Louise paced back and forth in Josh's living room not knowing if she should tell him or not about her lunch with Logan, what he said, and how that made her feel. Then she thought, how did it make me feel? Do I still love him too? Should I give it another chance? What about Josh, do I love Josh? Louise, not knowing what to make of it, sat down on the couch and took out her phone.
"Hello?" the deep sultry sounds of Louise's older sister Tina emanated from the phone.
"T! Thank God, I need your help."
"Louise, what's wrong? Aren't you in New York?"
"I am, but that's not what this is about, I have a problem."
"Are you pregnant?"
"What!? No. I am not pregnant, can you listen for 5 seconds my GOD!"
"Ok, take a chill pill girl. What's up?" Tina said in a monotone voice.
"I ran into Logan today."
"Logan Barry Bush?"
Louise sat with her hand on her forehead, let out a sigh and said, "Yes Tina, Logan Barry Bush. And do you want to know what happened?"
"Uhhhhhhhhh."
"WELL I'm GONNA TELL YOU T! He found me, we went for some food, and he dropped the L bomb on me! That's right, he told me that he still loves me, and that I need to choose him."
"Ok."
"Ok? Ok! Are you insane! What am I gonna do?"
"I don't know, do you still love him?"
"How am I supposed to know, that's why I'm calling my big sister you ninny!"
"Have you told Josh?"
"No, he's a work still; this happened all of an hour ago. I'm not really sure how to handle it."
"Well, regardless just remember to be kind. I don't know too much about it, but I'm sure it would be quite a blow to Josh's self-esteem to have lost both Belcher women to other men."
"You're right. I'm not gonna tell him. I come home tomorrow, and it won't matter."
"No that's not what I said."
"Tina, I love your mind, alright I gotta go. Bye babe."
The phone clicked in Tina's ear and she put it down on the table. "Well, this is not going to end well."
"What's going on?" Tina's boyfriend Jimmy Jr walked into the restaurant just as Tina hung up the phone.
"It's Louise, she's a bit in over her head. She ran into Logan, and she's freaked a little, doesn't know if she should tell Josh or not."
Jimmy Jr scoffed at Josh's name, but Tina didn't seem to notice, or ignored it knowing how much Jimmy hated Josh. "So what was she calling you for?" Jimmy asked taking a seat at the counter next to her.
"I think she just needed to vent, it'll be fine."
"It will, she's a sharp kid."
"Yeah. Thanks." Tina smiled as Jimmy leaned in and kissed her.
Back in New York Josh had come home from work and he and Louise were getting ready to go out to dinner, since Louise was going home the next day he wanted to take her somewhere special. He stood in the bathroom putting on his tie when Louise appeared in the mirror behind him. "Hey handsome."
He smiled at her, "Hey, you look great." Louise was wearing a bodycon black dress with a high neck line and low back. It had long lace sleeves, and hit her just above the mid-thigh. Josh turned around and took a step toward Louise, who instinctively began fixing his tie. "You really look great, how did I get so lucky?"
Louise smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "You ready for dinner?"
"Let's go."
The restaurant was really fancy, Josh pulled our Louise's chair and she sat, putting the napkin over her lap. "This place is nice." Louise said looking around, "You know, you don't have to take me someplace this expensive, seriously." Louise was leaning in speaking in almost a whisper.
Josh sniggered, "It's ok. I want to, get whatever you want."
Louise smiled picking up the menu, "Oh, you might not want to tell me that, I once hijacked one of my sisters dates and wound up ordering so much pie that I threw up."
"Really?"
"Yeah, luckily it was a rotating restaurant so I just pretended I didn't do it, but I totally did." Josh laughed and they continued to peruse the menu. True to her roots Louise ordered herself the fanciest burger she had ever had, and despite the ambiance, and the perfectly cooked probably grade A beef, it just didn't compare to her dad's never been feta burger.
Later that night, Louise stood in the bathroom of Josh's apartment, she was brushing her teeth before going into the bedroom, and despite the wonderful night they had just had, she couldn't help thinking about Logan. She spit into the sink, rinsed her mouth out and looked at herself in the mirror. What's wrong with you. She thought to herself. Don't blow this, Josh is amazing, and you could love him. But Logan, that painting. She shook her head, opened the door and went back into the bedroom. Josh was already asleep; she slipped into the bed, switched off the lamp and went to sleep.
Louise walked into the restaurant after the bus dropped her off, set her bag on the floor and sat at the counter. Tina walked out of the back and stood opposite her, "Hey Lou, get everything figured out."
Louise put her head on the counter, "NO!"
"Really?"
She looked at her sister, "I don't know."
"Hmm, then maybe this isn't the best time to tell you that I saw Logan coming out of reflections yesterday?"
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, I didn't talk to him, I just saw him. Looked like he had a bunch of supplies."
"Do you think he wants to see me, did he come in here? Or walk by?"
"I really don't know hun, I just saw him."
"Tina, I can't get him out of my head. Do you think I should try to talk to him?"
Tina thought for a moment then said, "I don't think you should unless what you want is to be with him."
Louise nodded, "I'm gonna go upstairs."
"Ok."
A few weeks later Louise was feeling pretty good, Josh had come down to see her the week after she came home, and things were going well. She hadn't seen Logan, though Tina, Jimmy Jr, Andy, her mom and Teddy had all reported to her that they'd seen him around town; and she was ok with that. Louise knew that her sister had been right and that if she saw him, that'd be it. She walked down the street on her way to Wonder Wharf; she was meeting Andy and Ollie so they could get food and maybe swing through Art Crawl making fun of the local attempts at art and creativity in general.
"Did you see this one?" Andy said pointing to a particularly mundane painting of a sailboat as they passed by.
"I don't understand the appeal of these things." Louise said stopping to take a closer look. "There isn't even any thought put into this, it might as well be paint by number."
"Do you think you could paint one like this?"
"No. I don't do things Andy, I encourage others to do things, like when I convinced you and your brother to count change in the freezer of our restaurant."
"Oh yeah." Andy laughed, "you are pretty good at that, and we didn't even get our cut!"
They continued walking, Ollie, Andy's twin brother had run ahead to look at a few things he'd spotted on the way to the pier, and just as soon as he left them he was running back toward them. "Hey guys, what's going on." He seemed slightly panicked.
"Not much." Andy said, "You ok?"
"Me, yeah I'm great, and hungry, hey Louise how about some burgers? We could take a shortcut through this alley right here." Ollie grabbed her arm and started to pull her off the sidewalk.
"Ollie what the hell are you doing!" Louise yelled trying to free herself
"Dude, stop." Andy smacked his brother, and he released Louise from his grip, "What's wrong with you?" Louise stood there rubbing her arm and watched Andy's face change as his brother whispered something into his ear. "You know I'm hungry too, let's just go this way." He and Ollie started walking away from the street.
"Uhh, hey loonies, what's wrong with you, the restaurants are just past reflections, why should we go the back way, it's right there." Louise started walking away from them, and Andy and Ollie both ran around in front of her. "Jesus Christ, what is with the two of you, you're freakin me out!" She attempted to push past them, but they linked their arms together. "Are you serious?"
"Ok." Andy said "You're right we are being crazy, if I tell you why, will you relax."
"Me relax, oh that's rich!"
"Louise."
"Fine, what is it?"
"Logan is at reflections. He has some pieces in the crawl, and yeah, he's in there."
"So that's why he's been around there so much. He has stuff in the crawl."
"Apparently." Ollie chimed in.
"Thanks for telling me, but I'm gonna go that way. I need to face this. Finally"
"Should we come with you?"
"I don't need you to, but if you'd like to, I wouldn't tell you to get lost." She smiled at them, and they smiled at her nodding. She turned the corner from the alleyway back onto the sidewalk and started on her way to Reflections. There seemed to be quite a few people gathered around and as she neared the doorway she found herself getting more and more nervous. The way she felt the night they had dinner in New York. Louise pushed herself to the front of the crowd and was stunned to be looking at herself, there in the middle of all his other work was picture of her, she was laughing her head thrown back, tears running down her cheeks; it was the epitome of what a happy Louise looked like. It was amazing. Her jaw dropped, she looked at it in aww, and slowly the other people standing around admiring the work in the window began to notice the resemblance. Wow is that you; Do you know the artist; what a crazy coincidence, that looks just like you were just some of the things she heard, but she just looked at it.
Suddenly the painting was being moved from its spot, and Louise was jerked back into reality; she found herself moving toward the door curious about where the painting was headed when she was face to face with Logan Barry Bush. "Looking for this?" He said holding the painting out toward her.
"What?"
"I'd like you to have it, I painted it for you."
"Why?"
"Because seeing you happy and laughing is my favorite thing in the world." Louise took the canvas and felt her heart flutter. "I'm glad you like it."
"I" she began to speak, but was interrupted.
"hate it." Josh stepped into view from the crowd. He took the canvas out of Louise's hands ("Josh stop!" she yelled) and looked at it, he sniggered to himself, "This is art."
"Well that's subjective." Logan said calmly.
"Clearly, look I don't know what you're trying to do here but Louise is my girlfriend, and I don't appreciate you throwing this in her face."
"You don't know anything." Logan said, a little more firmly this time.
"I know I'll fight you."
"Josh!" Louise tried to interject, but the guys ignored her
"Oh, you'll fight me." Logan said, "Like a man, or with those sissy dance moves of yours. If I remember correctly you tried to win the affections of a Belcher girl with those moves once before. How'd that end for you Josh, good? Or is Tina still with the guy you fought against for her."
Josh looked at Louise, "How does he know about that?"
"We were together for years, she's my best friend." Logan said
"Doubtful. Louise tell this guy he needs to back off."
"Uhh," She didn't know what to say.
"Oh enough of this." Josh lunged forward ready to hit Logan, when suddenly he was stopped, and his arms were restrained. Jimmy Jr was standing behind Josh holding his arms, "Hey what the fuck!" Josh yelled, "get off me." He struggled to get free, but Jimmy Jr kept his grip.
"Josh, what are you doing." Louise said looking at her enraged boyfriend. "I can't do this anymore, I still have really strong feelings for Logan, and I can't let you fight over me."
"I can't lose you." Josh said desperately.
"You already have, I'm so sorry, but my heart's never really been in this Josh. I love Logan, I always have."
Jimmy Jr loosened his grip as Josh calmed down, "So that's it then."
"I think so."
"Ok, if that's what you want." He turned to walk away, winking at Tina as he went. Tina's face went red.
"I hate that guy." Jimmy Jr said putting an arm around Tina.
Logan picked the canvas up off the ground and handed it to Louise. "I think this is yours."
"You still want this, even though I'm not with him."
"I'm all in." Logan said, pulling her in for a kiss.
"Aww." Tina cooed at the site of her sister finding her way.
"Come on." Jimmy Jr said, "Let's leave these two alone.
Logan and Louise continued their embrace as the crowd dissipated. The old lady who owned Reflections stood in the window gaping in horror, "disgusting!" she yelled tapping on the glass, "move along!" Logan and Louise ignored her and kept kissing, breaking for just moment to say, "I love you."
