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I catch Logan glancing at me as if he can read my thoughts. He’s got a smug grin on his face.
“There you go,” he says.
“What?” I ask him as he turns the handle and opens the door.
He hands me the key back. “You’re welcome. I’d suggest you fix the lock because it’s only going to stick again. It’s not uncommon with this type of door. Our place has the same thing going on. It’s an easy fix. I can help you out. All it takes is some lubricant.”
He draws out his last word in a sexual way that takes me aback. His smirk’s very suggestive. I don’t like the way that starts a fire deep in me.No, I tell my body firmly. I’m into Asher, not Logan. He might be handsome but he sucks.
“No thank you, I’m good. I can figure it out myself,” I say as icily as I can, trying to ignore the low pulse that’s throbbing in my body.
He laughs at me and for some reason it doesn’t piss me off instantly. “Just like you figured out the lock now?”
“I didn’t want to force it. I was worried about breaking the key,” I tell him primly. “And what do you mean, ‘our place’?” I ask him before I can help myself. “That’s where Asher lives. What are you, roommates?” I say sarcastically.
Not that I care, but it would be more than a little strange if Asher had a roommate. He’s a CEO. Clearly his finances are inorder. On top of that, this certainly isn’t the kind of building that you move into with a roommate.
Logan shakes his head as if I’m dumb. “Yes, we’re roommates.”
“You live together?” I blurt out. I can’t get my head around strong, confident Asher having a roommate. Especially Logan. I can’t imagine why he’d be living with Asher. Asher’s a well-known, successful man about town. It makes zero sense.
“Yes, Lannie. That’s generally what being roommates mean.” His eyebrows rise. “Didn’t you do well in school? I thought you were a total nerd back then. What happened?”
I bristle at the mention of school. I was slightly starting to warm up to Logan since he got my place unlocked but now the memories of what he did to me then come rushing right back. I don’t think I can ever forgive him.
I go for a petty response. I’m not proud, but why not. “I would’ve thought you’d be doing better yourself by now, Logan,” I say. “Do you have to live with Asher because you’re out of work? You fell on hard times so he’s being a good friend? Taking you in so you’re not on the street, is that it?”
Logan snorts even as a grin tugs at the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, no. Asher and I run a company together, along with another one of our friends. You could say that we’re all doing pretty well for ourselves. Since you’re so interested, I’m not living with Asher because I have to. I decided to get the sale of my last place underway while the market’s still white hot. Do you follow the real estate market, Elena? If you do, you know exactly what I mean.”
“Not lately,” I reply loftily. I don’t know the first thing about real estate or any kind of market but I’m not going to let Logan know that. I hate to think about it but the reality is that if I stay in New York, I’ll almost certainly be renting forever. Buying something here is so far out of my reach that I don’t even letmyself imagine it. If I stay in Manhattan, I’ll become a forever renter.
As long as I have a great place, I’m cool with it. It’s the price I have to pay if I want to become a journalist. Once I make a name for myself, things might be different. As much as I want to dream about those days, I know that they’re pretty far in the future. Which reminds me of what I’m supposed to be doing right now.
“I have to get going, I’ve got a meeting.” I try to sound important but Logan isn’t buying it. His grin widens. So rude. I mean, I do have a meeting. It’s not fake. Maybe it’s not on the level of the kinds of meetings he has, but it’s something I need to do.
“Then you’d better get to it,” Logan says. He pushes the door open wider for me. I’m so shocked all I do is walk through. It’s as if he knows that politeness in a man is a weakness of mine.
Not that it matters. This is still Logan.
“Later, Olson.” Logan starts to close the door behind me before I have even a chance to do it myself.
“Bye,” I say automatically. I sure as hell hope I don’t see him around. I want to see Asher. I check the time quickly. Yikes. I’ve got about two minutes until my meeting. I position my laptop so that the huge bookshelf filled with books will be my background for this call. I want Zan to see that I’m all about the written word.
While I wait for her to open our meeting, I check in on my blog. Yes. My follower count is up again. The comments are still evenly split on the question of whether I should date Asher or ask him for an interview.
It’s not like I don’t know what I need to do. I need to get the interview. There’s no question. It’s just nice to get a few unbiased opinions on my options.
Quickly I go to Vivojen’s website. I scroll to the list of the directors and there it is. Logan’s name. He really is one of the CEOs of Asher’s company. I don’t know how it didn’t click before, but his first name and his last are both pretty common.
“Elena.” Zan’s voice coming from my laptop startles me. “I’ve been waiting.”
“I’m sorry.” Hastily I close my browser. She can’t have been waiting more than a few seconds. That’s literally all the time I spent checking out the page. She’s also five minutes late herself. “I don’t know why my Zoom didn’t override what I was doing, it usually does.”
“No, no.” Zan’s impatient. “Not waiting for this meeting. I wouldn’t ever do that,” she says, her tone warning.
“Of course not. I’d never want to keep you waiting in the first place. I respect your time,” I say.
She ignores me, continuing on as if I haven’t even spoken. “What I mean is that I’ve been waiting for an update on your story. How’s it progressing?”
