The weeks that followed Logan's visit, passed by relatively quickly visit and before they knew it he'd been working in Seattle for almost four months with a couple of short hops back to the East coast in between. Although they were still missing each other a lot, the visits back home to New York had started to dwindle and as it was, Logan and Rory had now not seen each other in over five weeks. They were both working with hectic schedules and that meant that communication had been reduced to emails and the quick calls they could manage during the week.
Rory sat at her desk twiddling her hair in her fingers, trying ever so hard to concentrate on the screen in front of her. She felt like these days her whole life revolved around waiting to hear from Logan and it was hard to maintain her focus sometimes. As soon as she got up in the morning she would check and recheck her emails and messages and wait for him to call. She was doing just that when her cell phone rang.
"Hey," she said, happily into the receiver.
It had been a few days since she'd heard Logan's voice, they'd been playing an excellent game of Voicemail Ping-Pong so she was glad that they had finally been able to catch up with each other.
"Hey, Ace. How are you?" Logan asked.
"I'm good" She replied.
"Are you sure? Your voice sounds a little weird. Tired?" he asked her.
"I'm fine Logan, just really long hours at the moment and I've been missing you that's all." Rory sighed.
"I miss you too Rory. I've been thinking about you all day."
Rory smiled. "I can't wait until you're home at the weekend, it feels like it's been ages since we've been together…"
Logan paused. "Yeah, about that…"
"Oh God Logan" Rory said as she dropped her head into her hand "Please don't tell me you're not coming back this weekend."
"I'm sorry Ace, things are really ramping up here, I need to be in the office this weekend."
Rory shook her head silently.
"Rory?" Logan said her name when she didn't respond.
"Fine, whatever." Rory shrugged even though he couldn't see her.
"Come on, don't be like that. You know, you could always come out here, I could see if my Dad's jet is free and…" he started to say.
"Logan I can't" Rory interrupted him "I have a family thing this weekend and I was kind of hoping that you'd be able to come."
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"It's fine. Look, Logan, I'm really busy here, I've got to go. I'll speak to you later, okay?"
Rory ended the call, frustrated and annoyed. She had been really looking forward to Logan coming back this weekend and them actually managing to spend some time together but once again, he had cancelled on her, just like he had done the previous two times he was meant to come back to New York. She was slowly becoming fed up of coming second.
A little while later there was a tap at her office door. She looked up to see Kate leaning against the doorframe.
"Lunch?" Kate asked.
Keen for a distraction from her thoughts Rory gladly jumped at the chance of getting out of the office for a bit and having a chat with her friend. Kate was always a willing sounding board when Rory needed an analysis of her relationships.
"It's just so hard, you know," Rory said as she sat opposite Kate in a bar around the corner.
When Kate had seen the look on Rory's face she had decided what they really needed was a liquid lunch and so they popped around the corner to one of their favorite lunchtime haunts for a quick glass of wine.
"I really wasn't expecting it to be like this." Rory sighed.
"And he's cancelled this weekend?" Kate asked.
"Yep," Rory said, "Which will make it what, nearly six weeks since we've seen each other."
"What are you going to do?"
"What can I do? I just have to lump it but that doesn't mean I have to like it" she said taking a swig of her wine before pulling a face "Ugh, that wine is bad" she said putting her glass back down.
Kate looked at her friend "So are you still going to Stars Hollow this weekend for Luke's birthday?"
"Yes, and I really wish you would come with? Can't you get out of whatever you're doing?"
"My sisters baby shower? Oh, how I wish I could get out of that…" Kate laughed. "Jess will be there though, you'll have fun."
Kate and Jess had still been seeing each other regularly. It wasn't what you'd call a serious relationship but they were enjoying each other's company and it definitely had potential to go the distance. Rory had big plans to quiz Jess about it at the weekend as she hadn't really seen much of him recently either.
Logan settled back into his seat on the airplane. It had been so long since he had seen Rory and she had sounded so disappointed on the call the other day, so he had made extra effort to get a few things tidied up and shuffled around so that he could come back and spent at least a day or two with her. The long-distance nature of their relationship over the past few months had added a fair amount of stress, more than either of them had thought it would, things were far from perfect and it felt like they were pulling apart from each other.
The stewardess made her way over to Logan and offered him a drink. Logan wasn't particularly arrogant but he could tell that the stewardess was checking him out. In another life, he knew he could have easily talked her into meeting him in the bathroom. Once upon a time he would have enjoyed the look she was giving him but now, the only person he was interested in was Rory.
He couldn't wait to get back to her now – he was really missing her touch. He was craving the taste of her and needed to hear the sound of her voice in his ear. All he could think about was how much he had been missing being with her.
"UGH!" Rory squealed as she and Jess both downed the shots that her mom had put in front of her. The tequila burned the back of her throat and she felt like the fumes were coming out of her nostrils. She picked up the lemon and as she sucked it, she winced at its bitterness.
"Mom, where on earth did you get that tequila? It's gross. It tastes like something Miss Patty has knocked up in her kitchen." Rory said as she wiped her mouth. "So Jess, I want to hear more about you and Kate, she was very coy the other day at lunch…"
"There's nothing to tell," Jess said with a wry smile.
"Oh come on!" Rory begged.
"A gentleman never kisses and tells." He said as he got up and walked to sit on the sofa.
"You calling yourself a gentleman Mariano?" Rory said as she followed him "Come on I have ways of making you talk" she said giggling as she moved in to tickle him. Jess wrapped his arms around her to stop her and they toppled over laughing.
Lorelai shook her head at them as she went to see who had just knocked at the door. "You guys never grow up…" she said as she threw open the door. "Logan! This is a surprise. Erm, come in" she gestured to him.
"Thanks" Logan walked into the living room and his eye landed on Rory and Jess who couldn't have been physically closer together if they had tried, laughing and playfighting on the sofa "Rory?"
Rory's head pinged up at hearing her name and the sound of his voice. "Logan!" she said as she jumped up off the sofa "What are you…I mean, I thought you said you couldn't come this weekend. I wasn't expecting you" she said as she brushed down her hair which had got a little messed up.
"Clearly," he said, not quite looking her in the eye. "I almost feel bad for interrupting"
"Logan…what's the matter?" Rory said.
Lorelai sensed that by the tone of their voices a discussion was about to be had and she didn't really want to bear witness to that. "I think we'll just go make some coffee….Luke!" she gestured with her head for him to follow her into the kitchen.
"Logan?" Rory repeated.
"What's the matter? I've just flown 3,000 miles across the country, followed by a two-hour drive to come and see my fiancé because I thought she was upset with me and yet I get here and find that I've just interrupted some kind of foreplay."
"That's not fair!" Rory gasped.
"Hey man, nothing is going on," Jess said as he stood up.
"Oh but I bet you'd like it to wouldn't you?" Logan said as she shot him a look.
"You what?" Jess looked at Logan.
"Why don't you just get it over and done with and just sleep with her already" Logan spat.
"Logan! Where is this coming from?" Rory said exasperatedly.
"Don't worry man, been there done that" Jess bit back.
Rory closed her eyes and silently cursed Jess. She had never told Logan about the fact that she'd slept with Jess – he'd always been a bit jealous and protective around him and Rory really valued her friendship with Jess. The last thing she had wanted was for Logan to have any other reason to want them to stay apart so she had just kept that snippet of information to herself.
"What?!" Logan said as he took a step back.
Rory looked at Jess with anger as Logan walked outside of the house.
"Logan…"
"How come you never told me you slept with Jess?" Logan asked her accusingly.
"It..it..wasn't relevant. It was a long time ago" Rory said quietly "Just after we broke up."
"Oh, that's real nice. And how long after we broke up did you wait before you jumped into bed with him?" Logan spat.
Rory bit her lip "Long enough". She really didn't want to lie to Logan but she wasn't entirely sure that he really needed to hear the truth, besides she was pretty sure that he hadn't led a life of celibacy after their break up.
"How long." He repeated.
"A couple of weeks," Rory said, trying to remain suitably vague.
It had actually been two weeks. Two weeks after Logan had walked out of her life and shattered her heart into tiny pieces she had turned to her old friend Jess for friendship and comfort and a drunken night at a bar had led to something more. They had only slept together once – neither of them regretted it at the time but they both knew that they were better off as friends and had vowed not to cross that line again.
"It meant nothing Logan, and it's such a long time ago, it was once. Please don't make a big thing about this" She said as she put her hand on his arm.
"If it meant nothing, why didn't you tell me?" Logan questioned before taking a deep breath. "Look, I'm just going to go."
"What? No!" Rory looked at him in shock. "Where are you going? You've come all this way and you've only just got here!"
"New York, Hartford, back to Seattle…I don't know right now but I just don't want to be here that's all." Logan said matter of factly.
"Well, I'll come with you!" Rory exclaimed, "I just need two minutes, I'll go get my stuff…." She said as she turned to walk back up the steps to the house.
"No. Don't"
Logan's words stopped her in her tracks. Tears formed in her eyes. She didn't turn around to face him immediately; she really didn't want him to see her cry. She blinked back a few tears before taking a deep breath to compose herself.
"Why?" she whispered.
"Just stay here" he sighed "You came to celebrate Luke's birthday. Don't let this ruin that for everyone."
Rory looked at Logan. She knew better than to try and fight him on something once his mind was made up.
"Okay," she nodded. "I'll speak to you tomorrow?" she asked tentatively as she walked back down the porch steps to kiss him goodbye.
"Yeah, sure" Logan fixed on a smile. "Tomorrow." He said as he got into his car and pulled away from the house leaving Rory standing on the path watching until the taillights faded in the distance.
A/N: I'm sorry, DON'T HATE ME!
