He shrugged. “I did say no titles, but if it makes you feel better to put a childish label on it, sure. I guess that is what I was suggesting, in a very loose sense.”
I threw my hands into the air. “Someone always gets attached and someone always gets hurt in those situations. Why can’t we just chalk this up to a wonderful night together and go our separate ways?”
“Well, because I don’t want to. If you don’t want to try for something with substance, I’m willing to just be carnal and see how far we can take this. I promise to not get attached if you can do the same. I have a few months off, and driving out to the beach with Mazy is something I do often on the weekends anyway, so it’s not like I’m a stranger to the two-hour drive to Wilmington.”
“I guess when you put it like that, two hours doesn’t seem all that bad. Who’s Mazy?” He was breaking down my resolve yet again, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t date. I was a glorified hermit who barely interacted with people outside the gaming world. It was a feat for me to even put on real pants and get out of sweats most days.
“Mazy is my Belgian Malinois. She lives with my parents while the season is in but I have her now that we’re in the offseason. She likes the beach and I try to bring her out to it as often as I can.” He stood, grabbing his croissant and coffee. “Look, I’m bringing my folks out this way in two weeks for a small vacation with my pup. If you want to meet up for a drink or something while I’m in town, great. If you don’t, I’ll have my answer and I’ll never bother you again. It’ll give you time to think all of this over and hopefully miss me.”
As he started to walk to the door, I turned to him. “I don’t have your number.”
“Check the napkin.” He pointed to the tray he’d left on the table. “Hope to hear from you soon, beautiful. There’s no pressure though. I’ll keep my end of the bargain if you decide you want nothing more to do with me.”
And just like that, without waiting for a response, Logan walked out of my room.
What the hell just happened?
I grabbed the napkin with his scribbled phone number on it and saved it in my phone. Sitting, just staring out at the water, I tried to think about the pros and cons of the situation.
Pros:
Hot as hell
Smart
Well read
Doesn’t want this to be a fling
Isn’t putting pressure on the situation
Cons:
I could get attached
He could get attached
I hate football
I could get hurt
If I was being honest with myself, I was tired of being alone. At every family holiday and gathering, I saw everyone so in love and happy with their partner, and I was always the odd one out. I couldn’t even remember a time I had been with someone long enough to consider bringing them home to meet my family.
* * *
Pullinginto my parking space right out front at my condo building, I sat in my car for a second. The desire to text Logan was overwhelming, the entire drive having been spent trying to figure out how I was feeling.
I was on autopilot while grabbing my bags and climbing the three flights of stairs. The routine continued as I plugged in my laptop on my desk in the big bay window that overlooked the serene water view. Emptying my suitcase directly into my washer and hanging up the never-to-be-worn-again bridesmaid dress in the back of the closet only took a couple minutes. I technically wasn’t expected to work again until the following morning, but I didn’t know what else to do. If I just sat idle any longer, I would be jumping in my car and rushing back into Logan’s arms, which was not the right course of action. That much I knew.
So, I settled for doing what I normally did when I was avoiding a tough situation: I logged into my personal account to grind out a few hours of game time on my favorite character, a maxed-out level Void Elf hunter named Mazyy—a coincidence that had not been lost on me when Logan told me the name of his beloved pet. The thought of doing a name change for my toon was not far from my mind, but I had grown fond of Mazyy and didn’t want to give it up just because of a fluke situation with a boy I didn’t know if I would ever see again.
Logan
After pickingMazy up from my parents’ house, I made my way to my home, which was far too big for just the two of us. Throwing my bag down by the door, I grabbed Mazy’s tennis balls and marched the elated pup into the fenced-in back yard for some much-needed play time.
It felt good being out in the afternoon sunshine with my girl as she sprinted after her favorite yellow toy again and again.
I hated that I didn’t have Ari’s number. I hated that I had just left everything on her, but the ball was in her court and I was going to have to be all right with whatever she decided to do. I’d naïvely hoped she would message me right away, but that was obviously not going to happen. I knew better than to put myself out there and set myself up for disappointment, and I was just going to have to swallow the bitter pill.
It was the story of my life: women who liked me were irksome at best, and the ones I liked were too far out of my grasp. I really had stupidly gotten my hopes up, though. Ari had seemed different, but it wasn’t like she had led me on. She’d been honest, and I needed to respect that.
When Mazy panted away and started to slow down on her retrievals, I called her back into the house. I sat on the couch, watchingSportsCenter, and Mazy snuggled up next to me so I could scratch behind her furry ear.
“You’d never not call me, right girl?” I cooed to my pup as she started to lick my face frantically. “Yeah, I love you too.”
I leaned back in my reclining seat with my fur-ball practically lying on top of me and let the mind-numbing announcers drone on and on about things I couldn’t have cared less about. Even being a sports fan and a player, I barely kept up with any stats until it really mattered.
