Mine? Yours.

Chapter 4

It would be an understatement to say that the next few days have been hell. She hasn't replied to any of my messages and the only ones I've received in the past days were from Odette asking me when I will finally come back home to her. She was such a sweet sweet woman. She loved talking to me, more than listening to me, but that was good, cause I was never really interested in talking that much to her. Odette loved organizing dinner parties and running the household, she loved everything clean and in its place. Such a sweet sweet woman.

I couldn't keep my thoughts straight, I lost track of how many times I have turned my computer on just to stare at the empty screen, my thoughts being somewhere completely elsewhere. Work usually always occupied my mind, call it a stress-relief if you'd like. But not lately, nothing brought peace to my mind lately.

Why did she run away from me? What have I done to not even deserve a proper explanation and goodbye from her? Why didn't she call me back? Doesn't she care about me? Just a little bit?

Not once have I answered a question from my family from the first listen, they had to repeat it at least once before getting a reply. I was ashamed, I'm not going to lie. I feel ashamed just thinking about my actions lately. This wasn't me, not anymore. I wish pushing her away was easier and I didn't look like a teenage boy who fell in love for the first time, except, I did. Rory was my first love. Not even once, before or after her have I considered anyone my soulmate. She was compatible with me, she filled in the blanks in my life. She kept me calm and I kept her wild. It wasn't difficult to see how I felt about her and what she meant to me.

I insisted on staying for a couple of more days, partly because my father's condition hasn't improved much and work wouldn't help much, but my mother didn't see the point in keeping my blushing bride-to-be alone any longer. I was packing up my things and took a good look out of my bedroom window.

It looked down onto the driveway where I parked when I took Rory to meet my parents. I never hated them more than on that night. The embarrassment, the anger... I rarely experienced such rage. Rory was intelligent. She was the only one who could truly challenge my mind and they thought she wasn't good enough? Up until this day, I cannot imagine a person more suitable for me. But, life is complicated, relationships are complicated and I wish I could have just picked her up on my shoulder, on her graduation day and flew away with her, somewhere far, somewhere beautiful, somewhere where we could have been alone.

Thinking about all of that made me angry, I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath and picked up my brown leather bag from the floor. Making my way down the stairs I heard my mother speak into her cellphone „Oh yes dear, he is just walking down the stairs." I swear, I couldn't decide which woman of the two was crazier. Mom handed me her phone and I heard Odette's familiar voice, stressed out about why I haven't answered my phone in three hours. I swear if I could roll my eyes for 360 degrees I would. I calmed her down, telling her that I'm on my way to the airport. She eventually hung up first, looking forward to see me soon.

Before heading to the door I walked into my dad's bedroom. He never looked so small to me, he was a tall man. He was proud and never had a single doubt about who he was and where he was headed. But today, he had a special look on his face, it was very difficult for me to tell if it was his sickness making an appearance on his face or something else. I walked over to him „Odette is waiting for me in London, I better get going." I said and for a couple of seconds, he was completely silent, just as I was about to tap him on the shoulder and say my goodbyes he shocked me with an unusual question. „How unbearable was it in California?" I looked at him stunned. I looked around the room, took a deep breath and tried my best avoiding the real answer. „Unbearable enough to move everything to London." None of this was a lie, none of it was the truth either. „What was the most unbearable thing about it?" He asked me again, I wish I knew where he was going with this. „An avocado tree." I said after a while, the feeling of absolute sadness rushed over me and I think my face didn't hide that at all. He had that look on his face, the look of understanding, how could he- what did he-. Confused I took a step back, about to turn around and make my way out of that cold, light blue colored room. „You should have planted a tree for her here. You should have planted a whole damn forest for her here." He said with regret in his voice. I couldn't stand there any longer, I felt my hand shake and seeing how the bag was shaking as well I could have guessed my father knew I got the message. A message which he should have come across years ago. I quickly walked outside, gave a quick hug to my mom and told her to hug Honor for me.

I threw my bag onto the backseat and sat inside. Nothing my father has ever said to me made more impact on me. He always wanted me to reach my full potential, and now seeing me reach it, succeeding in the family business he probably realized that this isn't the receipt I needed to be happy. However, none of this mattered, because she didn't want me, I was ready for anything, I was ready to jump with her and she didn't want me.

After what seemed very soon, I was in front of my apartment in London. I walked inside and the smell of cigarettes threw me off guard. I walked inside the living room and saw Odette sitting on the sofa, with a martini in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She looked at me with a fury in her eyes, I dropped my bag and walked over to her, gigantic question marks all over me. „Who is she?" She said standing up, pointing towards Rory's box she pulled out of the closet in which Rory placed some of her clothes. This was taking me by surprise, I didn't have a lie ready. I stood there in complete shock, lost for words. „Tell me who she is Logan!" She screamed out at me and kicked the box towards me. „It's from a friend of mine." I said, and even that was a lie because Rory and I didn't even talk at this point. „A friend whose name gets you to smile like a moron?" Her expression changed from rage to disgust. I looked away, not able to look her in the eye, she was right and there was very little I could say to fix this situation. „I want her out of my home. Now!" She yelled out and threw one of Rory's T-shirts at me. „GET HER OUT OF OUR HOME LOGAN!" She stormed into our bedroom crying at this point.

I held her oversized T-shirt in my hand and sat down. This felt like a cheesy scene from a very bad romance movie everyone has seen a thousand times. After a while, Odette walked back inside. Her make up was smeared all over her face and she had just thrown away yet another cigarette. She sat down next to me. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes she said. „You will get rid of her things by tomorrow-„ I wanted to say something, speak up but she demanded silence from me. „You will forget about her. We WILL get married and you WILL never mention this to anyone." I felt a strange kind of anger, the type of anger that knew it wasn't allowed to show it's face but was very well aware of its presence and power. I simply stood up, poured myself a drink and walked outside to the balcony, closing the door behind me, signalizing that I didn't want company.

How did everything become so fucked up? The worst part of it all was how none of this was blameable on anyone, there was no settling for a reasonable explanation as to why two people, in perfect health, well educated, who loved each other deeply, were sitting on opposite sides of the world, mad about each other and at each other.