Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Olivia
You just gotta do everything you can
to get to the one woman who's gonna make all this worth it.
At the end of the day, you gotta jump.
~ Jim Halpert
“Is it a blood moon?” Charlie whispers to me.
We’re huddled over my laptop after spending the day finalizing some concepts to send to a potential client.
“What?” I ask him.
“The zombie apocalypse? Armageddon? Friday the 13th?” Charlie crosses his arms and looks at me with his eyebrows raised.
“What are you talking about?”
“You and Logan.”
A smile breaks across my face so quickly, there’s no way I could suppress it. I look down at the laptop.
I redirect us to the concept board open on my screen. “So, I think the pink and green colors are great together for branding. It’s not traditional for a sandwich place, but it gives off such a fun vibe, and we can have condiments in contrasting colors subtly woven into the ads. Little bottles of mayo and mustard, rolls, slices of cheese, various deli meats all staggered around the background with the logo front and center.”
“Deflecting? Really, Olivia? After six years of working together, you won’t deign to give me a direct answer?”
“Answer to what?”
“You and Logan. All these little glances at one another across the room which end in you erupting into a smile that makes me think you’re going to break out in song any minute. You’ve gone from hiding from him in a broom closet to this beaming, slightly distracted, weak-kneed version of yourself. I’m missing the memo here. Are we team Logan now?”
“We are.” My voice feels airy.
I should be embarrassed, but I can’t even muster an inkling of shame. I’m floating on air. Walking on sunshine with stars in my eyes. There’s no denying the effect Logan is having on me.
“Oh, wait. You … and Logan?”
Charlie points to me and then across the room, where Logan is standing with one hand casually in a pocket and the other on his hip talking to Suze about something. He’s got his serious business face on. I picture him chasing Rhett around the couch and smile even wider, if that’s possible.
“Yeah,” I say to Charlie without taking my eyes off Logan.
“Did he drug you? Are you okay? Blink twice if you are under the influence of something against your will.”
I look at Charlie. I’m still smiling like a fool. “I’m not being coerced, Charlie. He’s just not what I thought. I’ve seen a new side of Logan, and it changed everything.”
“I’ll say.” Charlie laughs lightly. “You’re unrecognizable.”
“I’m still me,” I tell Charlie. “Just me in love.”
“In love?”
“No. What? No. Just me … in something.”
Darwin saves me from evaluating my subconscious declaration.
“Will the Untethered team members join me for a minute?”
I whisper to Charlie, “Not love.”
“Riiiiight. Just something .”
“Exactly.”
He smiles at me as we walk toward Darwin. “You know, love isn’t a bad thing, Olivia. It’s actually kind of the best thing. If you do happen to fall into it, I’m pretty sure you’ll survive the fall and land on your feet.”
I smile over at him. “Thanks, Charlie. But it’s too soon for that kind of emotion. I really like Logan. A lot. He surprised me. It turns out I’ve misjudged him—grossly misjudged him. And now that I see him for what he really is …” I look over toward Logan, who is walking our way. “He’s irresistible.”
“Haven’t you known him, like, forever?”
“Basically?”
“Doesn’t sound too soon to me.”
Logan steps up next to me, and the back of his hand brushes against the back of mine, lingering there a moment before pulling away. The touch appears accidental, but when I glance up at him, he’s smiling down at me very intentionally.
“Pennington,” he says in a private way that causes everything around us to disappear in an instant.
“Alexander,” I answer him in a way that says, I might be falling for you, and I’m not as scared of that possibility as I was last night .
His responding smile sends little zips of happiness through me.
“Okay!” Darwin says. “I’ve just heard from the head of Untethered, Brian. He said your testimonials and the shorter content on social media have been pulling people into the individualized profile quiz we set up. They’re seeing a surge of new sign-ups from our campaign.”
Darwin smiles around at each one of us in turn.
“I’ve gathered the best marketing talent here at Barnes, and once again you’ve risen to the occasion. To celebrate another successful campaign, I want to take you out to dinner tonight. Cancel any other plans and meet me at Luciano’s at six!”
Logan turns to me. “Want a ride to Luciano’s?”
“From here? With you?”
“That was what I had in mind, yes.”
“Won’t people notice when we arrive together?”
“Am I your dirty little secret, Olivia?”
“No. Of course not. I just haven’t thought of how this is going to work here, at Barnes.”
“It works like us getting our jobs done with the same excellence we’ve always given to our work. But when it comes to showing up to a work dinner, I give you a ride, open your door, put my hand on your back to lead you into the restaurant, pull out your chair, sit next to you, and every so often, I hold your hand under the table while we focus our attention on Darwin whenever he talks, but we focus on one another whenever the conversation is just a bunch of chit chat between coworkers.”
“Oh.” I look up at him. “How do you manage to have everything figured out so neatly?”
“I think about you. A lot.”
“But Darwin just announced this dinner a few minutes ago.”
“I thought of what we’d do at the Christmas party. This is just a modification of what I had planned for the holiday office gatherings.”
“Christmas is around eight months away.”
“I like to be prepared.”
“And what if I don’t like your plan?”
I like his plan more than I can put into words, but I have to ask. I don’t mind bossy Logan, but he’s not going to dominate me. Neither of us would find any fun in that.
“If you don’t like my plan, we banter. I give you all my good reasons. You fight me. You give me your good reasons. I fight you. And in the end, you win.”
I can’t help the smile I give him.
“I win? Just like that.”
“After a decent amount of struggle, I’ll always give in to you. Your happiness is my ultimate goal in life.”
“So, if I say I want to drive myself to dinner tonight … ?”
“I don’t believe you. And I’ll pout the whole way to the restaurant, but I’ll concede. You can drive alone. Just know you’ll be harming the environment when we could be conserving gas. One of us will get a better parking spot than the other. And after not seeing you alone at all today, you’ll be depriving me of something I’ve been looking forward to since breakfast.”
“You should have gone into law.”
“I considered it, but you were going into marketing.”
“You … what?”
“I knew you wanted to pursue marketing, and at the time, I was divided between business, marketing, and law.”
“And my decision was your swing vote?”
“I think, even then, I subconsciously wanted to be near you. I don’t know if I could have articulated it, but I definitely was persuaded by your choice of major. I admire you, Olivia. I always have.”
I shake my head slightly and look up at Logan in awe. “I thought …”
His brows lift in anticipation of my confession.
“It’s not the time or place to tell you what I thought. You following me out of admiration was not it.” I turn to walk back to my workspace and my laptop. Then I look over my shoulder and say, “Yes. I’d love a ride to dinner tonight.”
Logan looks to his left, then his right, and then he does a low fist pump, pulling his arm in toward his side and lifting a knee.
I’m grinning the rest of the day. Everyone has to know. And I don’t care.
Our team stays later than most of our colleagues so we can go straight from work to Luciano’s. Logan and I get on the elevator together. A few of our coworkers join us. We’re at the back. He sticks his hand out in my direction and looks down at it like we’re back in junior high playing Truth or Dare. We’re only descending four stories. We’re not alone. Logan knows my kryptonite. I cannot resist a challenge—especially one issued by him. There’s something familiar and comforting knowing we still have this. Even though I’m falling for him and everything I believed about him has shifted, we’re still us.
I stick my pinky finger in his direction, and he loops his around mine. We ride down like that, stealing glances at one another, way too giddy over something so ridiculously simple but surprisingly intimate.
The doors open, and everyone spills out onto the street level of our building. Many are parked in the garage next door, but Logan got lucky this morning and snagged a space only a few feet down from the front door.
“How did you manage to grab this spot?” I ask him when he passes me by to open my door for me.
“It just cleared when I pulled up.”
“Of course it did.”
“Because I’m the golden child.” He winks.
“Far from it.”
He hops in the driver’s seat a few moments later and turns to me, leans across the console, and kisses my cheek.
“I’ve been waiting to do that all day,” he says.
I grab his face and pull him back toward me, giving him a proper kiss on the lips.
“I’ve been waiting to do that,” I tell him.
“Always one-upping me, Pennington.” He winks and turns the key.
“Do you think there’s some HR policy we’re in danger of violating?” I ask him as we navigate rush hour traffic to get to the restaurant.
“Nope.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I read the employee manual.”
“When you were hired? No one does that.”
“No. I read it when I woke up to what I wanted with you. I had to be sure we didn’t have any barriers in case you decided to give me a chance.”
“So you read the entire employee manual?”
“I skimmed parts.”
I stare at him. We’re in the golden hour, that beautiful span of time before the sun sets. Everything is warm and soft and magical. Logan’s profile is accentuated in this light. I study the lines of his face, the waves of his hair, the stubble along his jawline, the sparkle in his eyes when the light catches just right.
He glances over at me when we come to a red light. His smile is sweet and tender.
“What was that for?” I ask him.
“That smile?” He hits the gas and returns his eyes to the road.
“Yeah.”
“I like having you in my car. And I’m a little dazed by all of this.”
“You don’t act dazed.”
“I don’t always act the way I feel.”
“No kidding,” I tease.
We both chuckle.
When we arrive at Luciano’s, Logan parks in the back lot. We walk around to the entrance of the old brick building together. As promised, Logan places his palm on my back, opens the door for me, tells the hostess we’re here with Barnes Marketing, and then gently leads me through the tables filled with customers until we arrive at a large back table where our coworkers and Darwin are already seated. Logan pulls out my chair, and I take a seat.
When I look around, all eyes are on us. No one says a word, but their faces say everything. Charlie’s lips twitch. The corner of his brow barely lifts—just enough to make me want to swat him for being such a smug know-it-all. Ah, well. He’s not wrong. The two of us—Logan and me—are the most unlikely match. And Charlie did probably see it coming at some point. I don’t know how, but my guess is he did. Let him gloat. I’m far too blissed out to really care either way.
Within a few minutes, our entrance is forgotten while everyone peruses their menus.
Appetizers are ordered, and then Darwin stands.
“I want to thank this team for the amazing effort you each put in for Untethered. We’ll be working with them going forward, but this kickoff campaign deserves recognition. Rick and I wanted to show our appreciation. We hire the best! You have made that evident once again.”
Darwin sits. Everyone clinks glasses.
Logan turns and raises his glass to mine.
“Here’s to you, Olivia.”
“And to you,” I say.
“To us,” he says quietly so only I can hear.
We both sip our drinks. I stare at him over the rim of my glass, his mosaic blue eyes making promises I can only hope he’s capable of keeping.