A/N: This update took far too long, I'm sorry. Elements of this chapter are some of the very first content that I wrote for this story in the few days after watching the revival and it's cathartic to finally have them written up fully.
I appreciate that the overall pacing has changed from parts 1-5, now that I'm filling in the gaps of AYITL. Originally I planned to write 'pre', 'during' and 'post' as 3 separate stories but in the end they have merged into 1. Apologies if it jumps around too much due to this.
Chapter title from 'Ship To Wreck' by Florence and the Machine.
Part 7
did i build this ship to wreck?
Rory had pushed the remainder of her lunch around her plate for a full five minutes before Logan suggested that they call it a day and head home instead, leaving the majority of a $300 bottle of wine untouched on the table.
She was completely unprepared for seeing Mitchum again and their encounter had shaken her more than she ever thought he could. Of course she'd have to see him for the first time in nearly a decade when she's homeless and, despite her increasingly futile efforts to get Naomi to concentrate on the book, effectively unemployed. Oh, and when she also happens to be sleeping with his engaged, very-much-not-hers-to-be-sleeping-with, son.
How he must have loved making those marked references to Odette right in front of her. The subtext was deafening.
You had your chance, and if you weren't good enough to be a part of our family then, what makes you think things are different now?
And then to top it all off he had to go and be nice to her. Just to really throw her off track.
He's still a belittling bastard to Logan though so it's good to know that some things don't change.
"I still think that we should have left separately. I could have taken a cab." Rory mutters anxiously and shrugs off her jacket as they walk through the front door.
Logan groans, she'd effectively been giving him the silent treatment on their car ride home, and he knew that she was still unnerved from running into his father. He was a little too. Granted he hadn't been that concerned about taking Rory to this particular restaurant – they weren't overly covert in general – but he hadn't planned on seeing his father there today.
"Ace, he won't have been spying on us leaving together. He was knee-deep in brandy and stock analysis with the BBC guys." He attempts to reassure her as he hangs up his coat and she kicks off her heels.
He follows her path into the kitchen where she heads straight for the coffee machine.
"But … if he did, it's going to be obvious that we're … y'know." She rolls her eyes in that awkward way that he finds adorable, whilst avoiding talking about their relationship, which he finds decidedly less adorable.
Logan shrugs.
"What?"
"Look, if he does think anything, and I'm not saying that he does, then he probably already thinks it."
"Why? You seemed to cover pretty well."
"Yeah. I did." He says pointedly.
"But I didn't?"
Logan winces in reply. "You have an honest face."
"So I'm not the best liar, I wasn't that obvious was I?"
He cocks his head and shrugs again.
Rory flusters, running through their encounter with Mitchum in her head for the hundredth time. "At what point was it blatantly obvious?"
"It was pretty much over the moment you jumped out of your skin at the sight of him but the point of no return is when you called him 'Mr Huntzberger'." Logan breaks into a wry smile until Rory shoots him an irritated look.
She cringes and crosses her arms defensively. "I was being polite, and respectful."
"You have yelled at my father on more than one occasion in the past. Trust me, he respects you more for that."
"Logan, what are we going to do?" she asks seriously.
"We don't have to do anything. Even if he thinks he knows, he's not going to do or say anything. Trust me."
"You're saying that a lot."
"Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?"
Rory raises an eyebrow.
"Okay, don't answer that." He replies jokingly.
She grumbles under her breath and busies herself pouring coffee.
How can he be so blasé about this, she thinks? Doesn't his father desperately want him to marry the perfect Parisian heiress? Is he going to tell her? Will she even care? Logan has always insinuated that he and Odette have a mutual understanding but Rory has never probed more than necessary, she's too afraid of the answers she'd find.
Her thoughts are interrupted when Logan embraces her from behind and places a kiss on her cheek.
"You can trust me." He says emphatically.
"I know. I do." Rory relents with a sigh. "I just hated seeing him like that, feeling … caught."
She tenses in his arms and Logan frowns. She doesn't usually speak about this, never using language like 'caught' or heaven forbid 'cheating', choosing instead to skirt around the issue as much as is humanly possible. It helps that he's never seen what they are doing as cheating, for him at least. What he and Odette have is mostly for show and they're both happy to not ask many questions regarding what they do when they're not together (which is the majority of the time).
And when it comes to the other side of things; Logan tries to not think too much about the state of Rory's relationship back in New York. He can't; the thought of her with anyone else drives him crazy. He's fairly certain that her boyfriend doesn't know about him but he presumes that their relationship must be casual, she so rarely sees him judging by the amount of time they spend together in London.
They stand quietly together for a few moments, each anxiously deliberating.
"I should get on with some work." Rory breaks the silence. "Try and produce something constructive from my morning with Naomi, maybe send out another couple of query letters."
"Now? I thought we were going to watch Game of Thrones. I've been waiting nearly a week to watch this episode with you." Logan sulks. "We were supposed to enjoy the afternoon off before I have my conference call with Tokyo at 2am."
Rory turns in his arms, he can feel her resolve fading, but she remains quiet.
"At the very least you need to eat, you didn't even finish your fries at lunch. I bought out the American snack section of the grocery store – we've got all the Ding Dongs and Twizzlers you could want. I know you can't resist them. Or me." He ends cockily, earning him a playful tap on the ass.
Rory relaxes into a smile. If he could stop being so persuasive (and ridiculously attractive), that would really help her a lot.
"I'm going to go and get changed. Don't forget the Ding Dongs." She warns on her way out the door.
He was right. She couldn't resist him. But she also couldn't help how rattled she felt. When they tumbled into bed later that evening, she clung to him a little tighter and held him a little closer, the temporary nature of their relationship more pronounced than ever.
She rolls over in the night to find his side of the bed empty and coming to her senses, she can hear him on the phone across the apartment. She tries to close her eyes and re-enter her slumber but she can't sleep. She is ruminating over their interrupted lunch. She can't get Mitchum's words, or the look on his face (the one of pity) out of her head. She's going to try and pretend like it didn't happen, otherwise she's not sure if she'll ever get over the shame of him catching them together, let alone his offer to advocate for her. She's resolute that there's no way she'll take him up on it.
She sits up and catches sight of Logan working on his teleconference, his features illuminated by the light of his laptop. He doesn't notice her wakefulness and she takes the opportunity to watch him privately.
She listens to him negotiate with colleagues in Japan, convincing them to increase their online media budget - he is charming, and intelligent, and articulate, and authoritative without being overpowering, and oh so good at what he does. Pride for him surges in Rory's heart and tears sting at the back of her eyes.
Here he is, the beautiful boy who captured her heart all those years ago, back when he was the rebellious screw-up and she was the princess who could do no wrong, only now their roles feel reversed. He has grown into a more purposeful and grounded version of the man he used to be, his triumphs seemingly unceasing, and he doesn't even realise how incredible he is. Yet, here she is flailing around in limbo, success just out of reach, and desperately clutching on to him, her lifeline. She feels as if she is weighing him down, holding him back from everything he could have.
She must make a noise as he sharply turns his head to face her, smiling warmly when he meets her eyes and waves her towards him as he verbally concurs with whomever he is speaking to.
She gestures that she'll go and make them both some coffee, giving herself a much-needed reprieve before she joins him on the couch, passing him a steaming mug and tucking her legs under her.
He mouths 'thank you' and gives her that smile that makes her feel like the most important person in the world and her heart aches.
He deserves so much more than her. She isn't enough.
It's a few days later when Mitchum strides into Logan's office, closing the door behind him.
Logan momentarily glances at his father before returning his eyes to the computer screen. He'd been anticipating an inquisition; to be honest he's surprised it's taken his father this long to confront him.
"Dad." Logan offers a stunted greeting.
"Good week?"
"Can't complain."
"Rory still in town?"
She's probably naked in bed where I left her a couple of hours ago, he thinks to himself.
But without missing a beat he says, "Not sure, I think she mentioned at lunch that she was going back to the States a few days ago."
Mitchum sighs in exasperation. He isn't stupid; it's obvious what's going on. It would certainly go some way to explaining why Logan has been so against making any firm wedding plans. This girl, this is the one he would give it all up for. The one he gave it all up for last time (this isn't exactly true but Mitchum doesn't know this, doesn't understand what went on after Logan came back from London the first time. He's never wanted to understand.).
He takes a few paces back and forth. "Are we seriously going to do this? You bullshit me, I pretend I'm an idiot."
"It's worked for the past 30-odd years, why change the habit of a lifetime?"
"How long's it been going on?"
Deadpan. "What?"
"For Christ's sake Logan. Get your head out of your ass! You brought her to own of our restaurants, that's hardly subtle. Rory looked dumbstruck, she could not have been less pleased to see me."
"Ever consider that's because you're a dick?"
"She wouldn't have looked anymore guilty if she had a scarlet 'A' on her forehead. You on the other hand, are a better liar than I sometimes give you credit for. All those business classes and CEO shadowing paid off." Mitchum smiles arrogantly but his son continues to stare at his screen. "Logan, listen to me."
Logan tears his eyes away from the business proposal in front of him to meet his father's disapproving (as ever) gaze.
"This will end badly, for Rory, for Odette and most of all, for you. You will be devastated and heart broken, like you were last time, but to top it off you will have hurt Rory and humiliated Odette." Mitchum tried a gentler approach than his usual.
"You really think Odette would care? You don't think she has someone else? Why do you think she lives in Paris?" Logan knows that he should have just continued to deny deny deny but his father's sheer ignorance on this subject infuriated him. "We have an agreement, for want of a better term," Logan inwardly rolls his eyes, if he never heard the word 'agreement' from his or Rory's tongues again he would be a happy man. "She has her life and I have mine and we don't ask many questions about either."
Mitchum sits on the other side of Logan's desk and leans in, his previous tactic not having quite the effect he hoped. "But does she know that it's Rory you're screwing around with? It's one thing to have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, but she might care that it's your ex-girlfriend who you used to live with and once proposed to who's sharing your bed when she's not."
Logan says nothing, simply stares ahead and tries to out-bluff the domineering man in front of him.
"There is too much at stake in our family, in your life, your future, to put your faith in an old college girlfriend who rejected you. I like Rory, I do. I always have. But she's your past and you need to look to the future. You and Odette are compatible, you've said it yourself before. She is a nice girl from a nice family. You could do a lot worse than someone like her, the two of you are friends and that counts for a lot. You want the same things, that counts for even more."
"You have no idea what I want." Logan says sadly, honestly.
"You're holding on to some childish fantasy where you marry the girl of your dreams, the girl who turns your world upside down. And you think that you'll live happily ever after but that's not the real world. That's not our world."
Logan scoffs.
Mitchum continues. "I understand wanting that fantasy. Your mother, in some ways, was that girl for me."
Logan looks perplexed. There is no way he is comparing the twisted marriage he and Mom have to Rory and me?
"It was made clear that it was time for me to settle down, and out of the few women that I was seeing at the time, I liked your mother the best. Plus, I loved that it pissed your grandfather off that she wasn't a society type. I thought I loved her, but it turned out to be infatuation. Once we were married and certainly after we had had your sister and then you, that infatuation faded and there wasn't a whole lot left between us. We find ways to cope with it. She has chardonnay and trips to her plastic surgeon. I have work and attractive secretaries."
Logan rolls his eyes, "Do you actually hear yourself Dad? You liked her the best and Grandpa thought she was trash, so you married her to spite him. What a delightful story, who's going to play you in the movie?"
Mitchum carries on regardless, "Your mother and I have found a way to make it work but our lives would probably have been better had I married someone more suited to me and to our family.
"Odette is suited to us. If you're going to throw away a perfectly good wife and future family, a girl that wants to marry you, do you really want to do it for a girl who said 'no' when you asked her?"
Logan sighs inwardly, if only it were that simple. Odette doesn't want to marry him, not really. But she has an old-fashioned father and a desperate need to please him that he can't help but relate to.
"Besides, at one point, in the not too distant future, despite your constant efforts to delay it, those separate lives that you and Odette are so fond of, they're going to converge. You both agreed to get married and it will happen. This is what you need to do to stabilise your life, to be ready to take on the business, to be taken seriously.
"Now whether or not you keep Rory as your piece of ass on the side is up to you, but try to be a little more discreet." He emphasises the slur to make his point.
And it's like a red rag to a bull. How dare he speak about her like that?! It takes every ounce of resolve that Logan has to not reach out and grab his father by the throat. He has trained himself over the years to not rise to his obvious baiting. Instead, he swallows his retaliatory insults and his 'fuck you's and utters calmly, "Message received. You can show yourself out."
Logan waits for his father to leave the office and to get far enough away before he releases his anger, slamming his fist against the desk and swearing loudly. He'd always hated his father a little bit and now he hated him a bit more. Despite the coarse delivery of his words, there was some truth buried in there.
All the same fears that Logan has had since the day Rory walked back into his life – she did say 'no', she didn't want to marry him, she still doesn't, she wants casual, she wants Vegas.
He wants more than that. He wants marriage and a family.
On paper, he and Odette are a good match. When she first caught wind of the possibility of the two of them dating, his mother regaled him with wild tales of Odette's adventures, insisting that she was essentially a 'female Logan'. He had smiled and nodded knowingly. The first time he met Odette she was out of her mind on ecstasy and riding one of her friends around the room like an elephant, if she was the female version of anyone he knew, it was Finn.
And despite her illustrious love of a good time and his relatively slower pace of life these days, Logan hadn't been able to suppress his laughter when he heard that Odette's family were hoping he would be a calming, grounding influence on her. Since when could he be considered a calming influence on anyone?
Regardless of people's misconceptions, they are friends. The chemistry isn't quite right but it's not non-existent. They could live a contented life. So why was it that Logan didn't feel at all content at the thought of marrying her?
Oh, that's right, the blue-eyed beauty who owns his heart and makes him feel like he could fly.
The one who doesn't want him like he wants her.
Just when they think this elongated visit can't get any worse, it does.
Logan curses himself the minute he leaves the house – Rory asked to stay and he refused her. He barely even did that, he was so caught off guard he just mumbled vaguely until she took it back. Why exactly did he turn her down? Because Odette is coming to London so that they can attend the Reuters benefit together? He doesn't even want to do that.
He should have pushed the conversation further, he should walk back inside and talk it out with her. Was that Rory's way of saying that she wanted more?
No, of course it wasn't, he convinces himself, she said it herself, she doesn't have anything better to do, so she may as well stay with him. That's what he is, her fallback choice.
His discussion with his father had been blunt, but not ineffectual. It brought it home to him, he has been living in a dream world – Rory doesn't want him, not like that. She rejected his proposal because she didn't want to be tied down and that doesn't seem to have changed. She's off being rootless, flitting in and out of his life when it suits her.
He wants her. He does. He loves her. Of course he does.
But he's a grown man with a life to lead. And he can't keep living his life around her.
She needs space and he gives it to her, never pushing her to visit if she's too busy. She wants time to reassess her career and plan ahead; he gives her that too. He doesn't lean too heavily on her for emotional support (but offers it back tenfold).
His work commitments are intensifying, but half the time while he's at the office he's worrying about Rory rather than having his head in the game. He's not visiting Honor and the kids enough because he uses his vacation days when Rory's in town. He hardly ever sees his friends – the ones in London think he's marrying Odette so he can't exactly introduce them to Rory; and the guys have become single-minded with their lectures lately and it's annoying the crap out of him, now, as well as Colin and Finn, he's also got Robert bugging him constantly to "cut the bullshit and sort your life out".
He vows to get on with his day and reassess tomorrow. Maybe it'll bring the enlightenment he so desperately needs.
When he meets her for their traditional farewell dinner that night, Rory acts as if their brief interlude to the world outside their bubble didn't happen.
She's humiliated that he rebuffed her in favour of Odette and devastated at the further implications of it – if she asks him to choose, Logan is going to choose her, he's going to marry her.
But for now, they're still supposed to be in Vegas, so until she boards her flight, she'll repress the misery that's threatening to overwhelm her.
When they say goodbye this time, it's urgent and possessive. Less talking, more touching. More taking, than giving.
It's as if they can feel the wheels starting to come off.
Rory returns to the USA and she's determined to put Logan to the back of her mind and concentrate on her career. It's not as if the stress of working with Naomi isn't enough to keep her occupied; what was once interesting and motivating about her was good for the article but she is too much for a book. They are two wildly different personalities and she cannot harness Naomi's energy in order to gain any traction on the proposal.
But seeing as Condé Nast won't meet with her and she's not willing to concede to the level of SandeeSays (she can't, she has to believe that she's better than that), there's really no other option other than success.
She just needs a breather, that's all. She'll soak up some nostalgia at her Chilton alumni day and attempt to inspire some young minds. Plus the time at home will make her feel better.
Except it doesn't.
She thought it couldn't get much worse than feeling like a failure in front of Mitchum Huntzberger but it turns out feeling like a failure in front of Headmaster Charleston is just as bad.
After all, those who can't do …
Then she tries to reassure an even-more-neurotic-than-usual Paris and feels like such a fraud. She's trying to convince her that everything will be okay, she can get herself together and change course – but where does she get off trying to advise Paris when she can't even make this book work, get a actual journalism job, or streamline her disastrous love life?!
It's drastic but she decides to accept the favour from Mitchum. She thinks this might be her lowest point, it was a favour offered purely out of pity, she's sure, but she'll take pity right now. She doesn't exactly have a whole lot else.
But she'll make it worthwhile. She's going to nail the Condé Nast meeting.
Except she doesn't.
And then ultimately, before it had even really begun, the book deal falls through (and then so does Rory).
She blames Naomi, and it is largely her fault, but some of the blame lies at Rory's door too and she knows it. She should have known what she was getting herself into, she was warned enough, but she shrugged off any concerns – because if she could write and publish a book, this would solve everything right? She'd be a real writer then. She'd earn money. She'd be on the bestsellers list. It would lead to more things. She could try at being a journalist again. (She's not clear when she stopped trying to be a journalist but she definitely doesn't feel like one right now.)
She has to salvage something out of this wreckage that is her career.
So she starts with an emphatic call to GQ.
And (after standing in a lot of lines) ends in the bed of a wookiee.
Lorelai had ordered room service on autopilot and proceeded to sit in silence until it arrived, relaying the conversation she had had with Rory in her head.
She had rushed into the bathroom, leaving Lorelai to handle the very genuine shock she felt when her daughter flew into their hotel room like a whirlwind dropping revelations about cosplay one night stands, professional turmoil and a clandestine affair with her ex-boyfriend. Her thoughts had darted from surprise to confusion to anger and back again, and though she was ashamed to admit it, a little bit of disgust crept in too.
She hears the bathroom door click and looks up to see her technically grown-up, but in some ways not at all, little girl facing her.
Rory tries to smile and fails. Her mother has a table full of food; copious amounts of coffee and an expectant look on her face. There's no way out of this. She takes a deep breath.
"I'm not ready to talk about the wookiee."
"Oh I think we have a greater issue to talk about … Deedee I believe it was?"
"Yeah, definitely not ready to talk about him. I'll give you all the details about the wookiee if that'll get you off my back."
Lorelai shakes her head slowly. "No, you are absolutely not getting away with this one."
Rory gets herself a plate of food and a large mug of coffee and settles back against the pillows of the adjacent bed. She looks towards her mother whose eyes remain wide with eyebrows raised.
"You know kid, I've got all night. Had my power nap and got a jug full of coffee right here. So … you've gotta give me something. You can't just drop a bomb like that on me and not explain."
Rory finishes a mouthful of food; she had had some time in the shower to think (and sober up a bit) and instantly regretted blurting out her confession to her mother in the way she had. "There's really not that much to say."
"I beg to differ." Lorelai leaves a pause and when Rory doesn't fill it, she goes on. "When did it start?"
Rory sighs, she suddenly wishes that she was still drunk for this conversation. "Fall, not last year, the year before. We were both in Hamburg, we ran in to each other, we caught up. And then we just kept in touch."
Yep, the PG footnotes version definitely covers the breadth of her complicated attachment with Logan.
Lorelai is taken aback, and it takes her a minute to process. It's been over a year and a half, why is she only finding out about this now? Between this and the worrying extent of Rory's career stresses, Lorelai wonders just how much of her daughter's life she's actually been privy to lately.
"So … you're back together?"
"No, we're not back together. It's casual."
"Casual? Because you two were so good at being casual a decade ago, you thought you'd give it another whirl?"
"It's different now."
"Clearly," Lorelai interjects sarcastically.
"It is. It's just … Vegas."
"What does that even mean?" Lorelai shakes her head. "Never mind, what about his fiancée?"
"She doesn't live with him. It's a family set-up. They have an open arrangement. I don't know much more, I don't ask." Rory says quietly.
"What about Paul? You said he doesn't know so do you guys have an 'open arrangement' too?" She uses punctuated air quotes.
Rory sinks her head into her hands. "Oh God, I am awful. I just need to break up with him."
"Which one are we talking about here?"
Rory raises her head and rolls her eyes at her mother.
Lorelai had connected the dots while Rory was in the shower and her anger started to edge back in. "You said that you stay with him whenever you're in London?"
"Yeah," Rory admits quietly.
"You've been in London a hell of a lot lately."
"For work."
"Sure." Lorelai nods and watches as Rory takes slow, small bites of her food.
"Were you there at Christmas?" She prods but Rory doesn't respond. "You said you couldn't get home because you had interviews set up either side of Christmas and the flights and jet lag would have taken up all your holiday spirit."
"That was true." Rory affirms.
"So you decided to stay with Logan instead. For Christmas, the most romantic and couple-y of all the holidays. Sounds so casual."
"Isn't Valentine's Day the most romantic and couple-y holiday? That's what Hallmark's been pushing all these years anyway." She tries to evade her mother's questioning.
"It's not a real holiday though, and commercial semantics won't get you out of this conversation," Lorelai shakes her head slowly. "Rory," she continues seriously and meets her daughter's gaze, "you rushed off after Grandpa's funeral. To go to London. To go to him I assume?"
"I didn't rush off." She replies defensively. "I had been there for weeks, putting off work, arranging whatever needed to be arranged. I did everything I could for you and for Grandma. But it didn't leave much of a chance for me to deal with all my stuff. I needed support and someone to talk to. And Logan was … there for me." Tears prickle at her eyes.
"In a super casual way I assume?" Lorelai counters, a little more bitterly than she intended.
Rory huffs, intending to answer back and snap at her mother, but stops herself. She has no right, she knows that she is in the wrong when it comes to her situation with Logan. After all, she wouldn't have kept it a secret otherwise. But she won't be made to feel guilty for the way she has (or hasn't) dealt with her grief.
She sniffs back her tears and shakes out her head. "Mom, I'm sorry for springing this on you. Can we please just drop it for tonight and watch a movie? I am so tired and I have had such a shitty day and I just can't right now." She pleads, her voice breaking.
Rory can hardly fathom how she got here - crying to her mother in a hotel bathrobe, about the man she's hopelessly in love with but can't (won't) tell, as well as her career which has now nosedived off a cliff, ricocheting off everything on the descent, eating second-rate pot roast. This must be what rock bottom feels like.
Lorelai's heart breaks watching her beloved daughter in such painful insecurity. There's a part of her that just wants to scream at and scold Rory for such poor decision-making; and another part of her, one that knows the feeling of utter despair when you think you've messed absolutely everything up, that wants to soothe her and tell her that everything will be okay. There's also a rational part of her brain telling her that whatever she thinks or says, Rory is a 31-year-old grown woman who can, within reason, do whatever she pleases.
She decides to concede, shuffling from her bed and places a kiss to Rory's head. "Okay kid, but I'm here when you want to talk."
Rory smiles weakly. "Thanks Mom."
Seeing her mother still watching her, she tries to lighten the mood, "Look, the wookiee costume was half off okay?"
Lorelai scrunches her nose in horror. "Which half?"
"Does it matter?!"
They both laugh and though they know it's relatively hollow, Rory is grateful that her mother allows the subject to be dropped (for now).
Instead, Lorelai switches on the television, helps herself to another cup of coffee and plate of food and the women spend the rest of the night in near silence.
Rory dumps her bags into her childhood bedroom, changes into sweats and accepts the pack of cookies and cup of coffee that her mother offers her. She collapses on the couch feeling sorry for herself as she relays how her 'interview' with SandeeSays imploded spectacularly.
She cannot believe just how far her hubris has carried her from the girl she used to be. Feeling entitled to a job she insisted she was too good for; acting entitled towards Logan while upholding her non-commitment to him; showing a complete lack of regard for her supposed committed boyfriend; lying to her mother for months and months but then waltzing through her front door expecting a place to stay.
It turns out rock bottom isn't cheating on her boyfriend, or losing her beloved grandfather, or being snubbed by Condé Nast and SandeeSays, or the love of her life being engaged to someone else, or even the constant lying to her family and friends that 'everything is just fine'.
Rock bottom is all of it. All at once. And this is her life.
On the other side of the ocean, Logan lies awake with Rory on his mind. He hasn't had a chance to speak to her on the phone all week, having to make do with what are clearly rushed, impulsive texts from her. She says she's busy with work, having apparently decided to give the gossipy news site a try, and he hopes it will be the break she so deserves to have. (Even though it probably means she'll be in London less, he can live with that if it makes her happy.)
But … there's something off about her not keeping in contact like usual and Logan worries that the mentions of Odette during her last visit made her so pissed that now she's avoiding him.
Someone who isn't avoiding him is his mother, whose wedding queries are up to an average of 3 calls a day, and she's getting more and more impatient as times passes. He's also in Honor's bad books because if he dodges calls from their mother, Shira hassles her instead.
It's not just the women in his life who he can't make happy either, his father is evidently resentful about whatever he thinks is happening with Rory if the increased workload and constant demands for a meeting with the lawyers to discuss the pre-nup are anything to go by.
He's struggling and he hates it. He doesn't handle stress as well if Rory isn't near him, or if he doesn't know when he's next going to see her. She helps stabilise him from the madness and he's craving the comforting balance she brings.
He picks up his phone from the nightstand to call her. He'll get her to come to London and they can sort this all out; he'll assure her that there won't be anymore unfortunate overlaps between her and Odette's stays and he can help her with the 'lines' article that she alluded was troubling her. Or, seeing as she's just starting out with SandeeSays, maybe he'll shift some work around so he can travel back to the States and take her away into the country for a couple of days and get her out of her own head.
His good intentions are interrupted by the sharp shrills of the doorbell ringing incessantly. He frowns at the clock, assuming that the only person who would turn up out of the blue at this time of night is Finn, and quickly throws on some clothes to traipse downstairs.
Grumbling under his breath about how he really should try to make some new friends (of more sound mind), he opens the door to find an irate and hysterical Odette behind it, accompanied by half a dozen suitcases and a wide array of French expletives all aimed at him.
Shit. Meet the fan.
