Fun fact: most of NYN was written listening to Michael Bublé.

Tonight was a Michael Bublé kind of night.

Disclaimer: i don't own gg

The days of the work week meshed together quite nicely. Logan and Lottie were her personal "good-bye-and-welcome-back-home" committee, both meeting her each day with huge, ear-to-ear grins, telling her all about their adventures involving princesses and tea parties.

While Logan finished up dinner for the two of them, Rory would bathe Lottie and put her down for a nap. He'd come in to Lottie's room, with a glass of wine for Rory and a kiss for Lottie. Then, Rory would tell Logan all about her adventures involving promising manuscripts, office politics and that damn coffee maker.

They'd wash up the dishes, land on the couch and end up engaging in a make-out session more fitting of two love struck teenagers.

Rory couldn't remember a time where life had been so sweet and easy.

Friday morning found Rory curled up in her plush office chair, one leg tucked under the other, navy blue Nine West heels kicked to her hardwood floor, and coffee untouched on her desk. She was completely captivated by a new manuscript.

It was one of the worst things she'd ever read. It wasn't a satire; it was completely intentional, earnest writing. Clichéd in the worst way, undeniable, but never-quite-right lovers, grand gestures that made Lumley Castle look like a bounce house. Plots were more twisted and over the top than Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty combined and yet, she couldn't put it down. Because it was good in a guilty pleasure kind of way.

Somewhere around chapter six, as Benjamin turned his back on his family and Rory was squirming in her chair, her phone buzzed.

"Traffic jam in NYC. I know this is highly unusual. See you in twenty, maybe thirty."

Jess.

That's right. It was Friday. The Friday that Jess would be in New York. The Friday they agreed to have coffee to discuss his business proposal. That Friday had crept up suddenly and unpleasantly.

She had meant to research and prepare, but she preferred cuddly nights with Logan instead. And, apparently, getting side-tracked by trashy would-be novels. And now, she was going to be late, too!

She let out an exasperated sigh as she doggy-eared the manuscript and tossed it on her desk. The crazy tragic love of Audrey and Benjamin would have to wait (she was pretty sure Ben would cheat, even though Audrey was pregnant!) and grabbed Jess' proposal, plus the outlines of her plans. She stuffed them into her bag as she slipped into her heels. She threw back the last of her coffee, tossed her phone in her bag and was out the door.

Gilmores never ran, but Rory would power-walk if need be. She didn't want Jess to think she'd forgotten about him and she wanted to be at the restaurant before him. After all, she was a professional manager now and forgetting a client (especially Jess!) was not a manager-like thing to do.

Her heels pounded the gray carpeted hallway with such urgency, Rory didn't see Mitchum approaching and she almost bumped into him.

"Where's the fire?"

Rory met his cool gray eyes, chuckled and shook her head. "No fire, I'm just running late..."

"Big meeting?" Mitchum asked curiously, "Big names? Good names?"

"Um…" Rory fingered her wedding ring subconsciously, "it's kind of a new name, but a good one."

Mitchum stuck out his pointer finger, as if he made a great discovery. "You are smiling."

"I am?"

"Mega-watt," Mitchum nodded, "So it's definitely a good name."

Rory looked away, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious, and shrugged. "I hope, Mitchum. I just hope he's interested."

"That's preposterous!" Mitchum boomed, "who'd in his right mind turn down HPG?"

"Logan," Rory blurted without thinking and immediately regretted the statement.

Mitchum's eye's narrowed to suspicious slits and he turned to her. "Don't tell me you're meeting him?"

Rory shot him an incredulous look. "Logan? No, he's at home with Lottie. Why… why would you think otherwise?"

Mitchum shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. "It's not the first time you kids concocted some kind of crazy scheme to loophole your way around contracts…"

Rory smiled a little wryly. "Well, let me assure you it's not him." She'd expected Mitchum to smile his smug smile, but instead he kept his eyes on her, which urged her to confess. "It's Jess."

"Jess?" Mitchum repeated slowly, as if he was running through a database of possible Jess'. "Haven't heard of him…what's so special about this guy?"

Rory snorted in disbelief. What was special about Jess? And poor Mitchum had no clue. "Google "The Subsect". You'll understand. I've got to go."

Mitchum watched as a megawatt smile returned to Rory's face as she pounded down the long corridor and made the elevator just before the doors whizzed shut.

Jess was seated comfortably in a booth by the window as Rory arrived. She had a look of triumph on her face as she entered the restaurant (considering she'd made it across town in record time) but it vanished as soon as she spotted his gravity-defying head of brown hair and his amused brown eyes.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath as she made her way toward him. "Jess, I'm sorry," she told him as she slid in to the booth. "I was reading this fantastically bad manuscript - the author actually titled it "Pickup Truck Romance" - and the two main characters are just... you wouldn't believe it."

Rory wasn't paying attention to the amused grin that captured his face as she continued her ramble.

"They are lovers, met a county town meeting of a sleepy Southern town and secret meetings by the lake follow - her dad doesn't approve - and first kisses in torrential downpours and sneaking off for dirt-road rides in his truck. There's this scene when he teaches her to drive his pickup truck. Just... Harlequin writers couldn't have come up with it!"

"So how does this great American novel end?" he asked casually, resting his elbows on the table. "I'm intrigued."

A quick grin flashed across her face. "Who knows? I'm assuming they'll get together, but Ben is about to cheat and Audrey is pregnant, so it could go anywhere…"

A deep, appreciative laugh escaped him. "You're clearly invested in this."

"I'm sorry I'm late."

"No, don't be," Jess shook his head, "I'd stay up all night reading that."

"Oh stop," Rory rolled her eyes, "it's a guilty pleasure. I'm sure you have a guilty pleasure - "

"Chick-lit," he interjected just quick enough to catch her off-guard. A quick glance, some flicker of recognition in his eyes, twisted smiling lips. She waved it away. "It'll never get passed my desk."

Jess hummed something of approval and leaned back. "Good to know what kind of business I'm dealing with."

Rory raised her left eyebrow. "So you're saying you wouldn't work with me if I published that kind of garbage?"

Jess opened his mouth, but closed it again.

"What?"

He sighed, "I was going to say that I might not work with you at all…"

"Ouch."

Jess dropped his head to his chin before looking up again. "You know what I mean. This… Jess Mariano doesn't play with the big boys."

"Jess Mariano usually never talks about himself in the third person; apparently things change."

He smirked. "Perhaps."

"Good." Rory tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "So. How 'bout some coffee?"

They were well in to their third pot of coffee and negotiations were tough. All Jess really wanted was some investment money to expand Truncheon on the West Coast. He didn't want some corporate giant messing around in his business and he didn't want any obligations to churn out books like clockwork. Rory, while she wanted to see Jess achieve massive success, also really wanted "Mariano" to be one of the HPG writers. If that didn't make the new division a roaring success, she didn't know what would.

But Jess didn't care about publicity or making the bestseller list year after year.

"You deserve to be on that list, Jess," Rory pressed, "on every list. On every bookshelf in every house in every town across the country."

He shrugged deeply. "We're just trying to have fun with it, you know?"

Rory bit her bottom lip and nodded as if she understood (she wanted to understand) but all she felt was the meeting taking a turn for the worse.

She took a sip of her coffee and put down the cup with determination. "I want HPG to publish your next book," Rory told him point blank.

"Why?" His tone was filled with more curiosity than offence. "There are a million people waiting to sign with someone like HPG. Why me? Why now?"

"Because you're Jess," Rory sighed into her coffee, "and I've got all this power and a whole department to run and I just thought of you."

He fixed his deep dark brown eyes to hers and raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"And," she drew out slowly, backtracking a bit, "it'd be good for the company, you know, a guy relatively new to the scene, a smash first book, big, big potential. People are interested, Jess."

"Maybe."

"Look at it this way. The first time you released "The Subect" you had, what, five hundred copies?"

"Sounds about right."

"We'll do five hundred thousand."

He smirked at the impressive sounding number, but shook his head as she missed the point. "But it'd be HPG, not Truncheon. Chris and Mattie worked hard, I want them to get recognition, too..."

Rory looked down at the last sip of her coffee and she realized that Jess wouldn't relent. All he wanted was funding, an investor for future projects, not a new publishing agency. After all, Truncheon was his (and Matt and Chris') life's work; blood, sweat and tears. How could she ever imagine taking that away? She was embarrassed to admit that she even entertained the idea.

"I'm sorry," Rory said suddenly, "I don't know what I was thinking! Truncheon is like your baby and I wanted to take that away from you."

Jess gave her a short nod. "It's okay. I get it."

"But I want to help you."

"Help me?"

"Financially," Rory clarified, "I want to invest in Truncheon."

His eyes widened and a bit of warning crept into his tone. "Rory..."

"It's my personal money, Jess, not HPGs. Not Logan's." At his confused expression she gestured wildly, "I've got a rich dad, remember? It's my back-logged trustfund."

"But..."

"No buts, Jess. I'm dead serious. The West Coast is in dire need of quirky, small publishing houses. I should know, I spent a lot of time out there. I've got the money, you've got the perfect publishing house." She reached deep down in her Prada tote and pulled out a checkbook. "So, how much?"

Jess fiddled with his coffee mug and shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of taking money from her, but Rory wasn't backing down. "I'm not leaving until you tell me how much."

He tipped his head back and groaned. "Why?"

Rory lifted her silver parker pen off the check and met his gaze. "I don't know," she said softly. "Do you need a reason?"

He looked at her intently. "Yeah. I do."

Rory sighed heavily. "I'd just spend it all on Prada bags and Gucci sunglasses anyway. I want to do something worthwhile."

"I'm not a charity case," he reminded her.

"I know that," she told him firmly, "and it's not a gift. It's an investment. I believe in your business. I want reports and updates. I want involvement."

Jess smirked. And he'll never know quite why he said it. Maybe it was her genuine smile, or maybe because he really needed the money but he tipped his head forward and nodded. "Okay."

A satisfactory grin tugged at Rory's lips. "So, tell me, how much?"

"We've projected fifty-thousand dollars..." he pointed vaguely at the fact sheet on the table. "Are you sure?" he asked again. Fifty grand was a whole lot of money. But Rory filled out the check without blinking, without thinking. As if it was a dollar for the coke machine.

Like a true business women, she handed him the check and stuck out her hand and he shook it. And just like that, a significant business deal was made on a quiet New York afternoon.

Jess carefully tucked the check in his pants pocket, before pouring them both another cup of coffee. Conversation flowed away from investments and business deals to more casual talk.

Rory didn't know how long she'd been at the coffee bar, but the shrill ring of her cell phone brought her back to reality. Her display flashed with Logan's number and an uncomfortable nervous sensation washed over her.

"Fuck," she muttered and Jess' brows furrowed at her swear. She gave him a soft apologetic smile. "I'm sorry – it's just… it's Logan."

Jess tipped his head forward sharing her concern.

"Hello?"

"Is everything alright?" Logan couldn't hide the concern in his tone. "Where are you? It's 6:00 pm and you're secretary isn't picking up."

"She probably went home," Rory deliberately responded to that and chose to ignore the rest.

"And you?"

"I'm on my way. I just…" she shifted her gaze away from Jess, "I had a meeting and it ran late."

"Oh." Logan sounded hurt, a little like she used to when she was on the receiving end of those calls.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, "I should've called."

"It's okay, take all the time you need to seal the deal" he said, "I'll make you a plate."

"Thanks," she smiled into the phone (how often had she told him exactly the same?) "but I'm on my way. Twenty minutes, tops. Unless there's traffic."

She caught Jess' smirk out of the corner of her eye and couldn't help rolling her eyes at her comment.

"There's always traffic," Logan said and Rory nodded, "I know," before disconnecting the call.

Jess had managed to flag down a waitress and hand over his credit card to settle the bill.

"I've got a corporate card and this was a business meeting," Rory said as scrambled to get all her papers in her bag.

"For fifty thousand big ones the least I can do is buy you a cup of coffee," Jess said, handing her another stack of papers.

"Thanks," Rory smiled genuinely.

"Your husband's okay?"

"Yeah," Rory sighed, "just concerned. He cooked dinner and I have to be home to eat it."

"Fair enough."

"Yeah." She smacked her lips together a few times contemplating domesticated Logan versus his wild child days. "I had a good time this afternoon."

"Yeah?" Jess asked, mouth twisted up in a smirk, head cocked ever so slightly. "Me too."

There was tension. Obvious, palpable tension and Rory wasn't quite sure where it was coming from. Jess was an old friend, this was business. Logan had dinner on the table. She had to go. "Keep me in the loop on my investment, okay?" she said as she slid out of the booth.

"Will do," Jess nodded, his hand going to his pocket to make sure the check was still secure. "And let me know if Audrey is pregnant and Ben cheats," he called out after her. She didn't look back at him, but judging by her laughter, he knew she heard him.

Logan was busy with the dishes as Rory made her way into the kitchen. "Hey."

"Hey," he replied absentmindedly as he slid another plate in the dishwasher. She took a seat at the breakfast bar and picked at her plate of cold ziti and waited for Logan to finish.

Obviously, after being on the receiving end of so many "can't make it/sorry I'm late" phone calls, she understood he was upset, but the cold shoulder treatment was a little harsh and she was in no mood to fuel this behavior.

"That tasted a lot better warm," Logan finally said as he closed the loaded dishwasher.

"It's fine like this," she pushed the pasta around on her plate, "think of it as my punishment for missing dinner."

Logan smiled tightly. "You should've called."

"I was just caught up in the deal."

Logan nodded – he knew how it was. "Good deal?"

Rory pushed a fork full of ziti in her mouth. "Actually, the writer wasn't interested."

"That's insane! Who'd turn down HPG?"

Rory looked past Logan to make sure Mitchum wasn't standing in her kitchen and chuckled to herself. "You did, babe."

"Different circumstance," Logan waved Rory's comments away. "So, who is the guy that threw his future away?"

Rory's dropped her fork and wiped her face with her napkin before looking up at Logan. "That's not very nice to say."

"It's true," Logan countered, "Any up-and-coming writer should be lucky enough to write for HPG."

Rory rolled her eyes, "What if that writer was really interested in making a name for himself without a big name to back him?"

"I'd say best of luck to him."

Rory snorted at Logan's sarcastic comment and went back to her ziti.

"Oh come on, Ace. It's your department, you should know, you should be making people believe that! Hell, you know firsthand how the HPG experience works! New York Night is still number one on the charts."

"I know," Rory said quietly.

"So?"

"I should learn that there's more than HPG," Rory shrugged deeply, "Some people like starting new things from scratch and are pretty successful at it."

"Okay," Logan said slowly, quickly trying to analyze Rory's sudden distress "you know that your number one is well deserved, regardless of you last name?"

"I know," Rory said but it wasn't really convincing. Just as Logan was about to ask her to elaborate, Rory cracked under the pressure of his gaze. "It's Jess, okay!"

She slid off the bar stool and walked around Logan into the kitchen to wash her plate.

"Jess?" Logan asked, following her, "Luke's Jess? Stars Hallow Jess? High-school boyfriend Jess?"

"Yes," Rory let out a frustrated groan, "he's all of those Jess' yes."

She turned around, so her back was facing the sink and she was facing him. "What about him?" Logan demanded as he ran his eyes over her face. Her guilty expression led him to draw his own conclusions and they were not pretty.

"Him. He was your meeting? And that's why you're late? And he turned you down? You wanted him to sign with HPG?"

"Logan, it's not like that. He's, I…" Rory cursed herself for blurting out things like this, "I ran into him in San Francisco…."

As she watched her husband's face contort in hurt and anger, she realized that she should've told him; she should've never kept it a secret.

"I ran into him in San Francisco…" she started to explain, but it was no use through his outraged interruptions.

"San Francisco? During the tour?"

"In the hotel bar. We had dinner…"

"Dinner!"

"…and we were catching up…."

"Catching up!"

"…and he mentioned that he was doing some business and ..."

"What?" His mind itched to ask her if she took him back to her hotel room, if she fucked him, cheated on him, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. She sensed that was on his mind.

"I didn't sleep with him, Logan," Rory was genuinely hurt by Logan's accusatory look. "This isn't college. I just gave him my e-mail address so he could forward some business proposals."

"And?"

"We met up today, but HPG's vision didn't match with his," she finished her explanation with a small smile, one that she hoped conveyed her sincerity.

Logan waited a beat as looked for truth in her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Good question. Rory shrugged; at the time it seemed like a good idea. "It just didn't seem important."

He scoffed, "it's pretty damn important if we're fighting about it now."

That was true, but she couldn't find the words to agree. "You jumped to conclusions."

"Because you didn't tell me!" he yelled at her, "What would you have thought?"

"I wouldn't…" she tried but Logan cut her off, remembering exactly how Rory would react.

"You would. Remember Bobby wiht a Y?"

"That's different," Rory tried, but it wasn't. "You know what's different?" she asked him, "When you are the one stuck at home all day, the one on the receiving end of disappointing phone calls. That's why you're mad."

"Stop, Rory," Logan shook his head, "This isn't about that. You intentionally didn't call. In fact, if I hadn't called, you probably would've never told me you were seeing Jess."

"I'm not seeing Jess, Logan, it was one meeting!" She stressed that last part, even though she knew I there were going to be more.

"One meeting?" Logan questioned, stepping closer to her and she confirmed with a small nod. "One meeting."

"And nothing happened?" he asked, reaching for her hand. She swallowed and looked at his face. Beautiful eyes, perfect nose, wonderfully kissable lips. Husband lips. She had hurt him and knowledge of the investment would hurt him more. And what happened was an investment, pure business, her money. She really didn't want to fight about this anymore, those lips should kiss her, not yell.

"Nothing," she whispered and put her head to his broad, always-safe chest. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"It's alright…" Logan pulled her a little closer, and his voice returned to its normal soft tone. "I'm sorry, too. Lottie and I had rough day –she got in your closet and accidentally got red lipstick on one of your chiffon dresses. And on the way back from the cleaners she had an accident."

"Oh, honey," Rory ran a hand up and down his back, "I'm sorry."

"If the elevator had rode up in one shot, we would've been fine. Happened right in the hallway."

"Was she upset?"

Rory felt the deep rumble of laughter bubble up in his chest. "I was – we should think about tiling the damn hallway." Rory smiled. "And we had to take her princess dress to the cleaners. Finn got it at FAO Schwartz, it didn't seem like you could just toss it in the wash, you know?"

Rory nodded. "You could've just tossed it in the garbage. We could get her a new one?"

"She'd know it wasn't her dress. It was enough of an ordeal to explain that the nice man at the dry cleaners would clean it just like Mommy's dress…"

Rory was in awe of how well Logan understood their daughter, how patient he was in dealing with Lottie (and her too). "You deserve a gold star," she said as she stood on her tippy toes to kiss him.

Logan kissed her back, deeply and needy and lusty and before she knew it, he'd maneuvered her so that she was sitting on the kitchen counter, one leg on either side of him.

"So, care to tell me how the rest of your day was?" he asked in a low voice, the one that caused butterflies in her stomach.

"No," she whispered, grinning mischievously, her hot breath tickling his neck, and she leaned in for another kiss.

Audrey and Ben are a characters from Messing with Forever so kudos to anyone who spotted that!

And this, well, should we start with the positive? With all of these kitchen counter encounters the chance of a baby is looking significantly better, huh? However, this secretiveness about Jess is obviously not good. Honestly, I thought Rory would be over it by now, but it keeps coming back.

Huh.

And the investment, while it's her money, you can't just give fifty grand away without consulting your husband, you know? And also, just FYI, not quite legal. Oops.

So, you know the deal. Tension for the next few chapters, at least.

Thanks for all the reviews last chapter. Especially the moms (and people who work with children) for all of your baby/toddler advice and stories. Absolutely hilarious to read and so inspiring! And to everyone else, obviously. I was surprised by the amount of love and it absolutely made my week!