Rory stood outside the restaurant. The moment of truth had come. She had changed her mind about this lunch at least a dozen times that morning and even now she was considering a change in plans. Part of her wanted to run away, to run to the safe arms of Jess, where she knew she wouldn't get hurt; but another part, a much bigger part, was doing back flips at the thought of seeing Logan again.

Rory fingered the ring on her left hand. Jess had given her that ring, he had given her that ring and told her how she'd changed his life. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve this, but what did she deserve? She deserved to know what had gone wrong. She deserved to know why Logan had deserted her. She deserved to know how he had felt about her. Mostly though, she just wanted to see him again, to hell with right or wrong.

Rory fingered the ring on her left hand and slowly slipped it off. Grabbing her coin purse, she placed the ring inside before opening the door to the Café and walking in.

Her eyes scanned the restaurant, looking for him. Off to the left she spotted his tousled blond hair. He had his back to her but she had no doubt in her mind that it was him. She felt her chest go still for a moment; no heart beat, no breath. It was as though she really had died and gone to heaven. He was here. She finally let her breath out. Standing up tall to convey confidence she did not have, Rory strode towards the table.

"Hey there stranger," she slid into the booth opposite Logan.

He looked up, startled by the sound of her voice. He had been expecting her but he had not been prepared. He found himself taken aback by her. She was even more beautiful than he had remembered though, he wasn't sure how that could be. It was hard to speak, hard to breath, and the butterflies in his stomach were doing a jig.

"You don't seem surprised to see me," he said, attempting to sound casual.

"A little birdie told me you were in town," she smiled at him.

Logan's mind quickly flashed back to the previous day. The red head's strange actions in the break room suddenly made sense. "A birdie, huh? Did this birdie have red hair?"

"Perhaps."

"That makes sense."

"What does?" she asked him.

"Oh your friend's just a little weird, that's all," he smirked at her, that sexy smirk that bordered on indecent. Rory felt her insides turning to jell-o but she was determined to act nonchalant.

"This from the man who befriended Finn," she smiled coyly and he couldn't help the tingly feeling he got.

"You've got me there," he freely admitted. "Hey maybe we could set those two crazy kids up."

"Not a chance Huntzberger," she warned. "She's taken."

"Shame, she seemed like exactly his type."

"You mean because she has boobs and red hair?" Rory asked, raising her eye brows in a knowing manner.

"That about sums it up."

The first awkward silence hit and Rory shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "So, umm…How are Colin and Finn?" she asked after a few moments.

"They're good," he answered. "I hardly ever get to see them anymore, even after I moved back from London, but we still talk all the time."

"London?" Rory asked. "You moved to London?"

Logan sighed. He'd forgotten she didn't know he went to London. It really had been a long time. "Yeah, my father made me go work at one of our papers over there after graduation for a year. I just got back a little over a month ago.

"Wow, that sounds like fun," Rory told him. She couldn't believe he'd moved out of the country and she'd never even known about it.

"Hah!" Logan laughed. "There's nothing fun about working for my father, Ace, you know that."

Rory sat frozen to her seat. He'd called her Ace. She hadn't heard that in two years and he spoke the word as though it were an everyday occurrence. She felt the world she'd built for herself falling to pieces around her. All the progress she'd made, her relationship with Jess, all of it. It hadn't been perfect but it had been enough and now Logan was here to shake everything up.

Rory didn't have any idea how to respond and she breathed a sigh of relief as the waitress approached the table, affording her extra time to calm her nerves. "Are you ready to order?" she asked them.

"Oh, I umm…I haven't really looked at the menu yet," Rory opened the menu hastily.

"That's OK Ace, take your time. I'm not in any rush." He said it again and she looked up at him. How could this be so easy for him? How could he be acting so calmly, as though having lunch with her were the most natural thing in the world?

"No, that's OK," she said. "I'll just take a cheeseburger and fries."

"And plenty of coffee," Logan gave Rory a knowing look and then turned to the waitress. "And I'll have the same as the lady." He smirked and Rory's stomach turned around.

"Thanks," she managed to say to the waitress as she turned in her menu, her eyes still on Logan.

"So, London was a bust than?" she asked, returning to their conversation.

"Just the work part…and the food. I had a really nice apartment that I got to spend a grand total of about six hours a day in; of course I was pretty much sleeping for all of that," he explained.

"So not much free time to enjoy the tea and scones and learn how to bend it like Beckham?" Rory asked playfully.

"Nah, but that's OK, I was already able to bend it with the best of them," he gave her his signature smirk again.

"Oh you were pretty bendy alright," Rory said without thinking. She immediately began to blush. She couldn't engage in this kind of talk with him anymore; the sex talk was supposed to be reserved for Jess.

Logan felt his composure starting to melt away at the implication of sex. He wanted to hop over the table and get "bendy" right there in the Café. He pushed the thoughts away and forced himself to remain calm. Logan smiled at Rory in response to her comment before changing the conversation to a less stimulating topic. "So how'd you wind up in Philadelphia?" he asked her.

"I got offered a job, I took it," she said simply, avoiding the topic of Jess.

"I just figured you'd have looked for a job closer to home so you could be near your family."

"Philadelphia isn't very far away, only a few hours drive. How about you?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation away from her own life.

"What about me?" he asked.

"Why Philadelphia? Why aren't you trying to buy up all the papers in New York or Boston?"

The waitress returned with their lunches and Logan politely thanked her before turning back to Rory. "Who knows? I go where ever Daddy dearest sends me."

"So how long are you going to be here for?" she asked.

"I don't know, hopefully a good long while. I'm really liking Philly so far," he told her, making it perfectly clear that she was the reason he liked it here.

Rory bit into one of her fries to give herself time to process the information. He was going to be here indefinitely; there was no escaping him or her feelings for him. There was no hoping that this would just go away and she could go back to Jess pretending it had never happened. Rory swallowed her food. "So are you definitely going to buy The Liberty?" she was afraid that either answer would upset her but she had to know.

"There are four other papers my Dad's got me looking at. Although your paper clearly has excellent taste in writers so that's a big check in the plus column."

Rory took another bite of food, trying to figure out what she wanted. Did she want Logan to buy the Liberty Herald or not? Did she want to work with him, to see him everyday? No, that was the wrong question; of course she wanted to see him. The question was could she? Could she work by his side on a daily basis knowing she still had feelings for him and then go home to Jess and pretend he was the only one for her?

"Logan…" she said, swallowing hard.

"Yeah, Ace?" he looked straight at her, trying to read what was going on inside her head but he couldn't.

"Don't."

"Don't what?" he asked.

"Don't buy the Liberty Herald," she told him.

Logan felt his heart sink down to his stomach. She didn't want him back in her life.

"Listen, Rory, I know things between us ended kind of badly and I'm really sorry about that," Logan told her.

"It's OK Logan, I'm not mad at you. I was, but I forgave you a long time ago."

"So then what's the problem?"

She knew she needed to tell him about Jess, she knew he needed to know, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. "Come on Logan, you and I both know it would just be too awkward," was her only response.

"I don't want things to be awkward. I miss you, Ace."

"I miss you to," she told him sadly. "But that doesn't change what happened. You walked away from me two years ago, Logan. You walked away and I never even knew why."

"You're right. I just left with out explaining myself. So, let me do it now. I know it's probably too little too late but I owe it to you."

"You don't owe me anything Logan," she told him but she really did want to know.

"Yes I do," Logan paused for a moment. "Rory, the reason I ended things with us was…was because I loved you."

Rory was so stunned that she swallowed the bolus of half chewed food in her mouth and began choking. She had thought it was possible that he had loved her but hearing him say it after all this time was shocking. Besides, if anything she'd figured he'd broken up with her in spite of that, not because of it. This didn't make any sense.

"Rory, are you OK?" Logan asked, concerned by her coughing fit and bright red face.

The coughing finally slowed and she shook her head to indicate she was alright. "You WHAT?" she said disbelievingly, once the coughing had stopped for good.

"I know, it sounds ridiculous but it's the truth."

"What….how…why?" Rory stuttered.

"When I was in Omaha, that's when my Dad told me I had to go to London for a year. And then I came home and I saw you with that guy. That's when I realized I was in love with you. I was in love with you long before that, but that's when I knew. I knew I couldn't possibly be as hurt and jealous as I was if I didn't love you. And that scared me so much because I was going to have to leave. I guess…I guess I figured it would be easier to leave sooner rather than spending another six months falling even more in love and then having to leave. But it was a mistake Rory, and I'm sorry."

Rory sat there in silence, not sure how to respond. He had been in love with her. And he said he'd made a mistake by leaving her. Did that mean that he wished he hadn't left her? Did that mean he wished they were still together? Did he still love her? Did he want a second chance? This couldn't be happening, she couldn't sit there and listen to him say these things. It was hard enough trying to control her feelings before he'd professed his own, now it was nearly down right impossible.

"I should get back to work," Rory said tersely, standing up from the table and beginning to walk away.

"Ace, wait!" he grabbed her wrist. She stopped and turned at the sound of her nickname; she couldn't resist.

"It's just too much Logan. I shouldn't have come here, it's just too much," she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Don't say that Rory please. Please just tell me we're alright."

"I'm not mad at you Logan, if that's what you mean. This is all just…so overwhelming. I don't think I can do this."

"I'll make you a deal," Logan stood up to meet her eye. "I'll promise to make sure the company buys one of the other papers if you promise to go to dinner with me." She had to say yes, this was his second chance and it was slipping away from him. He couldn't let that happen, she had to say yes. "C'mon Ace, just one dinner. Otherwise you might be stuck with me for good."

Rory sighed deeply. He was staring straight at her giving her his puppy dog eyes. He was practically pleading with her and it broke her heart. How could she say no? "Lunch," she told him. "You can have another lunch."

"Alright then," he said, smiling brightly, "it's a date."

"A date," Rory whispered softly to herself. She was engaged to be married and she'd just made a date with another man. What had she gotten herself into?