"Perfectly true," said Logan. "That happened to me, once."
Danielle took a sip of her coffee. "Do tell," she said. She was interested in hearing a story about one of his exes. At this moment, the awkward run-in from last weekend seemed less in need of explanations and apologies than before.
"I tried to convince my girlfriend to love this diner where I hung out with my friends," answered Logan. "I had my birthday party there, even...they had these great barbecue jalapeno fries." His face softened at the memory, his smile one of fondness. "But she hated barbecue, she hated grease dives ... and so my next birthday was spent at a Mongolian grill across town." He made a face for this last part of the memory, she noticed.
She stopped stirring creamer into her coffee. "Rick wasn't crazy about this place," she said. She took another sip. "I have a feeling I won't be bringing him back here."
Not that Rick had said anything, really. He hadn't even commented on Logan's unexpectedly joining them, assuming it was just a casual run-in with one of Danni's friends. He probably hadn't even noticed whether his Caesar wrap was good or not. He had definitely preferred dinner at the gourmet pizzeria before the show, she knew.
"Not the romantic atmosphere you had in mind?" Logan asked.
"Maybe a coffee house just isn't my dating style, either," she answered. "At least not this one. Must be the crowded tables or something." She gave him a sly little smile to prove she was kidding, and for a moment, she thought his face turned red in response. Maybe I pushed an uncomfortable button, she thought, reproachfully. Either last Saturday's incident, or even the first time we met.
"And what about Rick?" Logan seemed interested in the logo printed on his stir stick, suddenly. "Things are still good with him? Other than coffee differences?"
"They're okay." She shrugged her shoulders. "We're not rushing ... but it's fine." For some reason, she didn't want to talk about her current love life. Not here, not with Logan, anyway. Maybe with one of her girlfriends, who would be interested mostly in how cute Rick was, and his second place finish in the biking portion of the triathlon.
Okay, maybe she was a little bored by all the athletic talk. But Danni wasn't a quitter, not without a fair chance. First impressions could be erased. That was the point of her and Logan being friends, wasn't it?
With a smile, she pretended to study her menu. "So what's good around here?" she asked.
Logan smothered a laugh. "The tofu and sprout muffin," he said, in a serious voice. "Dare you to try it."
"Hmmm. I think I'll pass," answered Danni. "Plain old blueberry is fine with me."
****
It was a silent pact between them, not to bring anybody else romantically linked to her to Pauline's for coffee. Danni didn't think of it that way for Logan's sake, but for her own.
It really was too uncomfortable, bringing dates to her regular haunts, at least before she knew if the chemistry was real. This spot was part of her comfort zone, her world away from the world. It shouldn't really be shared until things were more serious, probably.
Logan wouldn't show up with a girl, she knew. He didn't eagerly discuss his dating life, making her fairly certain he didn't want to run into a female acquaintance like herself while out on a date. She could almost see his blush of embarrassment for having to ignore her and pretend she wasn't there while he and a girl sat at a different table on a date.
Maybe that's what he felt on Saturday — but no, that was silly. Logan was an adult and so was she. They both knew there was nothing odd about being an acquaintance on the outside of a date. I mean, it had happened before, right? And she had been fine with that when it was Mandi and her boyfriend. It wouldn't be any different with Logan, she told herself.
Danni and Logan were both alone the next Saturday morning, Logan with his jogging bag and a DVD to return to a friend, and Danni with her yoga mat and movie tickets for herself and Alyson. On Tuesday's lunch hour, when they ran into each other at Pauline's, it was exactly the same — only with Logan in a suit and tie, and Danni in her 'comfortable working clothes' after a face-to-face session with an author.
It was the same the time after that, too. But it didn't bother Danni anymore because it seemed so comfortable and familiar. In a way, Logan was now part of her routine the same as yoga with Mandi and lunch dates with Alyson. Simply put, he was part of her life now.
Chai and Yoga
September
Danni ordered a chai when Kimberly the barista took her order. It seemed like a cleansing choice after yoga — she was secretly resolving to eat less sugar these days.
"That looks tasty," commented Logan. In a voice that Danni knew meant the complete opposite was his real meaning.
"I'm trying something new," she defended. "I'm supposed to be consuming healthier sludge, not sugar sludge. At least, that's my dietary goal."
"You don't need to be on a diet," said Logan, his eyebrow quirking skeptically. "You look great as you are."
"I'm not a dieter," said Danni. "This is about health, not weight. I'm trying to become a healthier person." She adjusted her cutoff sweatshirt over her workout clothes, brushing strands of blonde hair away that were still sticking to her forehead. Yoga had been followed by an intense spinning class at the same fitness center, with her workout-obsessed friend Mandi.
"So why the health kick?" Logan asked. He had ordered a brownie and caramel latte, Danni had noticed.
She wondered if he had relaxed his rules about no sugar between workouts. She'd probably see him here next Saturday in his jogging clothes and refusing all offers of tempting baked goods from a smiling Kimberly. Danni hid a smile for this thought.
"I saw my doctor for my yearly physical," said Danni. "He suggested that maybe my cholesterol could be a tiny bit lower, that's all."
Logan laughed. "What?" she demanded. "What's so funny about that?"
"Nothing," he answered, after he could control himself again. "I just couldn't help it. You're like a bundle of energy, drinking sugar, eating pastries — you obviously feel fine, but one word from a doctor performing a physical, and you swear off sugar."
"He could be right," said Danni. "Don't tell me you ignore your doctor at your physical."
"I avoid my physical, thank you very much," said Logan. "Along with diets, personal trainers, and cleanse programs. If I can't discipline myself, then nothing anybody tells me will make me fix things."
"And what did your doctor say?"
"That I'm the picture of health and fitness," Logan answered. "Did I forget to tell you?" When his smile gave him away, she smacked him on the arm. Playfully, although something about Logan's expression in response made her feel funny about it.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I got carried away. I forgot you're not Gabby or Alyson."
"Do I remind you of either of them?" he asked, amused.
"Very funny. You know, I can tell you've been brooding, humor or no," said Danni, in order to change the subject away from herself. "Your voice always gives you away."
His journal was closed at his elbow, but the telltale pencil was sticking out of it. She was surprised he had stuck with it so long, considering it didn't seem to help him with his 'compartmentalization' problem at all.
"Mmph. Well. It's been a complicated week." His expression didn't give it away, but she could sense his stress. "I think the company's considering some big changes. The numbers for the firewall and antivirus programs weren't everything the board hoped for. If it wasn't for the gaming software, we'd be talking about layoffs. Maybe we still are."
She sucked in her breath. "Wow," she said. "Does that mean —?"
"It means I have to fire people," said Logan. He studied his hands, as if reading his future in the lines of his palms. "That's what the director told me yesterday, anyway. It's a possibility."
That was the reason for the chocolate brownie, Danni surmised.
"One double chai, one caramel latte, and one brownie delight." Kimberly set their order on the table. "Will there be anything
else?"
"Nothing, thanks," said Danni. She took a sip from her tea. Not bad, actually.
"Try some?" She offered her cup to Logan, who shook his head. "It has soothing properties, I'm told."
"Doris is very into chai," he explained. "She made me try it. I felt like I was drinking grass with pepper in it."
Danni took another sip. "How's Doris?" she asked. "Is she still as perky as ever?" She regretted the snark in her voice a second later. Thus far, Danielle had been unimpressed by Logan's casual comments about the girl he was dating — the first he had been romantically linked with since Danni met him. At least, the only one he'd mentioned when they talked about relationships. Not that Danni had pried into his past for more details or anything.
"She's ... complicated." Logan hesitated. "I don't know if it's the constant motivational tapes, or the sessions with her therapist that make her so ...." He trailed off, searching for the right word. His hand brushed against the back of his head, accidentally rumpling his hair above his collar. Kind of adorably so, Danni secretly thought.
Doris sounded like the type who probably noticed it,too; and had a photo of it posted on her social media account with lots of heart emojis below it.
"She sounds very energetic," supplied Danni. "Very intense. I mean, she practically asked you out —"
"I asked her," Logan corrected, firmly. "I'm not saying there wasn't evidence she was interested —"
"She was begging you to do it," said Danni. "Maybe you didn't pick up on the signals, but every other woman around you noticed it. I have a friend who works with her in sales — my friend Lea? She told me Doris was practically stalking you before you asked her out. Scheduling pointless meetings between sales and software design, timing your elevator schedule so she could catch you multiple times a day ...."
"Have you been talking about my love life with other people?" Logan asked.
The color vanished from Danni's cheeks. He was kidding, she knew, but she was embarrassed by the suggestion.
"You're my friend," she stammered at last. "Of course I talk about you with other people. Sometimes. Anyway, you've talked about Doris for weeks now. And I just happen to know someone else who knows her, that's all."
She busied herself with her cup of tea, not sure why her cheeks were burning so red, or why she suddenly felt so warm. The thermostat in Pauline's must be cranked up to the max even though it was September.
"How long have you and Lea been chatting about my office romance?"
"Umm...I don't know. Does it matter? It's just conversation. And for what it's worth, I think Doris and you are probably a great match. You both have similar personalities...sort of."
"That's your way of saying my brooding is uplifted by her perky nature, isn't it?"
"You know, sarcasm doesn't become you nearly as well as you think it does," Danielle answered. It was time to talk about something else, she decided. She needed to get off this conversation train.
"Mmhmm. A shame. I was always told it was one of my defining characteristics. Much to my chagrin," answered Logan. He sipped his latte, his eyes meeting hers, briefly. A quick glance like that one, from those eyes ... sometimes Danni thought she understood why Doris might have stalked him.
"You are brooding and sarcastic, sometimes," said Danni, resting her chin on one hand as she thought about his silent moments — ones she had considered rude at first, before learning that the world was a separate, removed place from Logan during them. "You have one of those personalities that does a complete flip without warning, though. From cold to warm in about sixty seconds."
"Now you sound like Doris's therapist," said Logan. "Maybe we should talk about your love life instead."
Rick was long gone after five or six dates. Since then, Danni hadn't bothered with more than a casual evening out or two. Gabby was constantly telling her not to lose heart because there was no chemistry, but Danni was feeling a twinge of desperation that there was no one out there. Just a twinge, mind you. And not one she planned on sharing.
"Mandi's threatening to fix me up with someone this weekend," she told Logan instead. "She has this friend...well, friend of a friend, that is."
"Fix ups," scoffed Logan, shaking his head. "Everybody always knows the perfect person —"
"And it never is, right?" finished Danni. "It's always somebody who has one tiny thing in common with you, like a love of peanut butter —"
"— or some tiny facet of your personality, like you're both nice to other people, but completely disregards the fact that you have a temper like Genghis Khan underneath," added Logan.
"Exactly. You get it," said Danni. "You're on the receiving end, too." For a moment, she felt like she and Logan were part of a vast conspiracy by all the happy couples in the city to hastily pair off all single friends and be done with social 'third wheels' forever. Then, with a twinge, she remembered it wasn't quite true in his case — she was technically alone in it, now.
"No blind date ever put me with someone who could've been the love of my life," said Logan. He broke off a piece of his brownie. "That being said, maybe Mandi's friend is the one."
"Is that really what you think?" Danielle met his eye, defying him to stick with that opinion after Mandi's last recommendation, which had been less than perfect. Logan's gaze avoided her, apparently busy with the price on the sample coffees displayed nearby.
"You never know what people are like until you meet them," he supplied, vaguely. "There has to be someone in this city worthy of dating you, and since you obviously haven't met anybody up to now .…"
"Thanks, that makes me sound really pathetic," said Danni, with a laugh of protest. "Or really picky. Either one is bad."
"Sorry." His smile of apology was lopsided. "Look, I don't know anything about love, do I? I've only been in a handful of relationships up to now, and they clearly weren't successful."
He was embarrassed now. Danni tweaked his arm, gently. "I'm kidding," she said. "You and I, we just had bad luck with romance in the past."
"Wrong place, wrong time," said Logan. "Maybe we missed the right one by seconds, sometimes."
"Except for you," Danni added, hastily. "I mean, things are working out for you — you've got a smart, ambitious woman head over heels for you —"
"And who's to say that Mandi's friend isn't perfect?" Logan countered. "He might be a billionaire with a Fortune 500 company, and his own jet. He might be an Olympic athlete who takes you skiing in the Rockies for the winter months —"
"He's with the city's public transportation department," said Danni. "He controls the trains, not the finances behind them. No jet, I promise. He's just a nice, normal guy."
"He might be a warm, considerate human being," said Logan, gently. "A romantic who brings you roses the first night he takes you out —"
"You know what I think?" Danni interrupted. "I think you should quit your job." She lifted her cup with both hands and took a long drink as this conversational thunderbolt struck Logan.
"What?" he said.
"It's not that wild of a statement," she answered.
"From here, it feels like one," he said. "One moment we're talking about love, the next you're telling me to toss aside my career."
"Look, Logan…." She lowered her cup, and met his gaze with a serious expression now. "You hate your job. It's obvious. You've hated it ever since you landed it. It makes you miserable every day, miserable in this city. Now you're going to have to fire people, and nobody can promise they won't fire you afterwards."
Logan was obviously stunned. "And what would I do instead?" he asked. "People don't just quit their jobs, Danielle. You know that."
"I know you're not a guy who lets his savings account sit empty," countered Danni. "You're smart and you're focused and you're talented. Are you saying no other company in town would hire you?"
His focus was on the half-empty latte before him. "I've thought about looking around," he admitted. "But ... I came here for this position. Walking away from it isn'
t easy, even when the job's at its worst."
"So send out your resume at least," said Danni.
"The company will find out."
"Let them. Maybe they'll see they're losing a good thing," she said.
He laughed. "I'm not irreplaceable, Danni."
"Maybe that's just what you think," she answered. "Just do it, Logan. Don't think about it. Contact some people, get some interviews, but don't go on letting this job pull you down."
"I'll think about it," he answered. "No, don't give me that look," he said, as she leveled a skeptical glance at him. "I mean, serious thought. And I'll see if anybody I know has heard about an opening somewhere. But I'm not sending out my resume."
She shrugged. "All right. Have it your way."
"Any other advice while we're here?" Logan asked. "Should I drop Doris, too? Date someone else?"
The humor died away from Danielle's face "No," said Danni. Her tone had lost some of its surety for this answer. "I shouldn't have said anything about her. It's none of my business. She's great for you, I'm certain." She took another long sip from her cup, careful not to lower it until the subject had passed.
Pumpkin Spice Macchiato
October
"Our specials today are the Haunted Mist Latte, the Pumpkin Spice Macchiato, and our Boo-Berry Muffins," said Kevin, Pauline's newly-hired barista, tapping his pencil against his pad. "Any takers?"
"What's in the Haunted Mist Latte?" Danielle asked, setting her shopping bag on the floor under the table.
"It's a marshmallow and whipped cream foam swirled through a cinnamon-mocha coffee," the barista answered. "The pumpkin spice has cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves dusting the steamed milk atop a pumpkin-infused espresso."
"That's a lot of flavor squeezed into one cup of coffee," said Logan.
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