Chapter 30
Rory was busy working at her desk at the paper trying to finish up something she needed done by tonight. She had a lot of homework to catch up on considering she was going to lose a whole day of studying to attend grandma and grandpa's vow renewal. She was happy for them, and she was happy to attend, as well as for the honorable duty as best man. It was just short notice and since the weekend before she and Logan had also spent more time doing anything but studying, she was feeling the pressure of time.
The weekend in the city had been amazing. The Pierre, where they had ended up staying at not for one but two nights in the end, had treated them like royalty and she hadn't slept that well... ever. They'd ice skated, even shopped a little, Rory finally putting her credit card into good use to get herself this amazing vintage cocktail dress she'd fallen in love with and some books, Logan had treated her to some of the city's finest food and drink, and they'd ended up even going to a couple of up-and-coming clubs after the impromptu Broadway show they'd seen. And while she hadn't made any big declarations, their private time had definitely been special - not just about frivolous sex but enjoying each-other with every fiber, the mind included. Hours of simple lingering in bed talking, studying the other's little imperfections while the other read a book they'd bought together out loud - it didn't get much better than this.
But as reality hit her, returning to Yale - all that fluff seemed to come with a price.
"You better have something important to say, because if I slow down I lose," Rory said, feeling Logan hovering by her desk. She'd seen him come up from the corner of her eye and of course there was also his scent which she could recognize already.
"I need to tell you something," Logan said. There weren't many people in the newsroom so he allowed himself the liberty to sit on the corner of her desk, getting comfortable. They generally tried to keep the relationship away from the newsroom.
"I have two essays to write, one story for the paper to finish, six research articles to read and next week's story to research for... I know I can do it, but this means I needed to focus, Logan," Rory listed, having complained about this to him before. She loved having him around, but his presence was very distracting.
"Yeah, I know. But this will be quick. I just didn't want to text this… texting's better left for other things," Logan replied, their recent naughty texting session still fresh in mind.
"Just passed H2. Makes me want to out do them sometime," Rory had typed an hour ago. A seemingly innocent message referred to the couple living in H2, who tended to be very loud during sex.
"With you on top?" Logan had replied.
"Nah, you behind me. Roughly...," she'd replied, adding a emoji with the tongue out, leaving them both throbbing for physical contact when they were alone together.
His presence now was so not helping, referring to what she remembered very well herself. It was almost like their texting history was too sacred to be messed up by something mundane.
"Okay," Rory sighed.
"I got an invitation to the Gilmore's vow renewal. I'm supposed to make an appearance," Logan began.
"You did?" Rory asked, stopped typing and looked at him.
"Yeah," Logan replied. "My mom and dad are coming too. And... I was told to bring a date," he replied, the heaviness audible in his tone.
"Oh," Rory reacted. God, how she would've wanted him to just be her plus one. But she could already sense where this was going.
"So that's what I'll do, it's kind of short notice so I'm not sure who it'll be… I don't like this…," he added, sounding genuine in his dilemma.
"You do what you have to do," Rory said with a sigh.
"We'll figure something out, I promise. Make a sub-party or something… we'll talk more about this stuff once you have time, I just didn't want to blindsight you by just showing up," Logan explained.
At that moment the last person in the room slipped out, and Rory saw it and she took the moment to pull his face down to her level and kiss him.
"I know…," Rory said, feeling how that 'I love you' was so very close to coming off her lips. She wanted to shout it, truth be told, but something held her back.
The only reason Rory didn't think herself crazy was that she had too much to do during the daytime and almost every night Logan showed up to spend the night with her, on two of those nights just sleeping, which was also something new for them. They didn't even talk much or need to explain what they were doing - this was just becoming the normal thing to do - to cuddle into the other's side. They weren't even too bothered by the single bed at this point, sleeping with their bodies intertwined anyway, loving the constant contact.
At the day of the vow renewal Rory had been far too busy to catch Logan before the actual event. So the first time she actually saw him, was when she stood next to her grandfather, dressed in a chic tux herself at the, during the processional. The space looked amazing, the string orchestra played beautifully, her grandfather look ten years younger and truly-truly happy. Hence Rory was smiling too.
But her smile faded when she saw Logan, seeing the very pretty blonde sitting right next to him, Logan himself currently looking at something on his phone. Between him and his father sat a blond woman, whom Rory assumed to be his mother, reminding Rory of the reasoning for the presence of the blond.
She hated this.
But as she then saw her mother walk down the stairs, looking beautiful and happy as she glanced at Luke, she tried to push the thought aside and put on her happy face. Her grandmother looked beautiful too, and what was the most breathtaking was the way the her grandmother and grandfather looked at each other. It was the truest form of love Rory had ever witnessed.
About half-way through the ceremony, Rory couldn't help but to glance back at Logan and witnessed something that made her a little uncomfortable. The girl's arm was bent on the back of the chair as she was whispering something into Logan's ear.
They looked a little too intimate to her liking. And that even with Logan's gaze that met hers, raising the corner of his mouth slightly.
As the ceremony finished, it was her mother who felt the need to mention it, however.
"So I saw Logan is here," Lorelai said, pulling her aside.
"Yes, I know. And before you say anything about his so-called date, she was forced on him," Rory huffed, clearly more upset than she wanted to be about the fact.
"Rory… honey..," Lorelai chimed, compassionately. "How long are you thinking of keeping this thing a secret? Seriously," Lorelai said, shaking her head in disapproval.
"As long as it takes," Rory said, hating this confrontation.
"You're seriously just going to watch him prance around with that bimbo like that, at your family's party. I mean why did he even come?" Lorelai continued.
"Mom, I went to an event with him last weekend - a very big, public event. We were just seen together by his dad. We couldn't just show up here holding hands for the second weekend in a row. I don't want to tell anyone either. I don't want to spoil this," Rory defended them. She was desperate not to ruin this, she felt so much she felt like she'd die if anything took Logan away from her.
"I thought you just had to study…," Lorelai replied disappointedly.
"Yeah, well I did…I always have to study... but it just happened so fast and, really - it was one of the best weekends..," Rory explained, having neglected to tell her mother about her exact whereabouts despite having asked for her favor to cover for her at dinner last week. She was neglecting to tell her a lot - that was happening more and more. And she could tell her mother didn't like it.
"He really treats you well?" Lorelai asked.
"Like you wouldn't believe...," Rory replied, her eyes full of love.
"And you're not just going to let him… you know… with blondie over there," Lorelai hinted, gesturing towards Logan's table.
"Obviously not...," Rory replied, shrugging her shoulders. Though she wasn't exactly sure what her mother expected her to do.
"Okay, I got to go or Luke's going to get Totsied," Lorelai said with a determined voice, and left her with a concerned glance.
Rory took a deep breath and headed over to the bar area, determined to do something. What she lacked still was a plan. She saw Logan getting his table a couple of drinks and for a moment she just wanted to go over and just drag him away to some private corner. But she couldn't really do that seeing Mitchum and his wife like 10 feet from her. Instead she just smiled modestly and exchanged a few words with the MacAllisters.
The entire time she kept glancing over to Logan's table, however, and she just couldn't stand it. The blonde was definitely a little flirty - she knew enough about body language to see that. And Logan was laughing, god - what did they have to laugh about? Couldn't he even have a boring evening for her sake? She knew that was a ridiculous ask, but she was beyond rational at this point.
The next moment Rory saw the girl touch Logan's shoulder.
"That's it!" she huffed to herself, but she knew she needed a plan. But her brain was numb. She sneaker herself a glass of champagne, topping it off with orange juice so people wouldn't notice - a little trick she'd learned from Logan and gulped it down with thirst.
Dissappointed in herself, she watched her grandmother and grandfather have their 'first dance', also seeing her mother dance with Luke just made her want to try to be in that bubble too. That even despite the fact she was really not very good at dancing.
Rory was rather surprised to see her dad there too, but what was worrying was the way he was throwing back drinks. She wondered what was wrong and as the majority of the people headed for the dancefloor Rory found herself following him, needing to think and not see Logan with the blonde. She wasn't handling this evening well but she had even less clue what to do about this whole Logan thing.
Rory found her father in the Gold Room, sitting on a couch while a circle of ladies did their oil paintings at the other end of the room. She kind of liked the smell.
"You want some company?" Rory asked her father. Maybe he was still upset about his father's passing? She didn't want him turning into an alcoholic, the excessive drinking making her worried about his habits a little. They hadn't had much contact, and with Sherry gone, Gigi and his dad - he'd had a tough time.
"Hey, kiddo. Have a seat!" Christopher encouraged her.
"Quite a party, huh?" Rory asked, folding her legs underneath her as she settled next to him on the couch.
"I'd expect nothing less from your grandparents," Christopher replied.
"Pretty flowers," Rory commented. What did daughters and fathers talk about in all honesty? At the very least talking to him was a good distraction.
"Yes, not all fake," he replied.
"Like my suit?" Rory asked.
"I do. Very Bugsy Malone," Christopher commented.
"So how you doing?" Rory asked with concern.
"Me? Oh, I'm fine. Just… ugh," Christopher began and sighed, clearly already a little drunk. "Did your mother ever tell you about our first kiss?" he offered.
She wondered why he was thinking about that, but maybe indeed seeing Luke and mom happy like this was what was making him so miserable. Though frankly Rory was surprised he was even here.
"No," Rory replied, wondering why that was.
"We were fourteen. It was after school in the parking lot of the AM/PM. She just walked right up to me and kissed me," Christopher described.
Of course it was mom - Rory thought.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yep. Said, she just wanted to know what it would be like," Christopher added.
"I hope you at least bought her a moonpie," Rory replied.
"You know, it never would've crossed my mind to do something like that. Just walk up and kiss someone 'cause you wanted. But Lorelai… eh… she always knew what she wanted. She'd just go out and get it," Christopher said, admiration for her mother showing through. He definitely still liked her, making Rory wonder if she should tell her mother about this. It felt like none of her business but she didn't want to be taking sides. She cared about her dad too.
"She never told me that story," Rory commented, at the same time wondering why that was. Why was passion so forbidden? Sure, her mother had never wanted her to get pregnant at 16, but surely she had passed those worries now. She knew she was having sex, after all.
"No? Probably wanted me to seem more manly," Christopher chuckled.
"When did…," Rory began to ask.
"When what?" her father asked.
"When did you tell your parents that you were seeing each other? Like I don't know - going steady or whatever you guys called it back then," Rory asked.
"We didn't, not for a year or so. You just hung out with the person who you liked and they honestly thought we were lab partners for a long while," Christopher laughed. "Once they did found out, my mom actually busted me with condoms so…," he added.
"Too much information, dad," Rory cringed, laughingly.
"But yeah, from there they all knew. Then Lorelai started getting the talks by pastors and god-knows-who-else," Christopher explained. "Well - definitely a method that didn't work," he added, smilingly. "And I'm glad it didn't," he said.
Rory just replied with a smile, having actually really enjoyed this conversation. A good distraction too. But she did like hearing about her mother's decisiveness and 'go-get-it' kind of attitude. She liked to think she'd shown some of that with Logan as well.
As her father went to get a refill, Rory walked decisively across the dance floor, her head held high. Thankfully, she found Logan's table vacant besides him, where he was just pouring down the last of his drink.
"I like the suit. Kashmir?" Logan smirked back at her.
"My, thank you," she replied, accepting his compliments better and better. "So, where's the blond?" she found herself asking, her tone definitely being a little jealous. In part it was certainly the champagne talking too.
"She's at the bar," Logan replied, but his tone wasn't cocky.
"Oh, yeah? She's pretty," Rory commented.
"Yeah? You want me to hook you up?" Logan teased. They had in fact pretty recently flirtily talked about whether under any circumstances they might ever be interested in the same sex - just for laughs of course - but Rory could tell Logan had found the thought pretty darn hot.
"No, I was just saying…," Rory said.
"What are you just saying?" Logan asked, his gaze actually appearing a little concerned.
"That's she's pretty. That you brought a pretty girl. She's pretty and the two of you are pretty together. In case you were wondering," Rory commented.
"Rory, what's this about? I told you about this, didn't I?" he asked.
"You two just looked a little too comfortable together..., I didn't like it," she admitted, looking around briefly to make sure no one was in earshot of them.
"Jewel's just a friend. I've known her forever. And yes, I won't lie… I have been involved with her in the past, but I mean we're talking in my teens. It was short notice, she was visiting and pretty much begged to come along. But I'm not interested in going back there," Logan replied, standing up and pulled her to one of the archways to talk more out of sight. "But you are awfully cute when you're jealous, I give you that. And if I could I'd really like to kiss you right about now," he added.
"Do you want to dance?" Rory found herself asking instead of following through.
Logan thought about it for a moment, as if analyzing the situation. But surely one dance was okay?
"After you," he said, gesturing her towards the dance floor. They'd never really danced to this type of music before - was it a ballad-waltz or traditional pop? She found herself wondering for a second.
"I'm really not a good dancer," Rory apologized in advance but the feeling she got when Logan's hands went around her, seemed to scatter a lot of her insecurities. She was genuinely thinking how she just wanted to find little ways to be with him during this event, even if the one dance was all they were going to have. They tried to hold a little bit distanced hold, much looser than they would've wanted to. It felt just so natural to want to melt into the other's body.
"You have no reason to be jealous, Ace. It was just so last minute," Logan apologized, speaking intimately.
"Rationally I know that. But my mom just freaked about this earlier and she managed to make me insecure about us… I hate that she did that," Rory explained.
"Rory..," Logan began.
Rory noticed him calling her Rory instead of Ace.
"I want to be clear. I have been thinking about how to tell my parents about you. I have.. Ten times just during this last week. I don't want to hide you. But I just have a feeling they're going to overreact and I don't want them to hurt you. They just have this idea what the next Huntzberger wife should be like and that's so not you…," Logan began to explain.
"Oh..," Rory reacted, sounding disappointed.
"It's a good thing that's not you. You're special, you're beautiful, you're intelligent and incredibly interesting. You're definitely girlfriend or even wife material - just not one by their standards which is being this piece of arm candy whose life's work is to throw parties and keep up appearances…. But I know you are so much more than that," Logan explained, blabbering a little himself. It was kind of cute.
Rory blushed at his words. Even mentioning that she was wife material felt like such an honor, but she knew they were neither ready for something like that. But the very least she seemed to now understand better why she couldn't be 'good enough' as he'd once mentioned before.
"You are more than good enough for me, Rory. You're too good for me. I don't ever want to date someone they've imagined for me. It's just that I haven't figured out what my alternative plan is…. Whether there is a way for me to not follow the family plan. But that means I need to graduate first. And God, I don't want to hide you, Rory," Logan assured... "I want to scream how much you mean to me, it almost hurt holding it in. I just don't know what to do…," Logan explained, causing Rory's heart to ache at his beautiful words.
"I want you to be happy - to find your path. But I don't want to feel like you're dating others behind my back," Rory replied.
"Rory - if I could just dance the entire night with you, I would. I find the thought so unbearable that I can't just kiss you right now that I'm probably out of here in ten minutes claiming to have a headache or something. Rory, I love you..," Logan said, his eyes fixated on her so she could tell in an instant he was serious.
It would've certainly been a moment to reply him with the same as that was what she felt 'and' or 'or' kiss, and damn how she wanted to. But after a brief look around to see the coast clear, she just grabbed his arm and pulled him off the dance floor. If she wanted to help him, she needed to not ruin this now.
"Where are we going?" Logan asked, looking confused.
"How should I know! What, do you think I have a plan or something? Geez," she added, grabbing a bottle of champagne with her. But she did have a plan.
"I need you," she whispered just as they got behind one of the pillars, and dragged him off, her tone leaving little room for interpretations. Words just didn't seem like enough right now.
AN: Huge thanks for all of your reviews! Just love reading them!
I don't often promote other's stories (not that I don't read them). But if you also like literati smut - I've discovered a story on this site that strangely only has me and a few lonely others reviewing it - this very hot story (about to get hotter) called 'Things I'd never say' by Roxy-Bluff . Worth checking out if you're not particular to ROGAN. A very fresh angle!