Logan had barely set his belongings down on the desk when Keanu and Jen talked about Callum's past scandals. For the most part, Logan had heard most of them: the photo of him and the valet guy, the front desk staff, and the notorious one, his ex-wife. All were pretty similar to what he had heard back in New York, which Logan was mildly disappointed. If most of the details were this consistent across the board, they must've held some truth to it, right?

Maybe it was that Logan had expected better from the stoic boss, or assumed that perhaps the slightest ounce of concern he thought Callum might have for the rest of his employees was the truth behind this scandal-riddled mask he wore.

Logan was disappointed that his optimistic assumption about their boss was looking more like a farce and that he was quite possibly the playboy, aloof, and terrible boss that everyone made him out to be.

And if that were true, he had fled from Chris and his terrible personality only to encounter another annoying person. Only Callum was his boss Logan reminded himself. Comparing the two was like comparing an apple to an orange.

"I don't care whose baby it is, Jen." Keanu's flailing arms had caught Logan's attention back to the conversation—or more like the bash-Callum-rant. "He cheated on her, plain and simple. With an employee!"

Jen pinched the bridge of her nose. It was like viewing a tennis match, Logan mused, watching the two of them go at it from across his desk. "Keanu, that means she's a cheat too! They're both in the wrong there."

"He started cheating first. And remember the press that showed up when they realized it was someone from the legal team. Nobody could leave the parking garage with all their vans and reporters."

"Yeah, it was a nightmare," she agreed. "She did kind of use him, though. Made it way more public than it needed to be. The way he handled their divorce was a dick move, though."

Logan wasn't sure if Jen was defending or criticizing Callum anymore.

"He should've given her more money. Or a place to stay or one of his fancy cars."

Jen groaned. "I'm just glad the reporters have lost interest in the whole thing."

Keanu agreed before mumbling something about coffee. He got up and walked to the break room.

Logan pretended to work on his laptop at his desk, but their conversation only sparked further questions. He had heard about the baby before, but he didn't recall hearing about her or the baby after that. He turned to Jen. "What happened to her? The ex?"

Jen shrugged. "Who knows. She took the money and ran."

"And the baby?"

"It was probably some other guy she swindled money out of. It could've been a lie, too, for all I care." Jen twirled her hair as she booted up her computer.

Logan frowned. "So it wasn't his?"

Jen scoffed. "Could be. He didn't really deny it to the reporters, but talking to them isn't his thing. He usually gets a representative or Charlotte to do it for him. But honestly, him? A father? God, that poor kid would be screwed."

Despite laughing nervously along with her, Logan wondered why he felt sorry for Callum. So fatherhood didn't really fit his image, but Callum could've been a totally different person if he had a child. For example, chef Gordon Ramsey was night and day to father Gordon Ramsey.

Logan swatted the thought from his mind, deciding that thinking about his boss and fatherhood was not something an employee should do anyway. "Should we figure out what we're doing for the new project?"

She shrugged before picking up her phone. "We've got time."

Logan frowned. "We could start it now and finish early, though. Brainstorm something and consult the finance team."

"Don't worry, Logan," she said. "The finance team will agree that we can just wing this kind of thing for now."

What happened to the concern and frustration over their deadline, Logan wondered. He shook his head before pulling up the info from the email they received. "I'll look into it," he told her.

"Okay," she drawled before scrolling through her phone.

When Keanu returned with a coffee, Logan tried to tune them out, deciding whatever things they had to discuss—or rant about—wasn't worth his time.

***

With a distracting work shift with his talkative coworkers, Logan was grateful it was finally time to go home—or to his empty apartment. It wasn't quite home yet, in Logan's opinion; boxes still littered the floor, and he hadn't really worked out how he was going to organize his kitchen supplies. He had resorted to takeout the past few months he's been here, still making out how to use the gas stove—he had always owned an electric stove.

Logan got a text message after collecting his belongings and throwing them into his bag.

Where are you?

Logan stared at it, knowing exactly who it was, even if he had deleted him as a contact. Chris, his ex. He had sent similar messages the past few weeks, hundreds of missed calls, emails, direct messaging from multiple social media accounts, and the list went on. Logan had blocked him on most things, except his phone number, something he wished he had done first.

Answer me, Logan. Why did I find out through your neighbor that you left?

Logan bit his bottom lip hard enough almost to bleed. He thought he had left quietly and thought no one had known that he had upped and left. His phone pinged again, another message from Chris's number. He was now regretting not blocking it, but he did remember thinking that saving these texts that bordered threatening might help him if he ever needed to file a restraining order.

What the hell do you think you're doing?

He was always mad at him; he needed to know where Logan was at all times. Logan was glad he remembered to delete the tracking app Chris had placed on his phone.

You can't ignore your boyfriend forever.

And shortly after, he sent another.

I will find you, Logan.

Had Logan been at his apartment, he'd tossed the phone across the room. I'm not your boyfriend anymore; he was tempted to respond but knew texting Chris would only make things worse. Ignoring him and his crazy messages would eventually end; Chris surely would get bored and move on. That was what Logan hoped anyway. With Chris's obsessive tendencies, he wasn't sure if he'd ever finally get him to leave him alone. At least here, in Los Angeles, the chances of Chris stalking him here were incredibly low.

He waited for another text from Chris, wondering if he had anything else to say, but it remained silent.

But as Logan headed down the hallway, his head still glaring at that ominous message, he hadn't seen the person walking towards the elevators too.

With a surprised gasp, his phone clattered to the floor, along with the other person's papers. "I am so sorry," Logan told the man—judging by the slacks and large pair of loafers.

Logan bent down to grab his phone, with these messages still open, when the man bent down to pick up his papers and Logan's phone for him. When they straightened, chills ran down his spine, fear icing over his entire body as he looked up at the familiar face.

He shouldn't be on this floor; why, of all people, was Callum on this floor.

"I should be sorry," Callum told Logan, holding out the phone to him. "I wasn't paying attention."

Logan's eyes were still wide, his mouth gaping like a fish as he slowly retrieved his phone from his boss's hands. He gulped before looking back down at Callum's shoes. "No, I was the one not paying attention."

"Going down?"

"What?"

Callum tilted his head in the direction of the elevators, jeering his thumb for the added measure when Logan still looked confused. "Oh, yeah."

Logan couldn't find it in himself to remain calm, especially given the texts he'd just received and that his boss—that he was practically shit-talking with his coworkers—was standing less than three feet away from him. Almost noticing the nerves and tension, Callum took a half step back before turning sideways. "I can take the next one if you'd like. I'm not in a rush."

Despite how sincere those words left Callum's mouth felt, Logan couldn't help but wonder if this was some kind of test. Irrational, he knew, but wouldn't he sound like everyone else if he took that offer? He had already shared an elevator before; what was one more, he thought.

Logan knew he was overthinking it, and despite desperately wanting just to take an elevator alone to calm his nerves without his foreboding boss next to him again, he mumbled, "no, it's okay," before he could think.

Callum raised a brow as if surprised at his answer, and everything Logan had thought in his head just seemed so wrong. Maybe he should've just said he needed to use the restroom first as an excuse, but he was already hesitating too much. He was already holding up Callum's time by thinking too much into it. The man probably just wanted to go home, and Logan was awkward about pressing the damn button. "If you're wondering why I was on this floor, I forgot to drop off some papers I needed copying."

"Oh," Logan said, trying to move his stiff legs toward the elevator buttons. "That makes sense."

Callum didn't say anything, pressing the button firmly before leaving a few feet between him and Logan.

Logan could've backed out, he thought. He could've pretended he forgot something, and it would've been fine. But instead, he followed after his boss, awkwardly placing himself in the furthest corner of the elevator as the metal doors closed with a screech.

———

A/N: As part of the ONC hype, I will be shouting out some of my fellow ONC peeps from the discord server I'm in! These individuals may or may not be entering into the official ONC, but will be participating in a version of ONC (or NONC) where they will still be following along with the prompts and deadlines.

For this chapter's promo, we have the amazingly talented SmokeAndOranges's ONC, Thistle in the Sky:

Blurb:

When the zeppelin Ariomma finds a missing airship wrecked in the middle of the sky, Farah must distinguish allies from enemies in order to survive mutiny and save her twin brother as the Ariomma's crew starts to disappear one by one.