Compulsion

Three

I sat in the waiting room with Logan and all of his family, Levi sat with his arms wrapped around his mother while she stared into some void her mind had formulated.

The last bit of news that the doctors had given us was that Logan's father had to be rushed into surgery and that they would give us news if anything had changed.

That was two hours ago.

Now it was nearly midnight, Logan was fighting sleep and if I had to admit, I was too. My eyes burned with the struggle to stay awake. Why hadn't the doctors come out yet? How long does surgery take?

Logan set his hand on my thigh, "You can go home now if you need to, we are probably going to be here late."

I shook my head, "No, I want to stay here with you."

Logan gave me half a smile and then patted my thigh, "Beth you look exhausted and I know you have to meet with that woman who you can't stand at eight."

"It's already midnight, the damage is done. I am staying." I said leaning into his chest.

Just as I had begun to nod off again, the doctor came into the private waiting room the hospital had arranged for us. He was still wearing his surgical scrubs and he had a tired expression on his face. If he was doing surgery as long as I could thing, I would imagine he would be extremely tired.

"Mr. Chase is doing fine. We managed to stop the chest bleeding that he had, and we sedated him, so no further stress can happen. We will still don't know how he is functioning cognitively. His brained was starved of oxygen for three minutes." The doctor says.

"Can he have visitors?" Logan's mom asked hopefully.

"Visiting hours are closed right now, I think you should all go home and get some rest, it's been a very long night. Come back in the morning and he will be awake." The doctor said.

Everyone stood as they made their way to leave, Logan went over to hug his mom and give her words of encouragement while I remained off to the side. My drowsiness began to hit me like a train and I was two seconds away from passing out.

I hadn't noticed Levi walking over to me until he was directly in front of me. "How are you Bethany?" he asked.

I smile, "I'm good, and you?" I tried to be civil when in all honesty I didn't like the guy a bit.

"I'm good, listen I am having a get together next week and I was wondering if you could find a way to get Logan to come." Levi said.

"I can't make any promises; Logan isn't too fond of you." I said.

"It's old sibling rivalry, if you ever want to sit down and talk about it, I am always willing to." Levi offers but before I can respond Logan is standing in front of me.

"Brother." Logan says sternly.

Levi nods and puts his hands up in defeat before walking back over to his mother. Logan wraps his arms around me and leads me over to the exit.

"What did he want?" Logan asked.

"He just wanted to see if I was okay after everything, no need to be so tense." I lied.

"You're right, I just need to go ahead and go to bed, I am exhausted." Logan says while walking me to the exit. The entire car ride was silent, and I could only recall how tired I was going to be tomorrow morning and how difficult it was going to be to tolerate that insufferable woman.

We dragged ourselves into the penthouse and sat down in the bedroom. Logan sat at the end of the bed and stared off into space, I could tell he was extremely stressed and exhausted, but I wasn't going to start trying to get him to express his feelings tonight.

I unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off and took off his watch for him. He helped me out with taking off his pants before he laid down in the bed and pulled me on top of him.

"I just want to lay like this forever and forget everything." Logan sighed into my hair. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer, "At least we have tonight."

"And the rest of our life?" Logan asked.

"Yes," I promised, "the rest of our lives."

My alarm forced me out of bed what felt like twenty minutes later, I could hardly open my eyes let alone pull myself off the bed. When I reached my hand out to turn it off it was met with another.

My eyes opened, and I saw Logan standing above me dressed in his usual three-piece suit, something I hadn't seen him in in a while since he began working from home.

Speaking of working from home, he wasn't in his usual work from home get up, he was actually dressed at six in the morning. Logan had gotten so comfortable with working from home that he never woke up before eight unless he had a business call.

"Good morning, beautiful." Logan kissed my forehead before grabbing his watch and putting it on.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Can't stand to be in this place all day, I am going on a few businesses runs for the day and I am going to make sure the building is up and running. I also have a meeting with my publicist." Logan explains.

"Publicist?" I asked.

"Yes, a publicist, I need one." Logan said before kissing me one more time, "I left you a coffee on the kitchen counter, if I am not home before you go head and order dinner for yourself."

I wasn't able to reply before he walked out of the bedroom with extreme haste. Here he was, being his classic evasive self, the type I would have to deal with for the next few days until his father is better.

I climbed out of the bed and dragged myself to get ready. I tried to make myself look perfectly presentable for Mrs. Patrick. She hated a woman who wore too much skin and hated a woman who dressed like a nun.

If I was going to make it through a morning with Mrs. Patrick I was not trying to sit through commentary on my outfit.

I settled with a pantsuit and some heals with a low bun. When I got into the kitchen I saw the it was completely reorganized, everything was in a perfect order and I knew that he rearranged everything before he had left.

His habits were back, and something told me that they were here to last this time around. I grabbed the coffee that was already in a to go cup and made my way down to my car.

I arrived at work five minutes late and I could already see Ryan sitting on the phone with Mrs. Patrick.

"Yes Mrs. Patrick, she is on her way. There is just a lot of traffic... yes, I will have to give you her number... give her ten minutes. Yes, have a nice day." Ryan hang up and gave me an ugly eye.

"You have only been here thirty seconds and you already made my day hectic." Ryan said, "Mrs. Patrick is dying because you aren't there, and you had flowers delivered before we even opened."

Flowers, Logan was early efficient when he wanted to be, or when he was under stress. I give Ryan an apologetic look and grab the vase off the walk-in desk and made my way into my office, grabbing Mrs. Patrick's look book.

"I will buy you lunch one day."

"Not today because you pick out your wedding dress with you mother. She called to have me remind you." Ryan said, "Take your calls yourself, I am not your assistant."

"Sorry, I will remember that next time." I said. Rushing out of the office, I made my way over to Bellevue which was a few minutes from Seattle, given the traffic was nice.

"Hello Mrs. Patrick, I am sorry that I am late, the traffic in Seattle is awful." I explain the waiting old lady who was sitting on the porch to her perfect house.

It was a five-bedroom Victorian style home painted white and the inside was also white with dark floors. Mrs. Patrick wanted me to decorate every single room with insurance money she won off of a terrible surgery she had gotten last year.

2.5 million dollars it has been rumored, and now here we are catering to the she-devils every need.

"I don't pay you to spend hours waiting on you. Did you bring my color swatches?" she asked.

Here we go...

Four long hours later I was sitting in a dress shop with my mom sipping champagne and waiting on the lady to bring out dresses of my style.

Somehow my mother managed to shut down the whole store just for us, assuming that people could be in here spying to sell something the tabloids. After a morning with Mrs. Patrick I was less than thrilled to spend the afternoon with my mother.

Mrs. Patrick was my only meeting for today and I had managed to muscle my way through. Now I had to deal with my mom who was forcing me into shopping for wedding dresses way too soon.

I wasn't ready for wedding dress shopping when I am trying to figure out how to get my fiancé on a more level playing field mentally, make sure his grand opening is spectacular, and make sure his dad was okay. The last thing I needed was to be picking out a wedding gown.

"Hello, Ms. Fitzgerald, we have selected you a few dresses, are you ready to try them on." The long black-haired lady said with her perfect smile.

"Yes, I am." I said with a smile, I faked my way through one four-hour meeting, I could make my way through this.

The first dress the lady had selected for me was a very tight and form fitting dress with beautiful traces of lace and sparkling diamonds. It was hold onto my body so tight that I couldn't breathe, let alone dance in it.

I stepped out onto the dressing block and there my mom was sitting there and smiling with a s**t eating grin.

"I know that isn't the one, but you look so stunning, and so skinny!" my mom exclaimed.

"You're right, it's not the one, I cannot hardly breathe in this." I said while over exaggerating my breathing attempts.

The stylists laughed, "I have another for you."

Dress after dress after dress and I still couldn't find a dress I wanted to stand in and say I do. A trip I assume would take a couple of hours took me until four o clock. I was nearly dead on my feet and I didn't want to muscle f**k my way into another dress.

"I think we have had enough for today." I said, "I think we will come back another day."

"Are you sure? You haven't nearly tried on enough for one day." My mom said with her look of disapproval.

"Yes, I am sure. I am tired, mom I stayed up all night." I said.

"You should give your fiancé a rest, let him relax for the wedding night." My mom said.

"No, mom. That was not what we were doing, we were in the hospital, his dad had a heart attack. I am surprised you haven't heard, it's all over the news." I said while pulling on my clothes.

"I'll send him a fruit basket, obviously he needs it." Mom murmurs. I glare at her and grab my bag.

"I am going home mom." I said, "We will meet later so we can finish this. I will be sure to take off the whole day."

I got up and left the bridal shop and as soon as I walked out of the door I was swarmed by a group of paparazzi.

"Bethany, how do you feel about your fiancé going on dates?"

"Is the wedding still on?"

"How is Mr. Chase?"

"Are you having a baby?"

"Let us see the dress!"

Forcing my way into the car, I had an anxiety attack.