Logan Chapter 60

-Emory-

I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I won the battle of the shareholders meeting, kind of, and now I'm sipping sparkling water in a plush chair next to Anna’s desk, trying not to scratch at my suddenly too- tight skin. I should have asked Logan if she's a werewolf- wolf shifter, sorry- or if she's in on the secret as a human. If she doesn't know, I'm seriously impressed. She seems like the type who would know everyone's secrets no matter what. I wonder if I could figure out what she knows without tipping her off…?

“So how long have you worked as Logan's PA?” She gives me a quick glance over her glasses, heavy on disapproval.

“Logan and I have been working together for six years now. Would you like my resume next?” Okay, so that was touchy, for some reason.

I laugh a little nervously. “No, of course not. Do you, uh, like it?”

She shoots me more side eye. “Until now, it's been very stable. I've enjoyed the challenge of balancing all of Logan's responsibilities. I enjoy order, especially where there was previously chaos.”

Oh. I catch myself fixing my posture and adjusting my blazer. How can a woman so tiny be so intimidating? I let the conversation drop, tired of feeling inferior. I've just pulled up a game on my phone when Anna turns back to me. I look up when I feel her eyes boring into my forehead like lasers.

“You know, even if you get him to propose somehow, the guys would never let him marry a gold digger without a prenup.” What the hell?

My first instinct is to cower, to apologize for giving her that impression. I want to shrink in on myself or just leave. But I can't leave. I have to stay close to Logan or we'll both get even more unbearably uncomfortable, and he needs to focus on his meeting. I have to find my back bone if he and the pack are ever going to be able to rely on me.

“You do realize I had no idea who he was when we started dating, right? And you may not be aware of this, but the fact that I only found out after I slept with him caused us to have a huge fight. At what point are you implying that I set up my evil scheme to trap him?” I give her my own version of the disapproving eyebrow. Damn, I nailed that.

“So you're planning to keep working? Because it seems like you're at my desk right now instead of your own.”

Damn. “Well, I'm not sure yet. It seems pretty impossible after that article came out.”

“The one your friend wrote to discredit Logan, who you claim to be with just because you like him?”

I grit my teeth as I fight to keep the confidence I scraped together for myself. It's like trying to hold water in my fist. “She did that without my permission.”

“But not without your knowledge? And I'll just bet that you didn't warn him because of that ‘huge fight,’ is that right? How convenient.” Anna sniffs and turns back to her computer, having completed her annihilation of my character to my face. I guess she doesn’t know about the fated mate thing, at the very least.

I give an exaggerated eye roll like I don't care about her opinion of me, ignoring the heat in my cheeks and behind my eyes. How did people deal with situations like this before cellphones were invented? Anna and I sit in relative silence until the meeting is over. The only sounds are her typing- what could she possibly be working on?- and murmurs coming from under the door.

I don’t envy Logan having to deal with the guys in there. It was like a douche parade watching them all enter the door, and I’m sure they weren’t pleased with Logan’s extended leave of absence, let alone his recent publicity issues. I know he’ll find a way through for them, though. He’s one of the most charismatic people I’ve ever met, and he seems to always know the right thing to do, even if he actually doesn't.

Anna apparently finishes her national treatise just in time for the douche parade to reverse course back out the door- she pleasantly offers them refreshments or the use of a driver on the way out the door, having already brought them a cart of coffee fixings and breakfast baked goods for the meeting. She is, of course, all smiles and sweet tones for them. They’re not the bringers of a chaos apocalypse, after all.

Logan walks out last, and I catch myself huffing a sigh of relief. The feelings caused by us being too far apart go away, and of course that’s nice, but mainly I’m relieved not to be the only one in the line of fire for the ice queen at full power in her own domain. He pulls me up from the chair before kissing the top of my head.

“Do you want to order takeout from your favorite stir fry place before we call up the guys? Ollie is excited to meet you, and Derek said he’d apologize for giving me dumb ideas.” He rolls his eyes at his friends’ attempts to suck up to me. James must have had good things to say to them, for some reason.

Anna shoots me a malicious smile. “Actually, sir, I got all of them to come here for lunch. I’ve ordered your favorite catering to come in. They’ll be in the West conference room in ten, maybe fifteen for Derek.”

Logan’s face lights up, and I automatically smile at the sight of his boyish happiness, even though meeting all the guys in person is a hundred times more nerve-wracking than on a screen. I want so badly for them to like me, since they’re so important to Logan. I’m not sure what Anna is trying to pull by doing it this way, but I suppose it’ll be good to rip off the band-aid in one go. With a jolt, I realize I’ll be the only human in this meeting. That’s a much stranger thought than being the only one who hasn’t known everyone else for years. Ugh, and they’ll be able to smell my anxiety, too. Double damn.