ROGAN #3: Moving On!
A/N: Hey guys! I know that its been a while but I'm back. I'm sorry that it has taken me a while to get you guys the next installment of the Rogan series but here we go. I have deleted what I had written for the 4th Installment, Time will tell and will be incorporating some of it into this story and pretty much starting from scratch when I get to the 4th one. Sorry for so much confusion you guys. I hope you guys like it and as always don't forget to read, review and favorite.
Prologue
Rory POV
When I was twenty two, I married the person that I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with…Logan Huntzburger. But of course like anything else, my relationship with Logan was always complicated. Things never seemed to be easy for us. If it wasn't his parents, then it was the lying and the cheating. I guess that's why divorce seemed to be the only answer for us. The worst part about it was that what led to our separation and divorce was the fact that he had a mistress in London and the affair dated back to before I graduated from Yale. It really hit hard when I found out that she was pregnant. That didn't last though…during Steph and Colin's rehearsal dinner we found out that Logan's mistress had a miscarriage.
Six months ago, I found out that my divorce to Logan was finalized. The worst thing about it was that I have no idea what I want to do now. Don't get me wrong…I have my friends. Steph, Colin, and Finn have been great. They make sure and get me out of the apartment at least once a week…but it doesn't change the fact that at night…I'm alone. I've been seeing a therapist. I haven't told my friends about it because I know that they'll judge me and say that it's because Logan has moved on (even if I don't believe that he has).
Things are changing though. I had some vacation time, so I decided to take it to clear my head. I was in the midst of packing for my trip when my landline phone rang. I answered it. "Hello?"
"Hi sweets." Mom said, when I answered.
"Hey Mom." I said.
"What are you up to?" She asked, as I continued putting clothes into my suitcase.
"Packing for my trip." I told her.
"What trip?" She asked.
I headed into my kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee. "Okay, so you know how Finn has been telling me for years that I need to take a vacation and see Australia?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"Well…I'm going. Or rather, me, Finn, Steph and Colin are going." I said.
"Well that sounds nice." Mom said. "When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow. How're you feeling?" I asked her. Shortly after I found out that my divorce was final Mom and Luke found out that they were pregnant. I was excited for her.
"Not too bad. When are you back from your trip?"
"We're gonna be gone for two weeks."
After talking to Mom, I realized that I didn't need to second guess this trip. The night before we were flying out, I was sitting on my couch when my phone rang. "Hello?" I said when I answered the phone.
"So this is what it takes for me to be able to hear your voice." It was Tristan.
"Hi Tristan." I said.
"Hi Rory. I thought you were going to call me and that was six months ago." He said.
"Sorry. It's been a crazy six months."
"It's alright. Do you have any plans tomorrow?" Tristan said.
"Actually I'm taking a trip and leaving tomorrow." I told him.
"Oh ok." He said.
"But I'm free now, if you want to meet for a drink?"
"Sure." I told Tristan about this Pub that was around the corner from my apartment. We agreed to meet there in half an hour. After I hung up the phone, I went into my room to change clothes. There was no way that I was going to meet Tristan in a pair of shorts and my old Yale t-shirt. I pulled a floral strapless dress out of my closet and put it on and then threw on a pair of white flip flops. I walk back out to my living room and put my phone and in my purse and head out the door locking it behind me. I made my way to the pub. When I walked in, I looked around for Tristan but I didn't see him. I grabbed a table in the back corner so that Tristan and I would have some privacy. The waitress came over and I ordered a gin martini. Right about the time that the waitress came back with my drink, I saw Tristan walk through the door. He spotted me immediately and he came over to join me. "Hi." I said.
"Hi yourself." Tristan said. He flagged the waitress down and ordered himself a drink. "So it only took six months for us to get here." Tristan said causing me to smile at him.
"Yeah well, it's good to see you." I said. "I was kind of going through a rough time the last time that I saw you."
The waitress brings Tristan his drink. "I kinda wanted to talk to you about that." Tristan said and I raised an eyebrow at him.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Tristan POV
"I know your ex-husband, and I was at your wedding." I said. I was really hoping that she wouldn't walk out before I told her everything. At this point she looked a little mad. "Before you leave...just let me explain. Everything...please." She stared at me for a minute. I took it as she was thinking and then she nodded. "Logan is my cousin. His mom and my mom are step-sisters. I told him about you after I left for military school, although I never told him your name. After you guys got together, he called me and said that he had met the girl of his dreams and that she reminded him of the girl that I had told him about. It wasn't until I got the invitation to the wedding that I found out that it was you." I said, picking up my beer and taking a drink. "Logan called me three days before the wedding and said that he wasn't sure if you were going to go through with it. He said that he thought that you were having doubts about marriage. I wasn't planning on coming to the wedding, but I needed to see for myself if you were going to go through with it. Then the day that he got served with the divorce papers came. He called me. Said that he had really screwed up. Said that he was stupid for cheating on you and that he had lost the best thing that had ever happened to him. But on my end...I was relieved that you divorced him." I said.
"Wow." She said. "You said that you never told him my name. Why?" Rory asked.
"Because you were my secret. You were the girl that I fell in love with and always thought that I'd never have a chance with."
"In high school or in general?" She asked.
I finished my beer. "Both...I guess."
"How come you never told me?"
"Rory, what was I supposed to do? Call you from military school and say that I was sorry for treating you like crap and that I should have listened to you about Duncan and Bowman because their idiots and that I'm in love with you." I told her.
"Well...yeah." She said with a smile.
"Okay then." I said. "So I'm taking it as a good sign that you haven't left yet."
"You should." Rory said, taking a drink of her martini. "Listen Tristan, you could have reached out to me when you realized that I was engaged to Logan or even when your sister saw me that day at the plaza."
"Yeah, I'm kinda surprised that Lizzy didn't spill the beans about me being related to Logan that day." I said.
Rory was silent for a moment. "I should get going. I have an early flight tomorrow." Rory finally said.
I nodded. "Can I at least walk you home?" I asked her.
"That'd be nice." She said.
I paid our bar tab and then we headed toward her apartment. "So how long is your trip?" I asked her.
"We're gonna be gone for two weeks. We're going to Australia." She said.
"We?" I asked.
"Yeah, me, Finn, Stephanie, and Colin. Finn's been telling me for years that I needed to go see Australia and I finally have some vacation time built up so I finally agreed to go." She said.
Rory POV
"It's nice that you have friends that want to go on vacation with you." Tristan said.
"It is. I love my friends. I don't know what I would do without them. It's a shame that we didn't meet up sooner cause then…well you could come with us." I said. Tristan stopped walking. I turned and looked at him. "What?"
"I still could." He said.
Was he serious? Would he really do that? "Really? You would really want to go on a two week vacation with me and my friends?" I asked him.
"Why wouldn't I? That's two weeks that I would get to spend with you." Tristan said.
"Thank you." I said, smiling.
"Your welcome." He said and we kept walking.
A few minutes later, we got to my apartment. "This is me." I said, pointing to the building.
"Nice building."
"Thanks. You wanna come up for coffee?" I asked.
"Sure. I can't stay long though if I still have to go home and pack and be up to catch a plane with you in the morning." Tristan said.
"That's a good point. Come on." I said. Tristan and I made our way through the lobby to the elevator and up to my floor. When we got off the elevator and walked towards my apartment, there was someone standing by my door. I couldn't believe this. I looked at Tristan. "I'm sorry about this." I said to him.
"It's okay. It was bound to happen some time." He said and I nodded.
Tristan and I finished making our way to my apartment with my keys in hand. "What're you doing here?" I asked.
"Well you see, I thought that you might need some company tonight so I called you but then you didn't answer. So I come all the way over here and what happens…you don't answer the door and now I can see why." Finn says.
"Hi Finny. It's good to see you. This is Tristan." I said.
"Wait…as in Logan's cousin Tristan?" Finn asked.
"Yes. That would be me. Nice to you Finn. Heard good things about you over the years." Tristan said.
Finn steps away from my door and I unlock it. The three of us go inside. I immediately make my way to the kitchen and begin making a pot of coffee. I hear Finn walk down my hallway to my spare bedroom to drop his bag. I make my way back to the living room where Tristan is looking at my pictures on the wall. I notice that he's looking at the picture of me, Steph and Honor from our trip to my Hampton's house last year. "I love that picture." I say.
"Is that you, Steph and Honor?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yeah. I had just bought my house in the Hampton's and we decided to have a girls' weekend." I told him.
"You bought a house in The Hampton's?" He asked.
I walked over to my couch and sat down. "Well at that particular time, I figured if Logan could have a mistress why couldn't I buy a house." I said.
Tristan nodded and came to sit beside me. "That's a good point. Rory, can I ask you something?" I nodded. "If I had called you when I got your wedding invitation or even when I heard from Lizzy that she had seen you at the plaza…do you think that you still would have married Logan?"
Wow. That was hard to answer. No matter how much that I had loved Logan, I truly believe that if at any point in the last six and a half years…if Tristan had called me and told me that he was in love with me…I would have ended whatever relationship that I was in. "Honestly?" I asked and he nodded. "No, I wouldn't have."
Tristan and I sat and drank a cup of coffee and talked before left to go pack for the trip tomorrow. After he left, Finn came out of my spare bedroom and joined me on the couch. "I have to tell you something." I said.
"What?"
"Tristan's coming to Australia with us." I said.
"Ror, have you lost your mind?" Finn said. "That's Logan's cousin. How long do you think that it's going to take before Colin calls Logan and tells him that his ex-wife is possibly dating his cousin?"
"Finny, it's none of Logan's damn business who I date. And besides you and Colin hid the fact that he was having an affair until three months after my wedding, remember?" I said.
"Fine. I'm going to bed. We have an early flight."
"Night Finny."
Tristan POV
When I got home from Rory's, I quickly packed my bag. I was finishing up when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Logan. He had been calling me once a week ever since he got the papers that his divorce to Rory had been finalized. "Hey man what's up?" I said when I answered the phone.
"Not much man, just working all the time. I forgot how much I never wanted this job." Logan tells me. "What're you up to?"
"Just packing for my flight in the morning."
"Work thing?"
"Nah. Vacation. Going on a trip with a girl." I told him. I didn't want to say more until absolutely necessary. "You seeing anybody yet?" I asked him, trying to fish for information.
"Actually, that's kind of why I'm calling. My mother is back on this kick about setting me up on dates. Any way, she's having this party next week and I was hoping that you'd come in case I need a quick getaway. Colin and Finn are gonna be out of the country, but they spend more time with Rory these days than they do me. I don't think that I've talked to them in the last two weeks."
"Man, I wish I could but I'm gonna be out of town." I told him.
"It's all good man. Let me know how things work out with that girl." Logan said.
"Will do." I said and hung up. I finished packing and got to bed. There was no way that I was going to miss this flight and chance to spend two weeks with Rory. This was going to be my chance to prove to her that I had changed and that I was not the same person that I was in high school.