Chapter 14

The stalemate of quiet went on for days. She didn't bring it up. I didn't bring it up. I don't know if she felt as haunted by that moment as I did. What I did- I was worse than Rudy. Not only did I do nearly the same thing as he did, but I did it knowing better. I knew how Louise hated big public displays. I knew how she felt about being kissed without permission. And what was worse, it looked like I did it all for a joke, not because I was completely head over heels in love with her.

I mean, I was, but she didn't know that. I was too chicken to come out and say so. Rudy at least had the balls to say something real. I played it off as a joke because I was scared. What the hell was wrong with me?

I had to do something but I wasn't sure how. Then, one morning, I decided to try to get BG to respond to Mr. W's invitation. I couldn't ask her out as myself since I was obviously chicken shit. But the anonymity of Mr. W's account gave me just enough courage.

Well, anonymity and tequila. After the karaoke crowd had cleared out, after Louise and I had sung our last songs without duets or double meanings, after several shots, 3 beers, and a whiskey sour, I felt ready. I started typing out a formal date invitation. Louise said something but I was deep in the cups and just exploded into words, without truly listening.

"Louise! I'm doing it!" I looked at her with a sloppy drunk smile on my face. She seemed happy to drop whatever it was she almost said.

"Doing what, Logan?" Her words slurred as much as mine. "Getting that pony you always dreamed of?" Oh this woman, so snide, so lovely.

"No!" I laughed. She was always so much fun. "I'm going to get her!"

She wasn't really laughing, just smiling, but suddenly her smile seemed forced and not honest anymore. "Her who?" She wouldn't look at me anymore, only at her shoes.

"The girl, Louise. My girl. My perfect dream girl." I barely stopped myself from saying, You, you beautiful, stubborn, oblivious weirdo. "After all this time I've spent wooing her and romanshing… romansering…" Words are hard.

"Romancing?" She wasn't as bleary-eyed drunk as me, apparently.

"YES! THAT!" I leaned forward and grabbed her shoulders to keep myself on my barstool. Maybe she didn't notice that and thought I was just emphatic. "She's the one Louise." You're the one, I thought silently. "I've known from the first time I saw her." Okay that was a lie, we met when she was 9. But our re-meeting when I brought her the contract, almost a year ago now, I knew then. "And tonight, I'm finally gonna ask her out." I righted myself on my stool and went back to formulating my text to BG.

And… send. I did it. I finally did it. Thank you, Jose Cuervo. I heard her phone beep the beep of a new text in the app. But would she put the pieces together?

Louise tried to be the voice of reason, as best friends do. "Logan, why don't you save that message? Wait until tomorrow morning. When you're sober." She reached for my phone, but I quickly held it up out of her reach. She glared at me.

I sighed, locked the screen so she wouldn't see, and acquiesced. We said our goodnights, Joe called me a cab, and Louise set me on the curb so she could go back inside and settle the tab. My cab came up before she came back out. I spent the night stressed out about her sending the invitation. Eventually the liquor let my brain shutoff and sleep, but it was not my best night's sleep.

She didn't respond the whole day Saturday, though I know she saw it. I spent my Saturday morning with the blinds closed, the lights dimmed, drinking glass after glass of water and eating dry toast. I drank more than I realised and my body most certainly fought me on it. But by the afternoon I was a basket case of nerves.

Sunday morning came, I went into work for about an hour to take care of some filing, and then by lunch I had to go into the restaurant and find out where her head was at. This was killing me. I texted her I was coming by and she gave me a thumbs up.

When I walked in, her phone sat open on the app, conversation selected, keyboard on, as if she was about to respond but set the phone down. She was not in sight, so I did something bold and likely dumb. I answered for her.

"LOGAN BARRY BUSH! DROP THAT CELL PHONE!" Too late. I typed in an acceptance to my lovely offer and pressed send. She had come out of the employee bathroom, turned the corner, and lost her shit. She snatched the phone from me.

"Hey, did you even wash your hands?" Louise was in no mood. She smacked the back of my head like my mom used to. When she looked at the phone and read my reply, her face went white.

"You're dead. I will kill you, grind you up, and serve you to my customers, Logan." Her nostrils flared with anger but I couldn't help myself so I smiled like a kid in an arcade who just won the Wheelie Mammoth, which Louise once told me she had, though I'm not sure I believed her.

"Hey- you need some excitement in your life and Mr. WonderWharf makes you smile. I was only doing what you would have done anyway!" I really hoped that part was true. "Now we both have dates tonight!" That part was also true.

She paused a moment while she figured out what I meant, just not all of what I meant. "Your soul mate said yes?"

"As of a little while ago, yes." A very little while ago. Like 30 seconds or so. "I'm meeting her tonight. Tonight, we are going on our first date!" Oh the double meanings of that!

She looked at her phone, sighed the sigh of a woman resigned to her fate, and shrugged. I scarfed down lunch and left with pep in my step. Before leaving, I had called Linda to tell her that Louise had a big date, and then I took Louise upstairs to where her mother was already waiting. As I passed Louise off to her mom and sister, she gave me a death glare. But I was counting on the next time she saw me, things would be clear and she wouldn't be mad anymore. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Once I got home, I showered, got dressed, changed my clothes four times, changed my shoes twice, cranked up some music so I could dance out some nerves, and then lost track of time. As the last song of what I knew was a long playlist ended, I looked at the clock and realised I was running late. With a mad dash for the door, I snatched one last piece to my outfit along with my keys and practically tripped down the stairs.

Friday night in a tourist town during summer meant there were eighty-five billion people out and about. Maybe I should have driven. I ended up running the last couple of blocks and then took a minute to catch my breath and slip those stupid pink ears on my head. They were a bit snug, as they were made for a little kid, but I didn't care. I didn't care about the people giving me looks like I was a looney toon. We were at Wonder Wharf. They were likely to see four or five weirder things before fifteen minutes passed. The only important person right now was waiting for me.

I saw her before she saw me. She had been conned into a skirt and soft pink sweater. Her hair was all twisted up and pinned. She wore subtle makeup and sandals. Linda must have strong-armed her into all of it. I smiled at how lovely she looked and walked up. Her face asked a million questions that her mouth couldn't express.

She did manage to sputter, "What are you doing here, Logan? I thought you had a date with your dream girl." How was she still not getting this?

"I'm here," My heart pounded in my chest, harder even than the night she sang Regina Spektor to me. "With her- with you." My mouth felt bone-dry but I had to get it all out. "Louise, I've been crazy about you since we were stupid kids. That fight we had here, when I said all those awful things to you… I never forgave myself. I tried to move on, I got married for Christ's sake! But I was never happy. And then I saw you, I saw you in New York, standing next to that statue of the little girl." Confusion and surprise crossed her face as memory hit her. Maybe… had she seen me too? "You were standing next to her, side by side, you against the world, and I knew then- my marriage was over." Her jaw dropped. I tucked it back up, same as I did that day when I met her nephew. "Yeah, I knew then if I was so happy just looking at you for a brief moment, happier than I had ever been in my relationship with Megan, then it was useless to try to make it work with her.

"But I figured you hated me. Then that night you got arrested showed me that maybe I was wrong. Maybe, if I could still inspire such a fire in you that you beat up public property because you were so angry, well… maybe there was hope. I started to think that maybe I stood a chance, if I planned and was careful.

"Then when you needed to renew the lease, I took my shot. I figured if I could become your friend, maybe I could get close enough to try to win you." I thought of all the time spent just enjoying being with her, of all the burgers, all the shots, all the songs. "It was so hard to just sit back and watch you date those losers. That's why I made your BurgerGal account. I made Mr. WonderWharf that same day." She blushed slightly.

"And then, you sang to me-" She blushed harder.

"That night, with Rudy…" she paused as if she didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, I was going to say something then, but I saw how well you reacted to a big public declaration. So, I went back to Plan A. To Mr. WonderWharf." She looked breathless. "And then you never answered my damn message!" I practically shouted that and she laughed. "So today, I made the choice for you. I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I want to be with you Louise Beatrice Belcher. I'm crazy about you- I think I'm even in love with you-"

"I love you too, Logan Barry Bush." She replied quickly, sounding as sure as anything I had ever heard her say. As if she was thinking and feeling it so hard that it just came out.

She reached up and wrapped her hands around my neck, then leaned in for a kiss. Her lips tasted like strawberries, warm like the rest of her skin, and a feeling of overwhelming surety came upon me. It felt like home.