I don't know if there is a balcony on any of the Met Ballrooms but in this story just pretend that there is one. Also one person asked if Betty Suarez would be at the party running errands for Daniel. That would have been interesting, but in 2004 Betty did not work for Daniel and Daniel was not editor of Mode. I think he was partying his brains out in 2004, for I think his brother (sister) was the one being groomed to be the heir. I would like to thank my Beta ellie Gilmore she has helped bring my later chapters to life. I can't believe I am on chapter 20 seems like yesterday I was just starting this story.

August, 26, 2004

Rory and Logan were still kissing on the Met balcony; they paid no attention to the stars shining down from the sky or the hot August breeze that had grazed their backs. Rory knew that she would eventually pull away, but right now she didn't want to. This kiss was just too perfect to stop; she and Logan had fit together so perfectly. Everything was done in perfect unison, the way their lips would suck on each other lips and the way their tongues would dance around each other. Rory's hand wandered to his head and began playing with his tousled hair while her other hand covered his cheek. Logan ran his hand through her silky brown hair and with the other hand which lay on the small of her back he pulled her closer and closer; if that was ever possible. They were so lost in each other that neither of them was aware of how much time had passed.

To Logan kissing Rory felt so intimate, yet so passionate almost like love. Wait. Like love? That was the moment where he came crushing back to reality. He couldn't give Rory love or the relationship she deserved. He knew that and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her. They couldn't do this. Thus he gently pulled away and murmured: "Rory, we can't do this." What scared Logan was the fact that as soon as he'd broken the kiss he already missed it. He missed the way she would kiss him, so gently and how soft her lips felt on his and the way she tasted. No, he thought. Stop, Logan. There's no way you can to that! He shook his head while he had to force himself not to grab her and continuing kissing her senseless.

Rory knew that their make out session would come to an end, but she always thought she would be the one to end it. She looked into his eyes and for the first time in these few weeks she'd known him now she couldn't tell what he felt or thought. For the first time he seemed to exclude her from his soul. Rory nodded and sadly said. "I know, Logan. Let's go, we had enough drama tonight."

"You're right, Ace" Logan said weakly. How were they supposed to act around each other after sharing the most amazing kiss? This was going to be tense.

Later in her bed Rory kept putting her hand over her lips, which Logan had kissed so tenderly and so passionately and couldn't help the smile appearing on her lips. Rory couldn't believe that she'd allowed herself to love kissing Logan so much. She couldn't believe that she was sad that he'd pulled away. It was probably her ego. After all she'd always been the one who'd pulled away from guys in the past during every one of her first kisses. No, she thought again. That kiss had been way too special for it to be an ego thing. She cared about him, and had feelings for him. She sighed. She finally admitted it. There was no denying it anymore. And this was going to be very difficult. However, she couldn't have him as a boyfriend because she knew how he was with girls, and she wasn't going to be in a relationship where she wasn't getting what she felt she deserved. She had done it with Jess, and wasn't going to do it with Logan. Not that Logan would be like Jess by a long shot, but she knew that she couldn't be happy in a no-strings relationship. There was only one possibility. She was going to tell Logan that the kiss meant nothing to resume their friendship. At least she hoped that would resume their friendship. She didn't want to destroy it. But why did his pulling away have to sting her so much?

Like Rory Logan was having trouble sleeping. He couldn't believe that he had been so stupid to continue kissing Rory. Why did it have to be the best kiss he had ever had? And he had been kissed a umpteenth number of times.. The kiss had been no accident though it revealed that he had feelings for Rory. Feelings that had been there probably for a long time, but he couldn't act on them. God, she'd looked so sad when he pulled away, Logan thought. It broke his heart to see her so sad. However, Logan knew that it would be better for her to be sad at that one moment, for a short time, than to be in a non committed relationship with him, and constantly see the sad look in her eyes she had when she was dating Jess was something he knew couldn't handle. Tomorrow he would talk to Rory and tell her how much the kiss meant to him and his reasons for pulling away. He hoped that after this they could go back to being friends.

August, 27, 2004 11 am

Logan was sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for Rory. He was wondering where she was. Yes, he knew that it was Sunday and he knew that Rory liked to sleep in on Sundays. However, Rory would wake up when she needed coffee and eventually come out to refill her coffee cup after the coffee supply in her room ran out. God, did he scare away? He was going to knock on her door when he heard his cell phone ring. It was an unfamiliar number and Logan wondered whether to answer it, but decided it could be important.

"Logan?" A familiar female asked.

"Yeah?"

"It's Lorelai, Rory's mother." She sounded hesitant. That was not her favorite thing to do in this very moment. But she did it for Rory, and the sake of their relationship.

"Oh. Hi, how are you?" It was probably her apologizing call Rory had told him about.

"I'm good." Actually, Lorelai felt horrible. Just because Rory told her to be nicer to Logan, didn't mean she couldn't continue her personal resentment. However, she was going to have to get past it or Logan could tell Rory that she was too mean, and any chance of reconciliation between her and Rory would go out the window. "Look, Logan, I'm sorry about my behavior towards you on Friday. You have to understand being at my parents' house makes me act like I am16 again sometimes."

"It's no problem. Sometimes when I talk to my parents I feel like a teenager, but I've never been rude to their guests. That's usually their job." Logan didn't know why he had said that. It was probably because of his bad sleepless night. He cleared his throat and said. "I'm sorry. Was that rude?"

"No, it's okay, you've made your point" Lorelai assured him. "The reason is that Rory and I have been a team against the world for twenty years. We made plans together and grew up together. I liked the family that we made and I didn't want anyone to take it away from us. It's probably a reason why I didn't encourage Chris, Rory's father, more to take a bigger part in Rory's life the way I should have or was uncomfortable of Rory taking a part in my parent's life. Another reason why I have had commitment issues with men was that I didn't want someone else crushing on the family we created." Lorelai interrupted her rambling to take a breath but by continuing almost immediately she let Logan no chance to say something. "The point is, Logan, that when Rory told me that she had chosen to live with you, a type of guy who my mother wanted me and Rory to end up with for years, I got mad. It has nothing to do with you, I swear. I guess I was just not ready for Rory to break up the family we created. However, I have to accept that because I want my daughter back, and your friendship makes her happy. So when I meet you again we will try and bond." Lorelai couldn't believe that she had admitted all that to Logan. But she couldn't deny that it had taken a huge weight off her shoulders.

"Lorelai, I accept your apology, and I don't want to ruin you and Rory's friendship" Logan said sincerely. "I know how much you and Rory mean to each other. Rory misses you too, but I think that if you continue to talk to her and understand her point of view more then the two of you might be able to rebuild your relationship."

Lorelai couldn't believe how kind and intelligent this guy was. Slowly but surely she could see why Rory cared about him so much. There was something about him that couldn't be explained. He was…different. Although she was still not sure of how she felt about him and Rory possibly dating, but she was going to dwell on that right now. "Well Logan, right now I am truly sorry that I misjudged you, I really am."

"That's good to know, Lorelai" Logan smiled and was glad that he had been able to impress Lorelai. That would make things between him and Rory much easier.

"Well," Lorelai continued after a few moments of a rather tense silence. "You better go tell Rory that I plan to call her every Thursday. That is if she still wants to."

"I will Lorelai. And I'm sure she still wants to." Logan was happy that at least he would not have to hide from Lorelai Gilmore in the future. Although he hoped Ace would be ready to talk to him, and he would not have to hide from her.

Logan went into Rory's room where he found her putting stuff into boxes. She seemed to be going from place to place. "Rory, can we please talk?"

"Um, Logan, I am pretty busy." Logan recognized that tone; it was her avoiding him. And he didn't like it at all.

"Ace, come on" Logan pleaded. "You're not going to avoid me, are you? Because eventually we're going to have to talk about what happened last night you know?"

"I'm not avoiding you, Logan" Rory said all the while avoiding his gaze. "And the kiss was a mistake. I'm not one of your conquests; I don't want to be one of your conquests. You don't need to explain things to me. Now can you please get out?" Rory knew she was being mean to Logan but right now she just didn't want to talk about the kiss. Plus, she wasn't sure if her heart would be able to handle hearing Logan calling their kiss a mistake; as he probably would. And that she was sure of.

"See? You're avoiding me" Rory shook her head. "You are, Rory. You asking me to leave is you avoiding me. I mean, come on, we usually talk in the morning. And just for the record" he took a deep breath, "that kiss was not a mistake. Not to me."

"What?" She clearly hadn't expected Logan to say that. Surprised she turned around and met his warm chocolate-brown eyes with her own big blue ones.

Logan put a hand on her shoulder and Rory shivered at his touch. "I didn't pull away because it meant nothing" he explained softly. "I pulled away because it meant so damn much to me. I pulled away because I can't give you the type of relationship you deserve. I'm not Jess, Rory. I can't sit around knowing that you're unhappy. But of course, if you feel it meant nothing it makes our whole life easier." He hoped with every fiber of his being that she wouldn't say just that. It would kill him.
Rory felt the tears come on to her eyes, for she was touched that Logan felt the same way she did. "It meant something, Logan. It meant so much to me. I feel the same way. This kiss was…amazing, even perfect, and it brought out feelings that I've been pushing back for awhile. However, like you I can't be in a relationship that is not hundred percent the way I want it." She was honest and it killed her. She wanted nothing more than to be with him but she knew she couldn't. And that caused her tears to spill over.
Logan gently brushed her tears away with his thumbs and pulled her into his arms. God, he wanted to kiss this girl, but he couldn't. "So friends again?" he asked after a while.
"Yeah…but…" Rory didn't why she was possessed by this idea, but right now she didn't want to let go the feelings. "We could have one perfect day of being together, couldn't we? And no regrets?"
"Rory, I don't think that's going to diminish our feelings." Although Logan liked the idea of spending an entire day with her, he didn't know if that was such a good idea.
"Well, it's the perfect middle way" Rory explained slowly. "I mean you can't do commitment but I can. I want to spend just one day that is about us. You won't spend the day with no other girl and the relationship will be over at the end of the day."

Logan looked in her eyes. "Okay" he said finally and Rory let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "It will be on Tuesday. That's our last day in NYC. It will be one last August hoorah."
Rory nodded. "I can't wait."
Logan put his lips on hers and again he the butterflies in his stomach began to fly. To feel her soft lips on his again and to taste her again…he didn't know what had possessed him but he just hadn't be able to resist anymore.

Rory gladly responded. That was what she had been dreaming of all night and waiting for since he had entered her room. This was perfection, pure perfection. Their kiss was a lot more feverish than it was the day before and without recognizing it they had both put their hands in each others hair, and both moaned each other's names. Eventually Rory had to come up for air due to the lack of oxygen. "What brought that on?" She whispered breathing heavily.

"I don't know" Logan smirked. "I just figured we would need practice for Tuesday; but we obviously don't need that."

Rory fought the urge to kiss that smirk off his face. She didn't want to add more confusion to her feelings.

"Oh, by the way" Logan suddenly said. "Your mom called earlier. I think she is starting to like me."

"Wow, bringing up my mother at a time like this is way to ruin the mood Huntzberger" Rory joked. It was nice that after being serious they could go back to joking with each other so easily.

"Well, I promise to not ruin it on Thusday" Logan smiled and kissed her forehead, then pulled away.

God, when he smiled like that it was almost impossible to pull away, Rory thought and sighed but smiled up at him. Then her gaze wandered to her empty coffee pot. "Do you have coffee outside?"

"Wouldn't dare to be unprepared" Logan said and smirked then he lead her out of the room toward the kitchen.