Tea Parties in Boston

14 - Sometimes You Need To Be Alone, Sometimes...

AN: there's been a lot of work stuff to get done, and it might be a few weeks of sporadic updates.

Chapter 14

September 7th, 2022

Logan exhaled deeply, trying to gather his courage, his hands tucked into his pockets. Even entering his former bedroom, his and Odette's, was disconcerting.

Most of the medical gear had been long removed by the nursing company, the sheets, blankets and pillows disposed of, but there was still a lingering smell of desinfectant and closet-full of her clothes, her makeup and jewelry box on the vanity table, her hair brush on the dresser - a number of things he hadn't wanted to touch.

He really was past the worst of it. Sure he'd shed his tears, but it wasn't like any of it had been suddened. It just wasn't what he'd expected. He hadn't expected to miss the companionship this much. Someone to top up his wine glass without asking or ask him to sign for a package for her if she was out of town. He'd always been the guy who had been very happy in his own company - working, working out, reading, even going out and meeting people as he went along. He'd never hated coming home to an empty home as much as he had this past month or so.

"Do you want me to do it?" Honor asked from behind him. She wasn't being pushy, but supportive. It was not like the CEO of the HPG that Honor now was often took time off to deal with such trivial matters as helping his brother pack. But she'd always been the motherly kind.

After a couple of weeks of thought, Logan and Honor had decided it would be in his best interest to take a holiday. Get a change of scenery. Think, do something else entirely. He was going to take some time off and just... deal. He couldn't just stay here, feeling like he was stuck in some time capsule.

"No, I will," Logan assured, and took a decisive step inside the room carpeted with the softest material he'd ever had the luxury of living with. It made the room feel fluffy and dreamy. Odette had had a thing for textures - carpets, pillows, dresses - you name it. Logan had slept in the guest room for the past few months, and that certainly didn't have that same feeling.

He could remember Odette panicking that one time after they'd just moved in and she'd spilled red wine on the carpet. And another time when they'd fallen off the bed, laughing, and the carpet had broken their fall.

Their Kensington home, his Kensington home now, was full of little glimpses like that. It almost didn't feel like home anymore.

"Alright, I'll leave you to it...," Honor encouraged. "Just focus on what's important. You don't have to deal with her stuff right now. There's plenty of time for that...," she added. Honor had been the one to clear out their mother's things after she'd passed so she did know what she was talking about. Naturally, they could easily have had someone do it for them, emotionlessly, but these were personal things and they both believed the deceased deserved some respect.

"Yeah, I know," Logan said, as he opened up the folding doors wide in front of him, trying to not look at Odette's side.

"I'm going to order some food, what do you feel like?" Honor asked, already heading down the stairs to the kitchen where she'd left her phone.

"Whatever you'd like," Logan replied, knowing that claiming to have no appetite wouldn't really be taken as an answer.

Honor had been worried about him. While he had kept up with the motions of things pretty much from day one, he hadn't done it particularly energetically and that had shown, it was like he'd been on autopilot the entire time. That until he'd gotten back to his empty home and just been pretty useless at doing anything other than the bare minimum.