Chapter 7 #2
“There’s some concert tickets I have. I bought them over a year ago, I thought Justin would go with me.” Her voice sounded small. “Will you go with me?”
“That’s it?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, we could go as friends.”
“I’d love to go with you.” He genuinely smiled, because he did enjoy Brooke’s company. “Text me the date and time, and I’ll ask for the day off.”
Brooke retrieved her phone from her purse. “I’ll find the email with the information about the concert.”
“We could grab dinner before the concert,” he offered.
“I’d love that.” Brooke scrolled on her phone then tapped. “I’ll send the email to you, and I’ll research restaurants.”
Their exit came into view as the sights of downtown emerged on the horizon. He merged over and exited the expressway.
His phone rang.
Brooke glanced over. “Is that who you think it is?”
“If you mean, Mom, then yes.” He slowed the car down near the stoplight at the end of the exit. “I’m positive it’s her. I’ll call her back after I drop you off.”
Then he weaved through the streets of downtown until he stopped in front of her building. Brooke unbuckled her seat belt.
With one hand on the steering wheel, Logan said, “Thanks for coming today.”
“You’re welcome.” She opened her door and climbed out. “I’ll see you soon.” Her purse slipped, and she readjusted it on her shoulder.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Soon.”
Brooke shut the door and wandered to the front door of her building. A different doorperson opened the door, and she disappeared inside.
Logan drove home. By the time he parked his car in his underground spot, his phone had dinged ten times. Plus, Mom had called twice.
When he walked across the parking garage toward the elevator, he picked up his ringing phone. “Geez Mom.” He made it to the elevator bay and punched the up button. “I’m not even up to my apartment, and I didn’t want to answer the phone with Brooke in the car.”
“She’s perfect for you,” Mom gushed.
In the background, Danielle yelled, “Did you finally get a hold of him?”
Mom yelled out, “He finally picked up.”
Logan held the phone further away from his ear to save his ear drums. The elevator opened, and he entered. After he hit his floor, the doors swung shut and the elevator sprung into action.
“Put it on speaker phone,” Danielle hollered in the background. “I want to hear everything first hand.”
“Okay.” Her voice nearly blew out his speaker. “Danielle wants me to put it on speaker.”
“Yeah, I heard.”
He leaned his back against the wall of the elevator and shifted his phone from one ear to the other.
“Get over here Danielle, I’m not waiting any longer,” Mom hollered.
“Coming!” Danielle shouted.
Logan smiled to himself, because the ruse had worked. He knew they had taken the bait, hook, line, and sinker. He made it to his floor and left the elevator making his way to his apartment.
“You’re on speaker,” Mom announced.
“Why is it so quiet?” He landed in front of his apartment. “Where are the twins?”
“Michael and Dad took the girls home to nap,” Danielle said.
“Makes sense.” He opened his apartment door then tossed his keys onto the tray where he kept them. Then he proceeded to shut the door with his foot. “You called me a thousand times, out with it.” Logan plopped himself on his couch.
“We wanted to talk to you about Brooke,” Mom said.
“Okay,” he tread lightly.
“I thought she was perfect for you,” Mom blurted out.
Danielle remained silent which wasn’t like her. He waited to see if she planned on adding anything to the conversation, after all, she wanted to be on it.
He shifted on his seat. “Danielle, you’re silence on the subject of Brooke is speaking volumes.” Then he ran a hand through his hair and down the length of his face.
“We saw you talking to Shelby outside,” Danielle stated.
“Yeah, and you failed to tell me she moved in across the street,” Logan countered.
“Shelby looked good, didn’t she?” Danielle said.
Logan didn’t respond but he hated that the answer remained a resounding yes. He’d hoped she’d gone off and lost her teeth and let herself go, instead she somehow had managed to get better looking. She rejected you. She dumped you. She left you broken hearted. Don’t go there.
“We aren’t talking about Shelby. I never liked her,” Mom interrupted. Then she whispered something to Danielle he couldn’t decipher. She cleared her throat. “Let’s circle on back to Brooke. Now, she is the one for you.”
“I disagree with Mom. Shelby is who you need to pursue.”
“Lucky for the both of you, you don’t get a say in my relationship choices.
” Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. “But really Danielle, you could’ve given me a heads up on Shelby being your neighbor.
I might even go so far as to say you maybe told Shelby when to walk right on by to run into me.
I smell something fishy with the entire interaction. ”
“I’m pushy but not that pushy,” Danielle scoffed. “That was purely a serendipitous moment.”
“It wasn’t anything of the sort.” Logan raked his hair again. His fingers went numb. “I am happy with Brooke.”
“Of course, he is,” Mom chimed in. “I’ve never seen him look so happy.”
Mom muttered something else to Danielle. He waited, because clearly, they planned on discussing his relationship with one another and not him. Wait, he reminded himself it was a fake relationship.
“When do we get to see her again?” Mom piped up. “I hope we didn’t scare her off.”
“I’m not sure,” he stalled. “We both have busy schedules over the next few weeks—” His voice trailed off.
“Dad and I don’t mind driving into the city for dinner one evening,” Mom said.
“I don’t know—”
Quickly, Logan tried to figure out when and how their fake relationship could end.
“I want to come,” Danielle interjected. “It’s about time Michael and I went on a proper date without the twins. The neighbor across the street said she’d babysit for us.”
“You mean Shelby?” Logan grumbled. “She’s your neighbor across the street, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t even know if she can do it. I have a few options. Besides we would be coming into the city, and you don’t need to be concerned about who watches the girls.”
His jaw twitched. “We’re both swamped for the rest of the month. It would have to be next month.”
This imaginary date he had no intention of seeing to fruition.
“How about the first week of next month?” Mom asked.
“Maybe.”
“I’ll take that as a yes until I hear otherwise,” Mom said.
“I saw this restaurant on social media I want to try,” Danielle added.
“Fine, we’ll hash out the details later. I need to run it by Brooke. Talk to you soon.”
Then Logan hung up before any future plans with his fake girlfriend could be made.