Lorelai Leigh Gilmore-Hayden Chapter 10
Things got back to normal the rest of the week. Rory talked to her Papa and Gran-Mère several times. Her dad called her Friday while she was getting ready for the ballet. She had asked Logan to go with her and he was expected at any time and she still had to find her shoes and pick out a purse that her notebook would fit into. She answered the phone and put it on speaker. She laid it on the bed while she looked for her shoes.
"Dad, I don't have a lot of time to talk right now. Logan will be here any minute and I still can't find my shoes." She told him.
"Did you look under the bed? As I recall, that is always where your mother found her shoes," he asked. She rolled her eyes but got down on her hand and knee to look. She heard a knock only to turn her head and see Logan standing at her door.
"I do believe I like the view," Logan said. Rory giggled and Christopher asked Logan what he was looking at. Christopher's voice coming from the bed surprised Logan. He looked at Rory. His eyes were wide open. Rory was laying on the floor now with her shoes in her hand trying not to laugh.
"Logan, what view are you talking about?" Christopher asked again.
"I…I….I was looking at the picture Rory has on the wall. I think it is a picture of the old campus." Logan said. He was trying not to laugh.
"Rory, I just wanted to check on you. I talked to Dad today." Christopher said. "He told me mom had lunch with you this week and told you."
"Yes, She did. Dad, can we talk later?" She looked at Logan. "I have to go to the ballet. I am writing an article on it for the Yale Daily News." She told him.
"Sure," Christopher said. Logan could hear the sadness in his voice. He was not sure if the sadness was because his father had cancer or because Rory didn't have time for him. Logan had already decided that he would do what it took to stand by Rory, especially during this time. He also vowed to himself that he would not let Christopher or Lorelai cause Rory any more heartache.
Logan was walking Rory back to her dorm after their viewing of Apollo. Logan was genuinely surprised. He actually stayed awake for the whole performance. Of, course it was not the setting he was used to when his mother forced him to attend a ballet. Maybe it was because he was sitting next to Rory. Rory caught his attention.
"And to think, Professor Marcus directed the ballet. Gran-Mère and Grandma took me to see this ballet in New York for my 15th birthday. If I had to compare the two, I would say that Professor Marcus' directing could possibly challenge Balanchine's. " Rory continued to talk about the ballet. Logan nodded at the appropriate times and smiled as they met people on their walk back to the dorm
"Hey, Ace," Logan said. Ace is a nickname that he gave her back in middle school when she was made editor or their monthly reader. "You want to stay at my dorm tonight?" Rory turned to him. She tilted her head to look at him.
"Sure," she said and smiled at him. Rory and Logan have been spending a lot of time together. Anyone that did not know better would think they are a couple. That is probably the reason for all the looks the girls were giving her.
It was Friday afternoon and Rory and Steph were sitting at the bar in the kitchenette talking and enjoying a cup of coffee. Rory had not told anyone about Staub's condition. Steph has been worried about her, but Logan told her that Rory would tell her in her own time.
"It is almost time for me to start getting ready for my monthly Friday night dinner," Rory told Steph. Rory got up, she was going to take a shower before Logan got there. She had invited him. He already knew the news. She stopped at her bedroom door.
"Steph, I'm okay. Logan is taking good care of me. I want to tell you what has been wrong for the last week, but you can not tell anyone. Papa is telling the family tonight." Rory told her. Steph stopped putting the coffee cups in the sink and turned to look at her friend.
"Papa has cancer. It's not good." She told her. She smiled at Steph. "I'm okay right now." She opened the door to her bedroom and entered. Steph stood frozen at the sink. She was having a surge of emotions. This was the man who allowed her to live with Rory in the pool house during their senior year of high school. He was there for her at one of the lowest times in her life. Her parent's divorce.
Logan was on time. This was nothing unusual. Rory was ready. She was sitting on the bench outside her building. When she left, Steph was taking a shower. Rory told her she was leaving and probably would not be back tonight. Rory had packed a bag. She was either going to stay in the pool house in Hartford or she was staying at Logan's dorm. She and Logan have been sharing a bed, platonically ever since her Gran-Mère told her about her Papa having cancer. They still have not talked about them together. She didn't think Logan had been with anyone else since the LDB event.
On the ride to Hartford they talked about school, their friends, they even talked about their parents, but they did not talk about themselves. Logan was just entering Hartford City limits when Rory reached and turned the radio down. She took Logan's hand.
"Will you stop at the coffee shop up here and get us a cup of coffee? We still have plenty of time." She asked him. He smiled at her and turned down Beacon Street. They had discovered years ago that the best coffee was at this coffee shop.
Logan pulled into the drive-thru. After they had their coffees, Rory asked him to park in a parking spot. Logan did as he was told. This had him a little worried. He knew that tonight was going to be hard on Rory. When he parked, he turned in his seat to face her. He had learned a long time ago that there is not much room in his Porsche
"We have been avoiding the subject for a while now. I know that I have depended on you a lot lately," Rory said. She was holding his hand and looking him in the eye. "I appreciate it."
"Ace," Logan started, but she put her hand to his mouth gently and shook her head, stopping him from speaking.
"Logan, you have got to let me get all of this out." She told him. He nodded. "You have been one of my best friends. Up until you were sent off to boarding school, I never second-guessed whether you would be there for me or not." Rory paused.
"Logan, I can't' be your friend anymore." She told him. Logan's eyes got big. "I have fallen in love with you. I don't know when it happened, but one day I woke up and realized I love you." Rory turned her head and was staring out the window. She didn't want him to see the reaction on her face if he did not love her. Logan still had not said anything. He was still holding her hand.
"My Papa is going to die," Rory said with tears running down her cheeks. "Papa and Gran-Mère didn't proclaim their love for each other until Papa had finished Law School and opened a practice. Gran-Mère was almost 30 years old before she and Papa married. They had known each other all their lives." Logan reached up and dried her tears with his handkerchief.
"I don't want to wait until I am 30 to tell you how much I love you. Gran-Mère was engaged to someone else. She waited on Papa but he was stubborn. He finally told her the week before the engagement party." Rory chuckled. "I guess you could say both sets of my grandparents broke their engagement." Logan did not say anything. Rory was starting to panic. Was this too soon? She thought.
"Rory, my Ace, I have loved you for a long time. I didn't want to spoil your college experience by asking you to be my girlfriend. But what few times I have seen you with another man, well let's just say, I was ready to kill. Rory, I love you too." Logan told her as he reached over to kiss her.