One-Shot. Enjoy!
He loved that it was mid-December, and he hadn't seen snow in months. California really agreed with him, and he especially loved the drives home from the office each afternoon. It seemed to Logan that the sun stayed brighter a little bit longer and the wind blew a little bit gentler than it had on the East Coast. He didn't love the traffic in the afternoons, but that he could handle.
His path home drove led him right by the bay, and it was probably his favorite part of his daily commute. He spent a lot of time in his car, commuting to the office to the tiny subdivision where they had rented the house with the avocado tree in the backyard. She'd flown out with him the week after graduation and interviewed for a position at the San Francisco Chronicle. He knew she felt she'd only gotten the job because of her fiancé's last name, but he'd assured her that her writing was the true selling point.
He couldn't imagine being out here without her. When she had accepted his proposal on graduation day, he couldn't wait for their future to begin, but she'd insisted that they had to at least give her grandmother the wedding that she'd insisted on. He'd gone ahead and moved to California, and the three months that he spent without her there were some of the loneliest nights he'd ever spent.
Shira had helped Emily with the wedding, despite Mitchum completely writing him off. They'd both attended the grand affair the Gilmores had thrown and been overly zealous hosts, but he saw the mix of pride and contempt in his father's eyes, and he was so happy to be putting 3,000 plus miles between his new life and his parents.
In lieu of a honeymoon, they had driven her Prius across country to their new home, making tourist stops in Knoxville, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas. She'd insisted that they might never get to go to some of these places again, which was how he was now the proud owner of a Dollywood coffee mug and a University of Arkansas hoodie. He'd tried to convince her to stay at some of the nicer hotels along the way, but she'd insisted that they never stay at a chain establishment, instead staying at inns with whimsical names like the Teddy Bear Motel and the Pink Inn.
Being married to Rory Gilmore was an adventure in itself.
As he pulled into the subdivision, he could see that she was already home for the evening, her silver car pulled into the driveway instead of the attached garage. It continually infuriated him that she parked outside; made him feel like such a spoiled baby. But she insisted that his newer sensible SUV be parked in the garage to protect it from "the elements," and thus began their continued battle of who parked where. It always seemed that she beat him home in the evenings and stubbornly parked where he had no choice but to pull in.
When he walked into the house, he could tell that the kitchen was filled with the smells of whatever dinner she was preparing, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Ace, please tell me you aren't attempting to cook again. I haven't had a chance to replace the fire extinguisher yet." He yelled as he pulled down the stove top to thankfully see aluminum pans with the logo of a local bistro where she often picked up take out.
He saw her come rushing into the kitchen, still in her business suit, sans coat, but with an apron thrown over her blouse in good measure. "You weren't supposed to see that! Dinner's a surprise tonight!" She kissed his cheek as she went over to check the stove.
"I see that." He smiled as he put his computer bag down near his small desk that sat beside hers in the living room. Their house was small, but they were trying to save money since the start up was still so new to him, and he'd invested every cent he had into the flourishing business. "Although I'm not sure that take-out from Camilia's is a surprise by now. Don't they know your name and order by phone number now?"
"They do. It's actually rather fun. Kind of reminds me of the Hollow." She said wistfully. "But that's not the surprise! Dinner's a celebration tonight!"
"What exactly are we celebrating?"
"Well." She paused for effect. "One, we are both home from work early, which hasn't happened in about 8 weeks. Two, I bought Christmas ornaments, and we are finally going to deck that tree out." She gestured to the lit but bare tree in the corner where a stack of ornaments sat. "And three…..I got a promotion."
"What? Ace, that's incredible!" She grabbed her into a fast hug and began to twirl her in the middle of their kitchen.
"Hey, now. Do you have your press credentials? You can't twirl the reporter like that without your media pass."
"Excuse me, Marion Carpenter." He sat her down. "That's incredible. You've only been there for 3 months, and you're already running the place."
"I wouldn't exactly say I was running anything, but it is pretty exciting. I'm going to be covering the political beat. Writing real articles about real politicians."
"They must know how great of a talent they have under their nose to give you something like that right before the Presidential election next year."
"I know, right? I'll get to interview Hilary Clinton and Joe Lieberman and Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee and….."
"And lions and tigers and bears, oh my." He interrupted with a smirk.
"Very funny." She slapped his shoulder in jest. "I'm just so excited. This is a massive opportunity for me."
"Have you told your mom yet?"
"Yes, she's thrilled, but only because she thinks this means I'll be traveling to the East Coast more when I get interviews with the D.C. elite."
"Always looking for a way to get you home, isn't she?"
"Yup."
"Can't say that I blame her." He put his hands on the small of her waist. "I'd be pretty bummed too if you were on a completely different coast that me."
"Well, lucky for you, you don't have to worry about that." She kissed his cheek and turned her attention back to the dish that was cooking in the stove.
He leaned back against the kitchen cabinet and thought about his life. He looked down at the wedding ring that encircled his right fourth finger. He never thought he would have been one to marry in his 20's. He never thought he would be one to marry, period. He gave the ring a twist and smiled to himself as he looked out the window towards their back yard where the avocado tree sat. They weren't wealthy, but none of that mattered as long as she was there with him.
If he had her, he could do anything.
Abruptly, a loud alarm began buzzing in his left ear. Before his eyes, he watched as their living room began to wave in front of his eyes and fog began to cloud his vision. He looked towards his wife, but she was nowhere to be found. Panic engulfed him, and he blinked to try and regain his composure.
When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in the little California garden home but instead in his sister's guest bedroom. He turned over in the bed to slam his hand down on the snooze button that was brightly alerting him to the fact that it was 7:00 in the morning. A quick glance at the date on his phone showed that it wasn't December, but instead the end of May.
He turned over and starred for a moment at the ceiling. The dreams of her had become even more vivid in the past week, and he was having a hard time defining the line between reality and fantasy. It was always the same dream that he had to constantly fight every single night.
A reality that didn't exist.
That wouldn't exist.
He'd heard people talk about dreams that felt like real life, but he'd never experienced that truly until the past week.
The details. The realism. The back stories. All vanished by simply opening his eyes.
He rubbed his eyes and looked at the nightstand where the ring sat, still perched in the blue velvet box he'd bought it in. He probably needed to take it back to the store before he left, but he wasn't sure he would be able to part with it. That ring was supposed to be on her finger, not returned to the jewelry store.
He hadn't talked to her in a week. He felt a heavy weight on his chest constantly, a physical pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't alleviate it. He'd called Colin and Finn after he'd left the graduation ceremony for a night of drinking and forgetting, but before they could even make plans, Logan knew that no amount of scotch would help this go away.
And despite his usual tendency to run recklessly into the abyss when life didn't go his way, this was different. This, he knew, was the definition of rock bottom. He had no money. No home. He technically didn't have a job since he didn't start for two weeks. And he no longer had his girl.
He threw his pillow back on top of his head. If he thought about it too much, he'd be sick.
"You truly are the most idiotic person that I know. Which is saying a lot because I have a lot of idiotic friends. I am a junior Garden Club member, and those people are simply vapid."
"Gee, thanks Honor. Are you going to get me a nametag that says that or do I just need to put that on my new business cards?"
He threw another stack of shirts in the box that sat at the foot of the bed. He had moved in with his sister after Rory began packing up her apartment with Paris, and thankfully, it had given him a place to retreat after she'd turned down the proposal. Honor had made him sign an oath of secrecy though, because she knew allowing him to stay would irritate their father who had ceremoniously cut him off and out of the family. "You may have denied the family crest," she'd told him, "but that doesn't mean I'm ready to take my name off the Huntzberger Black Card account."
He was leaving for Palo Alto tomorrow. Bright and early, a moving van would come pick up all of his belongings, and he would no longer live on the East Coast. If he was being honest, the thought of no longer being tied to his family and his life here invigorated and scared the crap out of him.
He was leaving with much more than he expected. Honor had taken his move as an opportunity to rid herself of furniture that she wanted replaced, and thus she had gifted him with an entire living room set and various other pieces. All things that would have looked great in the Avocado House, he thought, and then immediately willed the idea to leave his brain.
"I'm serious, Logan. I love you, but you are dumb." Honor sat regally perched on the guest bed, watching her brother pack. "Why haven't you called her and worked this out already?"
"I would like to believe that I have some shred of dignity after being ceremoniously dumped."
"You are so dense, little brother. She didn't dump you. You gave her an ultimatum."
"Turning down my proposal was a dump. Even I know that, and I'm not a regular Cosmopolitan reader." He smirked.
"She said 'not now.' That's not a 'no.' I can't believe that as smart as you are, you can't figure that out."
He sighed. His sister was so frustrating, and he was tired of her hearing about this, as this was all they had talked about every day since graduation. "Might as well be a no. I'm not calling her, Honor."
Honor pumped her fist on a pillow in frustration. "You are such a spoiled brat. I'm sorry, but you are. You are acting like a rotten little boy on the playground who didn't get his way and now he's taking all of his toys and going home. You know what your problem is?"
"I have a feeling you're about to tell me."
"Yes, I am." She crossed her arms in authority. "Your problem is that for your whole life you've gotten everything you've you ever wanted." He gave her a sarcastic glance, and she relented. "Ok, OUR whole lives we've gotten everything handed to us. From Mitchum and Shira and even with me in school. And look at you and all the trouble you've gotten into over the years! Daddy just wrote a check and poof, it was handled."
"What's your point?"
"My point is that you were finally getting to a really amazing point in your life, and you pissed it away."
"Pissed it away?" He smirked. "I think you can get in trouble with the debutants for using language like that."
"You are so frustrating!" She threw a pillow at him and continued. "Do you realize how many times Rory forgave you after ridiculous foolish exploits you've pulled? It's amazing she will even talk to me at all after you broke up with her through me, which I still haven't forgiven you for! And the one time, the single time, in your entire relationship when you haven't gotten your way, you leave her."
"I didn't leave he-"
"Oh shush. You did too. And you are just too stubborn to go fix this. And if you wait too long, you never will." She stood, nose in the air, confident in her message. "If you are the smart boy I know you are, then you will put on your big boy trousers and listen to what she said. Despite what you think, this is not an all or nothing situation, and if you are too daft to see that, then I can't help you." As she departed the room, she yelled behind her. "Big boy pants, my dear brother. Big boy pants."
He sat at the kitchen counter, sipping his coffee. It was early out, and the sun was just peeking over the tree tops to begin the day. The movers would be here any second, and then he'd be on his way to the airport for his one-way ticket to California. Honor had left early for the gym and would be returning soon to drop him off at the airport, and for a few minutes, he was thankful for the silence from his well-intentioned but nosy sister.
He looked around the den at all of the brown boxes, stacked on top of each other. It was crazy to think that everything in his life was about to be shifted around in a matter of hours.
He finally heard a knock on the door and looked at his watch. The movers were 21 minutes early. He supposed they were ready to get a jump on the long trip ahead, which was fine by him. The quicker he could get out of dodge, the better.
When he opened the door though, he didn't find the two gentlemen he expected. Instead, he saw Rory.
"Ace? What are you doing here?" He stumbled to find the words through his shock.
"You made me miss my flight. My luggage is on its way to Cleveland." She pushed past him to enter in the foyer. She turned to face him with her arms defiantly crossed across her chest. He looked out to the street, where a taxi sat, lights on, obviously belonging to her.
"I'm sorry. You're going to have to help me out a bit."
"I got a job. A great job."
"That's great, Ace, but I'm not followin-"
"And I'm leaving today. I'm supposed to be on a plane right now to Sioux City."
"Sioux City? But that wasn't on the list. What—"
She held up her hand, irritated. "I want my ring back."
Stunned, he struggled to find the right response, scratching his head at the formation of the headache he was getting. "Rory, I'm struggling to follow you. I haven't been sleeping well, and perhaps my cognitive thinking skills are suffering from lack of sleep, but I need some Annie Sullivan-style help here."
She took a deep breath. "I was sitting on the airplane, ready to go to Iowa….well, Cleveland to Iowa…..and I just couldn't leave without talking to you first. It was all very Rachel and Ross. So I got off the plane."
"You got off the plane." He repeated, sitting down on the armrest of Honor's give away sofa.
"I got off the plane." She angrily pointed at him. "You don't just get to make a decision that affects both of us without including me."
"I did include you. I asked you to marry me. You said no. End of discussion."
"No, not end of discussion. That's not including me! I'm the girl who makes Pro/Con lists! You didn't even give me an opportunity to weigh my options."
"You had time, Rory. I didn't push you after the party. But I would have thought it was an effortless decision, a thought that was severely wrong, obviously."
"So you made a proposal. Here's my counter-proposal. You're still going to California, right?"
"Leaving this afternoon."
"Wow. Coincidence, much?" She sidetracked.
"Counter-proposal, Ace. Continue."
"Right." She cleared her throat. "Counter-proposal: You move to California. You're going to be pouring yourself into your new business venture anyways, and you don't need the distraction of marriage."
"Ace…no."
"Shush. You said your piece at graduation, mister. It's my turn. You don't need the distraction of marriage, and I'm going to be traveling who knows where with the campaign until at least the beginning of next year, if not longer if he wins the Democratic nomination. But I do need a home base."
"A home base? If who wins? Ace, I need details."
"A place to go to when I'm not on the bus or in a hotel. Hugo Gray offered me a job. I'm going on the Obama campaign."
"Rory. That's incredible." He suddenly forgot the hurt he'd felt after the last week and felt nothing but pride for the person he loved more than anything. "That's an amazing opportunity."
"Thanks. And I don't see why my home base can't be with you, as your fiancé. Besides, I'm going to need a ring anyways to fend off the goons who hit on me on the bus." She added nonchalantly, with jest in her eyes. "I'm obviously a catch."
"Wait a minute, Ace." He rubbed his temple in confusion. "Because I'm running off minimal sleep and am still not completely convinced that you are even really here right now, I need you to summarize. Your counter proposal is….?"
"Long engagement and a home base at the Avocado Tree House."
He sighed. "Unfortunately, I just can't do that."
His heart broke as disappointment clouded her face. "Logan, I just can't understand. Why does it have to be all or nothing? I just can't get married right now. I want to be with you forever...eventually. After the campaign…..but I want to explore and see what's out there. And you've already decided on California. Can't we have both?" He saw tears forming in her eyes.
He stood up and walked over to where she stood by the door and wrapped his arms around her. He placed his forehead on hers and saw the surprise in her eyes by his gesture. "Do I get an opportunity to counter your counter-proposal?"
"Uh….sure?"
"I gave away the Avocado Tree House yesterday. My name is currently being printed on a second-floor mailbox of a one bedroom condo in Mountain View. So, my counter-offer? A long engagement and a home base… and your name on a condominium mailbox."
She answered him by standing on her tiptoes and kissing him for the first time in over a week. She melted into his arms and put her head on his neck, allowing him to smell the familiar scent of her shampoo.
He had missed her more than he realized.
He pulled her back and pinched her wrist. "Ouch. What's that for?"
"Just a reality versus fantasy check."
"So we're engaged? Like actually engaged engaged?" She grinned. "I'm so happy, Logan. I feel like I'm getting my cake and going to get to eat it too."
He rubbed her shoulders in affection. "You know, I've always hated that phrase. Why would you get cake and not be able to eat it? Makes no sense."
"Well, I'm basking in my chocolate-iced cake and fully intend to enjoy every bite." She looked down at the ring. "You're sure you're ok with this?"
"Ace, do I want to marry you now? Of course. I'd rush to the court house immediately if you said jump. There's nothing I want more than to have you in California with me every single night." He thought back to the dream of their life together. "But more importantly, I just want you. So, home will be California. And we can reassess after the campaign."
She flung her neck around him again and kissed his cheek. "I've always wanted my name on a mailbox wall at a condo complex. It's really been the number one spot on my bucket list."
"Just call me Bob Barker. I help make dreams come true."
She looked out to where the taxi waited for her. "I really don't want to go now, Logan. I feel like we need to celebrate."
"We will. I promise. I'll come meet you when you are in some random city like Auburn, Alabama for a rally and I'll take you to the finest restaurant Auburn has to offer."
She laughed. "I love you so much, Logan. " She sighed happily. "This turned out way better than I expected."
"I love you too, Ace."
He held her hand as he walked her back to the waiting taxi and kissed her softly as she stood by the open door. "I'm headed to the airport as soon as the movers show up. Can I buy you a coffee if you're still there waiting on a flight?"
"Obviously. After all, we're engaged now. You're required to provide me coffee."
"Unlimited coffee refills forever, Ace."
He was still standing outside watching her taxi drive away when Honor's SUV rounded the street corner. As she pulled into the drive-way, he couldn't help but feel like the Cheshire Cat smiling at his sister. When she opened the driver's door, he couldn't help but contain his enthusiasm.
"Guess who bought a pair of big boy pants after all, sister dear?"