Over the course of the next few weeks, Rory found herself inadvertently spending more time getting ready for work in the mornings, something that didn't go unnoticed by her husband. As she stood deliberating whether she should wear her hair up or down, James walked up behind her and admired the fitted blue dress she was wearing.

"You look nice today," he said as he slipped his arms around her waist.

"Oh, thanks." Rory said distractedly "Can you zip me up?" she turned to her husband so he could pull up the zip on the back that covered the length of her dress.

"Are you going out somewhere?" he asked when he had finished zipping her up

"No" Rory shook her head. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, you just look a bit more dressed up than usual".

The sexual tension between Rory and Logan had grown immensely over the past few weeks. It seemed that she looked forward to going to work more than ever. She even found herself making excuses to go into his office just to see him. She felt like they were playing a dangerous game and on more than one occasion she had felt him practically undressing her with his eyes. Not that she minded one little bit, on the contrary, it made her feel both nervous and excited when she caught him doing it and now she was playing right into it.

"So what's with the outfit?" James pressed on.

"Oh, this?" Rory said as she smoothed it down "I just haven't worn it for ages and the big boss is coming in today so I want to make a good impression" She said as she fixed her diamond stud earrings into place.

It was half a truth. Mitchum was due into the office today but if she were, to be honest with herself he wasn't exactly the Huntzberger she was preening herself for and both her, and her husband knew that.

The first item on her agenda for the day and one of the reasons she had wanted to look extra-good that morning was knowing that her first appointment of the day was with Logan, who had called a meeting with some of the editors for a brainstorming session.

Rory made her way to the boardroom where their meeting was due to be held. As she walked into the room Logan came up behind her.

He leaned in close to her. "Nice outfit, but you know you don't have to dress up for me?" he whispered in her ear. Logan had been following her down the corridor and had been blown away by how she looked. She always managed to stop him in his tracks but today she looked incredible with her form-fitting dress showing off ever curve, her hair in soft curls down around her shoulders, the way he always liked it.

Rory didn't turn to look at him. "Don't flatter yourself Huntzberger," she smiled, secretly pleased that the dress had the desired effect. She knew she was playing with fire, but nobody was getting hurt, but it was just a bit of fun, right?

Logan was leading the session and as much as Rory tried to fight it and concentrate on the task at hand, she just couldn't take her eyes off him. She enjoyed watching him and his whole attitude was a huge turn on for her. Although they had been together when he first started out in his career, she had never witnessed him at work and seeing him in action was something to behold, he just oozed confidence.

In turn, Logan couldn't stop watching Rory and the way she bent over the table to help with the mind maps or the way she sashayed her way down the room to get coffee. She was captivating and his mind kept travelling off to far off places where all he wanted to do was pull down the zip on that dress and discover what was underneath.

Despite all the distractions, the session was really quite productive and Rory, having initially been dreading having to work in close proximity to Logan found herself really enjoying it. They were getting on really well with each other and had slipped into an easy routine of banter and teasing, and it felt a little like old times. As the meeting came to a close, Rory collected up all of her belongings and began to head out of the room but as she did she accidentally tripped on the back leg of a chair.

"Oh fuck," Rory said as she dropped the pile of papers she was carrying and Logan stooped down to help her pick them up.

"Oh, that's very ladylike," Logan said pretending to be shocked.

"I never claimed to be a lady." Rory laughed.

"Always good to know. I'll keep that in mind Ace." Logan raised an eyebrow as he handed over her stuff.

Rory froze when she heard Logan calling her 'Ace'. It had been five long years since she'd heard that term of endearment slip from his lips and it made her blood run cold. She had missed hearing him saying that and in the early months after her break up she would have done anything to hear him calling her that again but had resigned herself to the fact it would never happen. Now she was here, did he still think of her as his Ace? The slip of the tongue and overt familiarity didn't go unnoticed by their colleagues either who looked at each and wondered just where that nickname had come from all of a sudden. Rory stood and smiled briefly before she turned to follow the other editors out of the room. She was almost all the way out of the door when she felt a firm hand on her arm, pulling her back into the room.

"Logan?" she said, slightly breathless at finding herself in such close proximity to him. She leaned back against the wall to put a bit of space between them.

"I just wanted to apologize…for calling you…that," Logan said without taking his hand off her arm. "It just slipped out." Logan had seen the surprise on her face as soon as he said it and the truth was, he didn't really know where it had come from either.

"It's fine" Rory shook her head "Don't worry about it."

Logan stepped a little closer to her. "Are you sure, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable." He said as he met her eyes.

Rory subconsciously broke the eye contact and glanced down at his lips, wondering what it would be like to kiss them. "Get back in the room Rory!" she thought as she snapped herself out of it.

"Absolutely," she said as she moved away from him "I'd better get going…" she said as she moved back towards the door. "Unless there was anything else you wanted?"

"No" Logan smiled at her "That's all for now"

Rory stepped out of the room. Her heart racing she took a deep breath. Being that close to Logan was intoxicating. She needed some air and she needed it fast.

Kate and Rory sat at the bar of their favorite pizza restaurant just around the corner from the New York Times building. After her close encounter with Logan, she had desperately needed to get herself out of the office. She ordered a large glass of white wine and practically knocked it back in one go before ordering another.

"Whoa, girl! Slow down, we've still got the afternoon to get through, it's not going to look good when you pass out on your desk." Kate laughed. "Bad meeting?"

"No, it was fine," Rory said.

"Then what?" Kate asked as she looked at her friend.

"Okay, what I tell you now doesn't go any further. Do you remember the other week when you said I looked like I had seen a ghost…" Rory paused.

Kate nodded. "I do. What was all that about? The ghost of relationships past?"

"Yeah, that. Well, I guess I should tell you more about that really, but it's complicated. The ghost…kind of happens to be our new boss."

Kate looked at Rory with an open mouth. "What!" she gasped. She had noticed that they were quite friendly and that they seemed to be pretty comfortable with each other but she'd just put it down to their personalities and the fact they had known each other at college. "You dated Logan Huntzberger? Man, he is damn hot. I'm a little jealous." Kate winked.

"I think it would be fair to say that it was slightly more than dating" Rory wrinkled her nose "but please, this does not leave this room right?" she looked at Kate.

"Scout's honor" Kate confirmed.

"You know, that promise would mean a whole lot more if you were actually a scout." Rory rolled her eyes. "Logan and I were together, exclusively, for a couple of years when we were at Yale and we shared an apartment for part of that time."

"You lived together? This is blowing my tiny mind!" Kate squealed.

"Well, you just hold on right there because I am about to blow your mind even further…the reason we broke up…" Rory bit her lip, it was still so hard to talk about "He asked me to marry him at my graduation and I said no."

"Oh. My. God. Shut the front door!" Kate gasped. "So you and Huntzberger were actually serious? Like proper serious. Like you could have been Mrs Huntzbeger."

"Yep," Rory nodded and sipped her wine.

"Wow. Oh, this must be awkward." Kate said looking at Rory sympathetically.

"It was awkward, but we cleared the air a little and it's okay now, except…" Rory stopped and pulled a face at her friend.

"…except?" Kate encouraged her to continue.

"Things have got a little bit flirty between us."

Kate thought for a moment. "Well, that's okay, if it's just a bit of harmless fun? We all enjoy a bit of flirting every now and then."

"I guess." Rory was unsure.

"Does James know about him?" Kate asked as she took a sip of her drink.

"He knows we dated because he asked me at the gala but I didn't really tell him any more than that."

"Any reason why?" Kate raised an eyebrow at her friend. "I mean, clearly you were nearly engaged to the guy, I can't believe it never came up with James at all in the past few years?"

Rory shrugged "Logan broke my heart. I didn't ever want to talk about it with anyone. Anyhow at the gala, I just panicked. I was all flustered. Logan does that to me, the guy is my Kryptonite." Rory sighed and looked at her watch. "It's nearly 2 pm, we'd better get back. Not a word of this to anyone!"

Rory and Kate walked back into the office and straight into the big man himself. Kate recognized him of course, everyone in the industry knew who Mitchum Huntzberger was.

"Rory! Good to see you." Mitchum bellowed. Some of her team looked up in surprise that their editor seemed to know Mitchum so well. "How have you been Rory? Must have been, what, five years or more since I last saw you?"

"Something like that" Rory smiled. Mitchum knew exactly how long it had been. "I'm good thank you Mr Huntzberger"

"Oh please, call me Mitchum. I heard you got married?" he asked.

"That's right," Rory said as she fiddled with her wedding ring "Eighteen months ago."

'Ah well, belated congratulations." Mitchum smiled and nodded at her as he continued to walk through the office.

Rory breathed out as he walked away.

"First name terms with the great Mitchum Huntzberger huh" Kate elbowed her friend.

"Well he was almost my father-in-law" Rory grimaced.

"So, how are you finding it working with the lovely Miss Gilmore," Mitchum asked his soon as he leaned back in the chair in Logan's office.

"It's Ms Attwood now," Logan said as he sipped his coffee.

"I heard" Mitchum smirked. "Awkward?"

"A little at first but it's fine now." Logan said hesitantly "We're friends."

"She's grown into a very beautiful young woman." Mitchum looked at Logan.

"She was always beautiful" Logan acknowledged.

"True" Mitchum nodded as he picked up his drink.

"You really just want to sit talking about Rory or shall we get down to business?"

Mitchum duly noted his son's irritation so he decided, as much as enjoyed provoking his son for a reaction, that he wouldn't push the conversation anymore. He knew that after the painful break-up with Rory, Logan had struggled to form any other sort of meaningful long-lasting relationship, it had cut deep to the core. Mitchum wondered just how it was affecting him having to work at such close quarters with someone he came so close to marrying. Only time would tell.