The Girlfriend

Trisha stared at him. No, she had not heard that right. Had she? Why in the world would a famous model want to date a nobody like her? "What?" 

He smiled. "I think you heard me. You want my help, and I"ll agree to it, but I want you to be my girlfriend."

Trisha's brain continued to refuse to work. "What?" she demanded again.

Logan laughed at her. He leaned forward his hand grazing against her cheek.

"Listen, all I have around me are shallow people that just want my fame. I never get to be a normal person. Call me selfish, call me arrogant, call me whatever you want. But I'm going to use this secret of yours so I can get what I want. Date me, Trisha, date me so I can have a normal girlfriend."

Trisha wrinkled her nose as she scooted back. "You're supposed to date someone you like."

His lips twitched. "And you're supposed to marry someone you love."

Damn, that was a low-blow. Trisha continued to stare at him as he crouched beside her. "You don't even know me, Logan. Why would you want to date someone you don't know?"

"You're cute, interesting, and normal. At worst we have a couple of bad dates and call it quits, at best I get a taste of the whole normal thing with someone that can help me understand it."

Trisha turned her attention to her still angry kitten. "You can put him down, you know. He hasn't done anything to you."

"He hasn't done anything to me yet. Believe me, this little guy would like nothing more than to claw my face off. A face that I have to protect for insurance sake." He handed the kitten to her and it hissed once more before curling tight against Trisha and shivering.

"Shh," Trisha hugged it close. "There, there, little guy. No one is going to hurt you. I'm sure Logan didn't mean to scare you," she lifted her eyes to meet his. "Did you?"

"Just protecting company property," he replied as he once more reached out. This time he ran a thumb over her bottom lip, his eye following the movement. "I need an answer, Trisha, please."

Trisha swallowed. Should she really put herself into such a weird situation to help out yet another celebrity? "I don't get why you'd want to blackmail Ryan like this. Do you hate him?" she shifted away from his touch and he dropped his hand to his side.

"No, I am not thinking of it as blackmail. I just want a normal girlfriend. I want you to be that normal girlfriend, and you need me to keep a secret."

Trisha groaned. Why was she getting into these situations? It hadn't even been 24 hours since the last proposal someone had for her. Well, at least Logan's wasn't a marriage proposal. She didn't need that complicated of a life. Did she really want to go on a date with a famous guy?

"How are you going to stay hidden?" she demanded. "I've just been introduced to the public as Ryan's wife, and you must get followed by reporters all the time."

Logan shrugged. His eyes were twinkling now in the moonlight. His smile had returned as well.

"That sounds like a yes."

"I didn't say yes."

Logan grinned. "Tell you what, let me worry about keeping us secret, and you can just say yes. I did save you earlier before, you can trust me."

Trisha knew she was going to regret this. But as she stared at Logan's eyes she was reminded of a puppy dog begging. How could she tell him no to something like this? "This is only temporary, right? Just a few dates?"

Logan nodded. "Yes," he held up a hand. "Three, no, four dates max, does that sound fair?"

Trisha nodded. "Fine, I"ll go out with you, Logan."

He grinned and leaned forward giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Thank you, Trisha. I promise you won't regret it."

The door slammed open behind them and they both whirled to see Kanda framed in it now. "Did I just see, what I thought I saw?" he demanded as he looked between the two of them.

Logan smirked. "Maybe?"

Trisha wanted to smack the smirk off of him. At least it was Kanda though. She wasn't about to be roped into another deal with another weirdo. "Kanda, he already knows."

Kanda hesitated. "What? You told him?"

Trisha flushed as she looked away. "Well, I didn't tell him exactly. He overheard it."

Kanda stared at her with a blank expression. "You were just talking to yourself out loud about all of this?"

"Hey, calm down," Logan demanded as he got to his feet. "I'm not going to tell anyone, okay? Ryan's secret is safe, so don't go scolding her or anything."

"Logan, I think you need to leave this party, right now," Kanda demanded. 

"Sure thing, but one thing first." Logan held out his hand and Trisha stared at it. She put hers in it with her brows furrowed. Logan smiled. "That's not what I was going for, but I'll take it." He brushed a quick kiss on the top of her hand and helped her up. "I wanted to see your phone."

Her phone? Trisha shook her head. "I don't have it with me." Nor did she have it paid for anymore, but she wasn't about to admit just how bad her situation was to him.

Logan nodded. "Okay, I'll take care of that." At Kanda's continued glare he held his hands up.

"Listen, I'm leaving okay? Trisha, I promise I'll get hold of you tomorrow. Have sweet dreams." He backed away and left leaving Trisha and Kanda alone with the kitten.

"I don't understand how you let Ryan's secret slip," Kanda whispered. "How hard would it have been to keep that hidden? I don't trust Logan. He's likely to use that against you."

Trisha decided now would not be the best time to tell Kanda that Logan had requested she date him. Just did not seem appropriate timing. "I didn't mean to. I was talking to my kitten." She picked the animal up and once more it cuddled.

Kanda's expression soured as he had bit into a lemon. "I see."

Trisha frowned back at him. "What, don't you like cats?"

Kanda shook his head. "Never mind. I'm fine with cats. I'm just worried for my best friend, okay?"

Trisha nodded and stared at the ground. "I'm sorry. I never meant for it to get out like that."

Kanda sighed. "It's fine. Maybe Logan won't try to do anything with it. Maybe he'll show some class for once in his life instead of being a shallow man whore. At least Ryan's relatives didn't hear that conversation, or see you two."

Trisha shivered. She didn't even like thinking about that. "Are they gone yet?"

Kanda shook his head. "Afraid not. They're very much still around. I think they were scouting around for you too." He glanced out over the balcony. "It might be best for you to come inside. I can take you back to your room if you want. I don't think you have much more party in you, do you?"

Trisha shook her head. "No, I just want to get some rest." That and play her game. Her fingers itched as she imagined taking part in the upcoming raid. "Hey, Ryan doesn't have any gaming computers, does he?"

"Gaming computers?" Kanda repeated the words like they were foreign to him.

Trisha nodded. "Yeah, I was going to install my game and link up with my guild if he did. But I guess he probably has never even played a game."

"I don't think Ryan has anything like that here, no." He agreed.

Trisha sighed. "Worth a shot." 

Kanda got the door for her and kitten in hand, Trisha walked back through it. There was no sign of Logan at all. He had taken Kanda at his words and vanished. "Follow me. If you try to find your room, you'll likely get lost. This place is bigger than it appears outside."

Trisha was once more reminded of the strangeness of the world she had stumbled into. How would anyone think that this place could be any bigger than the city block she had seen outside?

"Lead the way."

Her kitten hopped down and with tail held high it raced down the hallways, stopping at every branch to look back and her and wait. "Or, I guess the kitten can," she mumbled.

"I wonder how it even knows where to go," Kanda remarked with a glare at the animal. It didn't seem to notice his mood and with a happy meow continued to lead the way.

Trisha made it to her room and fidgeted at the door. "Kanda, I wanted to say thank you. Maybe we didn't get off to the best start. But thank you for taking me back here, and helping me avoid the rest of the people downstairs."

Kanda nodded. "Ryan would strangle me if I let anything happen to his pretty little wife. Go, get some sleep. I'll make sure that Nakuni wakes you up when everything is okay."

Trisha nodded as she yawned. She picked up the kitten once more and closing the door behind her she crawled into the giant princess style bed. She pulled the covers down and shimmed into the warmth.

Is this how celebrities lived? They slept on fluffy clouds? The kitten meowed once more before curling up into a little ball on her pillow right beside her head. Trisha pet the little animal one more time and tried to force her buzzing mind to a halt. 

She needed rest.

What she didn't need was to remember Logan's defined abs under that perfectly tanned skin, or the feel of Ryan's lips when they were pressed against hers for just a moment.

Damn it. She was going to have a long night.