Glimpses

Chapter 84

December 25th, 2007

"Logan! It's been too long," his mother greeted him as he emerged from the foyer, having handed his coat to the maid he'd known for more than two decades along with brief pleasantries as he'd learned from Rory. Logan pretend-hugged his mother, her body language making it evident she didn't want to smudge her makeup or mess up her perfectly curled and hair-sprayed hair. Shira was dressed to the nines even though to Logan's knowledge this was supposed to be a quiet family Christmas dinner. But at this point he just figured they'd invited some friends over - it wouldn't have been the first time.

"Hi, mom. Merry Christmas. You look great," Logan said, knowing this was what her mother was after. The tight-fitting burgundy glittery dress hinted at the fact that she's either dieted or had lipo recently. Whatever it was - it had been done to get people to notice her, and since it was Christmas Logan was feeling generous to at least offer her that. After all he hadn't exactly been an exemplary son at calling her these past months, having not felt like interacting much.

"Thank you, Logan!" Shira chimed, adding, "Your father's in the living room," as she made an exit, gesticulating towards the kitchen, making it clear she had some things to manage.

Mitchum was just at the drink cart, pouring himself a drink. Shira was fussing back and forth between the kitchen and the foyer, not looking satisfied with the extra help they'd hired for the holidays, being a little cryptic about her reasons.

"Dad," Logan nodded, instinctively straightening his back, walked over to shake his hand like he always did. As his father left towards his armchair, not offering to make Logan a drink. Nothing new there - he poured himself a scotch and after he'd unbuckled his suit he took a seat on the usual couch.

"So how's business, Logan?" Mitchum asked, as he got comfortable in his armchair, and swirled the glass of iced vodka in his hand.

Logan took a drink, the fact that he had liquid in his mouth allowing him a moment to consider how to answer that.

Honor and Josh had gotten stuck in traffic, and Logan had only gotten her message when he was already in the driveway. It had been too late to turn around and wait for her, not go in there all alone. He'd considered not coming at all. It had taken a lot of convincing from Honor to get him to fly to Connecticut for Christmas in the first place, the West-Coast distinction having helped him a lot. It was finally beginning to look like Rory turning down his proposal was not the constant thought to follow him around every hour of every day. But coming back here had brought that hurt straight back - they'd spent so much time in Hartford together. But Honor had begged, saying she missed him. And he hadn't been able to argue with that, having missed her too. The last time he'd seen her had been in August, when she'd showed up at his doorstep, and attempted to pull him out of a very dark hole. It hadn't done the trick, it hadn't solved his struggles, but perhaps showed him the weak light at the end of the tunnel that there was life after all that hurt that he'd experienced.

So here he was, having to keep up this civil small-talk with his parents. Supposedly it was good that at least Elias was spending the holidays with his brother in South Carolina this year, or he would've been sure there would've been more rubbing in his failure and separation from the family company. He was no doubt a traitor in Elias' eyes, but his father was a little more understanding it seemed.

Logan knew that Mitchum didn't actually expect a truthful answer from him - he probably knew that start-ups were hard. It was about long hours, lots of risk-taking, high highs and low lows, and generally didn't pay too well until one got things going. Logan had gotten through the lowest of the lows and he was actually making a decent salary that covered everything he needed to live in Palo Alto. It was a humbler existence, but it was his own. But he knew that essentially what Mitchum had asked him was asking him to do his best elevator pitch - more or less asking what it was - what made his company successful and how much of a difference they were making?