8. 1 Lonely nights, ugly tables and job offers

"I sometimes pretend that I am listening to people, when I am actually not hearing anything. But here I am, listening to your silence, everyday, hoping you would break it soon." - Logan

~~~

(Logan)

The next morning, Logan woke up to the emptiness. Again. The silence clawed on him until he couldn't bear the sound of it. God, the sound of this empty silence was so loud against the lonely looking walls and he hated himself for being weak.

How could he? He wasn't supposed to be.

God, he had lived in the emptiness for so long. He had thrived in it and to be honest, he had enjoyed it. It was the only reprieve he has had amid constant bustle and chaos in his life. With a book and a cup of coffee, with a swim in the pool, he had loved his solitude.

Now, oh so suddenly he didn't like the idea of waking up to an empty house and walking in back to the dark hallways. It twisted his stomach when he thought of going back to that.

What did she do to him? Was she a witch or something? Did she put a spell on him with her misty green-gold eyes?

He rubbed his face with a sigh. He had so much work to do, so much to plan and here he was, again, thinking of her. It had been a bad habit.

She has become his bad habit.

The first phase of Aiden's restaurant had started and he had to oversee so many things and having an angry Alex was such a distraction. She was always at the forefront whatever he did and wherever he was. He didn't like it, but he couldn't avoid it.

At night, she was already in her room before he came back home. He knew she wasn't sleeping. He had even knocked at her door yesterday, feeling like a creep, but she hadn't opened or responded to him.

He sighed and opened the damn refrigerator.

He drank some milk, ate a dry loaf of bread, but after Alex's breakfast, everything else was just so bland. So so ordinary. He hated her for getting him addicted to good food, homemade food and then pulling the rug from under him when he least expected it.

Should have though that before handing her a bunch of stupid papers. Eh? That voice, the same irritating voice added.

He wanted it all back. The smell of butter, the warmth in the kitchen that would tell him she was there before him, making something for him, her lingering smell in the air. But even then, he wouldn't take back the contract.

Oh, God, two days, two terrible days. It had been 48 hours and she was still so stubbornly holding onto her anger. He wanted to punch something.

She sure knows how to twist a man from inside out. Or at least him!

He stared at the ugly table she hated so much and sighed. It's emptiness made it uglier still.

Sometimes, before when they were not fighting, as he ate, he would think of her in the kitchen, working her way around and it would always put a small smile on his grumpy face. Now everything was missing.

That woman was tying him in a knot and it had to stop.

Unable to bear it any longer, he tore a paper from the stack of sticky notes they had used to banter back and forth and started writing.

He knew she would get angry again after she saw it, but he could take her anger if she just talked with him. However this silence, it was making him nervous and he was feeling weird without talking to her.

He would be surprised if anyone told him that he had met Alexandra just days ago and he had picked her out from the side of the road. It felt like a lifetime and some more.

He grabbed his coat and brief case before closing the door.

His phone rang. "Yes?"

"Are you and Alex fighting?"

"Why do you ask?" Logan pulled the car door open with unnecessary force.

"She called me to drive her somewhere."

"Where?" Logan wanted to punch something. The feeling was growing faster with each passing minute.

"I don't know." Daniel was silent for a moment. "Did she get socked from work? I think she want to look for another job?"

"Why would she?"

"Why wouldn't she?" Daniel asked, shaking him from the reverie.

"What?"

"I said she was looking for the job and you said why would she? I mean, why can't she look for a job? Why did you say that?"

"I am just distracted. I was just thinking about something else. So did you agree?"

"I did."

Logan grunted his response.

"Speak up, Logan. Do you have anything to say to me?"

"You don't have to come. I will drive her."

"What about the meeting you had with Lowell's lightings? You said you are gonna talk to them about the cost of light fixtures."

"Ah, that I can push forward."

"Are you sure she is just a friend?"

"I am sure, Dan. Now, please don't psychoanalyze me. I am not in the mood for that."

"You are doing a hell of a lot of rescheduling for a friend." Daniel laughed at the other end as if he was really amused and Logan glared at the phone. His friend wasn't funny, but the poor guy had a strange idea that he was and once he got an idea, it was hard to change that.

"Have you stopped amusing yourself, child? I would love to go now."

"Hey Logan, remember that girl from the college? Is that Kristy or Krista? How you had always said you didn't have anything for her and she was just a friend and then one day, you were finally being honest to yourself and you decided to ask her for the homecoming game. But she went with Matt. And you were left licking your wounds. Just a friendly reminder: wake up. If there is something there, you have gotta admit it before it is too late."

"Yeah? And it turned out Kristy used Matt to get to Finley and then she married Finley and divorced him and she now owns half of his assets? What did that tell you? Moral: look deeper before you leap. So thanks. I will keep sleeping." Logan got inside his car.

Feelings we're messy and he would be fine without that. That was why he was so eager to marry Stacy, wasn't it? She was cool. He was cool. They would have been cool.

"You are so-so... Whatever." Danny huffed as he hung up.

Logan laughed as he started the car. And he finally felt like it would be alright.

He knew what he had to do. A plan slowly formed in his head and he knew she had to talk to him after that.

Oh, yes. It would be officially called bribing. But, he was desperate enough to do just that.

~~~

(Alexandra)

Okay. She missed him. No matter how angry it made her to think about those damned documents, she still missed him.

Missed talking with him. Sharing stories that weren't a least bit important. Laughing and making fun of each other.

The large house felt like a tomb without their laugher echoing off its walls. It was so silent. She wanted to scream. At least, then, it wouldn't be silent anymore.

She stomped to the bathroom when she saw him driving away.

Yes. She felt like a crazy stalker staring at him through the windows, but it was only because she wanted to avoid him. Not because she wanted to look at his stupidly handsome face because she missed him.

Tell that to yourself, again and again and maybe you will eventually believe it.

Alex hated that stupidly honest voice. If she could just press a pause button and make it stop. It was like she was carrying her own enemy with her.

She dressed in a floral dress and swirled. It looked good on her. She ran a comb through her brown hair and walked downstairs.

She stopped when she noticed the familiar looking note on the refrigerator.

Her smile turned into an angry scowl when she read it.

"Logan Forte. I am gonna to kick you in that face when I see you next time. And I won't be sorry." She said as she took a packet of bread from the refrigerator, and a jar of peanut butter. This had to do. She didn't have the heart to cook and eat it all by herself.

When she finished it, Esther came, with her air of disdain.

"You separated laundry?"

"Yes. I did. Mine in this bucket."

"You sure? Everything right in place."

Yes, commander. Alex had this urge to salute the woman like they do in military camp, but she refrained.

"Yes. Esther. I did. Did you eat anything?"

"Good. You are a good girl. And I ate."

Alex was startled. That was the first ever praise she had heard from Esther. She looked at the woman with eyes wide with bewilderment and Esther shook her small head with a smile.

"Go. Let me work here."

Alex was so gone. She didn't want to wait another second to give Esther a chance to change her mind.

Later that noon, when Alex was relaxing in the pool house, her phone rang.

"Delivery. Can you please open the door?" A man asked.

She dressed before she walked outside and stopped when she saw two men standing outside the gate waving hands at her.

"Ma'am, can you please open the gate. We have a delivery." One man in red cap said.

Alex looked at them and wondered whether it was okay to open the door. What if they we're here to kidnap her in that big truck?

"For who?"

"Mr. Forte sent it. For Alexandra?"

She narrowed her eyes. It was a truck. What could he have possibly sent now in that massive truck?

With suspicion clear in her eyes, she opened the door and the truck stopped in front of the house.

"Where do you want me to put it?" One man asked as they lifted a big lump covered in papers.

Where did she want to put It? How would she know without knowing what that it was?

"What the hell is that?" She pointed a shaking finger at the lump that now sat on the center of the stone pathway.

The man in red cap looked at her before he smiled in understanding. "Oh, it is a surprise, uh? Ma'am, your husband just ordered for a new table to be delivered here. Now, he also wanted us to take the old table back. Can you show us inside."

Alex gaped at them as the two men shared an amused look.

"He-he is not my husband." She muttered as she walked, or more like stormed inside and the two men with the lump that was a table followed her.

~~~