Chapter Four: Collier Stone
Rory Gilmore opened her eyes and looked around the bus, it was the normal lot some sleeping, others typing away on their lap tops. She sat up and stretched her arms a bit, then noticed Collier Stone, a fellow greenhorn reporter from Atlanta chuckling in her direction. She looked at him and smiled then retrieved her lap top from its case. She worked for a moment before Collier was in sitting beside her still chuckling.
"Here." He said handing her a styrofoam cup of coffee. "You look like you need it." He was still chuckling as her took it.
"What is so funny?" She said taking the coffee.
"Um…well…in the last hour you've mumbled everything from, coffee over and over, to something about your mother and not getting a pony." He said finally allowing the chuckles to subside.
"You lie." Rory said offended.
"I am afraid I speak the truth, care for me to get back up? Hey Ben…was Gilmore talking in her sleep?" He said getting the attention of Ben Glass occupant of the seat in front of Rory's.
"Yeah Gilmore, if you're dreaming about coffee you've got to get a more exciting life!" He said laughing.
"Ha, there case and point, next time I am going to get out my old talkboy and record you."
"You're talkboy? Ok Macaulay."
"Hey don't knock Macaulay, or his talkboy that toy is single handedly responsible for me getting involved in journalism, the interviews I recorded on that thing…priceless. I got the exclusive scoop from senile old Mr.Kingston down the block on everything from who was getting divorced to what kids were teasing one and other on the playground, that man did nothing but sit on his front porch and memorize the comings and goings of the whole county. Best source I ever had God rest his soul."
"Amen." Rory said feeling immediately stupid. Amen? Amen? Why did you go with Amen now he is going to think you are some kind of Jesus freak who speaks in tongues and dances with snakes. She thought to herself.
"So what are you working on there Ace?" He asked of her open laptop.
Ace, no one had called her that since Logan. She knew it was just an expression but it took her mind out of the moment and the innocent flirtation that had been going on between she and Collier for weeks. She hadn't had a lot of time to think about him. After nearly a month without a word she figured he had moved on. She thought he would at least cool own and try to talk to her, but the weeks came and went and the phone just didn't ring. For a while she had herself convinced that he had called during a stretch they did in the western part of Kansas where while there was endless supply of cattle it seemed that cell phone coverage was too much to ask for. She realized quickly that even if he did call during her stint in the dead zone, she would have known it when they got back to civilization, but Lorelai managed to single handedly fill up her voicemail in that time, so she still thought maybe just maybe he had.
"Rory?" Collier said trying to bring her back to reality.
"Sorry, I kind of drifted there for a second."
"I'll say. So is it top secret? Get a one on one with big O? Are you selling your secrets to Hillary?"
"I wish, but no, just an e-mail to my mom, checking in you know." Rory said smiling.
"My mother wouldn't even know how to turn on a computer much less check e-mail but I will play along. Well tell momma Gilmore that Collier Stone reporter extraordinaire and handsomest sun of a gun on the bus says hello but if you want an autograph to send home, its going to cost you." He chuckled as he stood up to return to his seat.
"Hey I thought I was the handsomest sun of a gun on the bus." Ben said in his deadpan way causing both Rory and Collier to erupt in laughter.
"You want to grab some dinner with me at the next stop?" Collier said stopping in the isle.
"Oh." Rory said confused as to the intentions behind the question. It seemed to her that they had dined together about a thousand times since this all began, granted it was mostly with a group or fend for yourself out of vending machines at the hotels but this was an invite for dinner with him specifically him all alone presumably at the next stop.
"I know, I know you don't know what to say, Collier Stone really just asked you Rory Gilmore to have dinner with him, its either a dear diary moment or a good time to suddenly come down with some sort of incurable ailment that prevents you from sharing meals with brooding up and coming reporters."
"Um." Rory managed.
"Right, well you're killing me here Gilmore, how about this a promise of no funny business and get this…value meals on me, I know, its more than you expected but I think at this point in our friendship its about time I put it out there, the grand gesture. One day we'll look back on this dinner and think…that is how it all began."
"That's the night I had Collier Stone put in jail for the crime of over indulgently talking about himself?" Rory joked.
"Why Rory I'm hurt, its only over indulgent if it isn't true and I speak the truth Gilmore, I am all I advertise and more, have dinner with me. Friendly. No expectations. I'll even buy you a happy meal and let you keep the toy." He said batting his eye lashes.
He made her laugh, so much she couldn't say no but part of her was so worried about getting back out there, and the ramifications of a failed date with him while both committed to being on the same bus for the next year at least didn't escape her.
"All right, all right, but no funny business, and I want my toy."
"You've got it. So I'll pick you up at your chair about…whenever the hell we stop?" He said flashing her that smile she was sure had to cost his parents a fortune in dental bills, no ones teeth really sparkled the way his seemed to it would have been unnerving if she didn't find it so appealing.
"See ya then." Rory said laughing still.
"Right see, this would be so much cooler if I was going say more than five feet away from you, but you can't have it all now can you."
"I guess not even soon to be world renowned columnist Collier Stone can have it all." Rory said mocking him.
"I'm glad you are starting to see things my way." And with a wink he sat back in his chair.
It was just then that Rorys phone began to vibrate on her chair.
"Its my mom, I'll tell her you said hi." She said getting up to take the call.
There were about twenty other people on her bus, mostly C-team reporters out here to feed information to the big guys who would do the majority of the reporting on the events that they attended. Some worked for newspapers, others internet resources, magazines, even network tv but they all had two things in common, they were all paying their dues and none of them really wanted to sit and listen to you have a conversation on the bus with your mother. So Rory made her way to the front of the bus, the things the bus driver must know about each of them was probably enough to fill a book, as the seat right behind his was nicknamed the phone booth and the only acceptable location to take and make phone calls while the bus was moving.
"Hey mom how are you?" Rory answered.
"Oh you know planning global domination, hows my little news reporter?" Lorelai quipped.
"I'm good a little confused but I am good." Rory yawned into the phone.
"Oh honey you didn't rent The Good Shepard did you, I told you that movie was trouble."
"No, its not that, I actually thought it was a good movie once you got passed the fact that twenty some years passed and Matt Damon never aged a bit. No its this guy, this reporter on the bus with me. I think he just asked me out." Rory knew telling Lorelai was trouble but didn't see much other option at this point for another opinion on the matter.
"You think, what part was confusing to you? What did he say?" Lorelai asked, Rory often wondered if this was typical fodder for mother daughter conversations or if from the outside looking in it seemed to others that she and her mother had just climbed out of some sort of radio active goo.
"He asked me if I wanted to join him for dinner at the next stop."
"Well hon, I would say you got asked out. What did you say?" If she was prying Lorelai didn't care she missed Rory and wanted to know about her, it seemed that each time they talked it was all about what she was working on and what she saw that day, not about her so much or how she was feeling about things.
"I agreed after he agreed that it would be purely platonic."
"Good, cause honey I don't think you want to get involved with anyone out there, if things don't work out you are stuck in that traveling can with him for who knows how long and that could be awkward not just for you two but for everyone around you. Plus you just broke up with Logan are you even ready to get back out there yet?" Lorelai knew it was Rorys choice to break up with Logan but she also knew it was never easy letting go.
"I know, and I don't know if I am, or not. It hard, I totally expected him to have a few days to cool off and be mad at me and then call me and maybe we could work things out, not get married or anything but work things out figure out what was a more reasonable option for us but I guess it really was all or nothing for him and I can't give him all…"
"So you get nothing." Lorelai finished.
"So I get nothing." It was clear from Rorys voice she could go on all the dinners in the world with Collier, right now she wasn't ready for anything else, it was just too soon.
"I'm sorry hon."
"Its ok. It wasn't the right time. We never would have made it through this, he would hate it. He'd be showing up in every other town distracting me and trying to get me to leave my job, it would be bad."
"I'm sure its for the best."
"So what about you, how are you? How is Luke? How are you and Luke?"
"I am good, Luke is good, we are good. I've been busy at the Inn that article ran last month about great places to get married in Connecticut we got number seven on the list, apparently the article didn't mention that owner had one failed marriage and two cancelled engagements under her belt and very well could be anthrax for relationships, so now as it stands if you think you might want to get married here I'll need to know now, and even then the first availability isn't until October of 2012."
"Wow mom, that's great."
"Ok so it isn't quite that bad but it is close. Sookie is going to have to hire two more kitchen staff just to meet the demands of our wedding package."
"And how are you and Luke doing? You guys past the hump?" Rory knew as soon as she said it what was about to come out of her mothers mouth.
"Dirty!" Lorelai squealed.
"Mom!"
"You said it kid, not me. Yeah I think we are. It was scary at first I think for both of us. You'd think two people so afraid of losing one and other wouldn't do such a great job of pushing each other away, but we're doing good. In fact April will be here in another two weeks and he wants to take a trip all three of us."
Somehow even though she was almost twenty-two years old, and out on her own the thought of her mother bonding with another child shot a twinge of jealousy through her.
"That will be fun, any ideas on where you are going to go?"
"Not sure yet, Luke wants to talk to April a little more about it, but right now the front runner is Maine, to test out the boat."
"That will be fun."
"Yeah I think so. So tell me about the guy." Lorelai probed.
"What?"
"I can hear your brain churning through the phone, tell me about the guy, come on Gilmore dish, pretend that you are writing a gossip column and you are Brittany and he is Collin Farrell."
Though Lorelais analogy left something to be desired Rory filled her in on one Collier Stone.
Collier Stone was a twenty-seven year old up and comer in the journalism world known for his humor as well as his facts. He fed you your news in small easy to manage bites, with just enough sugar to help it go down. People often accused him of being too soft on candidates in interviews but he believed that the real story wasn't wrapped up in the platform but the person. If Rory was C-team reporter, Collier was B-team with occasional glimpses of A-team greatness. Lorelai googled his name as soon as she got to work the next day.
"It says here he is 6'3", enjoys golf and horse back riding, a democrat, born and raised in Val Dosta, Georgia. Yet still a democrat impressive, has two siblings and oh my god he's a super model…" Lorelai said waving Sookie over to her computer. "There is a picture, wow Rory said he was handsome but wow."
"And your advice about him was what?" Sookie said ogling the picture on the screen.
"To avoid it because they were going to be stuck on a bus together?" Lorelai said slapping her palm to her forehead.
"Call her back tell her you were wrong, tell her to bring him home, tell her to get him to put on a pair of black Calvins and let her take pictures of him." Sookie giggled.
"Sookie!" Lorelai shouted shocked.
"He's beautiful Lorelai."
"We are evil." Lorelai conceded.
"Quite possibly."
"This guy he is like her first real guy, her first non-school related ask out, ya know. I just hope she handles it well. He's twenty-seven…Sookie he is twenty-seven."
"Ok..so…"
"So she can't go out with someone who is twenty-seven I am still pretending I am twenty-seven." Lorelai said walking away from the computer.
"That's only five years older than her Lorelai she isn't going to always date people close to her age, besides isn't Luke like five years older than you?" Sookie pointed out.
"Six, but its different, we're both older."
"She isn't even dating this guy I am sure that in good time she will find herself a nice little twenty-three year old to bring home to you." Sookie said resuming her stirring.
"You're right she said she wasn't going to get involved with him its' much ado about nothing at this point."
"Right." Sookie agreed.
Lorelai said it, but she also knew her daughter and something told her that she hadn't heard the last about Collier Stone.