Rory almost regretted coming to Germany alone. It would have been so much more fun to bring her mom along, where they could've made fun of the tourists together instead of Rory having to take pictures and texting them to her. It took so much longer that way. She sighed, wrapping her cardigan tighter around her chest as she walked around the park. Rory's feet were killing her; her heels were too high. She stopped for a moment and slipped them off and threw them into her bag before continuing on her walk. The wind was starting to pick up. Maybe she should dip into a bar? Wine sounded good right now…
"Rory Gilmore?" a familiar voice called. Rory froze. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. Not here. Not in Hamburg of all places… she slowly turned around. There he was. She'd tried so hard to forget about him over the last eight years. Every relationship she tried to have, a piece of him lingered. His blonde hair wasn't as quite as messy as it used to be, and it seemed to have darken up a bit. But that damn crooked smile was the same as it always was.
"Logan!" Rory cried, walking up to him. Logan's smile grew wider as she approached. His smile was infectious and Rory couldn't help but return it. They hugged in greeting and she nearly forgot how it was almost possible to get drunk off of someone's scent. But now there was a very smell of smoke that hadn't been there before.
"Where're you off to?" Logan asked, walking alongside her. Rory bit her lip.
"That's a good question." She laughed. "Um, food?" she suggested as her stomach growled.
"Perfect, I know just the right place." Logan smiled at her, that deadly, crooked smile. Her heart started to race as she followed him. "It's at the end of the block up here, it's this small little café. It's really good. You'll love it."
"Wait!" Rory stopped him before they went any further, she still didn't have any shoes on. Logan looked at her in surprise.
"Are you okay?" He asked. Rory nodded as she pulled her shoes out of her bag and used the brick wall for support. "Why did you take your shoes off?"
"Do you see how high these fuckers are?" Rory asked, pointing down at her shoes as they continues onwards. "I've been wearing them all day and my feet wanted a little break while I was walking in the park." She defended. Logan just shook his head and laughed. He went to grab her hand, but thought against it and slipped his hand in his pocket in instead. There was a small part of Rory that wished he did take her hand, but she squashed that shit down as soon as the thought popped in her head. What if he has a girlfriend? No. Rory told herself. Just having dinner to catch up. As friends. She sighed and followed Logan into the café. He smiled at her again. The waitress looked up and immediately sat them down at a table in the back. Logan ordered a bottle of white wine. He winked at Rory. "I remember, you don't like red." He set the menu down and looked at her with a little smirk playing on his lips. "Would you trust me to order for you, Ace?"
Rory blushed at the old nickname and her heart started running a fucking marathon. "You've never steered me wrong before." She said, surprisingly steadily. Logan nodded.
"Okay. Prepare for the best meal of your life, Ror." Her smile widened.
"I dunno, Logan, I've had some pretty fucking good meals."
"Pop tarts, chicken nuggets, and red vines don't count." He laughed.
"Hey! Add some chili cheese fries and rocky road, you got yourself a perfect meal right there, mister."
"I don't know how you and your mom can eat so much and still stay as small as you two are. It blows my mind."
"It's magic." Rory smiled. The waitress came back with the bottle of wine and poured them both a glass before turning to Logan for their order. He ordered in rapid German and Rory's jaw dropped. "Since when do you know German?"
"For a couple years now." He sighed, taking a sip of his wine. "A lot of our clients are German, so instead of always working through interrupters, I figured I'd just learn the fucking language."
"Wow." Rory took a drink of her wine. "Any other languages?"
"French and Spanish."
"So cultured."
"Oh, I try." Logan said with a mock air of importance. Rory laughed and threw a piece of bread at him.
"Other than learning all of the world languages, what've you been up to for the past eight years, Huntzberger?" Rory smiled, sipping on her wine. Logan sighed and returned the smile, but it didn't reach his eyes this time.
"The company out in Palo Alto didn't work out. It went under two years after it started. I tried to find other things out in California for a little while, but nothing worked out. So.. I went back with my tail between my legs to my work for my father." he finished the rest of the wine in his glass. "But I've been doing good, I don't have to deal with him much and for the most part, people respect me and treat me as my own person, separate from my father."
"What do you mean 'for the most part'? Rory questioned, moving forward in her seat.
"The people that have been at the company longer, they just see the name. They don't see that I'm a different person, who's running things differently and who's actually a human being and cares about people and I will never turn into Mitchum. If I do, Finn and Colin are on direct orders to kill me where I stand."
"Ooohhh, how are the boys?" Rory poured them both another glass of wine.
"Finn's great. He's grown up a lot since college. I mean, every once in a while, we'll go out for a week and party… but that's besides the point." Logan laughed. "He's really grown up, I'm seriously proud of him. I never thought I'd see this side of him. He's helped me through some serious shit over the last couple years. He's living in the States right now, somewhere on the east coast. He can't seem to make up his mind. Last I heard he was in New York. And that was in March. Colin's pretty good too. He's kind of just traveling right now… like everywhere. He was in China a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what he's looking for, but he's everywhere, looking for something. I think. Doing something? I don't know with him. But he's defiantly living life right now. Robert's the only normal one out of all of us. He actually settled down and got married. He has two kids, and I think another one on the way? But he's a great dad. Really sweet. I never thought I'd see him as a dad."
"What about you?" Rory asked, taking a drink of her wine, fixing her big blue eyes on him.
"What do you mean?" She knew he was dodging the question. She pressed a little further.
"There's more to life than work. Tell me more about what's going on with you." she said softly.
"You should know better than anyone, Ace, that I don't really have a life outside of my work." Logan sighed. Their waitress finally brought their food, breaking the slight tension that had fallen over their table. Rory finished the rest of her wine in her glass and poured herself a third glass before offering the bottle to Logan. He shook his head. "Okay, there's a lot here. Do you want to know what you're eating or do you just want to eat?"
"Honestly?" Rory laughed.
"You just want to eat, don't you?" Logan smirked as she nodded. "I can hear your stomach growling over here."
"Would you believe me if I said I have eaten today?" Rory said after she gulped down her first bite of food. Logan shook his head.
"You can't go two hours without eating, Ace. I can't see you going a whole day." He laughed. Rory put down her fork and looked him again.
"Food isn't going to get you off the hook from answering my question."
Logan sighed heavily and avoided Rory's eyes. "How about this? You tell me about you, then we go out of more drinks after this and I'll tell you. Sound good?"
Rory considered this for a moment as she chewed on a piece of bread. Finally, she nodded.
"Okay. Well. I wrote a book, and I had an article published in the New York Times. So that was amazing, but, really, since then, I've been freelancing. Well, no, I'm working at this one magazine. But it's not important. I've been traveling around a lot for my writing, and it's really fun! I've gotten to see some really cool places and really cool things. But I end up in London most of the time, but I'm okay with that, because I really like London."
"How's your mom and Luke?"
"They're great! My mom's still running around at the inn every day, drinking more than enough coffee to hydrate a baby whale. Luke will be running his diner until the day that he dies. The only thing he loves more than that diner is my mom." Rory laughed. "But all in all, really, everyone's pretty much the same—other than the fact that mom and Luke finally got their shit straight and got together."
"That's good!" Logan smiled. "I always wondered when that would happen."
"Took them long enough, right?" Logan laughed. Rory finished the rest of her wine before joining in.
"Right!"
About two hours later, the waitress tapped on Logan's shoulder and said something quietly. She looked kind of annoyed. Logan nodded as he answered back quickly. He turned to face Rory.
"They close in ten minutes." He explained, gently placing his napkin on top of his long empty plate. Rory started stacking the emptied plates while they waited for the waitress to come back with their check. Logan watched her in amazement. "What're you doing?"
"This'll make it easier for her to clear the table." She said, smiling at him.
"Do you want to come back to my hotel for drinks?" Logan asked as he handed the waitress his card without looking at the bill. His full attention was on Rory and it made her blush. She smiled, knowing damn well where this would end up and she couldn't bring herself to care. Her cheeks burned as she pulled her hair down and slipped her cardigan back on.
"I would love to." her smile widened. "I'm hot, I'm gonna go wait outside, okay?"
"Okay, I'll be there in a minute." Logan winked at her before she turned away from him. Rory pulled out her phone and considered texting her mom or Lane or Paris about who she'd run into, but they'd immediately call, wanting to know all the details and the night's not over yet. She sighed and put her phone back in her purse, she'd call her mom first thing in the morning. Rory felt a gentle hand on the small of her back and she jumped.
"Oh, did I scare you? I'm sorry!" Logan's hand was warm as he moved it gently from her back, to her hip, to the tips of her fingers. He looked up at her, asking permission with his eyes and Rory grabbed his hand and squeezed. She missed being touched like this. No one's ever touched her like this. Not any of the guys she was with before Logan and certainly none of the guys she's been with since they broke up. Rory sighed softly. She didn't need drugs; Logan was addicting enough. "My hotel's just up here." He pulled her closer to him. "You're very quiet, Ace. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just thinking." She smiled, happy for his warmth. She was surprised how right this felt and realized with a start that no matter how hard she tried to get over him over the past eight years… she couldn't deny it when he was literally staring her right in the face. She was still just as in love with him now as she was back then.