Chapter Eleven

Rory couldn't believe that she was doing this. Why was she doing this? Why had she said yes? Was it what Zoe had said? Was it something else? Questions raced around her mind as she raced around her room, trying to pull together an outfit.

"You okay?" a mirthful voice asked from the doorway. Rory stopped her wild running, surprised. Standing in the doorway of her New York City apartment was her Stars Hallow friend Lane. Rory quickly ran through a mental checklist, wondering if she knew that Lane was supposed to be visiting her. Maybe, Rory had a legitimate excuse to not go out tonight. If she'd already made plans with Lane, she could believably, and respectfully, decline the plans she made more recently.

"What are you doing here?" It wasn't the politest way to greet a childhood friend you hadn't seen in a few weeks, but it was all Rory could manage. Lane's arrival was such a surprise, and she still hadn't come up with a memory of Lane saying she would be visiting.

"Zach and I have a weekend free from the kids, my mom is taking them on a tour of Seventh-Day Adventist churches, so we came up here to see that Broadway play that everyone has been talking about. I figured, while I was in your neck of the woods, I'd stop by, see how you were doing. And it seems like it's a good thing that I did." Lane glanced around Rory's small bedroom. Every available surface was currently covered in clothes that Rory had rejected as potential outfits; it looked like a bomb had gone off.

Rory looked at her friend a little crestfallen. She didn't have the excuse of previous plans to fall back on and, with Lane's predetermined plans, Rory also couldn't use the excuse that her friend had shown up out of the blue and Rory would have to entertain her and therefore couldn't follow through on her other plans. Lane didn't need a babysitter. Rory was out of viable reasons to cancel.

"I may have done something stupid," Rory responded, sinking down into the pile of clothes that covered her bed.

"I thought I saw a flying pig on my way here from the train," Lane spoke, coming to sit beside her friend. Rory smiled up at Lane; her best friend had a faith in Rory that the brunette didn't necessarily think she deserved.

"You know how I'm writing an expose on Logan and his potentially illegal business practices?" Rory asked her friend, staring up at the ceiling. Lane nodded her head, which Rory felt instead of saw.

"You know how I went to interview Logan and he spent most of that time flirting with me?" Again, Rory felt Lane nod in agreement.

"Well, two days ago Logan basically blew up my phone asking me out on a date and my annoying work friend Zoe talked me into it. So, I am going to some super trendy restaurant tonight before we go to some non-Broadway related show. He wasn't super specific on the details." Rory bit her tongue before she began to nervously ramble and waited to hear what Lane had to say. Her friend was quiet for an excruciatingly long time before she rolled onto her side to face Rory.

"You're going on a date with Logan Huntzberger?" Lane asked, her tone unusually level. Rory, who's nerve endings were already frayed, felt them unravel even further. What was Lane going to say? Rory couldn't tell. In response to the question, Rory nodded.

However, when Lane was quiet for even more seconds, Rory felt a need to give her friend more detail. "Zoe figured that, since I didn't get a lot out of Logan at our interview and my source in the company seems to be giving me the run-around, I could use this date as a covert interview and try and get some more information out of Logan. I thought it was a good idea, though now I'm not so sure."

Lane was silent for another beat before she finally spoke, "I just want you to remember the various heartbreaks you've had because of Logan. I remember all the punch that you, Paris, and I drank that one summer. I remember the fact that you had to go to therapy after you dropped out of Yale for him. When you turned down his proposal, I was very happy for you. I thought you would finally be finished with him. Just remember all those bad times so you don't get sucked into the Logan Huntzberger charm."

Rory wasn't sure that Lane was accurately remembering all of the details of her relationship with Logan, especially the therapy part, but she decided against focusing on the small details. That wasn't the important part. Lane was worried about Rory being dragged down by the gravitational force that was Logan, which was the same thing that Rory was worried about.

"I won't get sucked in. And I won't need to remember that being with Logan is a rollercoaster ride. All I need to focus on is the fact that, despite his actions to the otherwise, Logan is currently married." Rory saw the look that flashed across Lane's face and held up a finger to silence her friend for the moment.

"I am only going out with him for the story. It's basically a business dinner. Nothing will happen and I am not ruining another marriage. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the huge fight with my mom to make me never want to do it again. If his wife somehow finds out about this, I'll tell her the truth. I have no feelings for Logan and was only trying to get information out of him."

Lane still looked skeptical. "Can I ask one question and promise you won't get mad," she spoke slightly hesitantly. Rory nodded at her friend, though she wasn't sure she could guarantee her reaction. She was a little, no scratch that, a lot rattled at the moment. "If this isn't a date but a business dinner, why does your room look like a tornado has been through here?"

Rory smiled up at her friend. "It may be a business dinner, but that doesn't mean I know what to wear!"

Rory sat at the table in what was probably the nicest, fanciest, ritziest restaurants she had ever set foot in. As she carefully perused the menu, she hoped that Logan wouldn't suddenly decide he wanted to go Dutch. A simple salad cost the same as her typical utility bill, not to mention if she wanted something more substantial like pasta or a meat dish.

Logan, always perceptive, seemed to pick up on Rory's unease. "Order whatever you like; as I'm sure you're aware, my company is doing extremely well." Logan smirked knowingly at her. Rory smiled nicely in response but continued to look down at her menu and not meeting Logan's eye. It was a lot harder to keep the romantic vibes to a minimum on a date.

Finally, the waiter appeared and took Rory and Logan's orders. Now, with no excuse, Rory turned to look at Logan. She hadn't planned out what she was going to say tonight; she was worried that it would come across as scripted and backfire on her. As well, it hadn't seemed to matter too much that she had prepared for her interview; Logan had just taken over. Hopefully, he would do that again, but this time Rory would be able to steer him in the direction that she wanted.

"I have to say, I was quite surprised that you finally agreed to my proposals," Logan spoke. Rory wasn't sure if the choice of word was conscious, but there was something in his tone that made Rory think that he knew what he was doing. The word proposal in relation to their date was very deliberate.

"Well, after four or five texts, it becomes easier to just agree to the request instead of ignoring it," Rory responded coyly. She was a little surprised that she was so easily flirting, but she told herself, if she wasn't being flirty and acting like she was enjoying herself, Logan may get suspicious when she started quizzing him about his business.

"To finally wearing you down," Logan spoke, proposing a toast by raising his glass in her direction. Almost subconsciously, Rory raised her glass in response. After they clinked their glasses together and took a sip of their drinks, Logan's whole demeanour seemed to change. He went from an easy, flirty attitude, to serious.

"There was something I wanted to talk to you about," Logan said, his tone level. Rory, who had begun to feel at ease in her situation, suddenly became on edge. What was so serious? What did he need to talk about? Ricky? Her story? There were too many things that Rory was trying to keep hidden from Logan that she couldn't pinpoint the potential cause.

"I know that you know that I got married a little after we broke up." Rory was a little surprised that this is what Logan wanted to talk about in such a serious manner. "Well, what you don't know is that we got a divorce about six months ago. I wouldn't have asked you out if I was otherwise attached. I know when we met back in college, I was the type of guy who would, but I hoped you knew that I had changed since then."

"Oh," Rory spoke, unable to contain her surprise. Logan wasn't married any more. He wasn't being sleezy asking her out while he was married. He was genuinely interested in her. There was potential between them, unlike what she had believed only moments before.

A strange feeling began to bubble up in her stomach. It was a sort of nervous anticipation, like she was excited about the prospect of Logan. What did that mean?

Rory took another sip of her wine to try and buy her some time to come up with something at least halfway intelligible to say in response to Logan's divulgence. The wine, though she hadn't had a lot, seemed to go right to her head and she spoke before she really thought about it.

"I'm glad you got a divorce."

The rest of the evening felt sort of like an out of body experience. Rory was no longer in control of her mind, body, or movements. She wasn't drunk; she'd only had about a glass of wine. There was something else that was causing her strange inability to be in the driver's seat of her own life. And, as a result, the Rory that enjoyed her dinner with Logan, flirting and even lightly touching him, was not the same Rory who had promised Lane that she would keep her distance.

Dinner went so well that Rory, drunk in the moment but not actually drunk, agreed to continue the evening at an off-Broadway play. It had been part of the original date, but Rory had planned to bail out early, say she needed to get home to put her son to bed or relieve her babysitter or something. After all, you couldn't exactly conduct an interview while watching other people perform; that was considered he height of rudeness. Yet now, she had all but forgotten her interview and was instead enjoying the moment with Logan.

She'd oddly meant it when she said she was glad Logan had gotten a divorce. Not that she was glad that his marriage had fallen apart, that he and his wife had undoubtably experienced heartache and pain. What she was glad about, and it was something quite surprising to the young woman, was that Logan was once again on the market.

Rory had thought she'd gotten Logan out of her system. After all, she was the one who had said no to his proposal. Now though, she seemed to be rewriting history. For years, she'd told herself that it wasn't just that she and Logan were moving in two different directions in their lives, but that she wasn't as head-over-heels in love with him, not enough to marry him. And especially not enough to give up her career to marry him. But now, as the pair strolled down the New York streets, bundled close to each other in an attempt to ward off the cold, Rory was beginning to think that it might have been the physical distance that had stayed her hand. Maybe she did have strong enough feelings for Logan to marry him, but at that point her career had been more important. Now that her career was established, and both she and Logan were in the same city, maybe those feelings were beginning to surface again.

Maybe, Rory wasn't as over Logan as she initially thought. And maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.