Twelve

No notes. She dropped her books onto her bed, ignoring their bounce and lopsided landing, kicking her shoes off immediately. How was it possible that during an entire two hour lecture she'd managed to take no notes? Zero notes, less than zero notes, she hadn't even dated the top of her paper. How could she take notes when she couldn't even remember the date! And on a Monday! What a way to shape the week. She groaned, the palms of her hands rubbing her eyes. She wasn't even sure if she'd picked up her pen. Did she even have a pen? Her nose scrunched up as she found a place for her rage. Huntzberger.

Of all the out of the blue, left field, catching a girl off guard, things a guy could do, he'd managed to do it! The nerve! She berated him in her head momentarily before catching her thoughts wandering, replacing that fury with what it truly was, surprise and...

She lost her train of thought.

That kiss…

She flopped down next to her books, head resting back on her pillow to stare at the ceiling, replaying it in her head again and again. It had all happened so fast: one minute, nothing, the next, wowza. She'd swear she'd felt the electricity, from her toes, up to her brain, and all the places in between, and she struggled to remember a time she had had a kiss felt so passionate.

She couldn't help but wonder what on earth Logan had been thinking, or was thinking for that matter. Passionate kisses in dark alleys was probably on his resume under "key skills", whereas Rory's experience could hardly fill up a post-it note.

There had been Dean, her high school boyfriend, then Jess, the proverbial new guy in town who broke her heart, and then Dean again, in a seriously misguided fling that she happened to had conducted while he was still married. Not her best moment to say the least. It didn't end well. Soon after she'd realized her mother's illness, and though he had tried to be there for her, Rory mentally couldn't handle the dynamic. It fizzled out as one misguided night, and given everything that had happened in Rory's life afterward, felt like a very, very, long time ago.

So she had hit the pause button on anything romantic after her mother died, not being able to handle the emotional intimacy it might require, up until just this past summer. When, after some arm twisting from Emily, had led her to the worst date she'd ever had to experience. It had begun with some awkward and borderline inappropriate flirting and ended with him drinking way too much, making suggestions to both Rory and their waitress, and her sending him home in a cab, alone. Even so, it was barely ranked as a footnote in the story of her love life, but had caused her to swear off dating until after college, at least.

Now there was Logan; the handsome, charming, upper-class, bad boy, who'd never had a girlfriend and here she was, his polar opposite and pretending to be the first. What a mess.

She'd been so sure she could play along with this ruse, that it would be mostly talk and little action, that she hadn't really had time to rehearse all the details that would have to take place to pull it off. Rory had spent the past few days under more stress than she had ever anticipated, all from the simple act of trying to keep up the charade.

She had hoped that as their year went on it would become easier, but this morning. This morning had twisted her mind up in a mess she hadn't even remotely thought to see coming. Her fingertips touched her lips, recalling how Logan's lips had felt against hers, and how he'd been so, skilled.

She frowned, snapping back to reality. Evasive maneuvers required.

She picked up her cell phone and started texting.

'Coffee, 2 points. Big, must attend event on Friday, 15 points.
17 points for week one is a good start.
Let me know what time you'll pick me up on Friday.'

Before she could hit send, her phone started ringing, startling her, and then immediate dread set in before she had the chance to read the caller-ID, calming as she did, but only slightly.

DAD

Not Logan, but still, she gulped. He knew she didn't have class right now, she'd sent him her schedule when the semester started weeks ago, and he'd done what he'd done for the past few years and schedule time on his busy calendar to call her and check in. Maybe this was that?

She hit the green accept icon and chirped happily, "Hey, Dad!"

"Boyfriend?" he immediately questioned.

"About that," Rory grimaced. Leave it to her well connected, super cool, hip, and worldly father to have figured it out that quickly.

"I have a Google alert set," he stated and Rory almost rolled her eyes before smiling. Of course he did.

Still, she remained awkwardly silent. She didn't know what to say. She had never had the opportunity to do the father-daughter conversations about dating thing with him. This was brand new territory and she was suddenly so glad he'd missed her teenage romance years.

"Rory?" he asked, probably thinking the line had gone dead.

"I'm still here," she replied rather sheepishly.

"Well, I look forward to seeing you and getting a proper introduction this Friday night at the Huntzberger Gala," he stated so nonchalantly that Rory wasn't sure she'd heard him right.

"Friday?" she questioned.

"Why of course! I cannot wait to see you, and to hear about how things are going at Yale, and meeting this new boyfriend!" he continued, "clearly, we have a lot to catch up on."

"Friday." She said again, more as a confirmation to herself that her father would be meeting Logan sooner versus the later she had never really planned for.

"Have to run into a meeting, can't wait to see you both!" he said before the line went dead.

Rory kept the phone to her ear for longer than she should of before opening her unsent message to Logan.

"Friday," she stated out loud one more time so that it would sink in as she backspaced through most of what she'd planned to send before.

'Coffee, 2 points. Big, must attend event on Friday, 15 points.
MY FATHER WILL BE THERE AND IS LOOKING TO MEET YOU. WE NEED A STRATEGY, ASAP.'

She sent it before she could over think it. She wanted some space from him after this morning's encounter, she needed it, but here she was, looking to throw herself into the path of what she was beginning to call him in her head. Hurricane Huntzberger.

Her phone dinged almost immediately with his response.

'Holy caps lock, Batman. Want to grab a drink later and game plan?'

"NO!" she screamed out loud while typing.

'Yes.'