Chapter 0103
Logan was putting the last of the beer he’d bought for his party in his refrigerator when his doorbell rang.
He walked through the kitchen to the front door and looked through the peephole. Of course Dylan was the first to arrive, he thought. Dylan may have never been early for meetings, but he made sure to be at any party at least an hour early, Logan had once told him that the cool kids showed up fashionably late
te to parties, but he didn’t care. He wanted to get the fun started ASAP.
Logan opened the door and smiled at his old friend. “Hey man, come on in.”
Dylan held up a few grocery bags full of chips and other junk food he’d bought. “Came prepared,” he said with a smile.
“Excellent,” Logan said. “Did you invite any women?”
“Uh…I invited one woman in particular,” Dylan said.
Logan face palmed. “Dude. The whole point of these parties is to pick up women. We can’t do that if
only invited one.”
you
“Sorry man,” Dylan said. “I didn’t know you wor
serious about that. I don’t know a lot of single women these days. I just invited a few of our old college buddies, the ones that are still around.”
Logan grabbed the bags of snacks from Dylan and led him into the kitchen. The two started emptying the bags onto the counter.
“So, ready to start living the bachelor life again, are you?” Dylan asked.
“I’m ready to put everything with the Whitaker sisters behind me,” Logan said.
“Sisters?” Dylan looked at him, confused. “Did something happen with Hazel?” Dylan tried to ask it casually and not show the jealousy he felt at the thought of it.
“Sorry…no, I just meant…it’s time to get serious. When my family finds out about the divorce, I won’t have much time to find someone to marry before they try forcing someone on me. And they are not good matchmakers,” Logan said with a shudder.
“Ah, yes,” Dylan said, a smile forming on his lips. “I remember Jessica.”
Logan nodded. Memories of the disastrous blind date his dad had once set him up on came flooding back. Jessica was the daughter of another office supply company, and his dad thought the union would be beneficial to both companies. Unfortunately, Jessica was already drunk when Logan showed up to their date, and she spent the whole evening berating the waiter and being rude and brash and loud with him and everyone around them for the entire dinner. Logan could not get out of there fast enough. He had immediately blocked her number when he left the restaurant.
“I think that’s the only date I’ve ever been on that I wanted to leave before it was over,” Logan said.
He pulled two beers out of the fridge and handed one to Dylan. The two stood in silence for a moment, sipping their beer.
“Speaking of Hazel though…I saw her at Chickadee’s last night,” Logan said, off–handedly.
Dylan nearly spit his beer out. “Chickadee’s? Are you sure it was her? That doesn’t sound like her kind of
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Chapter 0103
place.”
“Yeah, I talked to her. I didn’t recognize her at first, she looked…very different,” Logan said. He regretted bringing it up now, thinking of her in that dress made it very hard to concentrate on anything else.
“Different how?” Dylan said. He’d set his beer on the counter and was fully focused on Logan’s every word.
“Just like, dressed for a club, you know?” Logan shrugged. He did not want Dylan to have that image of her, walking in front of him with her tight ass covered in just a thin layer of material. He closed his eyes. He had to think about anything else. About sad things. Or funny things. Or whatever it took to keep him from driving right over to her house and throwing her down on her bed.
“Ah,” Dylan said, a hint of disappoint in his facial expression.
“Yeah, I think she was there celebrating her elopement,” Logan continued. That thought alone was enough to push the image of Hazel right out of his head.
Dylan’s eyes bulged. “I’m sorry, her what?”
“She got married a couple days ago. She told me yesterday before work,” Logan stared at his half–empty beer bottle, swishing the remaining liquid around in it.
“I thought she was single? Who did she marry?”
“That creep ex of hers. Chance or whatever.” Logan downed the rest of his beer.
“The guy that was in the parking garage that one night?” Dylan looked flabbergasted. “Why in the world would she marry that loser?”
“I don’t know. She said they made up and decided to get married. That’s all I know,” Logan’s face fell. He’d been trying to act like this didn’t bother him, but talking about it out loud made him realize how incredibly sad it made him.
Dylan looked heartbroken as well. He didn’t say anything, just looked off in the distance, deep in thought. “I know you liked her, man,” Logan said. “I’m really sorry.”
Dylan just shook his head. “I can’t believe she didn’t even have the courtesy to give me a heads up. Especially after…” He almost mentioned their diner date and almost kiss, but thought better of it. “This is just crazy.”
“Especially after what?”
“Nothing. We were just hanging out some. I thought she was having fun. I sure was,” he said the last part quietly under his breath.
“Guess you can’t do that anymore,” Logan said, also quietly.
Dylan shook his head. “No. I guess not.”
“Oh, I never asked. You did you invite to this party?”
Dylan looked Logan square in the eyes.
“I invited Hazel.”
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An hour later, Logan figured all the guests that were coming had arrived. It ended up being nine people altogether. It was not the kind of party that Logan and Dylan had used to host in their college glory days, with wall to wall people, but Logan enjoyed the company anyway.
Dylan looked down at his phone for what felt like the millionth time. He was both hoping Hazel would text him and thankful she hadn’t, because he didn’t know what he would say to her after the bombshell Logan had dropped. She had never responded to his invitation to tonight’s party, but he could see that she had read it. It wasn’t like her to just completely ignore him.
He had typed up several more messages to her while he was at the party, but he deleted every one before he sent it. He couldn’t even wrap his brain around the fact that she was married now.
Dylan kept watching the door, on the off chance that Hazel would just show up at any moment. Logan noticed what his friend was doing, looking back and forth between his phone and the door. As soon as there was a lull in the conversation, he stood and walked over to Dylan.
“Hey, man,” he said gently. “I don’t think she’s coming.
“No, I know, I just…” he paused. “Am I crazy? I really thought she was into me too. But suddenly she’s ignoring my messages and then she gets married? I just don’t understand what happened.”
Logan thought of the kisses he and Hazel had shared in the hospital. He didn’t understand either how she could marry someone else less than a week later.
“I don’t know. I don’t get it either.”
