2nd Anniversary
Part 3
Late Saturday night Max lay beside Logan listening to his
soft even breathing as he slept. She watched his face on
the pillow beside her, a small smile played across his lips
as he dreamed. She wondered what he was dreaming about and
her mind wandered back over the day they'd just had.
She'd woken in the early hours, amazed that she'd actually
fallen asleep; she was curled in Logan's arms, her head
cushioned on his chest. She remembered once telling Kendra
about the weird cuddle thing guys always seemed to do, she
figured maybe it wasn't so weird after all, it just
depended on who you were doing the cuddling with.
She lay contentedly for a while and then eased herself from
his arms. She stood, moved to the window and pulled aside
the curtains; the sky was only just beginning to lighten.
Letting the curtains drop back into place she turned and
picking up her clothes headed for the washroom, quietly
closing the door behind her.
After she'd washed and dressed she dug through the medicine
cabinet, looking for the spare toothbrush she'd bought a
while back. She wasn't sure if Logan was the type who
minded sharing a toothbrush or not, which reminded her that
there were probably a lot of things neither of them knew
about each other's personal habits. Like how often did he
actually shave, she'd only seen him clean-shaven a few
times over the past two years.
Max made her way to the kitchen and started boiling a
couple of pots of water so she could wash the dishes.
While she waited for the water to boil, she cleaned up the
living room. As she was moving the table back to its place
by the wall, she stumbled across Logan's shirt.
She held it up and realized there were only a few buttons
left on it, and one of those was hanging by a thread. She
looked around to see if she could locate any more and only
found two. She could sew them on but her sewing things
were in the bedroom. 'Anyway,' she thought, 'I don't want
Logan thinking I'm getting all domestic or anything.'
She'd only learned to sew because it was cheaper to repair
her clothes than to buy new ones.
By the time she heard Logan begin to stir in the bedroom,
she'd washed the dishes, tidied up the living room; half
filled the tub with hot water and spent over an hour
flipping through some of Original Cindy's magazines. She
was bored out of her mind, not used to such forced
inactivity. Even when Cindy was asleep she usually could
find something to occupy her time, go for a ride on her
motorcycle, take a walk, or even read quietly in her room.
But she hadn't wanted Logan to wake up and find her gone.
She put the magazine down and went to the kitchen and took
the two pots of hot water still on the stove, one at a
time, and emptied them in the bathtub. She stuck her hand
in the water to check the temperature. It wasn't exactly
hot but warm enough for Logan to bathe comfortably.
'Better than ice cold.' She thought, which was all that
came from the taps.
She returned the empty pot to the kitchen and turned when
she heard the bedroom door open. Logan stood by the door
holding onto the jam dressed only in his boxers. She
quickly moved to his side, put her arms around him and
kissed him good morning.
She helped him into the bathroom and left him there when he
insisted he could handle things on his own, his ego was
obviously a little more bruised than she'd thought. She
had put one of her kitchen chairs by the sink so he
wouldn't have to stand when he brushed his teeth and draped
a bath towel over the back of it, within easy reach of the
tub. She left the door ajar just in case he called for her
help.
Max moved into her room, changed the sheets on the bed, and
picked up the clothes that still littered the floor. While
cleaning up she thought again about sewing the buttons back
on Logan's shirt, but decided against it. Instead she
rummaged in one of the drawers of her dresser coming up
with a man's t-shirt. It was well faded and was one her ex
Darren had left behind when she'd kicked his ass out, but
she figured if Logan asked she could say it was from one of
Kendra's old boyfriends. Guys could be such baby's about
old boyfriends. She remembered Logan's reaction to Eric
and he'd been nothing, except in his own mind. Placing the
shirt on top of Logan's pants She went back to the kitchen
and began making coffee.
After Logan had bathed he sat on the chair Max had provided
dried himself off and brushed his teeth. Rubbing his hand
across his jaw he realized his beard was getting a little
long. He reached up, opened the medicine cabinet and found
what he was looking for; a pack of disposable razors and a
can of men's shave gel. That caused him a moment's pause
but he quickly figured Max used it to shave her legs. You
took what you could find with the economy the way it was.
He wet his face, lathered up and started shaving. When he
was done he stood to check his face in the mirror. Holding
onto the edge of the sink with one hand he made short work
of the few patches he'd missed.
Logan sat back down and gathered his strength for a few
moments, then rose and slowly made his way back to the
bedroom, using the sink, chair, walls and doorways to help
him along. Logan regretted having been so short with Max
earlier, but he still hated having to rely on anyone to
carry out his regular daily routine.
He dropped onto the bed, and noticed Max had straightened
everything up, even changed the sheets on the bed. The
smell of coffee wafting in from the kitchen spurred him on
and he quickly got dressed. He found she'd placed a faded
t-shirt on top of his pants, he didn't bother to worry
where it had come from, he just pulled it over his head.
Max heard Logan make his way back to the bedroom. He
hadn't called her so she continued searching the cupboards.
She didn't have much in the way of breakfast food. They
were out of cereal and there wasn't any milk anyway. There
was about half a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter,
so they could have toast, or she could reheat the leftover
chilli, but it wasn't what could be called normal breakfast
fare.
While she was trying to decide she heard the faint whine of
the servomotors in Logan's exoskeleton. He wrapped his
arms around her from behind, pulled her back against his
chest and dropped a kiss on the side of her neck. The feel
of Logan's lips and soft cheek caused an involuntary shiver
down her spine. 'Soft cheek.' She whirled around at the
thought and stared up into his face.
He grinned at her reaction, when she didn't say anything
for a few moments; he lifted a hand to his jaw.
"What? Did I miss a spot?"
"Nope, you just look different without the beard." Max
answered.
"Good different or bad different?"
"Hmm!" She lifted her hand and rubbed it across his cheek
then kissed him. "Just different." She said when they
finally broke apart.
"What were you looking for?" Logan nodded at the open
cupboard behind Max, trying to distract himself from her
lips.
"Something for breakfast." She turned back to the
cupboard, trying to distract herself from Logan's lips.
"You've got a choice, toast or toast and peanut butter."
She turned around and smiled at him, "I guess I should have
checked the grocery situation before I went to buy the
stuff for the chilli yesterday."
Logan smiled back, "I'll make you a deal, we can go to the
market and on our way I'll buy you breakfast." When Max
hesitated he added, "Come on, I'm not so poor I can't
afford an occasional breakfast for two, you know."
"Okay, but I'm paying for the groceries."
They stayed long enough to each have a cup of coffee. When
they got downstairs Logan suggested they take his car.
"Let's walk instead, it's only a couple of blocks and
there's a little restaurant on the way where they make
great pancakes." She countered.
"Sounds good." He took her hand and they started off.
Logan sat and watched Max polish off her second helping of
a double stack of pancakes and syrup. He'd finished a
double stack himself and felt stuffed. When she was
finished Max caught him staring at her.
"What?" She asked.
"How can you eat that much?" He replied.
She shrugged her shoulders, "I have a high metabolic rate."
Then grinned impishly, "And besides, I've gotten a lot of
exercise recently."
Logan grinned back and amazingly blushed slightly, Max
decided, wisely, not to comment.
After Logan had paid for their breakfast they headed to the
market. He found himself amazed at the number of stalls
selling fresh vegetables. Max pointed out some of the
vacant lots; the locals had turned into gardens. They were
able to provide fresh produce for their families and sell
any excess they had.
Max it seemed knew just about everyone who had a stall in
the market, and she turned out to be pretty shrewd at
bargaining too. At one point trading a couple of hour's
mechanical work on someone's truck for a fresh chicken.
And then finagled Logan into agreeing to cook it for
dinner.
"Just so it isn't Chicken tartar this time, okay." She
teased him. Logan laughed, putting his arm around Max's
shoulder.
They wandered all over Max's neighbourhood and she pointed
out things he'd never noticed before. Some of the gardens
had chicken coops and one had a goat penned up at one end.
One vacant lot held a jungle gym, swarming with kids; some
enterprising individuals had built out of scrap.
He saw small home workshops, where every family member
worked together, for their own benefit. The ingenuity of
people trying to make a living intrigued him. It reminded
him of old documentaries he'd seen, of third world
countries in the 20th century.
They returned to Max's apartment in early afternoon. Max
made them sandwiches for lunch and they spent the rest of
the afternoon, talking. Logan told her stories of his
childhood, and his life in collage. She talked of the good
parts of her childhood, the secret times in the barracks at
night, when she and her siblings could just be kids. She
also told him of father, and how Joshua had decided to stay
with him. Logan promised to take her to visit some weekend
soon. "Besides, I've really got to meet this guy and thank
him." He told her.
They'd laughed and talked, through dinner and on into the
evening and finally went to bed and made love.
Lying next to Logan, Max realized that this had probably
been the best day in her life so far, she didn't want to
fall asleep tonight, she just wanted to relive it over and
over in her mind.
End
For Now
Part 3
Late Saturday night Max lay beside Logan listening to his
soft even breathing as he slept. She watched his face on
the pillow beside her, a small smile played across his lips
as he dreamed. She wondered what he was dreaming about and
her mind wandered back over the day they'd just had.
She'd woken in the early hours, amazed that she'd actually
fallen asleep; she was curled in Logan's arms, her head
cushioned on his chest. She remembered once telling Kendra
about the weird cuddle thing guys always seemed to do, she
figured maybe it wasn't so weird after all, it just
depended on who you were doing the cuddling with.
She lay contentedly for a while and then eased herself from
his arms. She stood, moved to the window and pulled aside
the curtains; the sky was only just beginning to lighten.
Letting the curtains drop back into place she turned and
picking up her clothes headed for the washroom, quietly
closing the door behind her.
After she'd washed and dressed she dug through the medicine
cabinet, looking for the spare toothbrush she'd bought a
while back. She wasn't sure if Logan was the type who
minded sharing a toothbrush or not, which reminded her that
there were probably a lot of things neither of them knew
about each other's personal habits. Like how often did he
actually shave, she'd only seen him clean-shaven a few
times over the past two years.
Max made her way to the kitchen and started boiling a
couple of pots of water so she could wash the dishes.
While she waited for the water to boil, she cleaned up the
living room. As she was moving the table back to its place
by the wall, she stumbled across Logan's shirt.
She held it up and realized there were only a few buttons
left on it, and one of those was hanging by a thread. She
looked around to see if she could locate any more and only
found two. She could sew them on but her sewing things
were in the bedroom. 'Anyway,' she thought, 'I don't want
Logan thinking I'm getting all domestic or anything.'
She'd only learned to sew because it was cheaper to repair
her clothes than to buy new ones.
By the time she heard Logan begin to stir in the bedroom,
she'd washed the dishes, tidied up the living room; half
filled the tub with hot water and spent over an hour
flipping through some of Original Cindy's magazines. She
was bored out of her mind, not used to such forced
inactivity. Even when Cindy was asleep she usually could
find something to occupy her time, go for a ride on her
motorcycle, take a walk, or even read quietly in her room.
But she hadn't wanted Logan to wake up and find her gone.
She put the magazine down and went to the kitchen and took
the two pots of hot water still on the stove, one at a
time, and emptied them in the bathtub. She stuck her hand
in the water to check the temperature. It wasn't exactly
hot but warm enough for Logan to bathe comfortably.
'Better than ice cold.' She thought, which was all that
came from the taps.
She returned the empty pot to the kitchen and turned when
she heard the bedroom door open. Logan stood by the door
holding onto the jam dressed only in his boxers. She
quickly moved to his side, put her arms around him and
kissed him good morning.
She helped him into the bathroom and left him there when he
insisted he could handle things on his own, his ego was
obviously a little more bruised than she'd thought. She
had put one of her kitchen chairs by the sink so he
wouldn't have to stand when he brushed his teeth and draped
a bath towel over the back of it, within easy reach of the
tub. She left the door ajar just in case he called for her
help.
Max moved into her room, changed the sheets on the bed, and
picked up the clothes that still littered the floor. While
cleaning up she thought again about sewing the buttons back
on Logan's shirt, but decided against it. Instead she
rummaged in one of the drawers of her dresser coming up
with a man's t-shirt. It was well faded and was one her ex
Darren had left behind when she'd kicked his ass out, but
she figured if Logan asked she could say it was from one of
Kendra's old boyfriends. Guys could be such baby's about
old boyfriends. She remembered Logan's reaction to Eric
and he'd been nothing, except in his own mind. Placing the
shirt on top of Logan's pants She went back to the kitchen
and began making coffee.
After Logan had bathed he sat on the chair Max had provided
dried himself off and brushed his teeth. Rubbing his hand
across his jaw he realized his beard was getting a little
long. He reached up, opened the medicine cabinet and found
what he was looking for; a pack of disposable razors and a
can of men's shave gel. That caused him a moment's pause
but he quickly figured Max used it to shave her legs. You
took what you could find with the economy the way it was.
He wet his face, lathered up and started shaving. When he
was done he stood to check his face in the mirror. Holding
onto the edge of the sink with one hand he made short work
of the few patches he'd missed.
Logan sat back down and gathered his strength for a few
moments, then rose and slowly made his way back to the
bedroom, using the sink, chair, walls and doorways to help
him along. Logan regretted having been so short with Max
earlier, but he still hated having to rely on anyone to
carry out his regular daily routine.
He dropped onto the bed, and noticed Max had straightened
everything up, even changed the sheets on the bed. The
smell of coffee wafting in from the kitchen spurred him on
and he quickly got dressed. He found she'd placed a faded
t-shirt on top of his pants, he didn't bother to worry
where it had come from, he just pulled it over his head.
Max heard Logan make his way back to the bedroom. He
hadn't called her so she continued searching the cupboards.
She didn't have much in the way of breakfast food. They
were out of cereal and there wasn't any milk anyway. There
was about half a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter,
so they could have toast, or she could reheat the leftover
chilli, but it wasn't what could be called normal breakfast
fare.
While she was trying to decide she heard the faint whine of
the servomotors in Logan's exoskeleton. He wrapped his
arms around her from behind, pulled her back against his
chest and dropped a kiss on the side of her neck. The feel
of Logan's lips and soft cheek caused an involuntary shiver
down her spine. 'Soft cheek.' She whirled around at the
thought and stared up into his face.
He grinned at her reaction, when she didn't say anything
for a few moments; he lifted a hand to his jaw.
"What? Did I miss a spot?"
"Nope, you just look different without the beard." Max
answered.
"Good different or bad different?"
"Hmm!" She lifted her hand and rubbed it across his cheek
then kissed him. "Just different." She said when they
finally broke apart.
"What were you looking for?" Logan nodded at the open
cupboard behind Max, trying to distract himself from her
lips.
"Something for breakfast." She turned back to the
cupboard, trying to distract herself from Logan's lips.
"You've got a choice, toast or toast and peanut butter."
She turned around and smiled at him, "I guess I should have
checked the grocery situation before I went to buy the
stuff for the chilli yesterday."
Logan smiled back, "I'll make you a deal, we can go to the
market and on our way I'll buy you breakfast." When Max
hesitated he added, "Come on, I'm not so poor I can't
afford an occasional breakfast for two, you know."
"Okay, but I'm paying for the groceries."
They stayed long enough to each have a cup of coffee. When
they got downstairs Logan suggested they take his car.
"Let's walk instead, it's only a couple of blocks and
there's a little restaurant on the way where they make
great pancakes." She countered.
"Sounds good." He took her hand and they started off.
Logan sat and watched Max polish off her second helping of
a double stack of pancakes and syrup. He'd finished a
double stack himself and felt stuffed. When she was
finished Max caught him staring at her.
"What?" She asked.
"How can you eat that much?" He replied.
She shrugged her shoulders, "I have a high metabolic rate."
Then grinned impishly, "And besides, I've gotten a lot of
exercise recently."
Logan grinned back and amazingly blushed slightly, Max
decided, wisely, not to comment.
After Logan had paid for their breakfast they headed to the
market. He found himself amazed at the number of stalls
selling fresh vegetables. Max pointed out some of the
vacant lots; the locals had turned into gardens. They were
able to provide fresh produce for their families and sell
any excess they had.
Max it seemed knew just about everyone who had a stall in
the market, and she turned out to be pretty shrewd at
bargaining too. At one point trading a couple of hour's
mechanical work on someone's truck for a fresh chicken.
And then finagled Logan into agreeing to cook it for
dinner.
"Just so it isn't Chicken tartar this time, okay." She
teased him. Logan laughed, putting his arm around Max's
shoulder.
They wandered all over Max's neighbourhood and she pointed
out things he'd never noticed before. Some of the gardens
had chicken coops and one had a goat penned up at one end.
One vacant lot held a jungle gym, swarming with kids; some
enterprising individuals had built out of scrap.
He saw small home workshops, where every family member
worked together, for their own benefit. The ingenuity of
people trying to make a living intrigued him. It reminded
him of old documentaries he'd seen, of third world
countries in the 20th century.
They returned to Max's apartment in early afternoon. Max
made them sandwiches for lunch and they spent the rest of
the afternoon, talking. Logan told her stories of his
childhood, and his life in collage. She talked of the good
parts of her childhood, the secret times in the barracks at
night, when she and her siblings could just be kids. She
also told him of father, and how Joshua had decided to stay
with him. Logan promised to take her to visit some weekend
soon. "Besides, I've really got to meet this guy and thank
him." He told her.
They'd laughed and talked, through dinner and on into the
evening and finally went to bed and made love.
Lying next to Logan, Max realized that this had probably
been the best day in her life so far, she didn't want to
fall asleep tonight, she just wanted to relive it over and
over in her mind.
End
For Now