"Well, you can't blame me. It's not like you're famous for having a great attitude."
He just huffed and folded his arms, pinning me with a look. "Do you want a ride or not, Elise?"
It would be in both of our best interests for me to say no. I should have told him to go home and then called a car to come get me and bring me to mine. But that meant extra work and paying for the ride in addition to the battery and whatever else I needed.
And Logan was offering his help, albeit in exchange for lunch, but that wasn't an unreasonable request.
"Alright," I said finally. "Thanks. Just let me actually get dressed, and we can go." I put the bag of pastries down on the counter, taking one with me to my room. "Don't eat my fritters."
Of course, as soon I was out of the room, I could hear him opening the paper bag.
"Dan's not an idiot, you know," Logan said as we sat at a ramen place a few hours later. My car was back running, and it had only set me back a little over a hundred dollars and the cost of the meal we were eating.
"I know that," I replied, watching him add spoonfuls of chili oil to his bowl. "How can you eat that?"
"What?" Logan glanced up, confused. He followed my gaze to the spoon that was drizzling the red oil over his broth. "Oh. I don't know. I like spicy food."
"If I tried that I'd be in the bathroom for the next day and a half," I said, shuddering.
"Sexy," he teased.
"Oh, fuck off. Anyway. I know Dan's not an idiot. But if it's just a one-off occurrence, he'll probably let it go. There's no evidence that we were lying, and technically, we weren't. You did take me to my car, and I did pester you with questions about how to install the battery. And now I'm buying you lunch. The only part missing was, you know..." I waved a hand. "The stuff that came before."
He snorted, shaking his head. "The 'stuff' that came before. You mean all the orgasms I gave you?"
"Logan," I hissed, glancing around us to make sure no one had heard him talking about sex so openly in the middle of the restaurant.
Of course, he didn't seem like he cared. His face was unbothered, and he swirled his spoon around in the broth before taking a sip of it, making a thoughtful face, and then adding more chili.
When he finally looked back up at me, he was grinning. "Don't be such a prude, Elise."
"I am not a prude," I insisted. I was pretty sure I'd already proved that. "Just because I don't feel the need to discuss the specifics of my sex life in a public place."
He shrugged. "Whatever you need to tell yourself. I had a point, if you'd let me make it."
I waved my chopsticks at him in a 'go ahead' gesture.
"Thank you. Dan's not an idiot. If that happens again, we're going to need a better plan."
I stopped, noodles halfway to my mouth. "What do you mean ‘if it happens again’?"
"I mean, if for some reason Dan happens to show up at your apartment at ass o'clock in the morning with pastries or flowers or an organic puppy or whatever, we need an excuse for why I would be there."
I took my bite so the noodles would stop dripping broth all over the table, but I was confused. There was no real reason why Logan would be at my place. He had no business there, really. We weren't friends, and even if we were, we were both too busy to make that make sense.
And yet he was sitting there, eating his fiery death soup like he hadn't just suggested something absurd.
Clearly, the one time we'd had sex made him think that it was going to be happening again. And that was a terrible idea. For so many reasons.
Namely, we didn't even like each other, and also because explaining that to Dan, as we would inevitably have to, was more trouble than it was worth.
Even if the sex was really good, and it was, it wasn't worth that.
"Or," I said, trying to make him see reason. "We could just make it easier on ourselves and make sure it doesn't happen again."
Logan nodded. "You have a point. He is less prone to showing up at my place at odd hours. Virtue of him not knowing my work schedule."
I shook my head, bewildered. "No, I mean... we just... shouldn't do it again."
