Page 109 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
But then the guilt set in. Still, they were my friends—not Noah. Shouldn’t my loyalty be tothem?
I kept looping through it, again and again, until the only thing I was sure of was how wrong the whole situation felt.
“Does that upset you?” Logan asked me now, bringing my focus back. “That things feel different?”
“No,” I answered slowly, but honestly. “It’s just different.Not bad, not good, just…”
“Different.” Logan looked over at me, scanning me as quickly as he could before he had to turn back to the road. He pressed his lips together. “You’d tell me if anything was going on, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, if you and Jade had a fight or something. You wouldn’t bottle it all up.”
In a split second, I thought about everything he didn’t exactly know. Like how Jade called my mom to check in on me, or the fact that Logan and I had gotten posted on Babble together, and I narrowly escaped that situation without confrontation.
But Logan didn’t need to know those things—they’d only stress him out.
“Like someone I know,” I teased, tracing the bumps of his knuckles. “Mr.I Can Handle It.”
“I don’t want you to be like me.”
“I want to be like you.” I tucked his hand closer to my chest. “You’re a good influence.”
Logan’s expression looked a little embarrassed, with his lips pursing a little. He had to know it was true. In the weeks since we’d met, I almost felt like a completely different person—a completelybetterperson. Who ever said exposure therapy wasn’t successful?
Watching him, I added, “My mom is excited to meet you.”
“Your mom?” he asked, surprised. And then his lips pulled into the widest grin.
Seeing him smile made me smile. “What’s that look for?”
“You told your mom about me.”
“And?”
His boyish grin didn’t fade. “You’re chalant about me.”
“Horribly chalant about you,” I confirmed. “It’s a little embarrassing. Hopefully you don’t get annoyed, because you’re stuck with me.”
“Who’s the one with an anxious attachment style now?”
I swatted the back of his hand.
Logan found a spot on the street for Expresso’s, just a ways down from the door. He killed the engine before turning to me. “You don’t have to come in,” he said again, reaching for his seatbelt. “It should be a quick fix, and then we can go to the record store.”
“I could use a mocha, even though I’m sure it won’t taste nearly as good.”
“Probably not,” he agreed with a teasing grin. “The Coffee Lord isn’t on the clock today.”
“Oh my God, donotcall yourself that.Coffee Lord.” I snorted, opening my door. “You’re such a dweeb.”
Logan grinned at me over the roof. “I know.”
We crossed the lot side by side, the air seeming to buzz as we approached the café. “Do you ever cringe at some of the things you say?”
He laid a hand dramatically over his heart. “You wound me with your candor.”
I scrunched my nose while he held the door open above my head. “You’re doing it again. But that’s the difference between you and me.” I turned to raise my eyebrows at him. “I’m more straightforward.”
