Chapter 10
Elise
"Who all is goingto be there?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
It was a few days later, and I was at home, sitting at my desk with my computer open, editing photos. Dan was on the other end of the phone conversation, inviting me to yet another dinner party hosted by himself and Britt.
They loved their dinner parties, and to be fair, so did their guests. Usually, I wasn’t at all concerned about showing up to one. But then, usually I hadn’t spent over a week sleeping with one of my brother’s friends, either.
Even though time kept pressing on, putting more and more distance between me and what had happened in Greece, every time I thought about being in the same room with Logan, it was like it had just happened.
"I don't know," he replied. "Britt, of course. A couple of her friends, I think. Not everyone has gotten back to us yet." There was an audible smirk when he paused and added. "Jason probably won't, just in case it's him you're going to be missing. He's got to go to Iowa on a work trip."
"Oh. Well, too bad for him. I wasn't wondering about him, for the record."
"Really? You two seemed pretty close in Greece. I thought you were hitting it off."
"We were," I said, not even sure how to explain what had happened there. I couldn't exactly say, 'yeah we were, but then I decided to start sleeping with your best friend who I can't stand instead'. That would go over like a lead balloon and end up causing much more trouble than it was worth. "It just didn't work out."
Dan hummed thoughtfully. "He's a nice guy, you know. Good job, not crazy. I should know, I work with him."
"Do you know everything about everyone you work with?" I asked.
"Well, no, but I wouldn't be friends with him if he was a bad person."
"You're friends with Logan," I couldn't help pointing out. "You've been friends with Logan for years."
That made him sigh, and I could just imagine him rubbing at his forehead. "Logan's not a bad person," he said. "He got dealt a shitty hand, and he's not handling it well, but that doesn't make him a bad person."
"He wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine before all that happened, though," I couldn't resist adding. "It's not like that completely changed his character."
"No, you're right. He's always been prickly. That's just who he is. I've learned to deal with it, and I call him out when he's going too far. Oh," he said. "It's Logan you're wondering about. You two are always going at it."
I flushed darkly at his phrasing, and I was so, so glad he wasn't there to see it. It would have given me away immediately. "We're not 'going at it'," I replied quickly. "He's just rude, and I don't like it."
"I can tell him to lay off of you," Dan offered. "He'd probably even listen."
"No, that's okay. I don't want him to think I need my big brother to ride in on a white horse and save me from his bad attitude. I can handle it. I was just wondering. So I can... prepare myself."
Or something like that. So I could practice how to be in a room with someone I'd slept with on the downlow and not completely lose my cool. We'd done fine during those final days in Greece, but I was out of practice.
But maybe I was getting worked up over nothing. He had probably forgotten all about it, and when we saw each other, it would be the same as it always was. He wouldn't show any signs that he had ever looked at me with anything other than annoyance, and I would do the same.
"Honestly, it'll probably be fine," Dan said. "He's been weird lately."
I frowned at that. "Weird how?"
"I don't know. Just... more reserved. Hasn't been talking much. Not to me or anyone else. I don't know if he's just busy again, or if something happened."
Well, that at least didn't sound like it could be related to what we had done. Probably. It would be weird for him to distance himself from his best friend just because he'd slept with said best friend's sister, especially considering we weren't planning on it happening again.
Unless...he wanted it to happen again and he was distancing himself from Dan because he didn't know how to tell him? But that was ridiculous. Logan would surely have talked to me first if something like that was happening, right? He wouldn't just fuck up a friendship on the off chance I wanted to sleep with him again.
"Elise?" Dan asked, and I shook myself, realizing I'd gone quiet. "You still there?"
"Yeah. Sorry, just in my own head for a bit. I'm sure Logan's fine. He's probably just working a lot. You know how he is."
"Yeah, I do. I'm not really worried, just... you know. He's been through a lot."
