Page 29 of Billionaire Bachelor
He cringes. “That mattress was terrible. My feet hung off the end and one of its coils dug into my back. Not to mention the fact that Ryan wouldn’t stop trying to spoon me in my sleep.”
I chuckle, bumping his shoulder. “Aw, but you guys were so cute, all cuddled up.”
Logan gives me the side-eye. “Well, I’m glad you got some entertainment out of it. It’s really fucking awkward waking up with your best friend’s morning wood nestled against your ass.”
I snort. “Hence the wall of pillows you insisted on building the second night.”
“Exactly.” His lips twitch into a teasing smile. “But the joint the three of us shared behind that tree made it marginally more tolerable.”
I smile, remembering that night in vivid detail. “Dude. You weresostoned. You would not shut up about coding, despite the fact thatRyan and I didn’t understand the first thing about it. You were so cute, rambling on and on about that Tetris-y game you developed and how great it was going to look on your college applications.”
“Hey! You were just as blitzed, and that game was a masterpiece! It got me into my number-one school, so I think my excitement was warranted, thank you very much.”
I roll my eyes playfully. “But here’s my question. How did you go from developing arcade games to the most popular hookup app known to man?”
Logan’s smile dims for a moment, a thoughtful look crossing his face as he contemplates my question. I hold my breath as his expression softens, the weight of something unspoken suddenly hanging between us. “Do you remember my freshman year, when I came home from Stanford for winter break? That party we went to with Ry?”
“Of course, I remember.” I nod, my heart giving a little flutter, because that night’s been living rent-free in my head ever since.
It was the first time Logan had kissed me. We were two of the only singles at mutual friend’s New Year’s Eve party. When the clock struck midnight, couples began making out all around us. What started as a chaste peck on the cheek quickly led to Logan dry-humping me against a wall. I’m not sure how long we’d been going at it before my brother spotted us and absolutely lost his shit, but it was long enough to make my lips feel bruised.
After that night, there seemed to be an invisible wall between us. Logan was always friendly, oftentimes even flirty, but we never spoke of it again. Just went on with our lives, as if it never happened. I shared a lot of drunken kisses with guys in college, trying to replicate the euphoria of Logan’s lips on mine, but not one of those kisses came close to igniting the same spark.
Eventually, I had convinced myself I was blowing it way out of proportion. That I was romanticizing it, making it so much better than it actually was, and I needed to stop beingso critical of every guy I dated. But as I’ve learned this weekend, my memory was perfectly fine this whole time.
Logan’s eyes meet mine. “Yeah…well, let’s just say I felt inspired after that night.”
My breath catches slightly, but I keep my voice steady. “How so?”
Logan stops walking, prompting me to do the same. “You really don’t know?”
My eyes bounce between his, the gold flecks on his irises shining in the bright light. “I don’t think I do.” My fingers curl in my gloves and my pulse quickens as I wait for his answer.
Logan pauses, his gaze dropping to the snow. “I didn’t intend for things to go that far that night. I mean…I would’ve loved to take things further if you were up for it, just not in front of an audience. That kiss had been years in the making, Pip, and when it finally happened, it felt…fucking perfect. I didn’t want it to stop.”
“Me either,” I agree softly. “But then Ryan came out of nowhere and took you down like a linebacker.”
He nods, a distant look in his eyes. “I’d never seen him so mad. He tore into me, throwing out the whole ‘bro code’ bullshit like it was gospel. Ryan was my best friend, Rosie.Ismy best friend. I convinced myself I had to forget about that kiss—the hottest fucking night of my life—because I couldn’t lose him. And because…I wasn’t ready to be the guy you needed. I had too much to figure out in my head.”
My chest tightens at the sadness in his voice. “But how is that night related to the app?”
Logan shrugs. “I needed a distraction after I got back to Stanford. I figured if I couldn’t have you, maybe I could help myself—and a bunch of other awkward nerds like me—figure out how to meet girls. It’s not my proudest moment, but my hormones were definitely a big factor. I was a nineteen-year-old virgin, and after feeling up a pair of tits for the first time, creating a campus dating app felt like the most logical solution to getting another shot at it.”
My eyes widen. “Myboobs were the first boobs you’ve ever touched?!”
“Yep,” he says, lips tugging back into a smile.
“Wow…just…wow. I’m honored, I think?” I laugh, the sound echoing through the quiet forest. “So Flingr was born and the rest is history?”
“Pretty much,” Logan confirms. “It was meant to be a small thing, just for Stanford students. But then it blew up way faster than I ever expected.”
“I’ll say.” I shake my head in amazement.
“It’s been a whirlwind, for sure. BetMasters’s fifth anniversary is coming up next month, and I have no idea how that happened. Seems like just yesterday we were a tiny startup.”
Logan became a baby billionaire shortly after his twenty-third birthday, when he sold Flingr to the parent company of several other dating apps. He used the money from that sale to launch his current company, which grew even bigger and faster than Flingr, making him a key player in the tech industry.
We walk in silence for a few moments, the memory of that night, and everything that’s happened since hanging between us. It’s funny how a moment that felt so right to both of us could cause such a mess but also turned out to be such a blessing.
