AN: Today's chapter is essentially just a treat for all of you who appreciate the male physique - who wouldn't love some half-naked Logan and Finn in their Monday morning? Not a lot happens really :D. So you may consider this as a filler of sorts.
Chapter 39
November 4th, 2021
After a meeting with one of his contacts at an Italian bistro just off Madison avenue, Logan made his way to Park Avenue South, with a slight bounce in his step. The meeting had gone well, and before another meeting tomorrow that he'd set up at a co-working space for interviewing a few New York based developers, he could finally relax, and shed the business suit he'd forced himself to wear for the day. That was the negative side of asking people for money. He could still play that game, which was a relief, though he was more reluctant than ever to do it. But as said - taking money from Honor was his last option, wanting his new company to stay clear of the Huntzberger money, excluding his own.
He almost wished he had another last name he could do this with, but he knew that even getting this type of meetings with the Angel investors he'd met with would've been much harder without the name he had. The Huntzberger name still came with privileges whether or not he'd liked it.
He almost felt like his old self for a minute, as he stepped through the doors of Finn's apartment building and announced his arrival to the concierge. The name, the suit and the context did that, despite potentially being one step closer to his new business taking off. He wondered how far he had really come, and how simple it was to really slip back into that world completely.
The elevator soon took him up to the 14th floor, which opened straight into Finn's living room. The place was a grand - 24 ft floor to ceiling windows that glanced out over the city's skyscrapers. The polished concrete floors were accented by dark wood panelling - well in hidden closets and shelves placed inside those panels along the room. There was a low Togo sofa in mustard yellow in the middle of the room together with an Eames elliptical coffee table, in the otherwise minimalistic room. Logan had always been the kind to believe it were the things in the home that made it a home, if it lacked of people - things that spoke of memories and told stories. But he'd left most of his stories in London too, aiming to make new ones.
"Finn, you here?!" Logan asked, but knew he should be, as the concierge had been instructed to let him in.
It was then he noted the two cocktail glasses on the coffee table. He should've guessed.
"In a minute," Finn called out from the direction of what seemed to be his bedroom, as Logan put down his weekend bag and coat on a console table by the entrance. He would've just made himself comfortable, he knew Finn would never mind, but he hadn't been to this particular apartment before.
Finn emerged a few seconds later, wearing his robe, and accompanying a gorgeous curvy redhead, very similar in her looks to Ashley Graham besides the hair, dressed in a business dress, towards the elevator and kissed her casually in goodbye after the woman had grabbed her coat.
Logan wasn't really surprised - this was Finn after all. Though considering what Rory had told him, he was even a little surprised Rory had considered Finn as an option. There was no secret Finn was a player through and through. Logan wondered how desperate she'd been to try knocking on that door. It wasn't about ridiculing Rory in any way, rather he felt compassion in that case. The last thing he wanted her to experience was the loneliness. He'd had enough of that. He also wondered whether it would have made him take the final step out of his former life sooner, had he known how lonely she'd been. It pained him.
Why the hell hadn't he dared to ask Finn about her?
"Hey, man," Finn greeted Logan with a half hug, as the elevator door closed, to which he responded with a similar greeting.
"So you got your money?" Finn inquired, inviting Logan along as he headed for the kitchen, and continued to pour himself a scotch.
"Not sure yet, but he seemed open to the idea," Logan replied, having filled Finn in generally why he was in town. He continued to explain the meeting and the investor's background to Finn a little.
Finn didn't bother offering his money. It was not his thing, and Logan knew it. Besides, they were smarter than that to mix friendships and money. But Logan's changed financial status was certainly not something that was going to get in the way of their long-lived friendship, even if it had been cooler at times.
"You want a drink?" Finn offered.
"I'm good, maybe water or something?" Logan replied.
"Help yourself," Finn urged and made sure he knew he could feel at home in his penthouse.
Logan took a bottle of water and gulped half of it down in one go. He then shed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, wanting to rid of the feeling this role had brought on.
After a quick tour of the place - Finn showing him the guestroom and the rooftop pool which was Finn's pride and joy - quite a rare thing to have in Manhattan, Finn asked "You seem quiet, everything okay?" with concern.
"I'm fine. Just today was weird - just wearing this… I don't like the way it makes me. You know, sort of money-hungry…," he tried to explain, gesturing at his formal attire. He was tired of that character he'd had to wear for the day, to be honest. He hoped that the following day, when he would conduct the interviews he could be the way he felt more like himself. The himself that he was these days. A large part of becoming independent from the HPG was about figuring out what he would do about the former corporate image.
Finn couldn't say that he understood. He never thought about these things much - he wasn't the type of guy to contemplate his existence much. But he did understand that Logan had changed a lot. Whatever Logan was escaping from - well, Finn had some guesses - he wasn't certainly going to be the guy to force him back into that role, despite his initial plan to take him out clubbing at some of the more exclusive clubs that night.
"Well then you need to get out of that, and I know just the thing," Finn suggested, getting an idea. He was never one to be short of ideas.
Twenty minutes later the two were entering a Moroccoan bathhouse, Finn having already texted ahead for arrangements. It was not quite what Logan had expected, but it wasn't the first time - and it certainly beat going clubbing in his mind. The clubbing scene just brought back negative memories now, if he were to be honest.
It was a classy place, one of Finn's family holdings, decorated in luxurious blue and white mosaics. The hot and humid scent that filled their nostrils as they entered already created an inviting feeling compared to the November drizzle they'd escaped outside. It was also the kind of place that offered plenty of additional services - massages, spa and hammam treatments, out of which Finn was aiming for the latter. They'd been to this type of place before - though years ago, last time in fact when they'd been to Istanbul with the guys during one of their summer holidays from Yale, and he'd gone once himself in Morrocco during his latest travels.
"You'll walk out of here like a new man," Finn assured, but he didn't really need to convince him.
The two men undressed in the dressing room, switching their normal attire to just a light cloth that went around their hips, and light robes. The place had a certain exclusivity to it, hence it really wasn't very crowded.
As they emerged, two short, no-doubt attractive women, wearing spa uniforms, approached them to lead them to the procedures. The women were going to act as their washers or natirs for their visit. It wasn't the kind of place one might get a happy ending, but Hammam certainly had an intimacy to it. Logan hadn't felt that kind of a tinge of guilt forming in his gut at this prospect of one of the women scrubbing him clean in a very long while - and that was all on Rory.
As Logan hung up his robe, Finn couldn't hold back his comment.
"That's a lot of ink you've put on that skin," he noted. He'd seen Logan change out of his baseball outfit in Boston, and he was aware it was something he'd done. It was just a very different look compared to the pretty-boy he'd known in college.
"Well the skin isn't getting any younger, best hide it," Logan brushed him off, not wanting to elaborate much. His reasons had not been about vanity nor the trendiness of it.
Both of them were in very good shape for their age - they both worked out, though Logan's work out had been a lot less deliberate these past few months besides the frequent running. He'd just been physically very active, and for months he hadn't done so much as a pushup. He hadn't needed to - throughout his travels, hauling his backpack and all the walking he'd done had left him exhausted enough. But one didn't just lose the muscle he'd worked hard on at the private gym four days a week back in London. And that was on top of everything else he'd done to keep himself from losing his mind.
Finn had never been buff - but he had a surfer's body, being rather the kind of man who reshaped himself whenever he got on a surfboard, enjoying the waves until his arms were noodled. Besides - sex also counted as a workout.
The two took a steam, Finn going on about what he'd been up to, keeping up his usual banter though in a lowered voice that was expected in this particular steam room, while they soaped their mucles with the black soap. It didn't foam much, rather being a thick slippery mass. But they both knew the stuff was incredible even if one didn't pay much attention to cosmetics normally.
However, while Logan loved his friend dearly, he just wasn't connecting in the way he would've in the past. Finn's life revolved around events, travel and women, his business miraculously fitting somewhere between those things.
Logan wasn't that guy anymore. Truth be told - he still didn't know what defined him. He was to reinvent those things - he needed to find new hobbies, new relationships - not that he was planning on abandoning the old ones - just there was a need to connect with different types of people.
What did normal people do instead of partying and sports? Working on his business was a good escape for now, but it had the danger of taking over, if one's life wasn't balanced enough. He'd made that mistake before.
"Did you get a chance to talk to Rory properly?" Finn asked, jolting Logan out of his own thoughts after a while. Finn knew he'd moved to Hartford, but he didn't know the details of it.
"Yeah," he exhaled. Little droplets of sweat were already surfacing on Logan's skin, even through the black soap. "Quite a bit actually," he added, beginning to open up a little.
"That's a good thing, right?" Finn inquired, sounding genuinely curious.
"Yeah," Logan nodded, taking a deep breath and smiled. "She told me about your little misunderstanding too," Logan decided to add, barely holding in his chuckle.
Finn chortled out loud, a little inappropriately, getting a very clear idea that Logan wasn't even mad, but just found it curious.
"Rather you than Seth," Logan responded, continuing to laugh. It was rather Finn because he knew there wasn't anything between the two, which for a brief time he couldn't have said about Seth and Rory. But the laughter was freeing.
"So are you two an item again… or are you still not doing labels?" Finn continued, throwing some water at the heater causing a woosh of steam.
It took Logan a moment to respond, breathing through the heat, as the steam moistened his hair.
"Well what would you call two people in their late 30s anyways?" Logan replied, trying not to grin as widely as he felt like whenever he thought about Rory. "But yeah, definitely not casual. Not more of that crap," Logan added, and continued to talk a little more about how they were pretty serious. The apartment, the therapy and all.
"Good. I'm glad," Finn replied, with determination, not wanting there to be any shred of doubt that a misunderstanding was really all that it had been. "I know she missed you," he added, not needing to say that he knew the same about Logan. Rory had never mentioned Logan in person to Finn, but whenever Finn had ever mentioned anything about London or the circuits Logan and him both were involved in, she'd still winched a little, or showed non-deliberate attention towards. She probably hadn't even admitted it to herself. But Finn was surprisingly perceptive about things like that.
It was for that reason Finn had made sure to keep an eye on Rory, actually. He'd always hoped they'd somehow find their way back to each-other. And seeing neither of them being fully happy, as much as he'd been allowed to see, he'd done what he could to cheer either of them up. In Logan's case though that had been the case until last year or so - when Logan had become more distant than usual, more preoccupied, claiming that he wouldn't be fun to be around and turned down his suggestions to hang out when he'd traveled. Finn was glad Logan was back amongst the living again, speaking figuratively.
Soon the two women came to invite them to the procedure room. Neither of the women seemed to mind the prospect as they glanced over the two sweaty lean bodies. Realistically speaking, a little flirt never hurt their tips, especially with Finn.
"Careful with this one," Finn patted Logan's shoulder as they followed them. "Wouldn't want to make his girlfriend jealous," he added, seeing Logan's slight hesitancy, and continued to explain how he himself was open to anything, despite knowing that there was a limit to how far these girls would go. That didn't mean, however, that Finn couldn't flirt a little.
They were laid down on marble surfaces and rinsed over by large buckets of water, the two women being surprisingly strong in their movements. They were thoroughly scrubbed with clay, washed and scrubbed again with a kessa glove from head to toe (with some limitations) and then turning them around to repeat. There was something about being scrubbed in places one didn't really put that much emphasis on - the undersides of arms, the back and chest, not with this much vigour at least.
It truly was the best cleanse - rolls of dead skin being washed off their skins, leaving one almost feeling like one was truly bare, even leaving one with a feeling of a slight fever. The good kind.
Logan chose to just closed his eyes and to be somewhere else in his mind - not paying any attention to the woman in question. It was just a procedure just like any massage. His mind focused on Rory, missing her already, but secretly imagining it being her hands that washed him, while trying to not get too excited. It wasn't an easy task.
They were wrapped in towels after which they were dried with firm squeezes, almost like a massage, until they were left to cool off with beverages at a lounge area.
"Now tell me that wasn't good," Finn said, seeing Logan's well cleansed, slightly flushed face.
Logan certainly couldn't disagree. It did make one feel like brand new.
As they returned to the dressing room and slowly got dressed, Logan's phone rang.
After hearing what the caller had to say, the was left a little startled. He hadn't expected the call this soon, nor for it to be as positive, having kept his hopes low.
"I got the funding," Logan explained to Finn, a weak smile appearing on his lips.
It felt like a truly fresh beginning now. Not just the intermediate journey he'd been on to get to this point, but this was it. He had a real job again. Things were looking up and he couldn't wait to share the news with Rory.
AN: And yes, I know heavy scrubbing is not recommended with tattoos. But I just let it slide.
