Logan Huntzberger had the perfect life until his fiancée walked out on him. When she suddenly reenters his life again, Logan and his best friend, Rory, come up with a brilliant plan. But, when the plan works better than they ever could imagine, it could mean more than they all bargained for.
OoOoOoOoO
The model sat completed on an end table in the living room. It had been more than a month since they'd finished it, and although it really belonged in Brian's room, Logan liked to sit and look at it and imagine life lost on its endless trails, under the canopy of trees, so he had lobbied extensively for its place on the little table next to the chair.
He looked at it as he prepared for another Monday night spent counting touchdowns and yelling at the television.
"You got the popcorn?" he called to Brian in the kitchen.
"Got it."
"Hey, bring the pretzels too."
"Catch," Brian said, tossing the yellow and blue bag across the room.
Logan caught it at his head. "I think you missed your calling."
"What's that?" Brian asked, sitting down on the couch and spreading the snacks on the table.
"Quarterback for the Broncos," Logan said, tearing into the bag, "Anybody'd be better than this guy."
Although their past record didn't warrant it, the Broncos had landed two spots on Monday Night Football, a feat that neither Logan nor Brian could account for. The game and yelling began, and in the blink of an eye it was halftime, and they hit the mute button on the commentators. Their commentary was always must more interesting.
"I've got some news," Brian said, sitting back and laying an arm over the couch back.
"Oh, yeah? What's that?"
"I met someone."
The pretzel dropped out of Logan's hand and back into the bowl. "Oh?"
"Yeah," Brian said as the smile of being newly in love spread across his face. "I met her at Club 12 last week. She's a real knockout."
"You met her Saturday?"
"No, last Saturday," Brian said, emphasizing the point with his beer. "This Saturday she showed up again in this dress that was so short..."
"I get it. I get it," Logan said, trying to make himself be happy for his friend.
"Yeah, well, this week we went back to her apartment after the place closed down. Man, she is so hot."
Logan's gut absorbed the news. "So, you're going to see her again then?"
"Yeah. We're supposed to go out Friday." Brian sat in thoughtful silence for a moment, "Where would you take somebody if you really wanted to impress them?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, I'm still pretty new around here, remember?"
New didn't mean a whole lot, Logan thought, he was old around here and had only been to Club 12 once – with Mandy. He shook that thought away as he reached back into the pretzel bowl. "You have a date?"
"Yeah," Brian said as his face scrunched in thought, "but we never really said where – we were kinda busy."
Slowly Logan shook his head and then nodded. "Passport."
"Passport?" Brian asked, puzzled.
"It's…" Logan cleared his throat as the pretzel started down the wrong pipe. "It's this little place out by Cheshire Bridge. Dark corners, real romantic, that kind of thing."
"Oh," Brian said with a nod, "Sounds perfect."
"You'll need reservations," Logan replied.
OoOoOoOoOo
"You told him to take her to Passport?" Rory asked in disbelief as they sat in the atrium the next afternoon.
"I know, I know. But he caught me off-guard," Logan said, laying his head in his hands. "Now I'm going to have to hear about how wonderful their date was at Passport. Of all places. Ahh!" In one motion he sat back, throwing his head back as he went. "How stupid could I be? Of all the places… sure, take her to Passport."
"It'll get easier," Rory said as she shook her head and laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
"When?" he said angrily. "You keep telling me that, and it's still not happening. Is it me? Or is that just something people tell you until the next time your heart gets stomped on, and then you get to start all over again? This is why I should never do relationships, ever."
"Not all girls are heart stompers."
"Oh, yeah? Well, all the ones I've ever met are."
"Well maybe you just haven't met the right one yet."
"Yet. You make it sound like there's going to be a next time."
Rory took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as her hand slid from his shoulder. Ever-so-gingerly she stepped to the edge of reason. "Look, I know you don't want to hear this, but it might help if you get out and start dating again."
"Dating?" he asked as though the word was akin to hell. "No way."
"You don't think you'd be happier if you found someone…"
"No. I don't." He stood and smoothed his tie and slacks. "Dating is for pitiful idiots who still believe there's one right person out there. Well, you know what? I found her, and then she left, so basically, even if I believed all that crap, what's the point now?"
Her heart sunk as she watched him walk to the door where he stopped and turned back to her. "You coming?"
Fighting not to let the feelings running through her make their way to her face, she stood and walked over to the door, willing him to just keep looking a little bit longer.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"So how do I look?" Brian asked, jumping down the bottom step and holding his hands out at his sides.
Logan barely looked up, "She'll be putty in your hands."
Brian smiled. "That's what I like to hear." He grabbed his coat off the chair back and checked his hair one more time in the mirror by the door. "Don't wait up."
"Don't worry," Logan said with an annoyed laugh. "Now get out of here before I strangle you."
Brian flashed him one more smile and then made a quick exit. Once he was gone, Logan exhaled in frustration.
"Ah, great, a whole night with the television." He flopped down onto the couch and grabbed the remote. "How is it that I always end up here?" As he was beginning his third trip through the channels, the phone rang. With the remote still flipping channels in one hand, he picked up the phone with the other. "Hello."
"Hello, you."
The smile spread across his face unbidden. "Rory."
"I just thought you might be looking for some company other than your television set."
"You know me to well."
"Yeah, well, that's one of the hazards of the job." Her side of the line went silent.
"And why is it you're calling?"
"Well, I was just thinking that since we've already shared breakfast and lunch together today, I just wondered if you wanted to make it three-for-three."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Chinese? I could pick it and be over in half-an-hour."
"You're a lifesaver."
"So I've been told. Spicy chicken, right?"
"You know me too well."
OoOoOoOoO
When the doorbell rang, he pulled himself off the couch and strode to the door, opening it without bothering to check the peephole.
"Okay, I'm thinking I don't like that roommate of yours at all," Rory said, striding into the apartment without even being asked.
Logan stood with his hand on the doorknob watching her for a moment. "Why's that?"
"What's it been like two months since I've invited myself over?"
"Something like that," he said, sitting down at the table and putting his chin on his hand as he watched her.
"I got you spicy chicken and spicy beef. You look like you need a little variety in your life." She set the steaming box in front of him and pulled out two sets of chopsticks. "You still know how to use these, right?"
He nodded as a smile involuntarily spread across his face. She was without a doubt the best friend he'd ever had.
OoOoOoOo
"Who was here last night?" Brian asked Saturday morning as he put away the clean dishes in the cabinet.
"What makes you think somebody was here?" Logan asked innocently.
Brian walked over to the trashcan and pulled out two empty Chinese food boxes. "Two."
"You notice way too many things," Logan said in annoyance. "You're not working today. What's up with that?"
The look on his face said that Brian noticed the change of subject, but he went along with it anyway as he put the boxes back. "November, all the grass is planted, flowers don't grow outside, so there's not much to do."
"Ah," Logan said with a nod. "Seasonal work."
"If he was smart, he'd contract with some hotels too. Maintain their inside terraniums and stuff, that way in the winter, he'd still have work."
"That's what you'd do?" Logan asked, knowing the businessan in Brian was always looking for the angle.
"It's the only smart thing to do. Otherwise, you've got to lay-off half your staff over the winter and then try to get them back in the summer. Either that or retrain everybody every year, which makes no sense whatsoever."
"So, what are you going to call this incredible business of yours?"
"Easton West Landscaping." Brian stopped drying and grinned at Logan. "That's a joke."
"Oh, yeah, I knew that," Logan said, still trying to figure out where the joke was.
"I don't know. Easton landscape?"
"Too boring."
"Landscaping by Easton?"
Logan's look said that was worse. "How about Easton Design and Landscaping, We design and plant your dreams."
"Hey, I like that. You should do this stuff for a living."
"Yeah, I came up with one catchy tag, send me to Madison Avenue. I'm sure I could find some floors there to sweep."
"You could do worse."
"Oh, yeah? How's that?"
"You could come to work for me."
"Now there's an idea. Easton and Huntzberger Landscaping."
"No, I said work for me. I own the business, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot."
The kitchen was successfully cleaned, and with a snap of the light, they headed for the living room.
"So, you going out tonight?" Brian asked as he sat on the couch and pulled a tool magazine from the rack.
"No. You?"
"Yeah, me and Mandy are going to 12 again." Brian turned one page, then another. "I could really use one of these power edgers."
"Oh, yeah?" Logan asked, not hearing a word as his breathing hitched. Mandy? There were probably hundreds of Mandys in Hartford. Hundreds.
"I'm going to have to start building up my tool supply if I hope to get extra work during the spring."
"Extra work?" Logan asked, hearing just enough of Brian's side of the conversation to throw something back at him. In a panic, he pulled a magazine out of the rack and started flipping through it.
"I figured I could get a job or two on the side. Get my name out there, you know. Got to start somewhere."
Logan's hands continued paging although he didn't see a single thing.
"How about you?" Brian asked. "You got something on your wish list for Christmas?"
"Tools?" Logan asked, looking up with unseeing eyes as he fought to regain his footing on solid ground. "No, I don't get into tools much."
Brian's face furrowed in confusion. "Then why are you looking through my magazine?"
Logan looked down, and for all the pleading with his brain, he couldn't focus on the object a foot from his face. In one motion he stuffed the magazine back into the track and stood. "I'm really tired."
"It's 10:30 in the morning," Brian said, puzzled.
"I had a long night," Logan said and then immediately regretted it when he saw the look on Brian's face. "Got to go."
He took the stairs two at a time and once in his room, he had batting practice with her name – Mandy. Mandy. Mandy. There was something about that name that sent his heart racing. It wasn't her, but still. She was a part of him. An integral part, and from his vantage point out his sixth story window, she always would be.
OoOoOoO
"Okay, calm down," Rory said Monday morning when he'd dragged himself bedraggled and sleep-deprived into her cubicle. "How many Mandys could there possibly be in Hartford?"
"Only one that I know of," Logan said miserably. "What am I going to do?"
"Okay, first of all you're not going to panic," she said logically. "The chances that his Mandy is your Mandy is like one in ten million."
"Oh, yeah? Where did you come up with that number?"
She scrunched up her nose. "I pulled it out of thin air. But listen to me. You've got to get yourself together. I mean, Brian's going to take one look at you and find himself a different apartment."
"Yeah, hers."
"Logan. Come on. Listen to yourself. Did you ask if it's her?"
"What am I supposed to say, 'I think you're dating my ex-fiancée?'"
"That would be a start," she said completely at a loss as how to fix this.
For a brief second his face lifted and then fell again. "Nope. Can't do it."
"Well then, your only other option is to wait and find out."
OoOoOoO
It only took until the next Friday night to confirm the nightmare he had suddenly wandered into. He'd been in his room only a few minutes when he heard them come in downstairs. The door slammed and his nerves scattered. Slowly the book in his hands slid to the bed as his feet slipped to the floor.
Noiselessly he tiptoed to the door and laid his ear against it. Voices but nothing definite. Slowly, slowly, he turned the knob and eased the door open. He could hear them clearly then.
"The apartment's great," she was saying in that tone that always made him feel like the most important guy in the whole world.
Unconsciously he laid his head against the door and drifted off into a daydream with not Brian but him downstairs with her.
"You want something to drink?" Brian asked from the other side of the room.
"What you got?" she asked, and her voice moved across the room to the kitchen.
For a moment the voices faded into the kitchen and then in a heart-beat they were back.
"This is so much better than that noisy ol' club," she said.
In his mind, Logan could see her as she sat on the yellow couch and twisted her legs under her, and his heart turned over.
"Yeah," Brian said as his voice faded out. "Much better."
Logan's heart constricted as he forced himself to close the door, quietly fitting it back into its frame. He stood there, hand on the doorknob fighting for every breath. It was obvious she had moved on. He stood there, knowing there was not one thing he could do to alter the state he now found himself in.
He was trapped. When he turned and leaned on the door, his gaze immediately fell on the phone. In a flash he had it in his hand, and in less than a second the other end was ringing.
"Hello?" her voice came.
"It's her," he said in utter despair.
"Logan?"
"They're downstairs."
"Right now?"
"On my couch. They are making out on my couch!"
"Oh, boy."
"My ex-fiancee is making out with my roommate on my couch and all you have to say is 'oh boy!'"
"Crap?"
"Yeah, that's better. Oh, my God. What am I going to do?"
"Are you sure it's her?"
"Rory."
"Right, of course you're sure. Okay. Okay. Let me think. Where are you right now?"
"My room."
"Do they know you're home?"
"Well, I didn't exactly go skipping down the stairs to greet them. No, I don't think so."
Her side was silent for a moment. "The fire escape's on your window isn't it?"
He looked at the window in trepidation. "Yeah, but it's only for emergencies."
"Hello!"
The plan was looking better and better all the time. Seriously, running from a girl. Logan had never, ever, pictured himself shimmying down the fire escape to get away from a girl. "But where am I supposed to go? It's 12:30 for God's sake."
Without more than a second's pause, her voice softened. "You could come over here."
That stopped him. In all the time he had known her, he had never been to her place – not even once. "Your place? Are you sure?"
"You're in trouble," she said matter-of-factly. "When a friend's in trouble, you do whatever you can to help them out."
"Even this?"
She didn't say anything for a long moment. "I think I'll live." Quickly she gave him the directions.
He smiled, momentarily forgetting the disaster downstairs as he wrote them down. "I'll be there in ten minutes."
Read? Review please.