Hey y'all! First off, I love you. Each and every one of you who read this, whether you review or not. It feels so nice to be back in fanfiction! Second order of business: I'm thinking of where this fic is going, and I'm wondering: would y'all be down with a bump up to M (i.e. things getting a little bit smutty)? I'm ok with keeping it T but I'd like to know what you guys think. Leave a review and let me know!


The room froze over. Rory was sure of it. She felt chilled, then hot. A flutter in her stomach. She willed herself to retort something clever but her mind was reeling so rapidly she couldn't catch a single word. Gillian was the first to move. "

You must be the ex." She said decidedly.

Logan nodded curtly. "I guess you've heard of me."

"You've come up in conversation."

Rory was still shell-shocked. She had been anticipating this moment since reading that headline, and yet she hadn't actually expected it to ever happen.

"I have to go." The first words that fell past her lips were accompanied by her sliding off the stool and moving towards the door. Gillian caught her arm and swung her around.

"Nonsense. I'm sure you and the ex have some catching up to do.""

No. No, we don't." Rory snapped at Gillian, but let herself be led back to the bar. Logan was standing still, the faintest hint of amusement in his eyes.

"Logan, is it?" Gillian asked the blond. He nodded again. "I'm Gillian. Rory and I were just talking about you, actually. She has a few things she'd like to tell you."

"No, Gill." Rory protested weakly, having finally picked a mood to settle on. Sullen and pouty. Not her most attractive option, true, but it was being backed by four martinis and five years of repression.

"Logan? I'm sure you can take it from here. Rory, you talk to Logan. I just spotted Charlie, I think I'm going to go for his number, ok?"

Rory nodded numbly, vaguely registering as Gillian left her side and was replaced by Logan.

Who was still very attractive.

In fact, potentially more attractive than ever.

"So," He ventured, "It's been a while."

Rory scowled, turning to him for the first time.

Bad move.

As soon as she met his eyes, she knew the chemistry was still there. Rory swallowed thickly. The electricity crackling between them was dangerous, even after five years apart.

"It's been a while?" She snapped. "That's what you're going with?"

"You look beautiful." He tried next.

Rory's scowl deepened."You're not helping your cause, Huntzberger."

"I didn't realize I had a cause to help."

"You don't."

"How've you been keeping?"

"Fine."

"We're not going to talk, then?" Logan looked downright amused at her grumpiness, a fact which irritated Rory even more.

"What about?"

"I don't know." He smirked at her, "I'm not the one who yelled your name out in a crowded bar."

"Moment of weakness. What can I say. I don't see why that means we have to talk." Rory turned back away from him, hoping he'd disappear. The sheer insanity made her almost want to laugh out loud. First she spends two weeks on edge, seeing him everywhere, and now that he was in front of her, she couldn't put together a coherent thought?

"You're not the least bit curious about my life?"

"If I had been, don't you think I would have called or something? Sent you an email?"

"No, I don't think you would have, because you're Rory, you're stubborn, and we broke up."

"So, why would I care how you're doing?" Rory felt a pang of something, but she couldn't quite define what, when he called her Rory. Wrongness? No. But something was off about it.

"I'd love to hear how you're doing. How things turned out."

Rory snorted disbelievingly and turned back around slowly. "How things turned out? What, you want to know if I think I made a mistake, turning you down? You want your ego stroked or something?"

Logan held a hand out defensively. "Rory, it's not like that. That's not what I meant. Come on, I know you. I know you're curious."

"You don't know me. You knew me, mister. Emphasis on the past. You stopped knowing me when you left like that."

"Like what? Rory, that was five years ago. We're different people now. Meeting in a bar. Different circumstances. Hey, here's an idea. Let me take you to dinner. We can catch up, talk about old times."

Rory felt a fleeting second of temptation, but it was quickly swallowed by an almost blinding rage. Trust him to waltz back into her life like nothing had happened.

"Oh sure, let's pick up where we left before. No apology, no discussion, let's just go on a date? Have you lost your mind?"

"So now you want to discuss?" He smirked. She could have slapped it off his face.

"No, now I want you to leave me alone!" She snapped, whipping back towards the bar with every intent to not turn around, regardless of what he said next.

"Come on, Rory! The past is the past! We were young, stupid, can't you just let it go?" He shrugged while he spoke, like the whole business had been some silly misunderstanding. Not a breakup that had taken her almost two years to get over.

"Let it go? Let it go? Logan, you broke my heart! I loved you and you told me that wasn't enough!" Ok, so maybe that not-turning-around thing had been premature.

"Yeah well, maybe I saw it a bit differently. Every consider that?" He took a step closer to her. Rory had flipped his switch. Even after this long, she could still do that. His entire demeanour shifted, from relaxed to aggressive. His shoulders tensed, his brow furrowed, the veins in his neck constricted. Defensive, almost shouting.

Rory's eyes narrowed. "I spent a year considering it every way I could." She seethed. "And maybe, ever consider this, you could have given me some time to think. You could have called me to talk about it. You could have acknowledged that you threw away something that could have lasted because of your pride!"

Logan threw his arms up, exasperated. "What do you want from me, Rory? I was trying to be civil. What happened happened. You made yourself clear that night, as did I. And I didn't ask for you to come back into my life tonight. This has nothing to do with me. If you can't let it go, don't pin that on me. I let us go as soon as you turned me down."

That stung.

"I've let it go!" Rory flung back at him. "I'm in a relationship! And I love him, in fact, he's perfect for me!"

The words hung in the air, weighty and sharp. Rory was almost as startled by them as Logan was. She didn't love Mark. She was fond of Mark, yes. Maybe one day she'd love Mark. But she didn't yet. Logan recovered before she did, taking a step back.

Rory faltered at the sudden space between them, acutely aware of the coldness that had filled it.

"Well then, you won't care that I'm leaving now, Rory." He jammed his hands into his pockets and turned away from her quickly. She wanted to call after him, but any words she could think of were stuck.


Oh the angst! Oh the drama! I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT! (p.s. remember to let me know... M or T?)