“don’t people like asses now? the fascination that swept the nation?” a horrible joke — one that would’ve become even worse if he continued with his follow-up comment about the kardashians. the quality of his response can only be chalked up to fern taking a stab at his ego and succeeding. it killed him to even mentally admit it, but she had a point. if logan was as committed to his career as he claimed to be, he had to act on his long-held-and-ignored realization that he couldn’t just party forever. god, just the mere thought of still having to promote shitty tequila at forty-years-old made him want to throw up his lunch. the only way to avoid that nightmare was to get serious when necessary; all in all, to cut the bullshit. maybe fern was a pain in the ass, but she was the only one capable of productively getting him in line. it was half the reason he sat there silently as she continued to make point after point. well, silent for the most part — he couldn’t help but let out a snort at the mention of ‘tacky’. “i thought people stopped saying tacky in 2006,” he muttered under his breath, not too far off from sounding like a child who kept running his mouth in time-out.
turned out he could listen for five seconds — if his mood wasn’t partially soured now, he would’ve obnoxiously interrupted after counting five seconds to himself. instead, he was forced to talk business. he could handle instagram stories; he could pop those things out in his sleep. he already willingly posted more than necessary on his own volition, might as well have some cash kicked at him for them. the concept, on the other hand, was enough to have him choking on his own spit. all he could takeaway was ‘public street’, ‘paparazzi’, and ‘nothing but underwear’. he laughed out loud — the outburst surprising but entirely genuine. again, another missed opportunity for a joke along the lines of ‘if you want to see me stripped so bad, all you have to do is ask’, but for good reason. there was a solid chance that saying such a thing would earn him a stapler getting thrown at the back of his head, so. better safe than sorry. but, fuck, he did not want to agree. he knew fern had done well — or, more specifically, had done exactly what he was hoping she’d do (excluding quitting, of course). they were all fun choices; so much so that he was getting preemptively irritated with the way she’d rub her victory in his face. so, he didn’t hand it to her. didn’t give her the satisfaction by any means. instead, he just looked over his shoulder, “are you going to be around for all of these? or am i trusted enough to not need a babysitter around?”
the eyeroll that followed logan’s comment was instinctual, she couldn’t help it nor did she bother to hide it. ‘well, we are not landing a netflix special anytime soon.’ fern thought to herself, deciding to save him from her internal monologue. “maybe, but most people don’t want to hear hard truths from the people they pay. – everyone wants their egos coddled.” she added, an edge of disdain hidden in her voice. that would be the one part of the job she didn’t always like, the sugar-coating and the bullshitting. fern was good at it, of course, but she didn’t like it. she learned the hard way that some people most in need of a reality check, weren’t always very open to one. it wasn’t as though she feared logan’s wrath or anything in the slightest, the pulled punch was out of habit at work. “next time, i’ll use some more colorful vocabulary for you.” his reaction to the brand’s concept was as expected, a seeming moment of shock followed by one of slightly juvenile glee, and logan didn’t need to say it for her to know she had done particularly well that week. “oh, of course i will be, and of course you’re not.” she laughed, airdropping him the schedule for the week as she did.
“i’ll be there to make sure your foot stays out of your mouth until you’re able to do that on your own.” by far the most marketable quality about logan was his charm; she needed it to stay that way. he wasn’t necessarily instantly likable (if fern was any gauge), but given the chance he was quite disarming, his informality usually putting people at ease. it was usually a balancing act of keeping public opinion positive, while not making clients seem too clean cut or two-dimensional; a problem fern didn’t have with logan, hence the babysitting. “the insta-stories i think you can manage yourself, just send them to be reviewed before the deadline. the mtv people will be at your place on wednesday around two-- double check none of elijah’s little goodies are laying around when they get there. i’ll probably be there around noon to go over what they’ll be asking you.” she paused for a breath, eyes scanning over her laptop as she tried to discern if any other information needed to be emphasized. “the club opening is friday, you can arrive whenever, you got your own table and free bottle service, just post a couple insta stories of the night. i’ll probably be there around ten.”
