Ch. 7

Rory managed to get back to work after the less than cheery conversation with Lorelai. She hated that Lorelai could get into her head like that and make her think of things that she really didn't want to think about. She wanted, more than anything, to write this series and get it over with. Because there was one thing that Lorelai nailed, Logan messed with her head. He might not do it intentionally, but it was always there. When it comes to that one big love in your life, it will always play tricks with your mind.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, she realized that she had already stayed later than she had planned. As she began the process of shutting down for the day and packing up, her phone rang. "This is Rory Gilmore."

"Rory Gilmore, as I live and breathe."

"Logan?"

"Yeah. I said I would call when I finished up with the office stuff. Did you forget?"

"No, it's just I didn't recognize the number. I guess I figured you had kept the same number all this time."

"Ah. No, actually I got the new number a couple of months after moving out to California. You know, start fresh. It made it more difficult for the old man to try to rein me back in, so that was a huge bonus."

Rory had gotten really quiet as he explained. And again, she was hurt. His fresh start meant that she couldn't contact him and that he didn't want her to contact him. That was yet one more way that he cut her out of his life. "I see," she said dejectedly.

At her reply, Logan wished he hadn't said anything at all. The hurt lingered in the connection between them. He didn't want to tell her that after two months of receiving no communication from her, he decided that he was going to wipe her from his memory and start over from scratch in California. Only a handful of his East coast connections had his new number or contact info. Despite feeling the destruction of "them" was her fault, he still didn't like it when she was hurt or sad. Those feelings he had never been able to shut down, and if he were honest probably never would. "Rory…"

"No, it's fine. It makes sense. You're in a new place, you have a new life, you're meeting new people…why wouldn't you start over? I get it. Now, can we move on?" As soon as those words left her mouth, she wished she could reel them back in. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "I mean, can we get to the point of the call? Please. I was just on my way home, so the quicker we figure things out, the better."

Logan was mulling over her word choice as well. One of these days, they were going to have to just unload everything if they were ever going to be at a place where they could be friends or at the very least friendly acquaintances. "Sure. I just wanted to set up a time to meet to figure out the logistics of this series. It looks as though I'm not going to be able to make it in to the office during normal business hours anytime soon so we'll have to figure something else out. You're more than welcome to come to my new office space and we can work here, we could meet at one of our apartments, or we could do the restaurant/coffee shop thing. You're choice."

She realized that the chances of them working together in the office or via email were slim, but she had still held out hope. One thing she did know for sure is that apartments were out. That could only lead to trouble. "Won't there be decorators or loud, construction-y noises at your office? Maybe we should just meet up at a coffee shop either near your office or mine."

Sighing, he knew what that suggestion meant. She did not want to be alone with him. "That's fine. If you don't mind, the closer to my office the better. I would prefer not being across town if something goes awry with the set up. There's a place called Cool Beans right down the street. Will that be okay? We can get some of the initial work done there, and then once the office is finished we can utilize that space while it is still relatively empty and quiet."

"Why do we need empty and quiet? And why can't we just do this over email again? We are writing, not joining a think tank."

"No, we're not joining a think tank. But there are some things that you just need to hash out face to face and not through social media. Besides, we always worked best together when we were in the same room bouncing ideas off each other. And that was just for the school paper. Doesn't Hugo deserve our best?" He realized he probably took that a bit too far, and mentioning their past was a mistake. But he wanted to push the issue between them.

Her silence spoke volumes. She was either again upset or pissed off that he brought up their past. "We used to work best when together over five years ago. I have no idea if that is still the case. And of course, I want to do my best for Hugo. Again, the last five years have proven that." Okay, so pissed it was.

"Look, I didn't mean anything by it. I just think that even after all this time, we would still do best face to face bouncing ideas off each other. If you don't want to do that, just say it and we can email everything back and forth. The result will probably be fine, but not great. That's just my opinion, but I will leave it up to you."

"Fine. Cool Beans tomorrow at 11. We can schedule any other time together from there. Now if it's just the same to you, I would really like to head home. So can everything else wait until tomorrow?"

"I guess it can. See you tomorrow then." He hung up and was discouraged and yet encouraged all at the same time. The fact that she didn't want to be alone with him said a lot. While that sucked, he understood it. And that she was still so affected by him, actually gave him hope. He didn't really want to dwell on why he felt hope. Because she had completely leveled him, he didn't want to go there again, right? He was starting to think that Hugo might be on to something, and he wasn't so sure of his motives anymore.

RLRLRRLRLRL

Logan was already there when she arrived. She thought back to their conversation the night before and cringed. She had to admit that nothing he said should really have garnered the response that it did, however after the talk with her mom she felt a little raw in regards to their relationship both past and their current one. So she decided that she would just apologize and then they could move on.

Taking the seat across from him, she didn't give him much time to notice her presence, much less saying anything before she got it off her chest. "I'm sorry for yesterday. You didn't say or do anything that warranted my reaction. Of course we will get our best from working face to face. That shouldn't have even been a discussion. If I'm honest, I was still dealing with the mental exhaustion of a Lorelai phone call and I probably took some of my frustration out on you, okay I definitely took some of my frustration out on you. I twisted your words to make them something they weren't. And if your office is in working order with internet and phone lines and chairs, then we can work there. I'm not normally a petty person, but I got it into my head that you wanted the upper hand with your surroundings, but that's just stupid. We're not in battle; we don't need the upper hand over each other in writing these articles. Right? Right. So I made some notes and I think we should just jump right in. Unless you have somewhere you want to start first? I brought my notes with me so that should be a good jumping off point. Or do you want to ditch the coffee shop and go to your office? Really, I'm good with whatever."

He stared at her for a long moment to make sure she was done. He missed this. "Wow. Um, okay. You kind of beat me to the punch. I was going to apologize to you."

Confused, she asked, "What for? You didn't do anything wrong."

"There's a first. However, that was a low blow with the Hugo comment. Of course you want to give him your best. As you pointed out yesterday, you have been doing that for five years now. And I should know, I've read almost everything you've written. So I am sorry for that."

"Apology accepted. So should we get started? Here or office? Just let me get some coffee first."

"Ace, I think you've had enough judging by your opening rant."

"Never! Give me a minute and I'll be right back waiting on your decision." She quickly dropped her stuff at the table and headed to counter to order. She had a smile on her face because of his apology and the fact that he had kept up with her writing and seemed to like it. That meant more to her than it probably should, but she didn't care.

Logan watched her as she placed her order and made conversation with the person in line next to her. She had really come into her own. She was definitely in her element here. Not for the first time, he realized his mistake all those years ago when he tried to take her out of it. It might have been different if there was a job for her attached to his plan, but he would just have to live with the what ifs. He tried to shake off the unwanted thoughts as she walked up with her coffee.

"Penny for your thoughts. Seriously, you looked knee deep in it whatever it was."

"You know my thoughts don't come that cheaply. Show me the money and we'll talk."

"Okay Jerry Maguire. But seriously, what were you thinking about? Maybe I can help. You might not know this but I could have been a shrink. That is how good my listening skills are. Plus I could be the next 'Dear Abby' because I am awesome with the advice. So let me have it."

"Thanks, but it's just office stuff. And who are you kidding? A shrink? With your ability to talk? I don't think so. So about these notes…tell me they are in color-coded files according to source and subject."

She turned pink at the reminder of their earlier days of working together on stories. "Okay, so I like organization. What is wrong with that? Nothing, I say. You shouldn't mock, because if memory serves you wrote a very good article using my notes. Thank you very much. And I will never agree with your assessment of my shrinking skills." At his smirk she amended, "whatever, my listening skills. Don't pretend you didn't know what I was talking about."

"You're right. I should not mock that which helps me immensely. So let's get you and your color-coded files to my office so we can start. But I still hold firm that your 'shrinking' abilities are probably not your strong suit."

Glad that they were in a much better place without all the weirdness, she grabbed her things and followed him to his new office.

"Wow. This is big. How many employees did you say would be working here?"

"Oh, about 50 or so here. Plus there are offices set aside for when my partners need to come out here to work."

"Again, wow. For what it's worth, Logan, I'm really proud of you and what you've accomplished. I always knew you could do it."

"Thanks, Ace. That means more than you could possibly know." He almost added, "I just wish you had been there to share it." But he stopped himself, because he didn't want to ruin the atmosphere they had created over the course of today's meeting.

Rory was thankful that he stopped where he did. She could tell he was going to add more; his eyes said it all. And for not the first, nor probably last time, she agreed with his unspoken comment. She tried to maintain the atmosphere that they had shared today, so she just said, "You're welcome. So how about a quick tour then we can get started."

"Sounds good."

They spend the next 30 minutes or so wandering the offices and talking about how everything was going to look once the decorators got their hands on the space. "So what do you think? Any suggestions?"

"This place is amazing; you done good, kid."

"So you wouldn't change anything? Come on, this is your last chance to put any kind of a stamp on these offices."

She wasn't sure why he would want her stamp on his office, but she took her chance anyway and made a few suggestions. "Okay, well if it was my office I would…" She rattled off several suggestions that he filed away for when the decorators came in later in the day.

RLRLRLRLRLRL

They were able to agree on a plan of action and talk over notes that each had compiled. It was decided that until everything was completed, they would meet every other day in his office at lunch time until this thing was complete. Both were hoping that it might take a little longer than they thought to put this series of articles to bed.

AN: Mea maxima culpa. Hopefully it doesn't take another year before my next chapter, but no promises. My posts will be sporadic.