"Hold the elevator!" Rory shouted running to reach the elevator before it closed, she's just moving in and she has her first meeting at the New York Times in two hours.
It's been five years since she graduated from college, she spent a year on campaign trail, then she moved to Washington and continued to write for politics, she loved every minute of it, but unfortunately it would not help her achieve her dreams. So she decided to take the job as a reporter at the times and starts focusing on being an overseas correspondent again instead of the politic campaigns.
"Thank you." She said entering the elevator without looking up, she pressed the button for the 13th floor and noticed that the 9th was already pressed. When she finally looked up something inside her broke, she wanted to scream and run away when she saw four faces she never thought she'd see again. "Oh my God." she muttered under her breath.
There stood Finn Morgan, Stephanie Vanderbilt, Logan Huntzberger - which surprisingly enough was not the one she was more worried about seeing it -, and the lastly, Colin McCrea. It's been at least a year since she last saw the latter, she was living in Washington and he was in law school at Princeton. They met in a bar in New Jersey; she was with her coworkers - they were covering a piece in the city -, and he was with his friends, they started drinking and catching up, one thing let to another and last thing she knows they're having sex at his apartment.
They didn't even think about it, they didn't talk, they only kept pleasuring each other all night until exhaustion finally took over and they fell asleep. She woke up the next morning with a massive hangover and alone in a strange bed. She could listen to the sound of shower running, and to say she was confused was an understatement, she got up, put her clothes on and left as fast as she could.
Now here they are, after a year, face to face in a confined space and all she wants to do is run.
"Rory, love! It's been way too long!" Finn said going up to her and puling her into a bear hug.
"Hey Finny, nice to see you." Rory was the only one Finn let call him that, he hated the nickname, but when her called he found it sweet and endearing.
"Girly! You're looking good, how have you been?" Steph proceeded also hugging her after Finn finally let her go.
"Oh thanks, you're looking good yourself, I like the hair." Rory responded, she notice her hair was shorter and more wavy than when they were in college, it looked good on her.
She decided to do the polite thing and greet the two other people in the elevator as well. "Logan." She acknowledge with a nod looking at him. "Colin." She greeted him the same way she did Logan.
"What are you doing here?" Logan finally said.
"I live here." She answered softly.
"What?" It was Colin that asked.
"Um, I live here? I'm not sure what got you confused about that." She said without a hint of sarcasm in her voice. The elevator's door opened and she thanked God for this but no one moved, she looked at them questioningly. "Aren't you coming out?" She finally asked.
"Why Kitten, you're living here and didn't tell me? Now I'm appalled." Finn said ignoring her question.
"I literally just got here an hour and a half ago, I haven't even seen my apartment yet and I have a meeting in two hours, so maybe you can let me off the hook this time?" She answered innocently batting her eyelashes at him. The elevator's door closed and it started moving again.
"Now that's not fair, you know I can resist this eyes!" Finn answered with a little pout.
"Can anyone really?" Steph said with a smile, Colin scoffed staring at her and everyone looked at him. She met his eyes and looked away quickly, there was a breve silence.
"I guess you're right." She finally said. The door opened again and she sighed happily inwardly. "Okay, this is me, I'd love to stay and chat but as I mentioned before I have a meeting and I don't want to cause a bad first impression now, do I?" she rambled a little getting out of the elevator. "Anyway, good seeing you guys, bye." She added quickly and started walking away, smiled for finally getting out of there until she heard someone calling her.
She turned around and saw Finn walking towards her.
"Kitten, I don't have your number, I really think we should catch up some time, seeing as we're neighbors and all." He said quietly so the ones in the elevator couldn't hear him. She looked at him questioningly and he clarified. "I live in the 9th floor here, that's where we're headed."
"Oh, okay, give me your phone." She said and he reached for his phone in his pockets giving it to her, she saved her number and gave it back to him.
"Here, use it wisely Finny." She teased and then gave him a quick hug before opening her door and walking in her apartment for the first time.
She looked around, it was huge, way too big for her alone. The furniture was already in place, it looked great, her mom and grandma did it together and she love it, it felt like home. She thought about the only place she felt at home before, Stars Hollow will always be her home, but this is her independent life, her own home, away from everything. This is where she'll start her own life away from everything she knows, she sighed happily at the thought and went to look the rest at the apartment.
She was standing in front of the building for the last ten minutes, it looked so intimidating, she still had twenty minutes until the meeting, after a couple of minutes she decided to go in.
Getting into the elevator made her think about the encounter she had earlier the day, how awkward everything was and how hard it would be to ignore them now, she hoped she had some time to organize her thoughts before another run in with her once upon a time group of friends. Of course, that was before she rejected one of them, then slept with another and ran away before they could talk about it like adults. She shook the thoughts out of her head when she saw the door opening, taking a deep breath she stepped out of the elevator and went to the nearest information desk.
"Hello, where can I find Preston Dell's office?" She asked politely.
"Name? Do you have an appointment?" The woman answered with an annoyed tone.
"Yes, Rory Gilmore." She replied with a smile.
"By the end of the hall turn right and you'll find his secretary desk and she'll be able to direct you to where he might be. Have a good day." She said and went back to whatever she was doing.
Following her directions she found his office and was instructed to wait that he was in a meeting, she sat there trying to calm her nerves, so she wouldn't make a bad first impression. Everything went downhill when a redhead stormed out of the office with a disgusted expression, when their eyes met Rory could see the anger in them and she recognized the girl from her high school days.
Francine Jarvis or Franie as people used to call her, the girl was a nightmare back then hopefully she's better now, but one look at her and she could see that if anything, she was worst and she just hoped they didn't have to interact to each other for work so often.
Before Rory could say anything she gave Rory a death glare and stormed away in the hallway, taking his eyes off the angry woman she saw the editor in chief, Preston Bell, started walking towards her, she got up to greet him properly. He wasn't very tall, but still taller than her, he has gray hair and blue eyes, he looks about 50 years old and very charming, you can see how handsome he was when he was younger.
"Miss Gilmore, pleasure to finally meet you, George has a lot of great things to say about you." He said with a smiled and a handshake.
"I could say the same about you Mr. Dell" She replied.
"Oh, good man that George Rosenthal, always with a compliment for everyone. Please, let's go in my office to hammer out the details of your position here." He said directing her to his office. "Please have a seat." He said motioning to the chair across from him and she sat down.
"As you know we hired you for a different position that the one you were doing in Washington Post, you used to cover politics there and you did a great job at that, at first we wanted you to cover the same basics here, but after talking to George we decided that it would be in our best interest to move you to a bigger section. As you know, you were offered the position as a national reporter, your Editor Junior will be the one assigning the stories and filling you in with everything concerning your position.
"He's on his way here as we speak, but before he gets here I'd like to discuss your responsibilities as well as your salary so we can sign your contract and Aaron can show you to your office. We'd like to double our proposal for your salary if you take the responsibility of reviewing the articles, not only yours, but all of the National Section before passing along to the editor. It would be something like a pre-edition, our editor it's assuming the position of Opinion editor as well and needs some help to manage both. With you being one of the most promising reporters in the field right now I think it will be a good help, and a great impulse for your career as well of course.
"Now, if you think it's too much and you won't have the time, don't worry about it, it's absolutely okay, we still have our last proposition for you here and we can stick to that if you think it's best." He finished with a smile and looked at her waiting for an answer.
This sounded too good to be true, but if she think about it, they're grooming her for National editor and not that it's not amazing but she was rooting for International reporter, that it's what she always wanted, but this is only the beginning, she can change her position in the future. This won't stop her from achieving her goal, it'll only help her, it's a great start.
"Thank you Sir, that's a great opportunity, I'd love too!" She finally said.
"That's great news! Now I have your contract here, you can take it hope with you and give it to your lawyers to look over it and if you don't agree with something that's in there we can set up a meeting to discuss it, is that alright?" He asked putting the papers in front of her.
"Yes, of course it is, I'll look over it tonight." She replied.
"Alright then, I'm sure you're aware you'd be starting on monday and today being thursday I don't believe it'll give you enough time to go over the contract before passing to your lawyer and then handling over to me. That being said, I hope you can still join us next week, you think by wednesday you'll have it done?" He asked and she nodded.
"That's great! There'll be some articles for you to go over but don't worry you won't have any assignment until the following week." He finished looking at his day planner on his desk.
"That sounds great Sir, thank you." As she finished there was a knock on the door, they turned to look at it.
There stood a tall, blonde, green eyed man that looked older than her but not for much, he had the sweetest smile, it was so genuine it made her smile at the innocence his smile held. She remembered what Tristan used to say about her innocence and now she finally understands what he meant.
"Sorry to keep you waiting Sir, I lost track of time editing a piece." the man said with the smile still in place.
"Ah, that's no problem at all son, but please call me Preston, we talked about this, several times." Mr. Dell said jokingly angry. "Well since you're here now, I'd like you to meet Rory Gilmore, she'll be the one reviewing as well as writing for the National Section." he introduced.
"Rory Gilmore meet your Editor Junior Aaron Fleming." Mr. Bell finished, and she reached out for Mr. Fleming's hand, they shook hands and exchanged "nice to meet you's". Mr. Bell asked Mr. Fleming to show her to her office and explain how everything worked around here.
After spending an hour showing her everything important, he started explaining her responsibilities.
"That would be all for now." he completed after another hour. "Do you have any questions?"
"No, I think I got everything Mr. Fleming." she replied with a smile.
"Oh, please call me Aaron, Mr. Fleming is my father and he has the habit of making people run away crying, not exactly what I was going for here." he teased.
"Ha trust me I know how it is, my grandma has the same effect on people."
"Now I with that I can't relate. My grandpa was the opposite, he was way too friendly towards people, especially young females."
"Wait, was your grandfather Asher Fleming?" she said with a shocked expression.
"Oh God, please tell me you weren't one of his girls." he said without managing to hide the disgusted look in his face.
"Ew, God no, but my roommate was, she was with him when he passed away, my condolences." she clarified.
"Thank you. Was your roommate Paris Geller?"
"The one and only."
"How did you manage to survive? The girl was crazy."
"She didn't really change much, but we don't live together anymore so I don't have to deal with her quirks anymore. She actually hated me during most of high school, then we got to college and she asked to be my roommate. She grew on me, after everything I'm actually glad she insisted on us living together, she's a great friend."
"Now that's something I didn't think it was possible. Someone actually liked living with Paris Geller, she drove us all insane when grandpa died." He said and they both started laughing.
They continued the conversation for a while before she decided to go home so he could finish his work, it was nice, she was glad her bosses weren't a horrible people.
On her way out of his office her secretary named Carrie Duncan asked to talk to her, she walked over her desk.
"What can I do for you?" she asked confused.
"I know what you're doing and it's not going to happen, I'm not going to let a little bitch like you use him to get promotions. I don't care who you are, I'm not letting you mess with him, he's my boyfriend, so keep that in mind next time you try something." She said giving her a death glare and walking towards Aaron's office.
Rory starred at her not understanding what the hell just happened and slowly made her way to the elevator still trying to figure out why Carrie would think she'd like anything to deal with Aaron. Yes, he was handsome but he was also her boss and she never mixed business with pleasure. She stopped her train of thought when someone entered the elevator with her, she looked up and saw Franie staring at her, you could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears.
"Okay, what the hell have I done to you to make you mad at me?" Rory asked.
"Like you don't know." she scoffed.
"If I knew I wouldn't be asking."
"It was my promotion, my job, everything was settled, then out of nowhere they call me to tell me they gave the position for someone else that didn't even worked here yet. Imagine my surprise when I saw that you were the one that took my job."
"I didn't know that, I didn't mean to take your job, I just got a proposition and it was a good opportunity so I took it, I'm sorry."
"I don't care, I'm going to make sure you don't have it easy here, so be prepared." she finished as the door opened and she stormed out of the building.
This is just great, it isn't even her first day yet and she already got two crazy bitches wanting her head, this was not suppose to go like this.