The elevator reached the ground floor and Logan tried to find the strength to move. He pushed himself off the wall and walked out into the lobby heading for the cold world outside, his head filled with the cruel truths. Rory had moved on. She had moved on to Jess. They were engaged. How long must they have been together for them to get engaged? And that night- had there been something going on between them after all? It was too much; it was all too much for him to think about.
Logan stepped into the street and began to hail down a cab but decided against it. He didn't want to go home. He didn't want to go back to his empty apartment and be alone. Logan decided just to walk; the cold air was soothing in its bitterness.
He walked along the streets, not really heading anywhere; he was so wrapped up in his own emotions that he didn't care where he ended up. He should have known better than to think that Rory would still be single, a girl like her could have anyone she wanted. She had won him over after all; she had caught the uncatchable Logan Huntzberger- playboy extraordinaire, and had turned him into a new man. Besides, he should have known better than to think that anything in his life would turn out the way he wanted it to. Logan wasn't lucky like that, at least not lately, not since his preordained life had caught up with him. People thought he was lucky, born into a life of wealth and privilege, but "money doesn't buy happiness" was a cliché for a reason. All the things that could make him happy were beyond his grasp. The things he really wanted in life weren't just bought and sold like a car or a plasma screen TV. The things that could make him happy- a settled life free from destiny and familial obligation, a job he loved and chose himself, the woman he loved- those things couldn't be bought. Rory couldn't be bought. Sure, there were plenty of women in this world who could be, he'd been with a lot of them, but he'd never loved any of them and he never would.
"Hey, move it!" someone yelled out, pushing past Logan. He looked up and realized he was waiting at a street corner for a light that had already changed. Glancing at the street sign he saw that he was nearly home. He wasn't ready to go home, he wasn't ready to lie in bed with thoughts of what he couldn't have. Logan searched the street around him and spotted what appeared to be a small dive bar across the way and down a little bit. There's no problem too big to drown with alcohol, he thought to himself- or so he hoped. He could hear the scotch calling his name. He headed towards the bar, hoping to find a little bit of numbness inside.
"Do you need help with that?" Sue asked as Rory fumbled with her keys.
"No, they're just keys, I can still use keys!" Rory slurred. After a few more moments of futzing she finally managed to unlock the door. "See!" she said as she opened the door, "Voila," she held her hands up triumphantly.
Rory stepped into the apartment but stopped short after a few steps as she noticed a figure sitting in a chair across the way. "Hey, what are you still doing up?" she asked Jess.
"Waiting for you," he told her, his voice monotone.
"I told you not to wait up for me silly," she replied, her drunken state obvious. "And why are you waiting in the dark?" Rory flicked on the light.
He squinted in pain as the light hit his eyes but it only lasted for a second before his angry expression returned. "Are you drunk?" he asked his fiancée as she stumbled across the room towards him.
"Maybe a teensy-weensy bit," she said, grabbing the couch for support with one hand and holding the other hand up in a fist with her thumb and forefinger mere centimeters apart.
Sue was still standing in the doorway but she could see the look on Jess's face and hear the tone of his voice. She had a feeling he knew something and she didn't want to be around for the fallout. "I'm just gonna go," she said backing out of the doorway.
Jess looked up at her as though seeing her for the first time. "I think that's a good idea, Sue," he said. The red head walked the rest of the way out of the apartment, closing the door behind her.
"Sit!" Jess commanded Rory once Sue was gone. He pointed to the sofa she was leaning against. Rory sat and began clumsily trying to take off her shoes so that she wouldn't have to look at him.
"How much did you have to drink tonight?" he asked her, his voice icy.
"Just a few martinis," she said dismissively, pulling off her second shoe and looking up at him.
"A few?" he asked, glaring angrily at her.
"Yeah, or...eight," she admitted.
"Eight! Rory? Eight martinis?" his voice was firm but he was not yet yelling.
"Something like that," she said, playing innocent.
'This isn't like you, Rory," Jess told her, his voice soft again.
"I was just trying to have a some fun," she said, giving him a little pout.
"You only drink like this when something's bothering you," he said, bringing his hand to his forehead and rubbing his temple in frustration.
"That's not true," she said defiantly. "I got drunk like this on spring break that one time, you know when I kissed Paris," she said playfully, hoping to lighten the mood.
"This isn't spring break Rory, you're not in Florida with Paris and you're not in college anymore. It's October, this is Philadelphia and you're here with me, at least in theory anyhow. God, Rory! Why won't you talk to me?" He was yelling for the first time since she had walked through the door.
Tears she had been trying desperately to suppress began filling Rory's eyes. "Stop yelling at me," she pleaded. "Please, just stop."
Jess sighed audibly. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked her.
"No," she answered tearfully. "I'm sorry, I can't." Rory lowered her head shamefully, not wanting to look her fiancé in the eye.
Jess had hoped that Rory would admit to seeing Logan on her own but he was beginning to doubt it and it broke his heart. He'd always been able to trust Rory, even in the early days when she had been unable to trust him back. "Well than, let me," he replied.
Rory's head shot up. She knew he was angry, she knew he suspected something but did he know what it was? Could he have possibly found out?
"They're thinking of selling the Liberty Herald," he began, giving her one last chance to fill in the rest of the blanks.
"How...how did you know that?" she asked him, carefully trying to deconstruct the expression on his face to see if he knew who the Liberty might be sold to.
"You had a visitor tonight," he said, his voice eerily calm.
Heart wrenching fear gripped her. He couldn't have...he wouldn't have. But in her heart she knew that he did. "Who?" she asked, her voice tiny and feeble.
"Male. About yay tall," Jess began, holding his hand just above his head to indicate a height. "Blond hair. Personality less interesting than his trust fund," Jess spat out, frustrated that his fiancée was continuing to be so evasive.
"I'm sooooo sorry Jess. I'm sooo sooo sorry," she told him, the tears that had been building in her eyes began flowing freely. She pulled her knees up to her chest and gripped them tightly, attempting to make herself as small as she felt.
"I don't even know what to say about this Rory," he shook his head sadly.
"Jess please, I can explain," she pleaded with him.
"How? How can you explain this Rory? Please, explain lying to me; explain seeing your ex-boyfriend behind my back; explain making plans to see him again!" he was yelling once more.
"I asked him not to buy the paper. At lunch yesterday, I asked him not to buy the paper. He said he wouldn't if I went to lunch with him again," she told Jess frantically, the half truths pouring out if her mouth easily as she had told them to herself so many times the past two days.
"He said he wasn't going to buy the paper?" Jess asked suspiciously.
"Yes," she nodded her head frantically.
"Because he seemed pretty interested in buying the paper to me," Jess told Rory.
"He was just trying to get to you Jess," she wept. "I swear, he promised me he wouldn't buy the paper if I went to lunch with him."
"I see," Jess said, sitting back in his chair.
"Please, you have to believe me. You believe me, don't you Jess?"
"I don't know Rory. I don't know what to believe right now," he told her honestly, his voice heavy and sad but no longer angry.
"But..." she began to speak again but Jess interrupted her.
"I think you should go to bed."
"Jess, please..." she begged.
"Just go to bed Rory. We'll finish this in the morning when you're less drunk and I'm less angry," he said, making it clear that the matter was not up for debate.
Rory's head dropped again as she released her knees and stood up. "Are you coming to bed too?" she asked hopefully, stealing a quick glimpse of his facial expression before looking down again.
"I think I'm just going to sleep in here tonight Rory," he told her.
"I understand," she said before turning and walking sadly towards the bedroom.