Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Logan: Are you still enjoying your work, Piper?
Piper: Is that how this works, Mr. Boss? You drop a bombshell about shady people and then change the subject?
Logan: You just said it: I’m the boss. That means I get to do what I want.
Sizzling tension dances over me. Does he know what he’s doing? Is he doing it on purpose?
Piper: I enjoy it.
I reply, adding a middle-finger emoji.
Piper:
Logan: Wow, do you seriously think that’s the appropriate way to speak to your employer?
He texts with a laughing emoji.
Logan:
Piper: Oh, I’m sorry. What about this?
I send an entire line of playful middle-finger emojis, adding an angel emoji to the end.
Piper:
Logan: You’re the angel. Are you beautiful?
My mouth falls open as I read the b-word at the end of his message. Did he even mean to send that? It’s not like I’m mad that he finds me beautiful, but this is bad.
Logan: Are you finding it easier or more challenging than college?
He texts immediately, which makes me think he didn’t mean to send the b-word. He did it by mistake, and now he quickly wants to move the conversation along, so I don’t acknowledge it.
Piper: The hardest part is dressing professionally.
I decide it’s best if I ignore it.
Logan: I can imagine it’s easier to rock up to a lecture in sweatpants and a hoodie.
Piper: I’m going to need to go shopping soon. I need more shirts, more skirts. But I was also thinking about getting some pants, too.
This is the lamest way to change the subject, but the specter of ‘beautiful’ is hanging over us. He called me beautiful. The fact he seemingly did it without thinking makes it even more significant.
Logan: Pants could be a good idea.
Piper: A good idea, hmm? How’s that, Mr. Boss?
Uh oh, have we walked into even more dangerous territory?
Logan: I’ve heard that wide hips and pants go together pretty damn perfectly.
A smile spreads across my face when he mentions my figure. When he says it, wide hips don’t seem like a bad thing.
Piper: You say that like you think I’m trying to get attention or something.
Logan: I know for a fact if you wore some form-hugging pants, you’d get attention, Hardcover.
My smile widens.
Piper: What’s with the ‘Hardcover’ stuff, Mr. Boss?
Logan: You told me if I needed a nickname for you, I’d have to think of something better. It just came to me. Hardcover because you love to read and put up a hard front. But deep down, you’re a softie.
I laugh, shaking my head ruefully.
Piper: I wish I could say I think that’s lame, but embarrassingly, I don’t. It’s actually kind of sweet.
Logan: We’re similar in that way. We both put up a front and don’t want the world to see what’s happening inside us. We don’t want them to know we’re human, nervous, sometimes doubting ourselves.
Piper: So you’re saying we’re both just a little bit like Ma Joad, huh?
She’s a character from our favorite book, Grapes of Wrath.
Logan: You continuously surprise me. Maybe I should call you Plot Twist instead.
Piper: How many nicknames does one girl need?
Logan: As many as I can think of. But I’ve changed the subject. We were talking about your upcoming fashion show.
We both know this is wrong. I mean, I do, and he must as well. We both know that we should stop. But, as my thumbs fly across the screen, excitement bubbling in me, it doesn’t feel wrong.
Piper: FASHION SHOW? I don’t think I’d go that far. I’m being lazy and need to get on top of my laundry, that’s all.
I add an army of laughing emojis.
Piper:
Logan: There are many things people could call you, Hardcover, but lazy isn’t one of them.
I bite my lip when he uses the nickname again. This is precisely when I should tell him to stop calling me that. I should say that we need to remember what’s at stake here. We need to remember how heartbreaking it would be for Elliot if he read these messages, let alone learn what we did.
And what I still want to do.
I type out a message asking him to explain in detail what he meant by the shady character Elliot had him meeting with, but the ‘nuts’ thing? I don’t want to ruin the mood. Never mind the fact there shouldn’t be a mood to ruin.
Piper: Are you going to enlighten me? What are these ‘many things’ people could call me?
That’s the message I send instead. I’m playing with fire, and weirdly, I want to be burned. I want him to feel the heat and the closeness. I’m tired of it only existing in my memory.
Does that make me the world’s worst sister? Maybe.
Logan reveals himself as the mature one.
Logan: I’d call you a damn good employee.
That’s my not-so-subtle signal that we need to stop walking down this road. A sting of unfairness hits me because he’s the one who started it. He called me beautiful and mentioned my wide hips and figure.