This story is completely based around the storyline of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Characters have been lost, picked up, and changed, and most names have been either modernized or replaced as necessary. The modernization has changed a lot about the story, but it's still a little slow moving for modern tastes. You've been warned.
Also, I would like to say that though I've never written a story under this name before, I'm not new here. I've found that I work best under pressure, and the best kind of pressure you could possibly give me is constant reviews. I also hope that you enjoy what I come up with. I love Jane Austen with all of my heart, and I will do my best not to insult her story.
- One -
Logan Mitchell sometimes wondered if moving out of his mother's house a few years ago had been worth it. Ever since, when he wasn't spending time at his mother's house, he was on the phone with her, unable to get a word in edgewise between the jabs at his singlehood.
"Yes mother, I'm sure she's a nice girl, but I really don't think she's what I'm looking for…" he tried, to which his mother replied curtly, "You're almost thirty. What you should be looking for is a heartbeat."
Logan was looking for a companion, a lifelong lover, as one should. His mother, on the other hand, looked for dollar signs. Her newest conquest for her son was the heiress to a multimillion dollar company based near their home in Los Angeles. He could have told his mother that he'd gone to school with the girl, and she'd spent the two years they'd walked the halls of Henderson Prep insulting his every movement. He had no interest in pursuing a relationship that would cause him to hate his own existence.
He could tell from his mother's voice that she was winding down, the exhaustion of disappointment finally getting to her. He calmly reminded her that he was still young, and that he would find someone, but only someone that made him happy. She scoffed, but sent him her love before hanging up.
He went to turn on the TV, but his vision was blocked by a stack of pizza boxes piled on the coffee table. It's not that he couldn't cook, or that he disliked cooking, he simply forgot to shop for groceries, and saw no point in making an entire meal just for himself.
He actually made a mean risotto when called upon, but the last time he had put that much effort into dinner had been while he was still dating…nevermind.
But once the thought entered his head, he couldn't make it leave. The thoughts of the almost-year long relationship he'd kept up, unbeknownst to his family and friends. It'd had to be that way from the beginning, they both knew that. Nobody would be able to accept that Logan was in love…with a man.
For a year, he'd hung out with his "friend" Kendall, all the time advancing their relationship in private. Kendall had been the reason for moving out of his mother's, though in her mind it was simply age. He'd been almost twenty-three, and even in the constraints of his mother's lavish home, he couldn't stand the extravagance of it all.
Logan had family money, lots of it actually. It was enough to keep the family in comfort for years without an income. His mother had no intention of working, and his father had died when he was much younger, leaving the family with enough money of course, but without grounding. He loved his mother, but she was flippant, a trophy wife turned widow. He never quite knew what their finances looked like, but he knew it wasn't good.
It was this money that meant his mother could actually tell him what to do. It was his allowance from her that paid for his apartment, comfortable, but still bigger than average. He'd given thought to a career, going so far as to receive certification as an EMT, but his mother disapproved, so he kept his certification without actually using it.
He smirked before he could stop himself, remembering when he'd played Doctor with Kendall. He bit his lip as the mental image of Kendall's smirk as he bent over to "give him mouth-to-mouth" came back, more vibrant than it had ever been. He subconsciously moved his hand toward his groin, remembering just how thorough the examination had been.
His breath caught in his throat when his phone went off, reminding him that he shouldn't be thinking about those things. It was his own damn fault. They'd probably be married by now had he not broken it off. He gave himself an instant thought of what it would be like to be married to Kendall, before reminding himself that he had to answer the phone. He picked it up on the last ring.
"Logan dear, please tell me I'm interrupting something?" said an elderly voice into the receiver. Logan rolled his eyes.
There was only one person more anxious than his mother when it came to finding a girlfriend, and that person was his Great Aunt Elinor. She was his father's aunt, and as such was one of his few remaining connections to his father. Elinor Mitchell was either a lonely old bat or a lovely woman, depending on who you talked to, but to Logan she was almost everything. Sure, she was wrong about a lot of things, but she cared more than anyone else did, which was worth something.
"Hello Aunt Elinor, and how are you tonight?" he asked, smiling at the bickering nature of their relationship.
"Old, as usual," she said without malice. "I was actually hoping I would get your answering machine. It's a Friday night after all. Weren't you seeing somebody just recently?"
Logan rolled his eyes. His mother and aunt were in competition as to who could set him up on the most blind dates, and that's all they ever were.
"What was her name…" she insisted, and Logan thought back to a few weeks ago, when she had set him up with a model from Australia. Though he'd enjoyed the date, the vibe had been off and he hadn't seen her since.
"Tess, Auntie, her name was Tess. She was very nice, and she also moved back to Sydney last week," he said, standing up to go to the counter of his stainless steel kitchen. He put the phone on speaker and set it on the counter, opening cupboards to find his stash of peanut butter, and the empty fridge to grab the last few slices of bread.
"Oh well. Does she happen to have any attractive single friends?" his aunt prodded. When he didn't answer she said, "Logan, you know I just want what's best for you."
"I know Auntie, it's just…" he hesitated to bring it up, because he knew she would get defensive. "I just don't think the problem is finding the right girl."
He heard her scoff, before she said, in a higher voice that the rest, "Oh dear, not this again…"
It had been a mistake to tell Aunt Elinor about Kendall. He knew that much now. But he'd had to tell someone when it started getting serious. She responded just about as well as he thought, telling him he was going through a phase. He just hadn't found the right girl yet, she'd said. And according to her, Kendall wasn't going anywhere. He was a broke musician living off of Logan's money. Logan hadn't believed any of it, but when Aunt Elinor threatened to keel over and disown him, he made the hardest decision of his life, and broke things off with Kendall.
He could tell that he'd broken Kendall's heart, as well as his own, when he'd broken up with him. A part of him had understood that after losing his father, Logan couldn't just up and leave the rest of his family. Still, he could tell that he'd wanted Logan to fight for him; to fight for them. Deep down, so did Logan. After Logan had asked the compulsory, "Can we still be friends?" Kendall had shaken his head and left. The next thing Logan knew, Kendall was in New York recording his first album.
"You know, he's got a new album out. It's at the top of the charts," he said dreamily. He walked over to his stereo system and picked up the empty case, Kendall's face staring at him from the front cover.
He could tell his aunt was irritated, but in this area she deserved all the I-told-you-so's he could muster. After all, she'd been the one to say it wasn't worth getting involved with a broke musician. Now Kendall was one of the most popular artists in the country, and had more money than his family had ever touched.
"You didn't buy it did you?" she asked, already aware of the answer. "I'm telling you, I don't care if he's popular, I still don't think he can sing worth a damn."
"I have to disagree with you Aunt Elinor," he argued simply, remembering the sound of Kendall's fingertips as they brushed the strings, the way he'd bite his lip when he figured out another lyric, scribbling it down quickly before it escaped him, and the way he closed up as soon as he began working on his music. The first single he'd had on the charts had been written on Logan's leather couch, and Logan glanced over, remembering the way he'd run out of the bedroom to his guitar, scribbling lyrics on the back of a phone bill.
His aunt paused for a moment and waited, but he had nothing to add, so she continued, "Well, since you're being my insubordinate nephew once again, I'm going to get back to QVC. I intend to leave you nothing with the way you treat me. It's all going to the lovely people on the Home Shopping Network."
She was being sarcastic. He knew that nothing he did would ever make his aunt stop loving him. Except the rare chance he'd end up married to Kendall. But all of a sudden he remembered the hurt in Kendall's eyes when he'd asked to be friends and knew he was shooting a dead horse in the face.
"I love you Auntie," he added, and he could tell she was smiling.
She sighed, "If you did you'd visit me more often. What are you doing tomorrow?"
At her age, Aunt Elinor should have been in hospice years ago, but she had just enough income to stay in her home, with a nurse that checked in on her a few times a day. He never argued her situation with her, because nobody in the world was as stubborn as Aunt Elinor could be, and besides, she was too independent to ever let people take care of her. He really did visit her a couple times a week, but they both knew she was lonely and wanted the company.
"I was going to head over to Maria's if you want to come with me?" he offered, knowing she would never take him up on it.
"Oh god," she said, before she could stop herself. "I can't take that brat of hers, Charlie. And on top of that, I can't take her kids either."
He laughed at her critique of his cousin-in-law, and promised that he would stop by to see her before he went over to his cousin's house. She told him she'd see him tomorrow, before going to bed at the moderately late hour of ten.
He really loved his family, all of them. Maria had grown up with him, and she was more like a sister than a cousin to him, but her husband and his family were a little much. Even his patience wore thin around them, and age had taken away whatever patience Aunt Elinor had once had. Aside from Charlie, who was generally arrogant and tactless, there were his parents, Matthew and Theresa Groves, who though kind, had to be involved in everyone else's business. Their other child, Lucy, was a nice enough girl, but Logan was tired of having her thrown at him by every one of the Groves, including his cousin Maria.
Charlie and Maria's kids were cute though, yes a little bratty, but what else would you get from kids that were spoiled rotten by their grandparents, who lived only next door. Matthew Groves was a realtor, a good one, and had procured two large houses next to each other. All three generations of the family were almost inseparable, and Logan was one of the few people accepted into that fold.
Being around the Groves made Logan think of one day having a family of his own. He'd always wanted kids, and he and Kendall had even spoken about it a few times. With that thought, his mind was back on Kendall. Knowing he'd hate himself for it, he pulled up a video on his phone of Kendall covering a song by Gotye called "Somebody That I Used To Know". It wasn't dedicated to anyone, but Logan knew that it was meant for him, from the pain in his eyes when he looked toward the camera to the way his voice broke as he sang the higher parts. Before the video was over, he was forced to stop it to wipe his tears.
It's your fault. He told himself. You can try to blame Aunt Elinor and your mother all you want, but there were only two people here when you told him you wanted to be friends. You're the one who broke his heart. Only you.
Logan tried his best to think of something else, but every thought he had led back to his lost love somehow. They'd shared everything for a year. Every inch of this apartment held a memory. They'd fallen asleep watching Star Wars on his twenty-third birthday, right here. Over at the counter was the first time he'd told Kendall he'd loved him. He blinked back tears when he looked at the kitchen table, where Kendall had looked so happy as he sat down to dinner that night, before becoming concerned for Logan's mood. He held the brunette's hand as he choked out an explanation, before storming out. They never even finished their dinner.
To take his mind off of things, Logan found the remote to the stereo system and turned it up, forgetting that Kendall's CD was still in the dock. The first few lines of his favorite song finished him, and he fell asleep sobbing into the leather of the couch, still able to smell Kendall's cologne on the cushion.
As expected, that night Logan dreamed heavily of the moments he missed, and now would never have. He woke up with a memory of that final meeting, halfway down the hallway to stop Kendall leaving, but he would never make it. This part of his dream was recurring. At least once a week, he dreamed of stopping all of this from happening, chasing after Kendall, fighting for what they had, but he always woke up before he could.
After waking up and submitting to the fact that his dream could never be real, Logan showered and dressed, getting rid of the sweat that he had from sleeping restlessly on a leather couch. Running downstairs, he stopped for lunch on the way to his Aunt's. By now he knew the order, and took it all to go.
He knew she'd been waiting for him when he saw the curtain move in her front window. By the time he got to the door, she would have taken a turn around the house to keep the appearance that she'd been in back when he arrived.
After a kiss on the cheek, he carried the food out to the back patio, where she'd made lemonade, a rare treat that was probably meant to apologize for the things she'd said the night before. He let her discuss the neighborhood gossip, as well as whatever stories her nurse had told her recently, silently eating his sandwich, his attention half on remembering when the nurse came so he could ask how Aunt Elinor was really doing.
She must have caught his mind wandering, because she pulled him back in with a question he hadn't been expecting, "Logan, dear, you would tell me if you and your mother were having money troubles, wouldn't you?"
He paused, before admitting, "I probably wouldn't know until they repossessed my car to be quite frank. Why, have you heard something?"
"Well it's just, Robert said something to the effect of 'Has Jane come to you yet?' I would think nothing of it, but I've told him time and time again that our accounts are separate, and he shouldn't discuss your finances with me. If he feels the need to speak up, it certainly can't be good."
"Thanks for letting me know," he said, suddenly distracted. What his aunt said was true. Though his mother used the same accountant as his aunt, the accounts were kept very separate. He'd had his own concerns about the state of their finances, and it seemed a fine time to step up to the plate and figure out what was going on. "I'm sorry Auntie, but I should be going. Maria expected me half an hour ago. I'll be back in a few days."
She led him to the door, making him promise to call her that night, which he agreed to. He felt bad for lying to her, but he needed to run by the accountant's before he closed. He didn't want to alarm his aunt, but he truly felt that he needed to figure out what was going on before it could get worse.
Once he persuaded Robert to go through the state of things with him, he knew that he wouldn't be visiting the Groves today. The Mitchell fortune, comprised of his dad's lifetime of good investments, as well as a few of his grandfather's, was nearly gone. Not gone in the sense that they'd be on the streets, but enough that he knew it wouldn't be long before he'd have to trade his Mercedes in for a used Ford Focus.
With copies of the books in hand, he drove over to his mother's house. It was the size of three average-sized houses, and he admitted to himself sadly that it too would probably have to go. When he walked in, his mother was out back sunning herself by the pool. He called her name as he walked out of the screen door, walking to the patio rather than the pool and calling her over.
He pulled a chair out for her to sit down, remaining standing himself, not bothering with niceties before getting down to business, "Mother, how long has this been going on? Robert told me that he's been telling you for months that you'd need to cut back, but you've never even mentioned it to me."
"I didn't find it worth mentioning," she said, sipping from what he estimated was her third margarita of the day.
He grabbed the glass and slammed it down on the table, hard enough that a little sloshed over the sides of the glass, "Mother! This is serious!"
She looked at him, shocked, before calmly responding, "Well I have been cutting back. This swimsuit I'm wearing is from last season."
Logan had to calm himself down, reminding himself that his mother didn't know any better. She'd grown up privileged, and her grasp of simple addition and subtraction probably wasn't too great. He had no qualms about admitting his father had fallen in love with her against all reason, and his attraction for her had been mostly physical. She'd also come from money, and he'd been making major investments at the time. Needless to say, this would be the first time his mother had to cut back on anything.
He sat down next to her and held her hand, "Mother, I don't think you understand. We need to cut back seriously. We can't even afford this pool, let alone this house."
His mother looked genuinely shocked, and he added a quick, "I'm sorry."
"But where are we supposed to live? I can't live on the street Logan. I'd rather die," she said, fear seeping into her expression.
It took everything he had not to roll his eyes. His mother had always leaned toward the melodramatic, and this situation had her at full form.
"Listen, I talked it over with Robert. He thinks we should rent out the house and the apartment, move in with relatives for a while. We'll also have to sell the cars, but we should have enough to buy a couple used cars to suffice," he said, watching as his mother became more and more confused at the idea of cutting back.
"Logie, I don't want to be poor," she said in the voice of a spoiled child. He pulled her into a comforting hug.
"Mama, I think this is best. Fashion Week will be coming up soon, and it's great excuse to get out of town. I think you should go out to New York and live with Aunt Liz. She's been inviting you ever since her last divorce. And if you're in New York, you won't have to hear people talk."
His mother seemed to give into this idea better than he would have thought, but finally asked, "And what about you?"
Logan shrugged, "I'm sure Maria will let me stay in her basement. Plus, that way I can keep track of things around here. I have to make sure we don't have some insane rock star skateboarding in your pool. Especially not after we went through the trouble of putting the mosaic in."
Jane Mitchell gasped a little at the thought of someone else touching the mosaic dolphins at the bottom of her pool, but Logan promised that it would work out for the best. His mother begrudgingly agreed, and called her sister, who agreed with the plan wholeheartedly. Next was Maria, and though Logan gave her few details, she welcomed him whenever he was ready.
Finally, Logan dialed the number of the accounting firm and handed the phone to his mother. She shook her head, a few tears falling down her face. He smiled, and she forced a smile back. As the line connected, Logan reached out and took her hand, "I promise, we can make it through this."
It was what his mother had told him after his father died, and she looked at him with understanding. If they could make it through that, they could make it through a little financial trouble.
Finally, the call went through, and her perky professional voice went on, "Hello Robert, this is Jane Mitchell. Yes, we've discussed the situation and agreed that we will have to make some serious cut backs. Sure, that'd be great. We'll see you in a few minutes."
She turned back to address Logan after the phone call, "Well, he's on his way over here to discuss our options. In the meantime, I'm going to appreciate my dolphins while I can."
He nodded, and she removed her cover up before diving into the swimming pool. Logan knew that this was only the beginning of their troubles, but for now he was content with the idea that things could finally get better. Maybe something good could come out of all of this. Maybe.