"So whatcha think Logan's about with Max?" O.C. asked Bling as she motioned to the bartender that she wanted another drink.
"Well," Bling started, "what I'm going to tell you is just that. It's just what I think. Not anything that's coming from the man himself."
"Spill." Cindy directed.
"I can't see how they aren't more already!" he blurted out, knowing as he said it that he would have to elaborate, that Cindy would want to hear his reasoning for saying that.
"Whaddya mean by more?" She didn't disappoint, he thought to himself.
"Well, more . . . together. From what I can tell, they've been attracted to each other for a long time already. I see them as really being into each other. But they're resisting any suggestion of being any more involved. They're denying their feelings, which means they're just wasting each other's time."
O.C. considered what he had said and then took a drink. Bling waited patiently, not feeling any need to press her for an immediate reaction. He didn't have to wait too long.
"I say you got your 411 straight." Cindy concluded. "So since they can't help themselves wit this, only thing I see is that we gonna have to do it for 'em."
It was a good thing that Bling didn't have his glass in hand because OC had so surprised him with her intent that he might well have dropped it. He had simply thought her a good person to talk to about Max and Logan; he never imagined she might try to enlist him into actually doing anything.
"Whoa. We can't make people do something they don't want to do."
"Sugah, that may be true but we know that they do want to. Leaving it up to them to stop denying is out of the question. 'Sides, they don't ever have to know what we're up to."
Bling was speechless for a moment. The idea that OC was proposing was that he team up with her in a conspiracy. Uneasiness settled over him as he thought perhaps he had gotten himself 'involved' with a woman, but so very differently than what he had intended when he first met her. What in fact had he gotten himself into?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rain was pouring down on them, though neither Max nor Logan complained that they were being pelted by it. As long as there was no hail, they appeared to be comfortable, and if further evaluation were needed, one might even say on the verge of enjoying themselves.
They'd been quiet as they steadily moved along. Max was the one to re-open the conversation with the obvious. "I'm soaked."
Since she didn't say it in a complaining tone, Logan didn't take it as such. He turned his chair in her direction and stopped, cocking his head just a bit, and regarded her before thoughtfully stating, "Yeah, you look like you are."
"Logan!" Max started with only the merest hint of disdain in her voice, for him telling her that, "What I said didn't need a reply. I don't want you to think I was upset about it. I knew I'd get wet when we started out."
"I pretty much knew what you meant. I guess I just wanted to let you know I was listening." A twinkle in his eye was interrupted by one eyelid as he gave Max a quick wink. He started again in the same direction they had been going, and Max, in just a slightly satisfied and startled state, was able to get herself moving again, albeit two steps behind, but very intent on catching up.
It was only a little ways further when she asked, "Logan, have you always lived in Seattle?"
He was suddenly aware that the question had made him realize that Max knew very little of this kind of information about him. It had never come up before or either one of them had never seen an opportunity to address just these kinds of things about him. His voice was nearly apologetic as he answered her. "Yeah, with the exception of time that I was in college, Seattle's always been my home. Being here as long as I have now means that it has the well-known-to-me, familiar comfortability."
Max didn't want to have him feel like she was grilling him or prying, so she decided not to ask him anything else right away.
A sense of obligation crept up on Logan, and before he knew it he was asking, "You didn't come here straight from Gillette, did you?"
Max was the one to stop this time and turn towards him with a small laugh. "You and I aren't really about to play a version of 20 questions, are we?" she said disbelievingly.
"I will if you want me to," he acquiesced honestly.
Max felt that too. All of a sudden, maybe any mystery of Logan Cale was hers for the knowing if she wanted to pursue it.
"Well it might be fun, if you're so willing."
"Forget the numbers, Max. We'll only do it for as long as it is fun. Or we get tired. Or maybe drown."
He really was okay with the idea, she figured, if he was going to say so and include his little joke in virtually the same sentence.
"Yeah, I did. I came for the weather. And the coffee. Those are two things that a girl like myself loves above all else."
"Max…"
"How much farther till we get to this park? I want to be able to pace myself so that I don't run out of things to ask you about."
"You know if we were counting, that you would have just wasted one of yours."
"No …" she began to exclaim in mock protest that was more about not letting him get any superiority complex as she came to another complete stop. Quickly though he cut her off.
"And I would have penalized you for not honestly answering my question before trying to go ahead with that one of your own."
Max knew that her answer that had been in total jest had set her up for hearing this quip from him and she couldn't deny the allegation. She worked fast, though, to defend herself. "I was only trying to keep this fun." She began, "I do believe it was you who said that was the goal of us playing. While I'm intrigued to know about what this penalty might have been, I'm not going to ask that since it might further diminish my non-existent quota. Perhaps you'll tell me about it of your own accord, sir." Her tone switched to one of childlike playfulness with her last sentence.
Logan had only an amused chuckle for hearing her counter him in this most smart and captivating way that she had done. He wasn't about to just give in to it though. "So there's still a question for you to answer." He delivered this near ultimatum in such a nonthreatening way that it was Max this time who reflexively got the twinkle in her eye. He had dodged her artfully and won this round. She knew it was time to give him what he wanted.
"I went north first and ended up in Billings, Montana. Thought it was as good a place as any to try and learn about the world and grow up in. Nothing like what I had left behind and remote enough that they didn't seem to be able to find me."
They had already begun moving along again. The park in the not too distant next two blocks ahead. And the playing field once again level.