Logan paced back and forth in front of his hotel, smoking his third cigarette. Rory was inside at the bar on her fourth glass, possibly fifth by now. The fighting was over, or at least the worst of it was. He sighed and threw it on the ground and walked inside. She was sitting at the bar, staring into her wine, looking lost. She was idly playing with the stem of the rose colored glass.
"Ace." He said quietly. Rory jumped slightly as he slid into his seat. The bartender handed him a scotch and walked away. Logan looked at Rory. "I'm sorry."
"You should've told me when we were at dinner." She said softly. "It doesn't matter that she means nothing to you, that you mean nothing to her or that it's arranged. You still hid it from me. I deserve to know." she took a drink of her wine. "It's not fair." She finished the glass.
Logan nodded. "You're right. I shouldn't have hid it. I was… I was just so happy to see you. To be with you, I didn't really think about her." He ran his hand through his hair.
"What's her name?" Rory asked after a minute.
"It doesn't matter, Ace." Logan said, covering her hand with his. She didn't flinch away from his touch this time, which he took as a good sign and he moved a little closer to her. "Like I said, she doesn't matter." He kissed her cheek. "It will all be taken care of soon enough."
"How soon is soon enough?"
"As soon as I get back to London." He promised.
"Which is?"
"Friday." He took a drink of the scotch in front of him before gesturing at Rory's empty glass. "Do you want another glass?"
"It's fine, I probably drank the whole bottle." She pushed the glass away from her and looked at him. "How much did you smoke?"
"Just three."
"Also when did you start smoking?"
"When I was forced into this arranged marriage. Everything got a lot more stressful." Logan looked away from her, not wanting to talk about this anymore. They'd been fighting since lunch and Logan hated thinking and talking about her. Honestly, she wasn't that bad. Maybe in another life, they could work. But he doubted that. In every life he lived, he wanted to be with Rory. He would find her. He sighed. "I'll quit once this mess is over."
"I didn't say anything, I was just curious." Rory said, squeezing his hand. She sighed. "I'm sorry for the yelling." She looked down at their interlinked hands on the bar. Her hair was starting to fall out of its bun and her cheeks were flushed. She looked tired and worn out. He didn't say anything at first, just looked at her. He had deserved the yelling. He was wrong for not telling Rory about her and honestly, at some points of their fight, it felt like she was yelling at him for walking out all those years ago. Which he also deserved. He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead.
"Don't be. I'm sorry for not telling you." Logan said quietly. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Logan…" she sighed.
"I promise, it's nothing bad." He said quickly. "I'm just curious. You don't even have to answer if you don't want to."
"Okay then." Rory took a small sip of his scotch.
"Even if I had told you the other night when we had dinner and explained the whole situation, would you have come back here with me?" Logan asked. She didn't say anything for a couple minutes, just tapped her fingers on the bar, looking anywhere but at him.
"Um…" she bit her lip. "Is it bad if I say yes?" she finally answered.
"No." Logan felt a small smile growing on his lips, so he quickly took a drink of his scotch to hide it. He finished the drink and set it down carefully on the bar before looking her in the eyes and allowing himself to really smile. "I promise you, Ace, this will all be over soon."
"Good." Rory sighed. "I won't be someone's… mistress." She cringed at the word and Logan frowned.
"I wouldn't ask you to. You deserve better than that." He said softly, bringing her hand to his lips to kiss her fingertips. She smiled.
"I know." she looked around. "Wanna go up to your room?"
"What are you suggesting, Ace?" Logan asked, standing up and following Rory to the elevators.
"Oh, I dunno. Movies, room service?" she raised her eyebrows. "And these clothes are still a little damp from the rain on the walk over here. I feel like I should get out of them before I get sick." She smiled a little as she pushed the button for the elevator.
Rory had fallen asleep on the bed, tangled up in the blankets. She was holding on tightly to the shirt that she had taken off of him earlier. Logan smiled as he pushed the hair out of her face. She smiled in her sleep before rolling over, continuing to hug his shirt. He laughed, walking away to clean the table off from their dinner earlier. He took a few more bites of cold mac and cheese and grimaced before putting it back on the tray. He froze as he heard his phone vibrate on the counter. Only two people could be calling him this late and he didn't want to hear from either one of them. He slowly walked over to his phone, his heart pounding in his chest. He groaned internally. Her name flashed on the screen. If he didn't answer, she was going to keep calling. Logan picked it up and answered it.
"One sec." he said quietly. He grabbed the notepad and wrote a quick note to Rory before grabbing a shirt and slipping on shoes before gently closing the door behind him. Logan didn't hear anything on the other line other than heels clicking on the floor. "Okay. Why are you calling so late?"
"Why are you so quiet?" She asked.
"I… ran into someone I used to know. She's staying with me tonight." Logan said. "What's up?"
"Is it the famous Rory you've told me about?" She asked excitedly.
"We'll talk about it on Saturday." He opened the door and stepped outside into the cold air.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually." She said. "Adrien has an art exhibit opening that day and I have to be there for it."
"That's fine." Logan wasn't really looking forward to seeing her in the first place. "What time can you do next week?"
"Um, Monday?" he voice was distant now. "I need to be there for the opening weekend."
"Okay," he nodded, throwing his cigarette in the trashcan and walking back inside. "I'll see you Monday. Have fun at his art exhibit." He hung up his phone and ran over to the open elevator. He pushed the button for the top floor. When he finally got back to his room, Rory was still asleep. Her hair was covering her face and the blankets are half on her, half on the floor. Logan laughed and took his phone out of his pocket to take a picture of her. It was just such a cute sight; he didn't want to forget it. He brushed her hair out of her face before carefully fixing the blankets so she was fully covered. Rory curled up into a ball under the blankets. Logan kissed her forehead before walking over to the table where his papers were spread out. He suppressed a yawn as he pulled the chair out and sat down. He had a meeting with a couple clients tomorrow afternoon and he wasn't as prepared as he should be, or would normally be. Logan didn't mind the extra work if it meant he got to spend extra time with Rory.
"Logan..." Rory whispered from the bed. He heard the blankets ruffling and figured she talking in her sleep. He smiled and tried to focus on the papers in front of him. Names and numbers swam before his eyes, trying to remember something, anything. But nothing was sticking and his eyes kept wondering to the sleeping Rory on the bed. He sighed and turned his back to her. He really needed to get a little work done before his meeting tomorrow. Logan tried to focus on the scratching of his pen on the paper, not the slow breathing coming from the bed.
"What're you doing?" a quiet voice whispered in his ear.
"Trying to work." Logan said, pulling Rory to his lap. "But you've been making it so hard to do so…"
"I've been asleep!"
"Yeah, but you're so cute when you sleep! See?" he grabbed his phone and showed her the picture from earlier. Rory blushed.
"Creeper. Taking pictures of me while I sleep."
"I couldn't resist." He kissed her cheek. "You hungry for breakfast?"
"Not like, breakfast breakfast." Rory sighed and ran her hand through Logan's hair. "Like, pop tarts, you know?"
"Strawberry pop tarts?"
"You know me so well."
"I think I saw some at the convenience store across the street. Want to come with me?" He asked, pulling Rory closer. She smiled.
"Yeah, I just have to put real clothes on."
"Are you sure?" Logan asked, tugging on her robe. "I think you look perfectly fine in this…."
"I know you do." Rory laughed. "But I can't go to the store in a robe!" she kissed him quickly before standing up and grabbing his shirt off of the bed and slipping on some shorts. She turned to face him. "Come on, love."
"I'm coming, Ace."
Logan walked into the restaurant that was way too fancy for a lunch meeting and looked around for a minute. He'd tried to look over his papers again while Rory was getting ready for the last day of her conference, but it was so easy to be distracted by her. He could barely remember the names of the clients he was meeting. He looked around a group of men with papers spread around the table. One of the men looked up and waved him over. As he got closer, the man stood up and extended his hand to shake his.
"Logan Huntzberger?" he asked in a heavy French accent. Logan forced a smile and nodded. "Benoit Moreau," he pointed to himself, then gestured to the man next to him. He was introducing everyone, thank god. "Dimitri Roux, and" the pointed to the last man at the table. "Gabriel Dupont." Everyone nodded and gave a smile at their name.
Logan sat down and waved a waitress over. "Can I have a scotch please?" he asked nicely. The girl nodded and rushed off to the bar. He looked at the people in front of him, suddenly aware of the lack of sleep he got last night. "Good afternoon. I'm so sorry I'm late. I got accidently made a wrong turn two blocks down." He opened his briefcase and took out all the papers he was supposed to read, but hadn't, and because of this, he was very unprepared for this meeting.
"It's okay! We just got here ten minutes ago." Gabriel said, taking his pen out. "First off, I'd like to congratulate you on your engagement to Odette!" He smiled widely, reaching to shake his hand. There were more congratulations around the table and Logan cringed.
"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "Thank you so much. We're both very excited about the wedding." He continued mechanically. They'd agreed on an answer whenever things like this happened.
"When's the wedding?" Benoit asked. Logan sighed.
"Next June." The waitress finally set his scotch down in front of him and he drank all of it in one gulp and asked for another one. He hated talking about the wedding. "Okay, so, the paper out in Paris…" he began, hoping they'd drop the subject.
"Is the wedding going to be in Paris?" Dimitri asked. Logan sighed.
"Yes." He was starting to get a headache. "But Odette's taking care of most of the planning because she's still in Paris."
"Oh, you're not living together?"
Fuck. He'd said too much. "Not yet." He ran his hand through his hair. "Can we get to the actual meeting, please?"
"Right .. Okay." Gabriel shot him a look. Logan sighed and downed the rest of his scotch. This was going to be a long meeting.
Two hours later, Logan walked out of the restaurant with a pounding headache. He pulled out his phone and dialed Rory's number.
"Hi, baby." Her voice was far away.
"Good evening, Ace." Even he could hear how tired he sounded.
"How was your meeting?" she asked.
"Didn't go the way I wanted it to." Logan sighed. "The exact opposite, actually. Are you out of your conference?"
"Oh, I'm sorry." She sounded worried. "I'm at my hotel, grabbing the last bit of my stuff. I figured I could stay with you tonight since I leave tomorrow night." She sighed.
"Oh shit. I forgot you were leaving tomorrow." He could feel his headache getting worse.
"I know. I almost forgot, too. Then my mom texted me, I think she thought I was going to forget." Rory laughed. "Do you want to meet for lunch or the hotel?"
"Hotel sounds good." Logan sighed.
"Are you okay?" her voice was gentle. He smiled.
"Yeah. I just have a killer headache and you know, my meeting went horribly."
"Okay, well, I'll meet you at the hotel, and I'll make everything better." She promised.
"Alright, see you soon, Ace." Logan smiled.