"Do we really have to go to this thing tonight?" Jess whined. "I'd much rather stay here with you," he added, his tone turning suggestive.
"Of course we have to go. It's Halloween, we can't stay in on Halloween. Besides, these are my co-workers and I told them we're coming. It would be pretty rude if we didn't show up," Rory called back from the bathroom where she was putting the finishing touches on her make-up.
"Fine, I get that we've got to go but do I really have to wear this costume?" he complained.
"Yes. It matches my costume and we're a couple so we have to match," she peaked her head out of the bathroom to look at him.
"Yes, but did we really have to be a couple that wore tights?" he tried again.
"Hey, that's what you get for saying you didn't care what we went as and that you would let me take care of the costume shopping. This is really all your own fault. Besides, you look fine," she insisted walking out of the bathroom and grabbing her purse. "Now come on, we're going to be late."
"Can we sit down now? I've had enough mingling for a while," Jess stated. He hated these parties. He had always been more of a loner type and when he did go out he preferred it to be a just a couple of friends kicking back beers at the bar. These kinds of situations were pretty foreign to him.
"No, we can't sit down now," Rory retorted in a sarcastic voice. He was really getting on her nerves. He had been complaining since well before they even left the apartment and it hadn't stopped since. She knew he wasn't really one for parties but he had agreed to go to this thing and the least he could do was try and have a good time, maybe be a little polite to her friends. "Look, there's Brad. It's his party we have to go say hi. After that we are going to dance whether you like it or not." Rory pulled Jess towards Brad. "Hey Brad, great party. We're having a blast."
"Rory, good to see you. Great costumes. I'm glad you could come," Brad offered back.
"Brad, this is my fiance Jess. Jess, this is Brad he works in advertising and he's the one who orchestrated this wonderful party tonight." Rory turned to Jess and offered him a look that told him he was to smile and greet the man politely.
"Hi Brad, nice to meet you," Jess offered with fake enthusiasm. "Great party you've got going on here."
"Good to meet you too. Rory talks about you a lot. And thanks, this is shaping up to be a pretty decent shindig if I do say so myself," he said to Jess then turned his attention to Rory. "Huntzberger hasn't even shown up yet. He said he'd show. He's pretty young, seems like he knows how to party. I'm sure he did more than his fair share of that in college. Plus he seems like quite the ladies man, bet he brings a small harem of hot chicks along."
Rory stood in shocked silence as Brad spoke about Logan. She didn't know how to respond, not only to his incredibly inappropriate comments about Logan but to the simple fact that he had spoken to Logan, had invited him to the party. When? Why?
"I'm sorry, did you just say Huntzberger was going to be here?" Jess asked Brad.
"Yeah, you know about Huntzberger? Of course, Rory must have told you all about Huntzberger Publishing Group. Real big wigs in the newspapering world. They're taking over the Liberty," Brad answered conversationally.
"I'm sorry, they're taking over? As in this is a definite thing?" Rory asked, finally finding her voice.
"Yeah, they were there this afternoon to finalize the deal, didn't you see them?"
"No, I was out on assignment today. I didn't know," she told Brad then turned to Jess. "I wasn't in the office, I swear I didn't know," she said again, her voice pleading with Jess to believe her.
"Yeah, you said you had some interviews to do today," Jess responded but his tone and body language were difficult to interpret.
"Oh I didn't realize you didn't know. Yeah, the Huntzbergers came in this afternoon for a final sit down with Frank. Signed the official paper work. After that Big Daddy Huntzberger ran off somewhere but the kid stayed around to meet some of the staff," Brad continued on with the story, clearly not taking note of the discomfort of the two people standing before him.
"Wait? Big Daddy Huntzberger? You mean Mitchum?" Rory began to panic even more than she already was.
"Yeah, I think he was just in for the day though. The kid's gonna be taking over. How old is he anyway, like 25? I can't believe I'm gonna be taking orders from someone twelve years younger than me. Probably never even worked a day in his life either, just got by on daddy's good name."
Rory's panic quickly dissolved into anger. She had been too shocked to say anything the first time but she wasn't going to let Brad continue to denigrate Logan that way. "Logan may only be 25 but I can guarantee you he knows a hell of a lot more about this business than you ever will. And don't assume that just because of who he is that it makes him some lazy, stuck up, frat boy who spends his days drinking and whoring. You have no right to judge a person like that," she snapped.
Brad turned his attention to Jess momentarily, "Did I miss something?" Jess didn't answer, he just stood there tensely, not saying a word. Brad turned back to Rory. "Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, or him. I'm sure he's a real decent guy. Not that it matters, he's our boss not our friend. So all we have to worry about it sucking up to him, right?"
Rory couldn't take it any more. Normally she got along pretty well with Brad, despite his tendency to be overly blunt. But tonight he was just saying all the wrong things. "Ugh, don't you get it? He's not just some arrogant jerk who wants people kissing his ass all day. Sucking up to him isn't going to get you on his good side."
"Why not, it worked for you," Jess unconsciously mumbled under his breath but Rory heard it anyway. She turned on her heal to direct her wrath at him. He had been an ass all night but he had just completely crossed the line.
"Excuse me?" she asked, her eyes shooting blue flames.
"Why are you defending him Rory?" Jess asked, irritation evident in his voice. He'd been in a bad mood all night and to stand there listening to Rory defend Logan with such passion only made him angrier. She shouldn't be that passionate about another man.
"He's my friend Jess, and someone has to defend him when people start bad mouthing him without even knowing him."
"You're friend, right. A friend you used to sleep with, a friend you secretly met with behind my back, a friend who's made it clear in no uncertain terms that he'll do what ever it takes to win you back despite the fact that you're engaged to be married," he snapped at her.
"God Jess, get over it. I'm with you. Logan is just a friend now. I chose you. Although if you keep up this ridiculous attitude you've had going on lately I might have to start rethinking that decision," she threatened. "You know what, I need a drink," she said and stormed off towards the bar.
"Uh, did I miss something?" Brad asked again, completely confused by the argument that just had just occurred. Jess just glared at him and walked off.
"Gin martini," Rory ordered the second she'd crossed the room and reached the bar, "emphasis on the gin."
"This sudden need for copious amounts of alcohol wouldn't have anything to do with me, would it, Ace?" Rory turned to the sound of the voice and found herself looking into a pair of caramel brown eyes that peeked through a black cloth mask. She stepped back to take in the whole site of him. He wore a loose fitting black linen shirt that exposed just a bit of his chest, there was a black sash around his waist and he wore black pants and black boots. His hands were covered in black leather gloves and a sword sat on his left hip. He looked absolutely amazing. She knew she should be mad at him but just one look at him and there was no anger at all. She swallowed, trying to force her stomach out of her throat.
"How'd you find a mask to fit around that big head of yours?" she asked. Her tone was light and she was clearly just playing with him. He had been afraid she would be furious when she found out that he'd decided to buy The Liberty after all, but it looked like she was going to take it better than he thought.
"I had it custom made," he replied nonchalantly.
"Oh well that explains it."
"It's just that they're terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future," he added taking on a bad British accent.
She smiled at him. Here she had been silly enough to think he was dressed as Zorro. She should have known better. "I know who you are. You're cruelty reveals everything, You're the Dread Pirate Roberts, admit it," she replied, playing along.
"With pride," he bowed dramatically. "And you m'lady?" he asked, deviating from the script but attempting to stay in character. She was dressed in a medivil style gown with her hair pinned back into a french twist. She was absolutely breath taking.
"Lady Guenevere, at your service," she curtsied.
"And your escort, I assume he's around here somewhere. Arthur or Lancelot?" he inquired.
Rory's smile faded away. "I don't want to talk about him right now," she said brusquely, avoiding the question before her. She turned back to the bar and grabbed the martini that she'd ordered, taking a large swig.
"Ah, and that brings us right back to the copious amounts of alcohol," Logan replied. The cloth covering his forehead wrinkled slightly as he raised his eyebrows knowingly. "What did he do?" he asked, his voice full of concern.
"He's just in a mood tonight. I don't want to worry about it. I came here to have fun and if he doesn't want to join in the festivities I'll just make my own fun. Come on, let's dance," she told Logan, setting her drink back on the bar and grabbing his hand.
This was definitely going better than he hoped. Not only had she not yelled at him about buying the paper but she was asking him to dance. It was most certainly going well. "As you wish," he smirked as they walked out to the dance floor.
Rory placed her arms around his neck and Logan grabbed her by the waist. They tried to keep a respectable amount of distance between them as they danced in comfortable silence. She looked up into his eyes, they were beautiful and so easy to get lost in, especially the way they were emphasized by the mask. But she couldn't loose herself like that, not in him. She tore her eyes away and spoke. "You know, Wesley's supposed to have blue eyes," she told him.
"Hmm, I blame my parents. They had the audacity to give me at least one brown eyed chromosome. They just weren't thinking ahead at all," he unconsciously drew her in closer as he spoke.
"One more thing to blame on Mitchum and Shira, that list is getting pretty long, isn't it," she teased. Her body responded to Logan's tightening grip and she stepped closer to him, closing the gap.
"Ahem," Rory's head shot up at the sound of Jess's interruption. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your dance with you friend here but I think it's time for us to go," he said angrily.
"No," she replied firmly.
"We need to talk about this."
"This isn't the time or place to discuss this Jess," she said, sending a withering stare his way.
"I know, that's why we're going home," he ordered.
"I'm not going home. I came here to enjoy the party and that's what I'm going to do. If you're not enjoying yourself feel free to leave at anytime but don't expect me to come with you. Now if you'll excuse me, I was in the middle of a dance," she turned back to Logan but Jess grabbed her arm and forced her to turn back to him.
"I'm not leaving you here with him," he said, his eyes shooting daggers at Logan.
Logan looked down at Rory's wrist and noticed that Jess was still holding on for dear life. That was it, he had stayed back and let them have their words since he didn't think Rory would appreciate him for killing her fiance but there was no way in hell he was going to put up with Jess touching her like that. "Let go of her," he said, his voice steady and icy.
"Stay out of this Huntzberger," Jess spat back, but he let Rory's hand fall. He was angry but he certainly would never hurt her on purpose.
"You know, that was my intention but now I'm thinking, no. You lay a hand on her in malice again and there will be hell to pay," Logan replied vehemently.
"What are you going to do? Get daddy's lawyers to sue me?"
"Jess," Rory yelled at him.
Logan gave her a shake of the head letting her know that he'd take care of it. He stepped menacingly towards Jess. "Well fortunately for me I happen to have this trusty epee here with me tonight." Logan grabbed the handle of his sword with his right hand and retracted it from its sheath just a few inches. "And unfortunately for you, I happen to have been fencing since I was eight. Now normally I wouldn't consider using a weapon but what can I say, I'm feeling really in character tonight."
"Logan," Rory said, now turning to scold the other man in front of her. "Don't threaten my fiance with swords. He may be acting like a child and I may be extremely angry with him right now but I would like him back in once piece. Besides, it's incredibly cheesy."
"Right," he said, taking his hand off the sword and stepping back. He tried to gain control of the emotions. How could Jess act like such an asshole? How could she be with such an asshole? Is this really what she'd chosen over him? "Guess I got a little carried away."
"You think?" she asked him, wide eyed before turning back to Jess. "Just go home Jess, we'll finish this later."
"Fine," he said, his eyes still glued on Logan. "And Huntzberger, you said I'd regret it if I ever laid a hand on her in malice again-well just know that if you lay a hand on her at all you'll be the one with the regrets and your hoity-toity fencing hobby isn't going to help you." With that Jess stormed out of the party.
"Seriously Logan," Rory said once Jess was gone. "You might as well have thrown down your gloves and challenged him to a duel. What the hell were you thinking?"
"I was thinking he was hurting you and I wasn't going to just stand by and let it happen," he defended his actions.
"He wasn't hurting me. He barely touched me," she rolled her eyes.
"It looked like he had a pretty good grip from where I was standing," he said, gently lifting her hand to examine it for signs of bruising. He didn't find any.
"Trust me, if he was hurting me he would have been hurting right back, I promise," she said reassuringly.
"I know," he sighed. "I just don't..."
"You don't like seeing me hurt. And I appreciate that, but I'm not yours to protect anymore."
"I know that you chose him, Ace. I know I blew my chance back in The Pub all those many moons ago. But that doesn't mean I'm ever going to stop caring. I'm not going to let anybody treat you that way if I can help it. And you shouldn't put up with it either," he started out speaking in soft, sad tones but as he continued the frustration started building up and his voice got louder. "Why, why would you let him talk to you like that? Touch you like that. I don't care if it hurt or not, it was still wrong."
"Everyone makes mistakes Logan. He's not usually like that. He was just angry and.."
"Jealous," Logan added.
"Yes," she admitted. "I'm not saying the way he acted tonight was alright, he was kind of being a jerk even before we found about you and the paper, but he really is a good guy normally."
"I get it," he said, even though he really didn't. There was no way that jerk deserved her. He moved to walk away but Rory stopped him.
"Where are you going? We didn't finish our dance," she said smiling shyly.
"You still want to dance," he asked, smiling back. "Despite my cheesy display of macho-ism?"
"Well, your intentions were noble so I suppose you can be forgiven," she grabbed his hands and drew him to her.
They began dancing again, this time with no space between them. "So you're OK with this?" Logan asked her.
"With what?" she looked up at him, slightly puzzled.
"Me...the paper," he responded. "You're not mad?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Can you only answer my questions with questions?" he asked back, smirking at her.
She smiled at him but then turned serious. "Did you know I wasn't going to be in the office this afternoon?"
"I may have gotten an anonymous tip saying you had some interviews set up," he admitted.
"So you were trying to hide it from me? I'm not mad. I thought I would be but I'm not. I just think a little forewarning could have saved us all some drama tonight. So I'm wondering why you tried to hide it. It's not like I wasn't going to find out."
"I wasn't hiding it, Ace."
"Than why did you purposely avoid doing it at a time when I would be there?"
"I told you, I'm never going to let anyone treat you badly if I can help it," he answered sincerely.
Rory recalled what Brad had said earlier..."Big Daddy Huntzberger". Mitchum had been there. She'd almost forgotten with all the other drama. "You didn't want me to have to deal with your dad." It wasn't a question.
"No," he confirmed. He decided he was tired of the serious talk and all of a sudden he lifted her up and swung her around.
"Eeeh," she screamed like a child. "What the heck was that for?"
"Fire spurt," he replied pointing to the ground he'd just lifted her over. "Didn't you hear the popping?"
She laughed at him. "I made you watch The Princess Bride one too many times, didn't I?"
"You introduced me to a classic," he reassured her.
"You know, I never understood men's obsession with that movie. Don't get me wrong, it's got to be one of the best movies of all time but isn't it kind of a chick flick what with all the fantasy and romance?" she asked.
"It may have lots of fantasy and romance but it's also got giants and pirates and torture and sword fights. Seriously, what's not to love?"
"I guess," she replied smiling up at him. They fell into a comfortable silence. She rested her head against his chest as they swayed to the music.
Eventually Logan spoke again. "Why didn't you wait for me?" he asked.
Rory didn't know what to say. Was he still quoting the movie? He had to be, there was no way he could expect a real answer to the question. He'd walked out of that bar two years ago. He couldn't possibly have thought she'd be waiting for him. She decided to answer safely. "Well...you were dead," she looked up into his eyes. Maybe that wasn't the safe answer after all.
"Death cannot stop true love; all it can do is delay it for a while," he looked back down into her bright blue irises. He was mesmerized.
His eyes bore into her, causing a warm tingly feeling. It felt good, it felt right, she didn't want that feeling to go away. But he wasn't supposed to be the one making her feel that way. It wasn't supposed to be him. She wanted to push herself up and close the gap between them. She wanted more than anything to feel his lips on hers again. She couldn't do it though. She wasn't really sure why she couldn't do it, why she continued to pick Jess. Was it just because he was safer? More reliable? Was it her head speaking or her heart? Whatever it was she couldn't go through with what was about to happen. She painfully pulled away from his gaze and stepped away from him. "I...I should go."
"Right," he said, still staring at her. "You should go...home."
"Home," she repeated him.
"To Jess," he added.
"Right. Home, to Jess. I should talk to him; make up."
Logan cringed internally. The last thing he wanted to imagine was her and Jess making up- on any level which that entailed, but he let it go for now. "Do you need a ride? I don't want you going home by yourself. Frank's outside with the limo, we can give you a lift home."
"You still use Frank?" she asked, remembering Logan's usual driver.
"He's been my driver since I was 12. I wouldn't trust anyone else. So how about it Ace?"
She wanted to accept his offer. She wanted to slide into the back of that limo with Logan, just the two of them alone, but she knew that was far too dangerous. "No, I think I'll just grab a cab, it'll be fine."
"At least let me walk you out, make sure you get a cab alright. It's Halloween, lots of crazies out there, can't trust anybody," he said, his voice getting low and husky.
"Alright," she agreed. They walked out of the building silently, afraid to look at one another.
Outside Logan stepped into the street to hail a taxi. One finally stopped and Logan opened the door for Rory. She slid into the back seat and looked back at Logan. She was going back to Jess but she couldn't help but wonder if maybe she wasn't really going home after all. "Thanks Logan," she said.
"See you at work," he promised her with a nod of his head as he closed the door of the cab then watched it drive off.
He immediately picked up his phone and called Frank. There was no way he was going back into that party. He was definitely going home to a very cold shower.