Love and Hate

chapter 3

Chapter 3

Logan furiously paced the length of the living room. Where was this girl? After Emily’s disappearing act, Amanda had called him sometime later enquiring about Emily’s whereabouts. “How would I know?” Logan had screamed through the phone.

“Don’t you shout at me, Logan.” Amanda warned him. “I'll call her again.” ending the call with that.

Amanda called him again an hour later. “Is she home yet?”

“Home? How would I know?” Logan replied in an irritated tone, “Call her landline.”

“She doesn't stay with Sonia anymore. She is living with us now.”

“What?? Why??” he asked disbelievingly.

“Cuz Sonia kicked her out today. And don’t forget, it is my home too as much as it is yours. She is living in the first guest bedroom, right next to yours.”

Logan let out a frustrated sigh. How the hell was he gonna cope with her living in the same house as him much less the next bedroom? Realizing Amanda was still online “Wait, I’ll check.” Logan went to the aforementioned bedroom but it was empty. He checked the bathroom too. He did a quick survey of the whole house but she was not to be found anywhere.

“She is not here.” He said frustrated.

“Where the hell is this girl?” Amanda said in an equally frustrated tone.

“Probably getting it on with some guy.” He added scornfully.

“No. she is not like that.”

“You don’t see her the way I do. You think she is this innocent person. Well I hate to be the one to break it out to you but she is just a shrewd person taking advantage of your wealth. And with the clothes that she was wearing today, she definitely looked the part of a slut too.”

“Don’t you dare call her that!” Amanda said furiously through the phone. “ By the way, I picked out that dress. Besides who are you to judge, anyway? Your girlfriends don’t even wear that much. And just so you know, she is not taking advantage of my wealth or me! She is going to pay rent. Anyways, I am not having this conversation with you right now. I need to find her. If she is not picking up her phone for so long then something must be wrong.” Click. The call ended.

Logan stared at his phone. Emily was going to stay with them!!!!! It was already hard keeping his hands to himself when he met her occasionally and with his frustration building, he had resorted to sarcasm and petty comments to push her away. He didn’t understand why he was so reluctant to follow suit just as he did with the other girls. It was definitely not because he was afraid of Amanda or anything. He had seen something in Emily. She tried to look all rough and tough and most of the times she succeeded in fooling them but there were times when the mention of family events brought an unguarded look on her face for a fraction of a second, quickly masked by a neutral expression. But in that fraction of a second, one could see that she was a poor little lost girl who had been deeply hurt by her close ones, a girl who wanted nothing more but to be a part of a loving family and in that moment, he wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her that everything would be alright and that he would always be there for her. A strong surge of protecting that vulnerable girl overwhelmed him, knocking him off his feet. Perhaps that was the reason that he had refused to hurt her. He knew how he was and that his ability to stick to a girl did not exceed more than a month. So all that he could do was engage her in irritating her and she rose to the bait beautifully.

Realizing that Amanda had picked out that dress, he became agitated once again. Was she crazy or what? He would talk to her about that later.

The doorbell rang interrupting his train of thoughts. He went and opened the door only to find a smiling Preston holding a girl in his hands who was now wrapped in Preston’s leather jacket.