need to turn around, I already knew who belonged to that voice. “What do you want, Logan?” I huffed.
“Please, you’ve given me the cold shoulder long enough.”
“I really don’t think I have, to be honest.” I stopped walking and turned around when I reached my car, sitting my purse on the hood. “What is it, Logan? I don’t have a lot of time.” I glanced at my watch; it was close to one.
“What do you mean you don’t have time, I want to talk,” he said stopping before me.
“Exactly what I said. I have a flight to catch, I can’t be late.”
“Yeah, about that, where are you going?” he asked looking down into my eyes.
I couldn’t look at him, I knew I would end up buckling and telling him everything so instead I looked to the ground. “All you need to know is that I am leaving, you don’t need to know where I am going.”
“Please, Leah, just tell me.”
“I have a new job, it’s a new opportunity for me, a new beginning. This is a good thing for me. That’s it, that’s all you need to know.” I stepped forward, took a deep breath and for whatever reason I placed a long lingering kiss goodbye on his lips. I felt his hands on my upper arms gripping me tightly as I pulled away. “I’ll never forget what we shared, Logan. But for now, please do as I ask and leave me alone, let me get over you.”
“What if I don’t want you to get over me?” he questioned, speaking in a low sexy voice beside my ear.
“You should have thought about that before. I have to go.”
I pulled out of his grip, grabbed my purse, climbed into my car and shut the door. I wasted no time as I put my key in the ignition, started the engine, and pulled out of my spot, driving away without looking back at him.
NINETEEN
Logan
Three months later
Three months, I had been back in Boston and not a single day had gone by that I hadn’t thought of her. I could still see her face clear as day as she had looked up at me when she said goodbye, tears in her eyes. I dreamt of her every night and I could barely make it through a day without thinking of her or seeing something that reminded me of her. It was only getting worse as time passed, and once again at twenty-eight, Leah became the fantasy of my every masturbatory thought.
“Logan, Logan! Have you even heard a word I said? I’m waiting for an answer.”
I blinked and looked at Jean as she stood in front of me. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You need to hire an interior designer for this house, Logan. It’s stunning, but for me to feature it in the magazine, it needs to be decorated right.”
My first thought was to hire Leah, if only she would answer the messages I had sent her. She would be perfect for this job.
“So, Logan? Who are you going to hire?” she asked marking down something on the notepad she had been carrying.
“Who do you work with that you would recommend?”
“A man in your position asking for a recommendation for interior designers? Surely you must know someone?”
“Look, I design the houses. Most of the time I don’t even see it past the plans on paper.” I shrugged looking around my new living room. I knew many designers, too many, most of them I had fallen into bed with after a drunken night of partying and ruined any sort of relationship. I wasn’t going down that road again.
She let out a large sigh and wrote something else on her notepad. “All right, well, since you work for Jim and he is the one who wanted me to do the spread in the magazine on your home, I suggest that you contact Preston Interior Design here in Boston. They’ve recently hired a new designer. I have seen some of her work. She is fantastic, and exactly what I think you need here. She did work recently for the Boston Harbor Hotel and did an outstanding job.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and shared with me some shots she had taken of the newly designed rooms. “I think if you call and tell Mary what you’re looking for, she will put you in touch with her.”
She pulled a card from her booklet and handed it to me. I looked down at it and shoved it into my pocket. “Call me once you are ready and I will get back here and do the spread. Jim is excited for you, he says you are the best architect in the firm right now and me doing this article on you will not only bring a lot of business to the firm, but I think it will catapult your career. People want different, and this is what they are looking for.”
I smiled at her, took her card she had given me from my pocket and scribbled the name of the firm down on the back of it so I wouldn’t forget. “I’ll call first thing tomorrow.”
“Let them know I referred you, it will save you the consult fee if not a little more. Call me as soon as you are ready.”
I watched as she walked down the front walkway, her red hair swaying back and forth across her back, just as Leah’s did. I shut the door to my new home and turned to look around. She was right about the house needing decor. I moved from a bachelor pad into a four-bedroom, open concept home. I could design them but decorating a house was a different story, I needed a professional.