Chapter 15
Stella was worried. Extremely worried in fact. The hours turned into days and there still had been no contact from Logan.
Nothing.
Zero.
Absolute radio silence.
Not only was the lack of communication from Logan hard to process, but work was getting more and more stressful. Lauren Treen seemed to be going into total overdrive with her negative and disingenuous behavior.
It wasn’t anything specific that Lauren was doing, it was more the way she was always dropping in little comments, saying anything she could to undermine Stella in the most passive-aggressive way possible.
Work wasn’t a pleasant place to be.
And without Logan, home wasn’t so good either.
As the alarm buzzed for her wakeup call, Stella drowsily opened her eyes and sat up in bed. It hadn’t been a good night’s sleep. In fact, it had been a terrible night’s sleep.
Between worrying about Logan and the situation at work Stella had barely gotten over three hours, maybe four max. This wasn’t like Stella at all. She knew how important sleep was to a healthy body and healthy mind, and her lack of recent good sleep was beginning to play on her mind.
Today was a big day too.
Stella was making his formal presentation to the senior staff and EcoPlay presidents. Although it wasn’t officially a job interview, it may as well have been. Stella knew that a good presentation would almost certainly lead to her being made a VP in the upcoming minor restructure.
This was the crucial point in what felt like months upon months of hard, consistent work from Stella. She didn’t want to let herself, or the junior employees who had worked underneath her, down.
I need to nail this.
I have to stay calm and focused.
I wish Logan was here though…
Stella sighed and managed to haul her tired body out of bed. Normally, Stella practically bounded up and out of bed, but not on this day. The lack of sleep and sense of doom that was coming over her was hardly conducive to an enthusiastic start to the day.
Stella showered quickly and put on a smart but informal shirt and pants combo. This helped Stella focus her mind into presentation mode a little bit, but disaster struck as Stella made hersel a morning espresso…
‘Oh crap!’ Stella exclaimed, the sight of a dark brown splash of espresso running down the front and center of her white shirt not exactly looking like a good omen. ‘Get a grip, Stella Streep!’
Stella finished off the espresso and changed into one of her other shirts. Hopefully this wasn’t a sign that his entire day was going to be cursed, but it was hardly a promising start.
Stella had cancelled her plans to meet with her friends early due to wanting to arrive at the office extra early to prepare.
But that decision was beginning to seem like a bad one.
In fact, Stella would have done anything to have been with Lilah and Nicki in that moment.
Their friendly banter and sense of good spirits was what Stella needed more than anything.
Well, almost anything.
The truth was that what Stella required more than anything else in the world in that moment was seemingly out of her reach. Stella wanted Logan.
But in Logan’s continued absence, Stella was beginning to wonder whether Logan wanted her...
Stella was feeling just about ready to give the presentation. Her assistants and junior staff had left the room and now it was simply Stella alone with her thoughts.
‘Come on, you’ve got this,’ Stella said, the sound of the birds singing outside the room distracting her. ‘Keep your mind on the goal. You can do this.’
‘First sign of madness!’ Lauren said, entering the office with a broad grin on her face.
‘Huh?’ Stella replied, turning to look at Lauren.
‘Talking to yourself. It’s the first sign of madness,’ Lauren laughed, walking around Stella’s desk in one of her passive-aggressive power moves. ‘If you’re struggling with your mental health, why not raise it with our HR department?’
Stella felt a sudden surge of anger. Mental health wasn’t a subject that was appropriate to joke about, especially not in a work environment. Lauren was playing her usual games, but doing so with extra spite because she knew just how important today was to Stella.
‘Do you actually want anything?’ Stella said, failing to hide her irritation and therefore giving Lauren exactly what she wanted. ‘I mean, if you just want to annoy the hell out of me… whatever.’
Lauren laughed.
Wearing a black polo neck tucked into a pair of jeans, Lauren actually looked like the office bitch. With her perfect bob and brilliant-white smile, Lauren did admittedly look impressively smart and just like the kind of girl who had her own very serious ambitions.
Stella didn’t mind having a so-called rival in the office.
What really hurt Stella however was the way that Lauren would seemingly only use negative, hurtful tactics to climb the ladder. Behind her posturing and snarky comments, Stella didn’t think that Lauren gave a crap about the work itself. It was like Lauren wanted success for success’s sake.
‘Would you just leave, please?’ Stella said, a hint of desperation in her voice. ‘I need to run over some things for the presentation. This is important to me. I actually care about the proposal. You should try it.’
‘Wow. Someone woke up in a bad mood,’ Lauren said, holding her hands up to her chest in a mocking way.
‘Sure, I’ll leave. Just try not to think about me too much during the presentation.
Oh, and try not to think too much about your absent boyfriend either.
I hear he’s having one hell of a fun time around town… ’
On that bombshell, Lauren smirked and turned to leave the office.
Stella didn’t know what to think or what to do. It felt like Lauren had achieved exactly what he had set out to do. Stella couldn’t focus her thoughts and felt full of emotion. This was the worst possible mindset ahead of the presentation.
Snap out of it, Stella.
I need to nail this.
I have to get it just right…
With that, Stella steeled herself and strode out of her office as confidently as she possibly could. It was time to set up the room ready for the presentation.
A lot was depending on this moment.
For Stella it could be career defining, a fact that she was only too aware of…
‘What… the… hell?’ Stella cried, burying her head into his hands as she sought solace in the large, maze-like Japanese garden at EcoPlay. ‘What just happened?’
The presentation had been a total disaster.
From start to finish, absolutely anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
If Stella wasn’t tripping over her words, she was struggling to deal with even the most basic of technology.
Stella was usually super-calm and composed when it came to using computer software, but she ran into problem after problem during the presentation.
In the end, it had all gotten too much for Stella.
After a mumbled, borderline incomprehensible apology, Stella simply finished the presentation abruptly and ran out of the room.
Stella knew what it must have looked like to her colleagues. Worse, Stella knew that the senior directors were most likely wondering what the hell they were doing employing her in the first place, let alone considering her for a VP role.
I screwed it all up.
They’ll all think I’m a total joke.
I may as well quit now…
Stella lifted her head out of her hands and looked around the garden. Not even the wonderfully curated bushes and soothing trickle of the mini waterfall were of any solace.
To say that it had been a bad day at the office would be the understatement of the year by some distance. Stella had not only performed poorly, but she had done it right in direct view of Lauren Treen.
Stella knew that Lauren would have relished every single moment of seeing her suffer like that, and it would give Lauren even more fuel to try to undermine her even more.
Things weren’t looking good.
More out of hope than expectation, Stella took her cellphone out of her pocket to check to see whether Logan had finally decided to break his silence and get into contact with her.
Sadly, there were no messages from Logan.
Logan didn’t do social media either, so Stella hadn’t even been able to try to keep tabs on him that way either. As far as Stella knew, Logan could have been lying unconscious in a side alley - or worse.
But part of Stella wondered whether this wasn’t just the real Logan making a return. After all, Stella had lost count of the times that Logan simply disappeared off the face of the earth back in their college days.
Perhaps for all his good intention in the last few weeks, Logan was simply too set in his ways to every truly change. It was possible that Logan had reverted to type and taken himself out of the heat.
But unlike other times when this had happened, Stella felt like this was the final straw. She may have said similar on other occasions, but Stella truly felt it now. Logan had walked out and left Stella hanging during an important period in her life.
Stella wasn’t sure if she could forgive Logan this time.
It’s always the same. Logan leaves, I hurt.
Maybe a leopard never changes its spots.
Maybe Logan was never truly a Daddy at all…