Chapter Ten

After what Rory was affectionately calling the day from hell, her life began to settle down. She didn't have any more surprises; nothing popped up to try and derail her day. If she thought about it too much, she was sure that she'd start to have panic attacks from the simplicity and normalcy that her life had become. However, the simplicity and normalcy was also accompanied by a lot of work and tasks to do.

That, and if she was being honest, her thoughts were too consumed to worry. Ever since that romantic, electric hour and a half she spent sitting next to Jess in the movie theater, she couldn't seem to stop thinking about Jess. Nothing had happened between them; her ten-year-old son sitting in between them made sure of that. They hadn't even really said a word to each other during the movie. Ricky hated it when people talked during movies, even if it was a movie he'd seen a dozen times before. Yet, despite nothing but an electric feeling, Rory seemed utterly captivated by Jess.

Questions for Olivia

Rory stared at the words she had written on her computer, trying to force her thoughts off of the Jess train and onto the work train. Other things had happened the day she and Ricky went to a movie with Jess, things that were very meaningful for her investigation. Olivia, a mysterious employee at Huntzberger Enterprises had called her up, willing to meet and potentially reveal the companies wrong-doings.

Rory had met her at their appointed Starbucks and Olivia had revealed that she had knowledge and information about insider training and misreporting of the company's financial information. Rory wasn't able to get Olivia to talk any specifics; it had taken her almost an hour to get the other woman to open up to her enough to admit that those things had happened. Rory found it a little frustrating, considering Olivia was the one who had initially reached out to Rory, and now she seemed skittish and unwilling to talk.

Rory had walked away from that meeting having confirmation that her story wasn't pointless, but not having any details about what was happening, who was involved, and what the possible implications would be. Since then, she'd been trying to nail down Olivia for another, more substantive meeting, but the other woman seemed to be dodging her calls. However, Rory was nothing if not persistent.

Now, she was trying to come up with questions, ones that weren't too prying but would provide her with the information she needed. She figured that if she had a plan the next time, she met with her potential informant Olivia, it might be easier to get her to open up and tell the tale she obviously wanted to.

However, Rory was struggling. Every time she went to type up a question she wanted to ask Olivia, her mind would slide back to her thoughts about Jess. No matter how hard she tried to wrangle them, she just couldn't seem to focus on the important task at hand.

Deciding that staring at her computer with her fingers poised over the keys while her mind ricocheted between her job and her personal life was not the best use of her time, Rory gave up for the moment. Instead, she took out her phone. Maybe, if she could nail down Olivia for another meeting, it would provide the motivation, the kick in the butt, that her mind needed in order to commit her questions to paper.

It took Rory a moment to find Olivia's number. Worrying about keeping her potential source as anonymous as possible, Rory hadn't saved it into her contacts in anyway. Instead, she'd had to scroll through her surprisingly large recent call history until she came across a number that wasn't attached to a contact.

Can we meet again? Still have things I need to nail down.

Rory tried to make her message as vague as possible. She didn't want anyone possibly finding Olivia should she provide her with valuable information. Hopefully, Rory thought, her text would look like one of the other six she'd sent that week that had to do with her mother's wedding planning and would not stand out as being related to her article. She silently thanked her mom for deciding that moment to get married, so Rory had a bit of cover.

Setting her phone down on her desk beside her keyboard, Rory turned back to her previous task. She somewhat pointlessly stretched out her fingers over the keys, held them over the small squares for a second, and then began to type. The text seemed to be working in some way as she quickly wrote down four questions under her heading where there had previously been nothing.

It was just as she was about to start typing down her fifth question, about where Olivia was getting her information from, when her phone pinged. Rory was a little surprised at the promptness of Olivia's response. She'd spent the better part of a week trying to pin this girl down and yet, on her twelfth text of the week, it had taken Olivia only about fifteen minutes to respond.

Momentarily distracted from her question writing, Rory picked up her phone, unlocked the screen, and pressed on the message icon, a small red 1 in the corner to indicate a new message. However, when the application opened, Rory's heart fell slightly. Her message to Olivia was unanswered; the ping and the little number 1 were not a result of her.

Annoyed at the whole situation, Rory put her phone down, a little harder than she'd intended to maybe, and tried to return to her questions. This time though, her mind was filled with various scenarios, each one a little worse than the one before, as to why a woman who had reached out to her had apparently pulled a 180 and decided she didn't actually want to be helpful.

"I need a coffee!" Rory exclaimed, five minutes later, standing over the desk of her work friend Zoe. The other woman, who had moments before been hurriedly typing away at a small black laptop, jumped up.

"I've been waiting for someone to have a writer's block large enough they needed a coffee," Zoe exclaimed. Rory was a little surprised at her eagerness, she had only moments before at least appeared to be hard at work, but the brunette chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Well, it wasn't writer's block exactly," Rory responded, as the pair made their way out of the office and down to the street below.

"Doesn't matter. I gladly take any excuse to get out of the office! I hate it there; very oppressive," Zoe spoke before skipping off. Rory thought of asking her friend why she chose to work in an office, even if it was a newspaper office, if she found it so harsh but she quickly decided against it. Asking such a question could potentially lead to a long lecture which Rory did not need. Especially not in that particular moment.

That, and her phone had pinged for a second time.

She turned to it this time with a little more trepidation, which was born out when she again saw no response from Olivia. However, this time instead of ignoring the message, Rory decided to figure out who was texting her. She backed out of her one-sided conversation with Olivia and nearly dropped her phone.

She was frozen in spot and, after she'd walked halfway down the block, Zoe noticed. The other woman quickly spun on her heel and returned to Rory's side, a worried expression on her face.

"Everything okay, darling?" she asked. Rory couldn't respond. Even more concerned, Zoe looked over Rory's shoulder to see what was on her phone. "Who's Logan? And why does he want to take you out on a date?"

Finally, Rory seemed to find her voice again. "Logan is my ex-boyfriend. And the head of Huntzberger Enterprises, the subject of my current investigation."

"If you're asking me," Zoe said, swishing around her small green splash stick as she spoke, "I would say yes." After Rory's revelation that Logan, who she was in the middle of investigating, had for the second time in less than a month, asked her out on a date, Zoe had been rightfully stunned. The two girls had stood feet from the New York Time's offices, staring at each other.

Zoe was the one to recover first and she had then proceeded to coax Rory into walking down the street to get a coffee. Now, they were comfortably situated in a pair of plush chairs in the corner of the Starbucks.

"Why?" Rory asked, staring incredulously at her friend. They'd ordered their coffees and then Zoe had pried out almost all of Rory's secrets; those particularly relevant to their current situation.

"Because your source has disappeared on you and this is a potential in. not that I think the CEO will open up and say, 'I am a dirty rotten criminal who is defrauding my investors and stockholders.' But he might let slip some pertinent information." Rory's incredulous look turned to a skeptical one. Zoe was an out of the box thinker, but this was so far out of the box that the box might as well be on the moon.

"And if it's not an in, you at least get what is most likely a fancy dinner and an evening off and, if I'm being honest Ror, you could do with some of that."

"It is a terrible idea, Zoe. I'm supposed to remain objective, not hop into bed with the subject of my story," Rory responded in a harsh whisper. She didn't want the whole coffee shop to hear their conversation.

"No one was suggesting that!" Zoe responded. She appeared to be aghast at the suggestion, but Rory picked up on the hint of theatricality that surrounded the other woman. "I'm just saying have a dinner with the guy. You've already tried to interview him once and it didn't work. Maybe it's time to try a more covert way of getting the answers to your question. And you don't have to agree to keep going out with the guy. All I'm saying is one date."

Rory remained silent for several seconds. She raised her coffee, long ago gone cold, and took a drawn out sip as an excuse. As she did so, she mulled over Zoe's words. What was the worst that would happen? Logan would flirt with her; it could be extremely awkward; it could be absolutely pointless. But if she was successful, she wouldn't have to try and chase down Olivia.

Maye it was some sort of sign. After all, it was moments after she'd texted her non-informant that Logan had sent his message. Was it the universe's way of answering her question? Was the universe telling her to forgo Olivia in favour of Logan?

"Okay. I'll go on one dinner date. But you have to look after Ricky."

Zoe smiled widely at her friend before squealing with joy and clapping her hands like a child.

"It's like I've one twice. Convinced you to do something and am being rewarded with time with my favourite tiny human."

Rory rolled her eyes at Zoe and hoped that she wasn't making a terrible mistake. Logan Huntzberger could be quite irresistible when he wanted to be and Rory didn't want to fall back under his spell. Right?