397Epilogue
A few months later…
Svette leaned her head back and let the water cascade down her hair, delighting in the warmth of the hot spray. Her tired muscles slowly but luxuriously relaxed as water sluiced down her body, causing a shiver to run down her chilled arms. She knew she probably should have been hurrying instead of taking her time but she just couldn't force herself out of the shower. The sensation of the water warming her tired bones felt too good.
She wanted nothing more than to slide straight into her soft comfortable bed and let her mind drift in the sweet bliss of sleep. She let out a sigh knowing that that simply wasn't possible. Instead of sliding off into a sweet dream world as she silently craved she had to dress herself up for a night out in a crowded paparazzi filled restaurant.
The band's agent had decided to take them all out to a restaurant to celebrate the success of their new album. The gesture was a nice one but in all honesty Svette couldn't have wanted to do anything less than go out at the moment.
She had been running on fumes the last couple of weeks and her body was paying for the excessive workload she had taken on. There had been little to no time to rest over the last couple of weeks. There were simply too many things going on at once. Taking trips, both for business and pleasure, back and forth from New York to their hometown got to be extremely tiring after a while. She still felt some of the effects of jet lag, she admitted as she rinsed her hair.
And then there was always the excessive work load she had taken on when she began to toy with the idea of opening a new gallery in Manhattan. Nerves were constantly eating inside her but she couldn't make herself toss the idea aside and she considered taking the step every day. Even thinking about taking that specific leap had her nerves scattering. She was afraid that if she opened a new gallery the one she had already worked so hard on would begin to slack. Knowing that she had Ariel there to manage things back home when she couldn't eased her mind greatly. But even with the knowledge that she had people to back her up, she still felt the strain.
So no, she admitted, she definitely wasn't up for a night out. She ran a hand over her face, wiping water clear from her eyes and geared herself up to get out of the shower so she could begin getting ready.
With a sigh she turned to shut the taps off and froze when a shadow caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Wiping the water from her face once more she watched with wide eyes as the silhouette moved closer to the glass doors of the shower.
Remembering a certain scene at the Bates Motel in the classic Psycho, Svette reached behind her groping blindly for something that would work as a weapon. She had just managed to clasp her hand around a slick bottle when the glass doors began to slide along the track. Her body braced for attack and she lifted the object still clasped tightly in her fingers, ready to strike.
And let out a long breath when she saw Logan standing in front of her, his eyebrow cocked upwards at her defensive stance.
She dropped her hand to her side, still unconsciously gripping the bottle, and expelled a long breath of air. "God Logan, don't do that!" Much to her frustration, he began to laugh. Glaring, she flailed her arms around in exasperation. "It's not funny! I had a very vivid image of the Bates Motel imprinted in my mind, thank you very much."
He was still laughing as he stepped in beside her. "I thought it was very funny actually."
She narrowed her eyes but he cut her off before she could yell at him again. "What were you planning to do, shampoo me to death?"
She was confused at first and it showed clearly on her face. He lifted her hand up so that the shampoo bottle she still clutched in her hand was between them. She rolled her eyes at herself. "Apparently."
His eyes were full of laughter as she set the bottle back on the lip of the tub. She glared trying to ignore the fact that he was naked. "What are you doing in here?"
He wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her closer to him despite her glare. "Well, I was reading this magazine and they made a very good suggestion," He rubbed hands up and down her sides and she tried desperately to focus on his words. "Apparently there's a severe drought moving toward our area and they strongly advised that we preserve as much water as possible."
Svette raised an eyebrow. Since it had been down pouring for the past several days she highly doubted they were in any danger of a drought, but she humored him. "And what exactly does this have to do with you barging in on my shower?"
"I'm helping to preserve water," he said as though it were blatantly obvious and moved closer to her- not that he could really get much closer. "You have to do whatever you can to help the environment, Slim. There's no sacrifice too great." He continued.
Her lips twitched in amusement. "Right, since you're just a regular environmentalist."
"Damn right," He trailed his lips from her jaw down to the sensitive part of her neck and back up again.
She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes against the onslaught on her senses, trying to remember that she should still be mad at him for nearly giving her a heart attack. But when he nipped at the sensitive skin at her neck, even those thoughts evaporated. "Logan…"
His breath brushed against her neck making her shiver despite the warmth of the water. "And, remember, whatever pleasure we may get from this is completely coincidental." He backed her against the cool wall of the shower and she was laughing despite herself when he lowered his mouth to hers.
Ironically enough, they had ended up spending twice as long as either of them would have had they taken separate showers and, after they had both managed to dry off, they were running more than a little behind schedule.
Logan walked into the living room, his fingers busy fiddling with the tie around his neck in an attempt to make a knot. He had come to the conclusion that the tie simply didn't like him.
Svette walked out of the bedroom, garbed in a slim black dress and her feet bare, to see him glaring down at the tie with vehemence. "You alright there, buddy?"
He looked up at her, the scowl still planted on his face. "I'm going to rip this tie in half." He muttered sulkily, still fighting to make a knot. She rolled her eyes and walked closer to him, taking the ends in her hands. He narrowed his eyes at the ease she used to loop the ends into a secure knot. "Why do I have to wear a tie, anyway?"
She stopped and looked at him. "Do you realize how much of a ten year old you just sounded like? And you have to wear a tie because it's a fancy place, now stop being a baby and stay still so I can finish this."
His eyes stayed narrowed but he closed his mouth anyway. Glancing at his watch, he frowned. "We're really late."
"Well if you wouldn't have barged in on my shower and… distracted me, we wouldn't be having this problem right now."
He raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth tipping up in a smirk. "I don't remember hearing any complaints when I was busy … distracting you."
Svette flushed a light pink and he laughed. She pushed the tie's knot all the way up and smiled deviously when he made a choking sound.
He narrowed his eyes at her again. "You're evil." He muttered as he loosened the tie so it wasn't strangling him.
She smiled sweetly as she flounced toward the bedroom. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
The ride to the restaurant didn't take as long as they were expecting but they were still close to twenty minutes late. Logan paid the cab driver even as he continued to pull at his tie, which he insisted was strangling him, and they hurried to the front of the restaurant.
To their surprise they walked over to see Jake already standing in front of the doors. With narrowed eyes Logan watched as he brought a cigarette up to his lips, taking a deep drag. No matter what they seemed to do, they couldn't seem to get him to quit.
When Jake caught sight of Svette and Logan, his eyes widened slightly and he tried to blow the smoke out of the corner of his lips to make it less noticeable. He chucked the rest of the cigarette behind him guiltily and walked closer to them.
Seeing the narrowed look on Logan's face, Jake knew he had to distract them if he wanted to avoid the third degree he was sure to receive. "Where the hell have you two been?"
Logan shrugged, letting the subject of the cigarette die away. For now. "We lost track of time. Is everyone here already?"
"Yeah, we've been waiting on you guys to order. And it's about damn time, I'm starving."
Since Jake was almost always starving, Svette didn't take his exasperation to heart, although she did feel bad for keeping everyone waiting, and instead looped her arm around his waist affectionately. "Well, we better get inside before you die from starvation."
Logan held the door open for her and as she was about to walk in she heard a certain voice which made her freeze abruptly. She cocked her head to the side in confusion and narrowed her eyes, looking in the direction of the voice to see if her ears were simply playing tricks on her. But when she realized that he was, in fact, a few feet away from them, her eyes widened in surprise. Both men looked at her in confusion.
She looked back at them and smiled. "You guys go ahead. I'll meet you in there in a minute."
Logan's eyebrows furrowed but she smiled encouragingly and, while he still looked confused, he nodded his assent for Jake to continue into the restaurant. When they were inside, she began to make her way toward the one person she definitely wasn't expecting to see there.
His back was facing her so he didn't see her approach but there was no doubt in her mind of his identity as she took in his posture. Adam was busy talking into his phone and remained oblivious as to who was standing behind him. She remained silent as he talked on the phone, keeping her presence unknown. As she continued to listen to his voice, memories began to flood back.
She pushed at the tears she had tried so hard to keep back. "I really tried so hard to fall out of love with him but I just couldn't do it. No matter what I did, it just wouldn't work. And then when I finally thought I had succeeded, he showed up and everything I tried so hard to push away just flooded back."
"Then maybe you're not meant to fall out of love with him." Adam said softly.
Adam laughed into the phone as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Svette watched him closely and the memory continued to come back to her full force.
She shook her head, a frown forming around her mouth. "I'm such a horrible person."
"No." he clutched her hands. "No you're not. This probably would have been easier if you were, though." He said lightly.
She gave a watery laugh and he smiled softly as he cupped her face in his palms. She looked up at him with tear blurred eyes. "You can't help who you fall in love with Svette. Don't try to fight it on my account." Surprising her, he leaned down and brushed a soft kiss against her cheek.
Svette was snapped back into the present when he turned around, nearly colliding into her. Surprise filled his brown eyes and when he realized who she was, he smiled brightly. "Svette, hey."
She smiled. "Hi," Knowing that she should explain why she was standing behind him like a stalker, she used his phone call as an excuse. "Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt but I needed to see if it was really you." She smiled again. "What are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "I had some business in the city and decided to stay a couple nights. I didn't expect to run into you, though."
She laughed lightly. "Yeah, me either."
He smiled warmly. "Well, how are you? You look great."
"Thanks. So do you. I've been good. How're you?"
"I've been doing really well." She could tell by the tone of his voice that his words rang true. And as she looked him over once more she realized that he did, in fact, look really happy. His eyes were bright and a small smile played around the corners of his mouth.
She smiled. "That's really great Adam."
Just then a tall blonde walked over, a cell phone clutched in her hand and her gray eyes warm. "Adam, the maitre d' said the table's ready when we are-" She broke off when she saw Svette standing there and smiled apologetically. "Oh, hi, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt."
Adam smiled. "Not at all. We were just catching up," he gestured toward the blonde next to him. "This is my friend Kimberly. Kim, this is Svette,"
Svette smiled. "An old friend. It's nice to meet you."
They shook hands and Kimberly's smile was warm. "Likewise." Svette looked between them. Though they hadn't touched, there was an obvious connection between them and it made Svette smile softly.
Adam cleared his throat. "Well, I better get going."
Svette nodded. "Yeah, me too. My friends are probably wondering where I went off to." she stepped back "Well, maybe I'll see you around." He nodded and she smiled one last time and turned to walk away.
"Svette." She turned to look at him and he continued, "I'm really glad we did run into each other."
"Yeah," she smiled. "So am I."
He nodded and turned, placing a hand on Kimberly's lower back as they walked. The smile stayed in place as she watched them disappear around the corner. It was pretty obvious to Svette that he had begun to move on and with a smile she realized she was genuinely happy for him. While them breaking up hadn't been as bad as she was expecting, it had still affected both of them and it was nice to know that he was coping with it well.
Svette made her way into the restaurant and the maitre d' greeted her but her thoughts were elsewhere. It amazed her to think of how many things had changed in her life. All of which she thought would never change in a million years. Here she was, in New York City, having dinner with the one group of people she never would have seen herself with a year and a half ago. She owned a gallery back home and was toying with the idea of opening another one. And she was in love with the one person she had vowed to hate for the rest of her life.
If anyone would have told her any of this was in her future a year ago she would have called them crazy. But here she was and while she still got waves of nostalgia every now and then for what was she knew, as she looked around the table at the people who had quickly become her family, that she wouldn't trade it for the world.
She had once been told that nothing's ever guaranteed. Sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss but you'll never know unless you give it a shot. And while it had taken her a while to actually listen to it she decided now, as Logan looked up and smiled in her direction, that it was definitely better late than never.
A.N: So what do you think? : ) I'm really sorry about the long wait. Believe it or not, I've been working on this chapter for a couple of weeks now but I just wasn't happy with it so I ended up scrapping it and writing it all over again. gah.
Well anyway, this is the end. I'm actually really sad that this story is over, I had fun with it. Thank you guys so, so, so much for reading and reviewing this story. You guys are really awesome : )
I'm in the process of working on a new story- which is a little different then my regular kind but I've been thinking about it for a while and it's kind of bursting to get written on paper. So you may see a new one by me sooner than you think. Keep your eye out for it
: )