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James did callhim three days later, having a big cry about how crazy Danika had stolen his phone from his apartment while he was asleep, with some other girl in his bed. It had been a shit show for the ages and James was very insulted Sammy hadn’t found his social media entries from the last two days, not even the least bit suspicious.
“What are you talking about? I love teaser trailers from cocky boys’ productions!” Sammy goaded him. The stint hadn’t been a bad thing as it turned out. James had one hundred thousand new followers on Instagram and a couple of new clients.
Once James was done giving him all the details on how the phone had returned in his possession, they made plans and Sammy went to meet him for lunch in his office on his way to pick up the ready prints from the graphic photo book novel he had put together. He had settled on ordering several different sizes and had one of each of the four varieties in a big box.
He both wanted and dreaded showing them to James. They were very honest with each other, and the truth was, even though Sammy appreciated James’s constructive criticism when it came to his work, he loved this particular project so much, he wasn’t sure he could take any shit from James about it.
At first, James had almost dismissed the books, still a bit hurt that Sammy was making fun of him falling victim to Danika, yet again. After he smashed his sub sandwich, barely chewing and talking all the way through, he settled behind his desk and made grabby gimmee hands for Sammy to hand over the goods. He took his sweet time, going slowly through every single format, seemingly engrossed in what he was looking at.
“What do you think?” Sammy was losing his patience as his friend had gone quiet. James was suddenly hard to read.
James looked up at him, a little bit startled. “I actually…I love it. Sammy, this is beautiful!”
He picked up the A3 hardcover format, and said, “I love this one the most, and I think you will cultivate enough interest over it for it to sell at a good price. But I think,” and he picked up the two identical sized paperback and hard cover in large print format, “these two are going to be your best sellers. They would be easier to print on demand. I love the landscape format, but it reminds me a little bit of those large coffee books people buy to stack on their tables and then never ever crack open, let alone read them. And this story deserves to be read! Who wrote this? You didn’t tell me you were working with an author.”
“I’m not. It’s just some stuff I wrote on the side for fun a while ago. I consolidated and reworked a couple of short stories to fit my idea. I honestly wasn’t entirely sure where I was going with this until I finished it.”
James was just looking at him with his mouth gaping. “Is this your way of telling me, you just casually threw this together?”
Sammy chuckled. “Sure, this old thing has been in the back of my closet for years!” He said it very old Hollywood style and fanned himself to fend off the fake embarrassment heat he was trying to emulate.
James rolled his eyes at his attempt to deflect. “It’s really good, Sammy. I’m so fucking proud of you.” He spread the book open to the middle and pointed. “This one, I love this image!”
He turned the book to Sammy, and sure the fuck enough, it was Logan in Sammy’s favorite image. Sammy froze for a moment, wondering how the fuck that had happened. But then again, this was so typical of him. He had checked his work so many times, and still, Logan had snuck in, on a centerfold nonetheless and Sammy’s mind had refused to delete him from any of the drafts. He belonged right where he was – brightening the page with his warm inviting smile.
“Who is that?” James asked him, then flipped the pages to the front and back where Sammy had all his publishing info, location and writing credits. “You need to either credit him somewhere here,” he tapped on the page, “or get him to sign a disclaimer, that he agrees to be in this publication, with no written credentials. If this thing takes off, you want to make sure he isn’t going to knock on your door to ask you for more money than you’ve already paid him upfront.”
Sammy mumbled, “I didn’t pay him.” He hadn’t told James anything about Logan or the car accident. When James gave him an incredulous look, Sammy just plopped on the leather couch in his office and told him about his weekend in great fucking detail. Not because James needed to hear everything, but once he had started talking about Logan, hearing himself describing their short time together out loud, made all his emotions about the other man snowball and feel so incredibly intense.
He even told him about going online to look up Logan, and he was glad James would never judge him for being this morbid and ridiculous, especially after practically running away, abandoning Logan. His friend let him ramble the entire story and only asked a few questions. He was listening intently, never taking his eyes of Sammy and that unnerved him quite a bit.
“What are you thinking?” Sammy finally blurted out.
James took his sweet time answering, so Sammy knew his friend was going to be very honest, and Sammy wasn’t going to like it.
“I think it was the right thing to do. You leaving, I mean.” When Sammy’s brows dipped low in confusion, he hastily added to his blunt comment, “Sammy, c’mon! You’re great, a total catch, but you’re so young. This dude has been through the ringer. Do you honestly think he could keep up with you? Sure, having a fun day in the woods with a sexy gruff man was entertaining, but he didn’t tell you any of that stuff about himself for a reason. You are just so…” He waved his hand in Sammy’s general direction. “Just head in the clouds, butterflies and lilies in fashionably tussled hair.”
Sammy was hurt, because maybe his friend was right about his exterior, but somehow he had assumed James knew him better than that. “So, you think Logan took one look at me, and decided I was whimsical, superficial and incapable of real compassion and that’s why he didn’t give me all the private details of his life?”
James was clearly taken aback by his reaction. He probably had expected any other response, along the lines of“Fuck you!”or“Whatever!”It had been so long since Sammy had shown him any vulnerability, sometimes he forgot he should be more considerate with his friend.
“I’m sorry. It came out wrong, and I honestly didn’t mean to offend you.” He came to sit by Sammy’s side and threw an arm over his shoulders.
“Are you going to go back? See if he wants to talk?”
“I really want to…but I’m so fucking scared I hurt him.” He was just sitting there, the fat tears rolling down his face, completely startling James. He wasn’t normally the type of person that would be casually falling apart in the middle of the day, completely sober in someone’s office. “Fuck!” He wiped his face with the back of his hand, mascara and eyeliner be damned, but the steady stream of saltwater just didn’t budge. He was so overwhelmed at how much he had needed to talk about Logan, to speak his name out loud, just so he would realize he had to go back there. Right now, book or no book.
“I’m keeping the car for another week.” He shot to his feet and gave James a determined look. His friend didn’t argue, and he gathered his shit from the office and left without looking back. He didn’t even stop by his apartment to get clothes. Just got in the car and drove off.
* * *
The feelingof urgency he had in James’s office didn’t subside during his entire trip. In fact, it only intensified and suddenly Sammy was freaking scared out of his mind that something horrible was about to happen to Logan. He drove just about on the side of reckless and thanked his lucky stars there were no police cars on the roads he was taking.
When he got to the house and saw the door gaping wide open and could hear Morpheus barking. He lunged out of the car and ran inside frantic and breathless.
CHAPTERFIVE
Logan
