by Bry Ann
I arrived at work that day and ran straight into Matt.
“Samantha,” he said with a curt nod.
I nodded back, rolled my eyes and headed straight for Shauna. The minute I got over to her I noticed how big her eyes were.
“What’s wrong?”
I turned around to see who she was staring at.
Shit. The table in the corner. Logan was here again. Didn’t he get enough of me the first time?
“He’s here again,” she stammered, “I can’t believe it. You were a total bitch.”
“Well he’s not here for me,” I snapped back.
“Well obviously, but... I can’t believe this.”
I frowned at the way she openly gawked at him.
“Um, hello Shauna happily dating Dalton. Four years strong.”
She laughed. “Well, I still have eyes and Dalton would approve of me openly gawking at Logan. It’s why we work. He knows I will always drool over hot Hollywood men.”
“You are insane,” I said with a smirk.
“No, you’re the crazy one. Someone needs to teach you how to live.”
“I’ll live when my mom does,” I mumbled to myself. Then I turned back towards her desperately. “Please take the table today. I'm begging you. I’ll owe you for life. Please.”
Shauna sighed and looked at me. “You are so weird, but of freaking course I’ll take it. We are slow so Matt can’t have my ass about it today.”
“Okay good! I love you. I’ll be in the back if you need me.”
Hiding.
“Okay,” she said with a giggle, already not focused on me.
I headed back to the kitchen and started to stack dishes when Shauna walked in looking like she’d seen a ghost.
“He...he requested you,” she stuttered, “That beautiful man back there… he requested you.”
“What?” I said, dropping the plate I was holding.
“Yep! Better get out there!” She shoved me out the door.
I walked towards the table reluctantly, and very confused. I could still hear Shauna gushing about Logan as I made my way across the floor.
I got to the table, and the same four people were there from the day before. Logan was wearing a black button-down shirt that was rolled up ¾ of the way revealing his strong forearms. I noticed he had a tattoo on his wrist, so I tried to look closer to see what it was. As I focused on it, I became aware of his eyes on mine, and I realized how openly I was staring at him. I cleared my throat and prepared to put on the most professional front I could.
“You requested me?” I said flatly looking anywhere but at Logan.
His manager looked at me like he had no idea what the hell Logan was up to so I reluctantly I shifted my gaze back towards Logan.
“Cheap tips,” he said with an arrogant tone and a smirk.
“Oh, lucky me. I thought the chickens weren’t organic and grass fed. What ever will you and your trainer do?”
His manager rolled his eyes at me like I was a crazy person, but didn’t say anything because Logan looked so thoroughly entertained.
“I think I'm doing just fine. Don’t you?” he said with a smirk and a slight flex of his arm.
“I don’t know, tell your trainer maybe one day I’ll be impressed.”
His manager let out a snort, and the bodyguards lightened up a bit as if they were about to laugh. The best part was it wiped the stupid smirk off Logan’s face. Score, I pissed him off this time.
“We’ll hold off on our drinks,” he said, breaking the silence that had ensued after my last comment.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to check on you.”
I headed towards the kitchen, but as I walked towards the back, I noticed Logan standing up to go somewhere. It must be the restroom. He wouldn’t complain about me, right? I started to feel a little nervous, but I shrugged it off and pushed open the double doors that led to the kitchen. We were super slow at this hour so I decided to continue to help Shauna stack the dishes. After about five minutes I figured I should check on Logan and his employees. I walked out of the kitchen area, and just as I rounded the corner I bumped straight into Logan’s rock hard body, clearly not paying attention to my surroundings. I shot backward and apologized, which only made him laugh and shake his head. I noticed he was alone, so I glanced around and noticed his manager and bodyguards were outside. Was he leaving because of me? Shit.
“What the hell…?” I said as I made my way to the safety of my physical bubble. Logan towered over me. As he spoke, he had to look down at me to meet my gaze, how appropriate.
“We’re leaving,” he said. “You are too. I wanna take you somewhere.”
“Excuse me?” I scoffed. “What if I don’t want to go anywhere with you?”
He looked mildly offended and looked me directly in the eyes, pinning me with his stare.
“Well, I already paid your manager to let you off. You wouldn’t want to waste my money now would you?”
My jaw fell to my chest. “Why in the hell would you do that? I mean like why in the world do you want to hang out with me?”
“I find you...entertaining. So are you going to waste my money or not?”
I thought for a second, considering both sides of his offer.
“No, I'm not,” I said slyly and then headed immediately to the back of the restaurant. I grabbed my backpack off the rack and headed out the front door.
I heard Logan’s footsteps following behind me as I walked out into the fresh Nashville air.
“Oh no, you don’t!” he yelled at me. In an instant he had my arm and yanked it back, whirling me around to face him. “You don’t get to just bolt off like that.”
“Yes, I do!” I shouted, “You don’t know me, and you are certainly not my boss.”
He looked angry and stunned for a second, but then dropped his tone like he was fighting for patience.
“Just give me one afternoon. If you still think I suck, then I’ll leave you alone.”
“You can’t bribe me,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
I went to turn around and storm off, but as soon as I took my eyes off Logan, I noticed we were starting to be surrounded by people, cameras and shouting voices. Panicking, I turned away. I hated it. Attention. Claustrophobia sucks. Logan’s bodyguards started to surround him, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him so his guards surrounded both of us. It didn’t help much though because the number of people surrounding us was increasing at a drastic rate. Logan looked around for a way out of the crowd, but barely seemed affected by the charade. He turned back towards me to say something, but the second he saw my face he got serious. I was paralyzed. I could feel my eyes widen as people started tugging and shouting at me. I looked around desperately for an escape, but I couldn’t see a way out of the crowd. I could feel my body retreating into itself as my anxiety and fear heightened.
“Shit,” I heard Logan mumble when he saw me. He took a step closer to me, and I was tempted to move back but was too scared. “Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear.
I looked at him frightened as we started getting shoved around by people and bodyguards.
“Okay, no you’re not,” he said grabbing my elbow. “Trust me for a half a second.”
I didn’t trust him but was still too scared to fight him off. I immediately felt his hand grab my arm firmly as he started tugging and pulling me through the crowd easily.
“Where’s your car?” he said quickly as we started to get through the thick of the crowd.
“I don’t have one,” I yelled over all the screaming voices.
“What?!” He looked at me stunned for a second and then nodded. “Okay. Follow me.”
“I am,” I said, still focused on all the people around me.
He shot me a look of surprise and then pulled me in another direction and gestured to his bodyguards. They helped guide us through the rest of the crowd. I was in a haze of bright lights and people were touching and pulling at me.
I couldn’t breathe. My chest felt tight and my throat constricted. When was this going to end? Eventually, I was being pushed gently but firmly into a car. I didn’t even think when I got in. Jumping into the seat, I crawled to the other side of the car and sat in the frozen as the car drove away. It wasn’t until we were a few minutes away that I was able to process where I was and what had happened. Once Logan realized I’d come back to myself he turned to me.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
Embarrassment flooded me, and I immediately put my protective mask on.
“I’m fine, just a little claustrophobic. You can just drop me off here.”
“Here, you mean the side of the road?”
He raised an eyebrow at me like I’d gone insane.
“Yeah, this is perfect.”
“You almost had a panic attack Sam. Are you sure you’re okay? I'm sorry about that. Nashville is usually a place I can go to get away. I wasn’t expecting that to happen.”
“You’re not dropping me off here are you?”
“You mean the side of the road? No. I may be an asshole, but I'm not that much of an asshole.”
“Great, you decide to be nice when I don’t want you to be.”
“When have I ever been mean to you? Huh? Let’s talk about that. Well?” Logan waited for a second and rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Whatever. First I need to tell my driver where to take you. Where do you live?”
He couldn’t see my house, risk knowing about my mom.
“Oh, um, I was planning on going shopping. You can drop me off at the grocery store.”
“Which one?”
“The closest one.”
“Anything to get out of this car, huh?”
“Yep.”
“I’m flattered,” he said flatly.
“Look, thanks for helping me out back there. I admit I had a moment of panic. I was disarmed and I didn’t handle myself well. You helped me, so for that I thank you.”
“Are you writing a press statement or giving a thank you?”
“Just take the compliment Logan!”
He smirked. “Oh, it’s received. I must admit I was shocked to see you so scared. I didn’t think you had a weakness.”
It was my turn to scoff. “Oh, I have weaknesses, but I would prefer if you kept thinking I didn’t.”
He looked at me and his expression softened.
“Why do you hate me?”
“Because I do.”
“That’s not an answer Sam.”
“It’s the best one you are getting.”
He shrugged and looked out the window. “There’s the grocery store. Drop her off here.”
The first bodyguard, who was also Logan's driver, looked at the area of town. “You sure sir?”
“I’m sure.”
Heat flushed my face as I stared at him. This is what I wanted, what I asked for, but now I felt shitty and unwanted. He wouldn’t even look at me. When we pulled up to the front of the store I got out. Before I left, I looked at who was Logan staring out the opposite window.
“Thanks again for not letting me get swallowed by the crowd.”
He looked back at me and nodded. With that I entered the store where I was bombarded with magazines with his face on it. How in the world did my life turn into this?
I found the nearest bus stop and took several connecting buses to get back home. When I finally arrived at my house, my mom was sick on the toilet. Luckily, I wasn’t late because Logan’s payment got me off work early, but I still felt guilty for not being there for her sooner. I held my mom’s head as she threw up and silently wished I could somehow raise the money faster. Watching someone you love wither away piece by piece for years is soul crushing. Beyond. No one deserves that kind of pain, especially not my best friend.
My mom.
It tore me apart inside.
I woke up the next morning with puffy eyes from crying myself to sleep. To counteract that the next morning, I put some eye drops in and wore makeup. I rarely wore a ton of makeup, but I added a bit more today to compensate for my swollen red eyes. I decided to stop at Starbucks on my way to work so I forewent the bus and walked so I could make the stop on the way. I walked in and took my usual place in the back of the line debating on whether to get a small coffee with or without a shot of espresso. I was next in line when a teenage girl came up and patted me on the shoulder.
In a squeaky voice, she asked, “Hi, um, are you the girl from the magazine?”
I looked at her strangely, “Uh no, I think you have the wrong person.”
I was almost on the verge of laughter at the thought of me being in a magazine, but the girl was not deterred. She reached into her bag and pulled out a magazine.
“Is this not you?” she said pointing at the cover of the magazine.
I almost laughed again, but I thought I’d humor her. I grabbed the magazine out of her hand and looked at the cover. To say my heart stopped would be an understatement. On the cover was Logan whispering something in my ear and my dumb face staring straight ahead into the distance. With the picture were words like “Logan’s New Girl?” and “Who is This Girl?”
I immediately threw the magazine down on the floor. Voices called out to me as I pushed past the crowd of people blocking the front door. Once I felt the wind on my face, I stopped running. I felt like I was suffocating. I put my hands on my knees and focused on my inhales and exhales. In. Out. In. Out. My breath felt strained, but once I was able to regain some control over it and control my rapid heart rate I ran to the store next door. I locked myself in the bathroom and fell to the floor. Crying hysterically for ten minutes, I ignored the incessant ringing of my cell phone. Once I had calmed down enough to think rationally, I realized I was supposed to be working. I made sure it was Matt or Shauna calling and once I confirmed it was I reluctantly picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Sam,” Shauna said softly. “Matt had me call. I think it’s best if you don’t come in today. Okay?”
“Yeah,” I said sniffling. “I agree.”
After I hung up, I went to the park and walked around aimlessly. I couldn’t tell my mom about this. I couldn’t tell anyone. I had to find Logan. He had to get these taken down. If for some reason, I ever got followed it could lead back to my mom and all my mom legitimately ever asked me was to have her privacy. All I wanted was to be left in peace to raise money to save my mom. Now one photo was about to make everything one hundred times more complicated. Logan wouldn’t come back to that restaurant for me, not again, and especially not after yesterday. I needed to find him.
I immediately headed home and snuck in through my bedroom window. I didn’t want my mom to know I wasn’t at work. I pulled out my laptop and googled the address of Logan’s manager's office building. Since he was in Nashville with Logan, he had to have an office here. It took me all of two seconds to find the address. I immediately copied it down to a post-it, changed my t-shirt and threw on a baseball cap. I crawled back out the window and took the bus to the closest stop by his office. It didn’t take long before I was walking into a giant skyscraper style air-conditioned building. I took the elevator up to the top and fanciest floor. Everything was gold, and none of the furniture looked appropriate to touch with my filthy hands. The minute the receptionist laid eyes on me she eyed me up and down disapprovingly. She was in her mid-thirties, had way too much plastic surgery and was covered head to toe in designer clothing.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, um, I need to speak with Logan or his manager.”
“Don’t they all.” She rolled her eyes and picked up the phone as she prepared to dial security.
“Wait no! Don’t call security please!”
She took her hand off the button and eyed me cautiously.
“Somehow I ended up on a magazine cover with Logan. It needs to be taken down. It has to be. Please.”
I showed her the picture I had pulled up on my phone, and she sighed.
&
nbsp; “I’ll call Mr. Prior, Logan’s manager.”
She hit an extension and explained the situation. I didn’t hear the reply, so I just stood there quietly shaking. I couldn’t have felt more uncomfortable in this atmosphere if I tried. The only thing keeping me here was my promise to my mom that I’d keep her safe forever.
“You know most girls are happy to be pictured with Logan, its good publicity, good opportunity,” she said still eyeing me up and down like I was some street thug.
“I don’t want publicity. I want privacy. I want to be as far away from this as possible.”
A large figure appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Prescott,” the receptionist gasped and stood up immediately. “I didn’t realize you were here.”
“You were in the back when I walked in,” he said in a very professional and curt tone. Then he turned towards me. “Sam.”
I cleared my throat, trying to get my barring. He looked so attractive and authoritative in this office it was almost disarming.
“Um hi. We need to talk.”
Logan nodded and gestured to the back. “Yes, we can talk in my office.”
“Okay,” I nodded dumbly and followed him with shaking hands.
I walked into a giant room with a huge Cherrywood desk and a wall-size window that overlooked the city. Standing by the window, I stood mesmerized for a moment.
“You like the view?”
I immediately realized I was staring so I pulled my face away from the view and turned back to him.
“Oh sorry, it’s just really beautiful.”
He nodded and took a seat. I stayed standing, not sure what to do. I felt so uncomfortable in this kind of atmosphere. This was why I kept to myself. I didn’t belong here.
He stared while I took another quick glance around his office. Something that was kind of surprising was he had no pictures or personal attributes of any kind. You’d think with the kind of life he’s led he’d have pictures all over the place.
