He Was Never Shy, Just Not With Me Chapter 01
We had been living together for five years, and Logan Reynolds had never once come to a gathering with my friends.
He always claimed he had social anxiety and just wasn’t good around strangers.
But a week before our wedding, I was scrolling through my feed when I unexpectedly spotted him in a video.
He was at a beach barbecue party with another woman, surrounded by people he didn’t know.
He was right in the middle of the action, hyping everyone up, cracking jokes, and rolling up his sleeves to grill skewers and brush on sauce.
When they lost a game, he gracefully joined her for a karaoke duet, singing a love song.
At the end of the video, amid a chorus of cheers, the two of them shared a ten-second kiss.
I finally understood that Logan had never been the chill, low-key guy he pretended to be.
He just spent it all on someone else. There was nothing left for me.
If he never wanted to be part of my world, then fine. We didn’t need to see each other ever again.
—
It was one in the morning when Logan finally walked through the door.
He was staring at his phone, busy texting, and casually asked without looking up, “Why are you still awake?”
It took him a moment to put his phone down and realize I hadn’t answered.
Seeing the grim expression on my face, he came over and sat beside me.
I looked him dead in the eye and asked, “Why have you always refused to meet my friends?”
He frowned. “I never said I refused. I’m just not good with strangers.”
“My friends are incredibly easygoing, and all their boyfriends fit right in. Why can’t you—”
“Nora Vance!”
He cut me off sharply. Realizing his tone was out of line, he quickly shifted back to his usual gentle, soothing voice to coax me.
“As long as the two of us are happy together, that’s all that matters. Why do we have to flaunt our relationship in front of other people?”
“You’re an extrovert with endless social energy, but I’m not. Socializing is exhausting and painful for me, okay?”
The second he finished talking, he looked right back down at his phone to keep texting her.
It was Hailey Brooks, his intern assistant.
I had watched every single video on her profile.
Logan started appearing in her posts about three months ago.
Whether it was dinners with coworkers, meals with college roommates, or parties with friends, the two of them were always sitting right next to each other.
They had countless photos just like that.
Meanwhile, in our five years together, Logan and I had only one single group photo from our engagement party.
He had never stepped into my circle of friends.
And I had never stepped into his heart.
A sudden, overwhelming sense of emptiness washed over me.
“So, taking care of Hailey’s friends tonight wasn’t exhausting for you?”
Logan finally looked up, his voice flat and calm.
“So you found out?”
“I only kept it from you because I knew you’d overthink things. She’s just a young girl, she was scared late at night, so she called me.”
“They were her friends—what was there to be scared of? I was out having dinner with my friends tonight too, and I called you. Why weren’t you worried about me?”
As the words left my mouth, I realized my voice was breaking with tears.
I had defended him countless times in front of my friends, making up excuses about how he was too busy with work to make it.
And I had pleaded with Logan over and over, acting cute just to beg him to have dinner with us.
Yet the two sides of my life remained parallel lines that never touched.
Now, I discovered that his parallel line had intersected with someone else’s long ago, tangling them tightly together.
His eyes darkened, and his brow furrowed as if he thought I was just throwing another baseless tantrum.
“She’s a young girl from out of town trying to make it on her own. You have no idea how hard she has it! She doesn’t know how to go out and have fun the way you do.”
I was so furious that I laughed through my tears.
“She certainly isn’t like me. After all, she’s the one locking lips with you!”
Logan’s face finally changed.
“That was just a game! She has a weak stomach and can’t drink, so she had to take the penalty instead.”
He reached out with a tissue to wipe away my tears.
“There is absolutely nothing going on between her and me.”
“Your birthday party is the day after tomorrow, right? I’ll come meet your friends this time. Will that make you happy?”
He had made the exact same promise two years ago when I pushed him into a corner.
But when the day actually came, he brushed me off with a text saying he had to work overtime.
This time, it was no longer necessary.
