by Bry Ann
Logan looked at me. “Of course, I’m paying Sam.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Oh yeah, I’m gonna make the waitress pay when I have millions at my disposal. Please for the love of God just don’t argue with me on this one. Okay?”
I simply nodded, still embarrassed about the idea of being paid for. It was, even more, intimidating to talk to Logan with his glasses and hat on. I don’t know why but it made him seem more “celebrity,” like the guy in the magazines.
We were lead out to the patio where Dana was sitting.
“You two good?” she asked as we sat down.
“Yeah, we are fine.”
“It’s weird talking to you in those sunglasses Logan.”
“I know. I'm sorry, but it makes it harder to recognize me.”
“Yes it does,” I agreed.
Logan shrugged. The meal was going along nicely. I got a simple pasta dish, Dana got lasagna, and Logan got Chicken salad, which Dana laughed at him for. I loved how she called him out all the time. I was having a nice conversation with Dana when I heard my name being called.
“Sam?”
I whipped around and stood face to face with Timothy, the sleazy bartender I hooked up with from time to time. I think my cheeks turned ten shades of red as I stood up to face him.
“Timothy? What are you doing here?”
He took a step toward me. I stepped back and hit the table.
“I was just in this part of town, so I decided to grab lunch. You? Who are your friends?”
He gestured to Logan and Dana. I couldn’t tell him who Dana and Logan were. Timothy was trash. He was skinny with tattoos; piercings and I know he did drugs and drank all the time. I don’t even know why I’d slept with him so many times; somehow it just worked for me at the time. It was a no commitment type thing.
“Oh, these people,” I said, still not turning around. “They are friends.”
“Names?” he said raising a pierced eyebrow.
I turned around to Dana’s curious face, and when I looked at Logan, he looked nothing short of pissed.
“Um, this is … uh, Rebecca and Carter.”
“Nice to meet you classy fuckers.” He stuck his hand out, but both Dana and Logan ignored him and frowned.
Classy Timothy. Classy.
“Well, we should meet up again sometime Sam. I miss you.” He stroked my arm. I tried to jerk away, but he just followed my arm. I felt so nervous and uncomfortable. It took all of two times of me trying to pull away from Timothy before I heard a chair scoot back.
“You should go,” a deep firm voice said.
“And who the hell are your sunglasses?”
I could feel Logan’s angry glare homing in on him. Right then Logan took his hat and sunglasses off throwing them on the table.
“I said I think you should go.” His tone was controlled but furious. This was the side of Logan I never saw, and it was a little intimidating.
“Holy fucking shit you are Logan Prescott,” he shouted, staring open-mouthed between Logan and I. “Sam how the hell do you know him?”
Logan got up in his face. “Go. Now!”
Timothy scattered, screaming that Logan Prescott was in the restaurant.
“Fuck,” Logan muttered snapping out of his anger, which was now replaced with panic. “We have to go. Now.”
He grabbed Dana’s hand, then she grabbed mine, and he started shoving us out of the restaurant as people started to approach us. Lots of people.
“Put your heads down,” Logan whispered.
When we were at the front door, Logan whispered to his guards what happened. The guards immediately started blocking the three of us, pushing photographers and people back. Once we hit the parking garage, we broke out into a full sprint. We slid into his car and slammed the door behind us. As the car drove off at full speed, we were left sitting quiet and panting, except for Logan who was sitting with his fists at his sides.
About five minutes later, Dana finally broke the incredibly tense silence between us.
“What the hell was all that? Who is that druggie, Sam? And Logan, what the hell was that reaction? You have to know better than to act like that by now. You’ve been famous for what, almost a decade!”
“That was Timothy,” I said quietly, “He’s a…”
Logan cut me off angrily.
“He’s an idiot she sleeps with because apparently she has zero self-worth and decides to meet up with the biggest asshole, drug-fueled, idiot she can find!”
“Logan!” Dana yelled.
He didn’t seem the least bit remorseful. I sat there with my hands shaking and my jaw open. I could feel the anger emanating off him.
“Sam? That’s the bartender your mom talked about?! That’s him! Dear God, you are going to get killed, drugged or raped by that guy. He’s ....” he ran a hand over his jaw. “I need to calm down.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dana said softly, trying to soothe him. “The real question is why are you so worked up?”
Logan gave Dana a death glare, and my mouth was still gaping from the shock and quickness of all that had happened. I’d never seen Logan truly angry. In fact, I couldn’t even picture him being angry until today.
Dana kept rubbing his arm in a sisterly way, trying to calm him down. Logan still sat there seething.
“I don’t have low self-worth,” I whispered.
Logan turned his cold, angry glare towards me.
“Don’t ever see him again Sam? Do you hear me? Ever.”
“Okay, Dad.”
“I am serious Sam.”
“I know. I don’t… I don’t even want to meet up with him again anyway.”
“Why? Why would you meet up with a guy like that? When your mom said sleazy, I thought… I don’t know… Why?”
I snapped.
“You know why! I don’t want serious! I don’t understand your anger!” Poor Dana, she was right in the middle of all this. “You know me. You know I don’t… I don’t make friends! I don’t even know how the fuck you became an exception. I have responsibilities. My mom needs me! You have no idea, Logan. You have no idea. Timothy expects nothing but me on his sofa. That’s it. It’s easy. Okay? I freaking need easy otherwise my mom will die! You know this, so quit acting all angry and surprised.”
Dana’s jaw dropped in response to all the confessions I just made and the brutal honesty of my rant.
Suddenly Logan’s face dropped, and his voice was ice cold. “I think becoming your friend was a mistake.”
I tried not to act like my heart hadn’t been stabbed. “I knew one day you’d feel that way. It’s why I don’t make friends. They always regret it.”
I turned to stare out the window. I could feel Dana looking back and forth between the two of us. I felt sorry for her. I really did.
When we got to the hotel, I got out before the car was even stopped.
“Where are you going?” I heard Dana’s voice squeak out.
“Um, oh sorry. Nice to meet you, Dana. This was a mistake. I wish you the best.”
To my shock, Dana came over and wrapped her arms around me.
“I know my brother can be an asshole, but I hope you’ll stop by and see me sometime. I like you. Since you hate friends, we won’t be friends; you can be my… support system.”
She winked at me and with that the adorable, sarcastic girl was off and trying to catch up with her brother who didn’t say a word to me and was already heading inside the hotel.
One of the guards came up to me as I fought to push back my tears.
“Ma’am, Mr. Prescott told me to take you home,” he said quietly, giving me pity eyes.
“Tell him I said not to bother.”
“Are you sure? He said to insist.”
“Well, you can’t force me. It’s my choice. You did your job. Thank you, but I’ll take the bus.”
With that, I walked off to go home to my mom, who did need me. This was all a mistake.
&
nbsp; Chapter 6:
The next day was awful. Just as I predicted, I was in the paper. There was a picture of Logan and me outside the restaurant talking. It was before the whole thing with Timothy had gone down. Then there was another picture of us running out. All sorts of headlines went along with the pictures, and I read none of them. I knew my mom knew about the headlines and for the first time, I let her help me. I went home from work that day and cried in her lap for hours, eventually falling asleep there. Two days later was the worst. All sorts of press and fans were outside the restaurant halfway through my shift, and I had no idea what to do. I went up to Matt who was looking out the window in disgust.
“Matt, I'm so sorry. Please don’t fire me. I need this job. I’ll deal with it. I’ll…”
Matt cut me off by walking through the restaurant's glass front door to the reporters. I looked at Shauna, and she shot me a sympathetic look in response. I then heard Matt’s loud country voice boom through the front doors.
“Listen, people; I need you to leave my restaurant and most importantly my employee alone! This girl you are all but stalking is the most hardworking, independent young woman I have employed here, and she is just trying to get by. She’s not some rich celebrity. Please stay away from her, or I will be forced to take more drastic measures. Now go!”
Most everyone scattered, and Matt walked in brushing past us. I ignored it when he shoulder checked me. Here I thought I was just another employee. I was unseen in a haze of café t-shirts. Did he recognize my hard work? He knew how much energy I put into this job. I shook my head. This was all starting to feel unreal. I felt so alone my whole life. Now it seemed people were helping me everywhere I went.
“Matt,” I called before he entered his office. I gave him a nod, “Thank you.”
He nodded back, but the nod said it all. Matt didn’t like me; he respected me. Five days had gone by, and I was still a wreck. In the short time, I’d spent with Logan somehow; I’d gotten used to having someone around. Now I was facing, what seemed like a world full of people combined with the pressures of my mom’s increasingly dangerous illness all alone. I decided to seek comfort from the only person I knew could maybe relate.
Four days later, my first day off, I found myself on a bus to Dana’s place. I had texted her the day before to see if it was okay. I was nervous but pretty sure of my decision to seek her out. I decided to finally read the news on my phone during the bus ride. The minute I flipped my phone open my stomach flipped when I saw the headline:
LOGAN PRESCOTT DROPS RECORD DEAL WITH ROGAN SALLUS AFTER APPARENT FEUD:
Sources say Logan was spotted fighting with Rogan three days ago in LA.
The fight ended with Logan dropping his contract with the famous producer. Nothing to fear, Logan still has multiple movie deals, a newly completed TV show that should be airing soon and I'm assuming lots of producers eager to work with him!
There was more to the article, but that’s all I could read before dropping my cell phone. He ended his contract with Rogan? It must be because of what I told him. Didn’t he hate me? Is this why he hasn’t spoken to me? Because he’s in LA?
The rest of the bus ride flew by. I was in front of Dana’s place in a heartbeat. I walked in the front door, slightly nervous, and was greeted by an elderly lady who was interrupted by Ms. Arnette, the lady I met with Logan.
“Hi Sam, Dana said to let you straight up if you came. If I do say so, she was most hoping you would come.”
“Oh Good. Well, I'm here. So, I’ll just head up then.”
She smiled as I walked to the elevator and hit the button for the tenth floor. I found myself in front of Dana’s door in a flash. I took a deep breath before knocking.
“Who is it?” her sweet, airy voice rang through the doorway.
“Um, It’s Sam.”
“Sam!” she said. “Come in. It’s unlocked.”
That threw me a bit because she didn’t seem like the type of girl to leave her door unlocked, but I entered anyway. The minute I entered I found Logan leaning against the door between the entryway and the bedroom. Dana was behind him smiling.
“Sam,” he said with a nod.
“Y-y-you…. What are you…”
I was so confused. Angry he left me alone, shocked and amazed by what he did with Rogan, happy to see him. Logan walked over and put both hands on my shoulders.
“We’ll talk,” he said simply and then looked at Dana.
“Oh, I have a group, so I have to go. I’ll see you real soon Sam.” Before she left the room, she looked back at me. “Sam, thank you so much for coming. I knew you’d come. I kept telling Logan you’d show up. I value your friendship. Honestly.”
With that, she was gone, and I was left alone with Logan. I sat on the bed with my jaw still dropped slightly. Logan walked to the chair across from me in his sexy all black attire. His hair looked barely brushed, but it was sexy. I preferred it when he didn’t look all put together. Oh frick, what was I saying?
We were both silent for a minute before either one of us spoke.
“I’m sorry Sam. I lost my temper, but I am most sorry for leaving you all alone with the stressful side effects of my fame. You trusted me, and I left you.”
“You dropped your deal with Rogan.” I said quietly. “You left him.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“But why? Why Logan? Your deal, it was worth millions!”
He raised an eyebrow at me.
“I may have hated you, but I do have a cell phone. I saw some of your headlines. Why Logan? Please answer me.”
“Because he hurt you. It’s honestly simple.”
“But I…you regret me. You regret friending me. I'm not worth that Logan. I'm not.”
Logan stood up and came to stand directly in front of me. He ducked down, so we were at eye level, and pushed my hair back.
“Sam, I was angry and jealous. I’ve never said a bigger lie. I'm an ass. You and Dana are the best things that have ever happened to me. There’s no price anyone can put on that. Rogan cut you deep and left you alone. Like I was going to make an album with him.”
“Jealous?” I said honing on that word.
He smirked.
“I’m not the jealous type.”
“Uh okay. I’m not one to push people for their feelings, but you were acting jealous. You threw me out of your car!” Why did I want to hear him say it? It wouldn’t change anything. All the same, I was desperate to hear Logan tell me he was jealous I was with someone else.
“Look,” Logan’s voice got uncharacteristically serious. “I was pissed that you settled for a guy like that. For someone so confident you don’t see how special you are. It pissed me off. And yes, since you are so desperate to hear me say it, I was jealous. Happy?”
He turned away from me. Logan rarely said anything he didn’t fully stand behind, but he seemed scared to speak those words. I opened my mouth to protest. To tell him I didn’t care if he’d said it or not, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get those words out. Just another chip on the wall he seemed determined to take down. He was going to destroy me. The next words out of my mouth was what I wanted to know most since reading the headline. Rogan was my dad. The dad who rejected me. For some sick reason, I wanted to hear how from his consciousness I was. I knew I was nowhere near his heart, but did he even remember me?
“What exactly happened with Rogan?” I asked slowly. “I wanna know.”
“No, you don’t. I promise you that.”
“Yes. I do. It’s my life too. I have a right to know!”
“I already told you!”
“No, you didn’t. You told me why you did it, not what happened. I mean how did it even…?”
Logan sighed.
“I asked him if he had kids and he said no. That pissed me the fuck off. I told him I knew about you. I left out your name out of it of course. He laughed Sam. Simply laughed. Told me I’d know what it was like soon enough to have girls trying to get money out of me by waving the
ir kids in my face. I just...” Logan sighed again. “Sam, I hated myself. I hated him, but I think I hated myself more because he was right. The path I was going down was headed in that direction. Of course, even trashy douche bag me wouldn’t abandon my child if I got a girl pregnant but still…that’s not me choosing to raise a kid with a girl I love. Anyway, I decided there was nothing left to be discussed. He wouldn’t care. Even if I mentioned cancer, he wouldn’t care. So, I just told him that I was dropping out of the contract. I told him I couldn’t work with a guy who would do that to his flesh and blood. He spit in my face, and now I’m going to sue him for an intentional tort.”
“You’re going to sue him?!”
“Hell yes I am going to sue him! But Sam, I am going to have to fly to LA tomorrow for a bit. I must find a new producer now. Music has been a dream of mine for a while. In fact, uh, that’s what my actual goal was in all this before I got cast in my first movie. Music is my first love.”
“Really? I didn’t even know you could sing.”
“Yeah, and play guitar.”
“Of course you can.”
“I’m gonna miss you.”
“I’m gonna miss you too.” I tried unsuccessfully, I might add, to hide the sadness in my voice. “How long will you be gone?”
“I’m not sure. It depends on how all my meetings go, but I’ll get back as soon as I can. My breaks not technically over. I still have two months to go before I die of workaholism again so this better be short.”
“Okay, well have fun?”
“I wouldn’t call it fun, and why are you saying goodbye. The night's not over yet.”
“Oh yes. It is.”
“Look I imagine you hate goodbyes, but you aren’t leaving here until you a play a board game with me. Yes, I saw your face when it was brought up last time. I would have you know I am king of board games.”
“Oh, are you?”
“I am, and, uh, I thought maybe we could go down and play with your mom...if she’s up for it.”
“Logan,” I sighed, “that is so thoughtful. Thank you, but, she’s sick. I… you don’t want to see her like that. She may need help, you know. Her nurse is with her now, but for financial purposes I keep her there as little as possible.”
