Fic: Know Her (5/?)
Title: Know Her (5/?)
Author: lipstikstain
Pairing: LoVe, mentions Mac, Casey, Duncan and a little bit o' Weevil.
Word Count: 2,871
Rating: R for some sexual situation with Veronica and Duncan, but eventually NC -17.
Spoilers: Nothing at all - but to be safe all of season 1 and all episodes aired so far in season 2.
Summary: Logan was living under the radar in the beaches of Mexico, regretful that he ever left Veronica. Now, almost 7 years later, fate forces Logan to face reality: lose her forever or try and win her back, but he has to get to know her first.
Disclaimer: Not mine - All Rob's.
Notes: Earlier update than I was planning on. A sprained ankle has forced me to temporarily plant myself on the bed and now I have time to kill. Yes, feel free to pity me. I've never asked for this before, but comments are more than welcome - maybe it will make my ankle heal faster.
“Hey it’s me. We have to talk.”
“Logan, I can’t right now. I have to finish my project before my deadline today and I am leaving immediately after because I made plans with my husband to have a nice romantic dinner.” Mac speaks too quickly that Logan is pretty sure she didn’t even take a breath.
“Husband? You’re married?”
“Yes, Logan. You might remember him since you two did hang out in high school. Remember Cassidy Casablancas?”
“Wow! Congratulations.” Logan is surprised at the unexpected news. He didn’t even know that the two knew the other one existed and in Logan’s mind, marital bliss would have been the hindmost fate for the both of them, but when he really thinks about it, for some odd reason, they made sense together.
“Yes, hooray for the married woman. Now I really have to go now. I promise first thing tomorrow morning we can talk.” She barely gives him a chance to debate her proposition, but after his meeting with Casey, he is too anxious to just let things hang until tomorrow morning.
He shuffles his hands in his coat pocket, searching for his keys, and doesn’t rationalize his decision to drive to Mac’s office at that very moment to stipulate Veronica’s whereabouts. He’s done playing private eye. He wants answers and he wants them now.
He bursts through Mac’s door with an air of impudence which further agitates her already climbing blood pressure.
“Okay…I’m pretty sure that I just told you on the phone ‘tomorrow morning’ - and last time I checked, I was still speaking English.”
She has no time for his little boy tantrums right now. She doesn’t care how good looking and charming he is, she has a date with her husband and she is seconds away from finishing her work.
“Mac I’ve done everything you’ve told me to do…I’ve talked to her professor and even Casey…Casey! Do you understand the difficulty I had even breathing the same air as that guy?”
“Well I’m sorry it was water torture. I’ll make sure to send flowers and a card that says ‘first thing tomorrow morning’.”
She is standing and collecting her things off her desk, stuffing files and books into her bag. She ushers Logan out of her office and locks the door behind her.
“Remember Logan, ‘patience is virtue’.” She breviloquently rebuffed his demands for answers and he is forced to watch in disbelief as she sprints out the building.
He had certainly overestimated his amplitude on people, especially Mac. Had she forgotten how he paid for her lunch the other day? Well, she said first thing in the morning, and he will definitely take her up on her offer.
**Next Morning: 8:53 AM**
The clicking of her heels echoes in the empty hallway. Mac’s romantic evening with her husband was incredible, but she still had work to do, not to mention, she had promised Logan that she would make time for a little a chat.
She hears the creak of the door as she opens it and almost drops her bag to the floor.
“Jesus!!!” her shout bounces off the walls as she grabs her chest to ease her pounding heart.
“What are you doing in my office Logan? Actually, how did you even get in?” Her voice is slightly shaky from her rapid heart rate. No, this was definitely not the good kind of surprise.
“Well you said first thing in the morning - so here I am.” He opens his arms as if to present himself as the prize behind door number 3, or in this case, behind Mac’s office door.
“This isn’t what I meant and you know it. Were you here ALL night?”
“No. I left your office briefly to get us these.”
He hands her a cup of coffee and she reaches for it, grateful that she can at least down some caffeine before jumping into Logan’s Veronica obsession. She moves behind her desk and takes a seat, never taking her eyes off Logan. She knew that he has a voracious drive to do anything to get Veronica back, but she didn’t know that he was willing to break into her office to accomplish it.
“Thanks, but you still haven’t told me how you got in here in the first place.”
“Well, you have our blond friend to thank for that. You know how talented she is at prying her way into things, people, places, et cetera…well, she taught me a couple of tricks along the way. It’s amazing what you can do with credit cards, bobby pins and paper clips,” he says as he twirls a small piece of metal between his fingers, eyeing the shiny object with fascination.
He sits in the vacant seat near her door, leans back and squares his legs.
“Okay, it’s morning, you’ve had your coffee. We ended with our hero, that’s me, begging for you to tell him where Veronica is after he had to endure an afternoon hearing how Casey and Veronica got it on during my absence. Aaaaannnndddd - go!”
He points to Mac, waiting for her to pick up the pace. She is hardly amused by this, but doesn’t take offense. Logan, like Veronica, opts to use sarcasm as a medium of defense.
“Where exactly did Casey end?”
“The night they broke up.”
Mac nods her understanding and begins to bridge the gap where Casey had stopped.
“So I’m guessing you know about the clippings…well, that night, Veronica came over to talk…”
****
Veronica’s petite frame cuddles against the corner of Mac’s couch, a large square pillow resting comfortably in her arms.
“…then he left. I didn’t even say anything to stop him. I know that if I tried I could have convinced him to stay and to give us another chance, but…” Veronica’s words trail off, her fingers playing with the corners of the pillow.
“But…what Veronica?”
“I don’t know. Something inside told me not to.”
“Is it because you’re still in love with Logan?” Mac could have approached this question cautiously, but there’s no point. Veronica would have gotten defensive whether Mac had cushioned the blow or not.
“What? No - why do you guys think this has something to do with him? He left a long time ago. He’s nothing more than a memory!”
“Then why DO you have those clippings?”
Veronica was tired of explaining her reasons, but decided to give it another go.
“Like I said before, I just wanted some assurance that he’s alive and well.”
Mac nods as she raises the proverbial white flag, but before completely giving up, gives just one last astute observation.
“Veronica, I’m one of your best friends and I say this because it’s for your benefit. Those clippings weren’t stashed in some secret space behind a wall. It was on your desk where anyone can find it and I know you’re more careful than that.”
Veronica looks up at Mac, astonished that she had said something so far from what she thinks is the truth, but the feeling in her stomach said something different, and she pushed it down, disregarding anything that implied that she still cares for Logan Echolls.
****
Logan had not moved since Mac started speaking. He didn’t know what to think about Veronica’s overzealous denial.
“So she really hated me that much that she couldn’t admit to herself that she still cared for me?” he asks, the hurt in his voice palpable.
“She had to move on Logan, whether she wanted to or not. No one can stay sane dwelling on what could have been, and you couldn’t have possibly expected her to drive herself to madness for you. Didn’t you hear anything anyone has said to you these past couple of days? She LOOKED for you, she kept clippings of you with other women, what more do you want?”
Logan paces back and forth in her office, fearing that his undertaking could be an aimless one. Uncertainty muddled his head.
“Her. I want HER back.”
He does nothing to hide his anguish and anyone who would have seen this display of hopelessness would have wanted to reach out and comfort him, but Mac remains in her seat, and against her better judgment, decides that she needs to tell Logan the critical decision that Veronica had made that sealed her engagement with Duncan.
“Logan, sit down. There’s more.”
He does what he is told, and rests his elbows on his knees, anticipating the worst.
“I wasn’t the only one that Veronica confided in about her and Casey. After you left, Duncan stuck by her side trying to minister to her broken heart, and he never left. She kept it clear to him that she just wanted to be friends, and he said he understood. But when she told him about the break up, he flew over here to spend the weekend with her…supposedly to cheer her up. Coincidentally, the week that Casey and Veronica broke up is the week Duncan requested to transfer here at Stanford.”
****
Veronica couldn’t believe her ears. Duncan attending the same school as her as early as next semester was comforting. Veronica needed her usual band of friends at the moment, and hugs him reassuringly.
“Duncan that’s great news! It will be like high school - wait, that’s a bad thing. Well, whatever, you know what I mean!” she throws herself into his arms again and laughs her excitement. When she opens her eyes, she sees Casey standing at her doorway, frozen, but his eyes firing with jealousy.
Duncan senses the tension in Veronica’s body and is startled to see the unwelcoming glare from Casey.
“Um…I better go. I have to do a lot of things before next semester.” Duncan reluctantly releases Veronica from his hold and walks over to the doorway that is inconveniently blocked by Casey. He turns around and waves goodbye to Veronica.
“I’ll call you later…bye Casey,”
He doesn’t turn to Duncan, but steps aside to let him through.
Veronica shifts uncomfortably and attempts to justify Duncan’s visit.
“I can explain…you see Duncan -“
“I heard, but you don’t have to explain yourself V because I’m not your boyfriend anymore and before you get any ideas, I’m not here to patch things up. I just came to give you back your keys.”
He places the key on a nearby table, and with his back hunched over, he languidly moves toward the hallway.
“Wait!” she yells after him.
“For what Veronica? For you to finally get over Logan? If I did that, I would be six feet underground!” He didn’t mean his words to be as cuspate as they sounded, but he is still an open wound.
“I am over him! How many times do I have to tell you that! I’m here and he’s off somewhere fucking the next easy lay!”
“And how does that make you feel Veronica? Condoned? Cheated? Aggrieved?”
Casey moves closer to her shrinking poise and she vigorously rubs her forehead with clammy hands, but she doesn’t answer him. She doesn’t know why, but she feels shameful and is unable to raise her eyes at the angry form in front of her.
“You know, I’m disappointed in you and it’s not for the reasons you think. First loves are hard to get over, I get that - but you…you just refuse to let him go that you’ve caged yourself away from anyone who wants to love you.”
The storm passes Casey’s eyes and he listlessly lifts her chin to look at him.
“Veronica…I love you. Maybe I’ll always love you, but you’ve evaded reciprocating my feelings for someone who isn’t here anymore. How can you ever feel happiness again when you won’t take a chance on someone?”
Unpredictably, she slaps his hand away from her. She had stood there long enough listening to his vernacular on Veronica’s Heart 101, and now she’s furious at him for his virulent words, but more disturbed that he had read her like an open book.
“You have no idea what I’ve been through! I had to grow up overnight and the one person who was able to articulate and wholly accept that is Logan. So what if I’m still hanging on to a vestige of hope that he’ll come back? What’s wrong with hoping?”
Casey places his hands on his hips, exhausted from this whole week, and mostly outraged by someone who isn’t there for him to punch in the face.
“There’s nothing wrong with hoping V, you’re just putting it all on a losing bet.”
Fractious tears pour from her eyes, and on reflex, Casey wipes them away. He didn’t like that he had made her cry, he doesn’t like that she is learning a difficult lesson, but he also didn’t like that she didn’t love him the way he loved her.
“You don’t know what it’s like Casey - to love someone so much who doesn’t want to be with you that it rips your soul to shreds until all that’s left is desperation,”
A kind simper appears on his face, and he tenderly kisses her forehead. He studies the tinsel in her hazel eyes, the graceful structure of her face then runs long fingers through her soft locks, trying to embed the feeling of it in his memory. This is the last time he’ll be able to touch her like this and the crushing reality tempts him to reconsider his decision, but he steps back, his hands heavily gliding down her arms to her hands until the contact is completely severed.
“No, Veronica. I know what it feels like because that’s how I feel about you.”
For the second time that week, she watches Casey walk away from her and she falls to her knees, gasping for air as she weeps uncontrollably.
Diametric to what Casey believes, she has taken chances since Logan left her - she took a chance on Casey and if he was too insecure in their relationship to believe that Logan wasn’t a salient part of her present and future life, then who is she to stop him from ending their romance.
She rebukes herself for her momentary weakness and wipes the tears from her cheeks. He’ll see - she’ll prove him wrong. She can love someone back and she’ll prove it to him.
The knock on his hotel door startles Duncan. He wasn’t expecting anyone to come over, but his curiosity opens the door anyway.
“Veronica?”
She lunges at him, her lips quickly latching on to his. She closes the door with her foot as she presses herself against Duncan, who eventually breaks the kiss.
“I’m not complaining, but what’s going on?”
They are both breathing heavily, their needs catapulting their body temperature.
“I realized tonight that I want to be with you.” She says it systematically, as if she is a robot or a horrible actress flatly delivering her lines.
Duncan doesn’t question her any further and carries her to his bedroom and as soon as he sets her down, she is ripping his clothes off. He was hoping that this would be slow and quixotic, but obviously she has other plans.
Veronica’s compulsion to feel anything beyond the despair of her situation fuels her rough touches and greedy consumption of his body. Duncan is barely given the chance to completely remove her underwear before she pulls him to her, but his moves too slow and it is not enough. Veronica audaciously pushes him on his back to take over the movements, until she is screaming. She doesn’t cry anyone’s name, just the flash of someone who she dreams of coming back one day.
She collapses on his chest, and it’s not until he feels the well of tears collecting on his skin that he realizes that Veronica is crying. He brushes her hair back and holds her tight until she falls asleep.
****
“That basically sealed the deal for Duncan and he has been committed to her ever since.”
Mac surveys Logan’s face who is now standing by her window, looking out into the sunny day. His stagnant profile didn’t tell Mac what he was thinking, so she allows the quiescence to come between them.
“I pushed her to Duncan, didn’t I?”
Mac doesn’t’ answer, but moves to stand next to him.
“I’d love to tell you no,” she starts and places a consoling hand on his shoulders.
“At the risk of sounding too girly, I believe in destiny. You were meant to know Veronica, and it wasn’t just a mere coincidence that you saw her picture on a magazine - it was kismet, but now the rest is up to you.”
His eyes shift to her, and thankful that Mac didn’t unanimously abhor him.
“So then tell me where she is.”
Mac shakes her head, and takes her seat again.
“Nope, not yet. You have one more person to talk to and if you can’t convince this person to divulge his secrets, then I’m afraid you’re on your own.”
Logan shoves his hands in his pocket. Destiny, as Mac had put it, had done as much as it could do - now it was his turn to meet it halfway.
“Okay, who is it?”
“Eli “Weevil” Navarro.”
Author: lipstikstain
Pairing: LoVe, mentions Mac, Casey, Duncan and a little bit o' Weevil.
Word Count: 2,871
Rating: R for some sexual situation with Veronica and Duncan, but eventually NC -17.
Spoilers: Nothing at all - but to be safe all of season 1 and all episodes aired so far in season 2.
Summary: Logan was living under the radar in the beaches of Mexico, regretful that he ever left Veronica. Now, almost 7 years later, fate forces Logan to face reality: lose her forever or try and win her back, but he has to get to know her first.
Disclaimer: Not mine - All Rob's.
Notes: Earlier update than I was planning on. A sprained ankle has forced me to temporarily plant myself on the bed and now I have time to kill. Yes, feel free to pity me. I've never asked for this before, but comments are more than welcome - maybe it will make my ankle heal faster.
“Hey it’s me. We have to talk.”
“Logan, I can’t right now. I have to finish my project before my deadline today and I am leaving immediately after because I made plans with my husband to have a nice romantic dinner.” Mac speaks too quickly that Logan is pretty sure she didn’t even take a breath.
“Husband? You’re married?”
“Yes, Logan. You might remember him since you two did hang out in high school. Remember Cassidy Casablancas?”
“Wow! Congratulations.” Logan is surprised at the unexpected news. He didn’t even know that the two knew the other one existed and in Logan’s mind, marital bliss would have been the hindmost fate for the both of them, but when he really thinks about it, for some odd reason, they made sense together.
“Yes, hooray for the married woman. Now I really have to go now. I promise first thing tomorrow morning we can talk.” She barely gives him a chance to debate her proposition, but after his meeting with Casey, he is too anxious to just let things hang until tomorrow morning.
He shuffles his hands in his coat pocket, searching for his keys, and doesn’t rationalize his decision to drive to Mac’s office at that very moment to stipulate Veronica’s whereabouts. He’s done playing private eye. He wants answers and he wants them now.
He bursts through Mac’s door with an air of impudence which further agitates her already climbing blood pressure.
“Okay…I’m pretty sure that I just told you on the phone ‘tomorrow morning’ - and last time I checked, I was still speaking English.”
She has no time for his little boy tantrums right now. She doesn’t care how good looking and charming he is, she has a date with her husband and she is seconds away from finishing her work.
“Mac I’ve done everything you’ve told me to do…I’ve talked to her professor and even Casey…Casey! Do you understand the difficulty I had even breathing the same air as that guy?”
“Well I’m sorry it was water torture. I’ll make sure to send flowers and a card that says ‘first thing tomorrow morning’.”
She is standing and collecting her things off her desk, stuffing files and books into her bag. She ushers Logan out of her office and locks the door behind her.
“Remember Logan, ‘patience is virtue’.” She breviloquently rebuffed his demands for answers and he is forced to watch in disbelief as she sprints out the building.
He had certainly overestimated his amplitude on people, especially Mac. Had she forgotten how he paid for her lunch the other day? Well, she said first thing in the morning, and he will definitely take her up on her offer.
**Next Morning: 8:53 AM**
The clicking of her heels echoes in the empty hallway. Mac’s romantic evening with her husband was incredible, but she still had work to do, not to mention, she had promised Logan that she would make time for a little a chat.
She hears the creak of the door as she opens it and almost drops her bag to the floor.
“Jesus!!!” her shout bounces off the walls as she grabs her chest to ease her pounding heart.
“What are you doing in my office Logan? Actually, how did you even get in?” Her voice is slightly shaky from her rapid heart rate. No, this was definitely not the good kind of surprise.
“Well you said first thing in the morning - so here I am.” He opens his arms as if to present himself as the prize behind door number 3, or in this case, behind Mac’s office door.
“This isn’t what I meant and you know it. Were you here ALL night?”
“No. I left your office briefly to get us these.”
He hands her a cup of coffee and she reaches for it, grateful that she can at least down some caffeine before jumping into Logan’s Veronica obsession. She moves behind her desk and takes a seat, never taking her eyes off Logan. She knew that he has a voracious drive to do anything to get Veronica back, but she didn’t know that he was willing to break into her office to accomplish it.
“Thanks, but you still haven’t told me how you got in here in the first place.”
“Well, you have our blond friend to thank for that. You know how talented she is at prying her way into things, people, places, et cetera…well, she taught me a couple of tricks along the way. It’s amazing what you can do with credit cards, bobby pins and paper clips,” he says as he twirls a small piece of metal between his fingers, eyeing the shiny object with fascination.
He sits in the vacant seat near her door, leans back and squares his legs.
“Okay, it’s morning, you’ve had your coffee. We ended with our hero, that’s me, begging for you to tell him where Veronica is after he had to endure an afternoon hearing how Casey and Veronica got it on during my absence. Aaaaannnndddd - go!”
He points to Mac, waiting for her to pick up the pace. She is hardly amused by this, but doesn’t take offense. Logan, like Veronica, opts to use sarcasm as a medium of defense.
“Where exactly did Casey end?”
“The night they broke up.”
Mac nods her understanding and begins to bridge the gap where Casey had stopped.
“So I’m guessing you know about the clippings…well, that night, Veronica came over to talk…”
****
Veronica’s petite frame cuddles against the corner of Mac’s couch, a large square pillow resting comfortably in her arms.
“…then he left. I didn’t even say anything to stop him. I know that if I tried I could have convinced him to stay and to give us another chance, but…” Veronica’s words trail off, her fingers playing with the corners of the pillow.
“But…what Veronica?”
“I don’t know. Something inside told me not to.”
“Is it because you’re still in love with Logan?” Mac could have approached this question cautiously, but there’s no point. Veronica would have gotten defensive whether Mac had cushioned the blow or not.
“What? No - why do you guys think this has something to do with him? He left a long time ago. He’s nothing more than a memory!”
“Then why DO you have those clippings?”
Veronica was tired of explaining her reasons, but decided to give it another go.
“Like I said before, I just wanted some assurance that he’s alive and well.”
Mac nods as she raises the proverbial white flag, but before completely giving up, gives just one last astute observation.
“Veronica, I’m one of your best friends and I say this because it’s for your benefit. Those clippings weren’t stashed in some secret space behind a wall. It was on your desk where anyone can find it and I know you’re more careful than that.”
Veronica looks up at Mac, astonished that she had said something so far from what she thinks is the truth, but the feeling in her stomach said something different, and she pushed it down, disregarding anything that implied that she still cares for Logan Echolls.
****
Logan had not moved since Mac started speaking. He didn’t know what to think about Veronica’s overzealous denial.
“So she really hated me that much that she couldn’t admit to herself that she still cared for me?” he asks, the hurt in his voice palpable.
“She had to move on Logan, whether she wanted to or not. No one can stay sane dwelling on what could have been, and you couldn’t have possibly expected her to drive herself to madness for you. Didn’t you hear anything anyone has said to you these past couple of days? She LOOKED for you, she kept clippings of you with other women, what more do you want?”
Logan paces back and forth in her office, fearing that his undertaking could be an aimless one. Uncertainty muddled his head.
“Her. I want HER back.”
He does nothing to hide his anguish and anyone who would have seen this display of hopelessness would have wanted to reach out and comfort him, but Mac remains in her seat, and against her better judgment, decides that she needs to tell Logan the critical decision that Veronica had made that sealed her engagement with Duncan.
“Logan, sit down. There’s more.”
He does what he is told, and rests his elbows on his knees, anticipating the worst.
“I wasn’t the only one that Veronica confided in about her and Casey. After you left, Duncan stuck by her side trying to minister to her broken heart, and he never left. She kept it clear to him that she just wanted to be friends, and he said he understood. But when she told him about the break up, he flew over here to spend the weekend with her…supposedly to cheer her up. Coincidentally, the week that Casey and Veronica broke up is the week Duncan requested to transfer here at Stanford.”
****
Veronica couldn’t believe her ears. Duncan attending the same school as her as early as next semester was comforting. Veronica needed her usual band of friends at the moment, and hugs him reassuringly.
“Duncan that’s great news! It will be like high school - wait, that’s a bad thing. Well, whatever, you know what I mean!” she throws herself into his arms again and laughs her excitement. When she opens her eyes, she sees Casey standing at her doorway, frozen, but his eyes firing with jealousy.
Duncan senses the tension in Veronica’s body and is startled to see the unwelcoming glare from Casey.
“Um…I better go. I have to do a lot of things before next semester.” Duncan reluctantly releases Veronica from his hold and walks over to the doorway that is inconveniently blocked by Casey. He turns around and waves goodbye to Veronica.
“I’ll call you later…bye Casey,”
He doesn’t turn to Duncan, but steps aside to let him through.
Veronica shifts uncomfortably and attempts to justify Duncan’s visit.
“I can explain…you see Duncan -“
“I heard, but you don’t have to explain yourself V because I’m not your boyfriend anymore and before you get any ideas, I’m not here to patch things up. I just came to give you back your keys.”
He places the key on a nearby table, and with his back hunched over, he languidly moves toward the hallway.
“Wait!” she yells after him.
“For what Veronica? For you to finally get over Logan? If I did that, I would be six feet underground!” He didn’t mean his words to be as cuspate as they sounded, but he is still an open wound.
“I am over him! How many times do I have to tell you that! I’m here and he’s off somewhere fucking the next easy lay!”
“And how does that make you feel Veronica? Condoned? Cheated? Aggrieved?”
Casey moves closer to her shrinking poise and she vigorously rubs her forehead with clammy hands, but she doesn’t answer him. She doesn’t know why, but she feels shameful and is unable to raise her eyes at the angry form in front of her.
“You know, I’m disappointed in you and it’s not for the reasons you think. First loves are hard to get over, I get that - but you…you just refuse to let him go that you’ve caged yourself away from anyone who wants to love you.”
The storm passes Casey’s eyes and he listlessly lifts her chin to look at him.
“Veronica…I love you. Maybe I’ll always love you, but you’ve evaded reciprocating my feelings for someone who isn’t here anymore. How can you ever feel happiness again when you won’t take a chance on someone?”
Unpredictably, she slaps his hand away from her. She had stood there long enough listening to his vernacular on Veronica’s Heart 101, and now she’s furious at him for his virulent words, but more disturbed that he had read her like an open book.
“You have no idea what I’ve been through! I had to grow up overnight and the one person who was able to articulate and wholly accept that is Logan. So what if I’m still hanging on to a vestige of hope that he’ll come back? What’s wrong with hoping?”
Casey places his hands on his hips, exhausted from this whole week, and mostly outraged by someone who isn’t there for him to punch in the face.
“There’s nothing wrong with hoping V, you’re just putting it all on a losing bet.”
Fractious tears pour from her eyes, and on reflex, Casey wipes them away. He didn’t like that he had made her cry, he doesn’t like that she is learning a difficult lesson, but he also didn’t like that she didn’t love him the way he loved her.
“You don’t know what it’s like Casey - to love someone so much who doesn’t want to be with you that it rips your soul to shreds until all that’s left is desperation,”
A kind simper appears on his face, and he tenderly kisses her forehead. He studies the tinsel in her hazel eyes, the graceful structure of her face then runs long fingers through her soft locks, trying to embed the feeling of it in his memory. This is the last time he’ll be able to touch her like this and the crushing reality tempts him to reconsider his decision, but he steps back, his hands heavily gliding down her arms to her hands until the contact is completely severed.
“No, Veronica. I know what it feels like because that’s how I feel about you.”
For the second time that week, she watches Casey walk away from her and she falls to her knees, gasping for air as she weeps uncontrollably.
Diametric to what Casey believes, she has taken chances since Logan left her - she took a chance on Casey and if he was too insecure in their relationship to believe that Logan wasn’t a salient part of her present and future life, then who is she to stop him from ending their romance.
She rebukes herself for her momentary weakness and wipes the tears from her cheeks. He’ll see - she’ll prove him wrong. She can love someone back and she’ll prove it to him.
The knock on his hotel door startles Duncan. He wasn’t expecting anyone to come over, but his curiosity opens the door anyway.
“Veronica?”
She lunges at him, her lips quickly latching on to his. She closes the door with her foot as she presses herself against Duncan, who eventually breaks the kiss.
“I’m not complaining, but what’s going on?”
They are both breathing heavily, their needs catapulting their body temperature.
“I realized tonight that I want to be with you.” She says it systematically, as if she is a robot or a horrible actress flatly delivering her lines.
Duncan doesn’t question her any further and carries her to his bedroom and as soon as he sets her down, she is ripping his clothes off. He was hoping that this would be slow and quixotic, but obviously she has other plans.
Veronica’s compulsion to feel anything beyond the despair of her situation fuels her rough touches and greedy consumption of his body. Duncan is barely given the chance to completely remove her underwear before she pulls him to her, but his moves too slow and it is not enough. Veronica audaciously pushes him on his back to take over the movements, until she is screaming. She doesn’t cry anyone’s name, just the flash of someone who she dreams of coming back one day.
She collapses on his chest, and it’s not until he feels the well of tears collecting on his skin that he realizes that Veronica is crying. He brushes her hair back and holds her tight until she falls asleep.
****
“That basically sealed the deal for Duncan and he has been committed to her ever since.”
Mac surveys Logan’s face who is now standing by her window, looking out into the sunny day. His stagnant profile didn’t tell Mac what he was thinking, so she allows the quiescence to come between them.
“I pushed her to Duncan, didn’t I?”
Mac doesn’t’ answer, but moves to stand next to him.
“I’d love to tell you no,” she starts and places a consoling hand on his shoulders.
“At the risk of sounding too girly, I believe in destiny. You were meant to know Veronica, and it wasn’t just a mere coincidence that you saw her picture on a magazine - it was kismet, but now the rest is up to you.”
His eyes shift to her, and thankful that Mac didn’t unanimously abhor him.
“So then tell me where she is.”
Mac shakes her head, and takes her seat again.
“Nope, not yet. You have one more person to talk to and if you can’t convince this person to divulge his secrets, then I’m afraid you’re on your own.”
Logan shoves his hands in his pocket. Destiny, as Mac had put it, had done as much as it could do - now it was his turn to meet it halfway.
“Okay, who is it?”
“Eli “Weevil” Navarro.”