"Where have you been?" Sue asked frantically as Rory walked into the paper on Tuesday morning. "It's almost 10 already."
"Oh, I stayed at my Mom's last night and drove back this morning," Rory informed her. "The traffic was awful, it took me four and a half hours to get here. I called Frank on the way to let him know I'd be late."
Sue fidgeted nervously and kept throwing glances at the door to Frank's office as she followed Rory to her desk. "Um, maybe you shouldn't sit down just yet," she said nervously. "Let's go to the break room, I need some more coffee."
Rory didn't listen, she sat down in her chair and laid her head on the desk. "I'm not in the mood for this Sue," she said, looking up at her friend wearily. "I've been up since 4:30 this morning and even my step-dad's coffee isn't enough to keep me chipper on four hours of sleep."
"Well than, um...you're probably not going to like what I have to tell you," Sue said sheepishly.
"Than maybe it should wait," Rory suggested, lifting her head up off the desk. "I should get to work on my article."
"I don't think this can wait," Sue told her friend as she shot still more nervous glances at the office across the room.
"Why not?" Rory sighed.
Sue looked at Rory, then and Frank's office...Rory...office...Rory...and as she looked back at the office one more time the door opened. "That's why," Sue pointed across the room.
Rory's jaw dropped as she looked at the two men walking out of Frank's office. "What. Is. He. Doing. Here?" she asked.
"Well, he um...he's taking a meeting with Frank," Sue answered.
"This cannot be happening," Rory said leaning back into her chair and looking across the room again to where Frank and Logan were standing, saying their parting words. Logan turned away from Frank and looked across the room, catching Rory's eye. He smirked at her and she felt her heart beat quicken despite her anger. She looked away quickly. "Why? Why? Why is he doing this? I thought he was going to leave me alone."
"Do you want him to leave you alone?" Sue asked, raising her eyebrows.
"What I want is to make things right with Jess, this is going to seriously hinder that," Rory bit her lip, trying to decide what to do.
"But if it wasn't for Jess...?"
"It doesn't matter what I'd want if it wasn't for Jess. I have to stop this. I can't let him buy the paper." She looked up to where Logan had been standing but he was gone. She was sure he would be walking her way but instead she saw him standing by the elevators. She knew he was playing games with her. She knew he was expecting her to come to him but she didn't have the time or patience for games so relenting, she stood up and walked off towards the elevators.
"Are you going to be OK?" Sue called after her.
Rory stopped and turned around momentarily. "Yeah, we're just gonna have a little chat."
As Logan stood inside the elevator, the doors began to slide closed and he found himself getting worried. She wasn't going to come after him. She had definitely seen him, there was no doubt about that, so why hadn't she come to talk to him. But just as the doors were about to close her hand slid between the gap and she pushed them back open.
He smiled his cocky smile at this momentary victory. "Hey Ace, going down?" he asked, his voice thick with innuendo.
"Oh no Logan," she said, entering the elevator. "You don't get to do this."
"Do what?" he asked innocently.
"The cocky smirk and the double entendres and the big brown puppy dog eyes. It's not going to work," she warned him.
"You like my big brown puppy dog eyes, do you?" he asked her as the doors slid shut behind her and the elevator began to descend.
She sighed heavily. "We need to talk...now." she said angrily as she hit the emergency stop button on the elevator.
"C'mon now Ace, this is place of business. I don't think this is appropriate."
She rolled her eyes in frustration. "Not gonna happen Logan. I stopped the elevator so we could talk, period." She folded her arms across her chest and as she changed positions he noticed a glint off her left hand.
"Nice ring you got there. I can't remember, were you wearing that the last time I saw you?" he asked facetiously.
The question obviously didn't require an answer so she ignored it. "What are you doing here Logan?"
"Oh, well I had a meeting with Frank," he answered simply.
"You promised me you weren't going to buy the paper. You promised me Logan," she said, raising her voice.
"Actually I promised I wouldn't buy the paper if you went out with me again. I never got my second lunch Ace," he shrugged.
"So that's what this is? Spite? You can't have me so you're going to make my life as hard as humanly possible? God forbid, the Almighty Logan Huntzberger doesn't get the girl. Well I don't see any pigs flying so apparently the world doesn't revolve around you," she yelled.
"And it doesn't revolve around you either. This isn't spite, Rory, this is business. I'm not going to base my business decisions around a woman who doesn't even have enough common decency to tell me she's engaged," he spit back at her.
"But you were willing to base them around me when you thought I was single?"
"I was willing to base them on us. You and me," he admitted, motioning between them. "I was willing to base them on what we could have had."
She closed her eyes for a moment. What we could have had. She wondered too. What could have been if it weren't for Jess? But she pushed the thoughts away, concentrating on the matter at hand. "Please, Logan," she said pleadingly. "Please don't do this."
"Why Rory? If you love Jess like you say you do than you'll be fine. If he's the one you're meant to be with, than working with me shouldn't be a problem for you," he said simply.
"It will be a problem for Jess." It would be a problem for her too but she couldn't admit that to him.
"Well excuse me if I don't give a damn about Jess," he said, anger flaring up.
"Do you give a damn about me? You said you loved me Logan. Don't you want me to be happy? I was happy with Jess. I can be happy with him again, but not if your around."
"You can be happy with me," he said quietly, his guard was finally down and she could hear the vulnerability in his voice.
She breathed deeply. "Can I?" she asked, raising her eyebrows?
"Yes." He took a step toward her, she took a step away.
"Maybe for a little while, but it won't last Logan."
"How do you know that?" He stepped towards her again and she reciprocated with another step backwards.
"Because I can't trust you Logan."
He winced at that but he knew he deserved it. He went on. "I've changed Rory."
"No, you haven't."
"Yes! I have," he said emphatically.
"If you've changed so much than how come you were with another woman not more than forty eight hours after you told me you loved me? How can I trust you when you say something like that and then go and do something like...that?" she asked, her voice shaky.
He sighed; he knew that was going to come back to bite him in the ass. At least he could take the opportunity to explain himself. "I wasn't thinking straight Rory. Do have any idea what it was like to go looking for you and find him? Do you have any idea how hurt I was? I couldn't stand it, it hurt too much. I just wanted to make it go away, I just wanted to stop thinking about you. I couldn't though, even then- all I could think about was you," he pleaded.
"Are you serious? That's your defense? 'I was fucking her but I was thinking of you.'?" she asked incredulously.
"Well when you say it like that..." he said defensively.
Rory just huffed and made a motion to walk around Logan. She was going to start the elevator back up, she'd had enough of this conversation. Logan stepped to the side and stopped her. "Tell me you've never done it before," he said.
"Done what?" she asked.
"Thought about me when you were with him," he said, his voice low and breathy. He stepped toward her again and she tried to step away but she was backed against the wall. She looked away from him sheepishly. She couldn't tell him that. The truth was she had thought about him from time to time. She always tried to push the thoughts away and sometimes she could but sometimes she couldn't
Logan put his hands against the wall of the elevator on each side of her and leaned in close. "Tell me you don't ever wish you could still be with me," he whispered into her ear. She said nothing. "Tell me you don't want me." His breath was warm against her ear and she shuddered with anticipation. She knew the only way to stop what was about to happen was to tell him those things but she couldn't find the strength to do it.
He pulled his head back a little so he could look directly at her. She didn't say anything but the answer was written all over her. "I didn't think so." He brought his lips crashing down onto hers. His hands moved off the wall, one tangling itself in her hair and the other resting itself softly on her hip. She didn't fight it, she couldn't fight it. Her entire body was humming with pleasure so that she couldn't hear the thoughts in her head telling her to stop, telling her that she was risking everything she had with Jess. Her body was working on its own, responding solely to Logan's touch. She put one of her hands on his chest and it wrapped itself around his tie as she pulled him towards her.
A small moan escaped her lips as his tongue danced with hers. She brought her free hand up and ran it through his tousled her, grasping at the tendrils. The hand that he had placed on her hip dropped and his finger tips grazed the skin on her leg just below the hem of her skirt. She shivered at his touch. His hand moved up her leg and disappeared beneath her skirt. Her foot instinctively lifted off the ground and her leg wrapped itself around him, pressing him closer to her. She was beginning to feel short of breath but she didn't want to stop. After a few more seconds, he took his lips away from hers and began planting kisses up and down her neck. She closed her eyes, breathing heavily, she let the physical pleasure wash over her. "Logan," she breathed.
"Mm," he mumbled. He was nibbling at her ear now.
She sighed contentedly but it didn't last. Slowly, regretfully, the thoughts began to fill her head again. She tried to push them away, she didn't want the moment to end but the harder she tried not the think, the more she thought. "Logan," she finally breathed but not for the same reason as before. "Logan...stop," she said in a very unconvincing manner. "Logan you have to stop," she tried again. His hand was still supporting the leg she had wrapped around his waist, she took it back and put her foot on the ground. He finally pulled back and looked at her.
"What's wrong?" he asked, breathing heavily.
"Logan, we can't do this," she told him.
He sighed dejectedly. It had been a perfect moment. He almost believed everything would be right once he kissed her but that had been naive. The moment was over and they were right back where they had started. "You still want Jess."
"I'm not going to lie. What happened just now...it was amazing. You and me, we've always had amazing chemistry. But it doesn't change what I said before. I still can't trust you, Logan. I don't know if I'm willing to risk everything I have with Jess on the hope that things will be different this time," she told him.
"He left Rory. You said on the phone last week that he moved out. Are you willing to risk what we could have on the hope that he'll take you back?" he asked desperately.
"I don't know Logan. I need to think and I just can't think when I'm around you."
"So where does this leave us?" he asked her.
"I'm not sure. I'll call you I guess," she offered.
"OK," he sighed. "I guess that will have to be OK." Logan stepped back and pressed the elevator button. They traveled the rest of the way down in silence. The doors finally opened into the lobby of the building and he looked at her before stepping out. "Happy Birthday, Ace," he told her.
She smiled. "You remembered."
"How could I forget. Oh, and you might want to check in your desk when you go back upstairs. It's possible someone may have left something for you there," he told her, stepping out of the elevator.
"I'll do that," she promised as the doors closed and he disappeared from her view.