When I got inside I could hear my mom upstairs with Landon. I found them in his room playing with Paul Anka.
"Hey… Where's Logan?"
"On his way back to the city..."
"He left?"
"No… I mean yes, he left Stars Hollow, but he's not gone. He just has things to take care of."
"So things are...?"
I smiled, "Things are good."
She smiled back, "Good."
The three of us, four if you count Paul Anka, spent the morning playing and watching cartoons. I always loved getting to spend time with Landon, and being in Stars Hollow made me feel more at ease, but knowing that Logan and I were finally working things out let me enjoy the rest of the weekend even a little bit more.
While Landon was napping, Mom and I put on a movie and were painting our nails, something we hadn't had the time to do together in a very long while, when a thought popped into my head that threatened the nice morning we had been having.
"So, does Luke know? About Logan?"
Even before he and my mom finally got together, Luke had always been protective of me. He had been there for me for most of my life, but I knew he would be less forgiving than Mom was. I loved Luke for wanting the best for me, I just didn't know if I could get through to him about all of this.
"Well, I had to tell him something. Porsches don't exactly just pop up in Stars Hollow."
"Is he pissed?"
"At you? No. He's just worried. Let's just say, that when he saw how hurt you were, my first instinct to kick the crap out of Logan was rather polite compared to what Luke had in mind."
My grandparents, and my dad, even Logan's parents were complications that we would have to figure out eventually, but Luke was in my life all of the time. I wasn't sure where to start with him.
It was like she could read my mind, "Look, I will take care of Luke, at least for a little while… but the two of you are going to have to face him eventually."
"Thanks, Mom."
The rest of the weekend turned out to be exactly the break that I needed. We all had dinner at Sookie and Jackson's that night, and I visited the Inn with Mom Sunday morning. We had lunch at Luke's before I left. There were a couple of moments when I could tell that Luke wanted to ask about what was going on, but my mother was true to her word about dealing with him for now, going so far as to kick him under the table in an effort to change the subject.
After hugs and goodbyes, and a wet kiss on the cheek from Landon I was back on the road. I hadn't heard from Logan since he left, but that was alright with me. I had told him I didn't want to rush into all of this; I was happy just to know that we seemed to be getting back on track.
The whole way back to New York I tried to imagine how different our lives would be if I had said yes then, from how they could be now. Our careers, our friendships, our relationship… I couldn't say for sure what would have happened then, but now… We were established in our lives as individuals, theoretically more mature, hopefully more capable of handling adversity. Maybe this is really how it is supposed to work out…
I parked my car in the long term garage and grabbed a cup of coffee at the cart by the office before taking the subway home. I picked up my mail from the weekend, but my newspaper was missing from the slot. Not the first time. I'll have to grab a copy at work tomorrow. I was flipping through my mail as I climbed the stairs. I turned towards my door, and there he was, leaning against the wall, reading my paper.
"Hey…"
He looked up at me and smirked.
"Told you I'd be waiting, Ace."
If I wasn't already well versed in his displays of affection I would be in disbelief, but to be literally waiting for me to come home, was classic Logan.
"How long have you been standing here?"
He shrugged, "I found something to read… Hey, did you know that they redistributed the public works budgets?" He held up the paper in his hand.
"Funnily enough, I did hear something about that."
"There's a great article in The Post about it… really helped to pass the time." He winked and smiled as he held out his hand, "Let me take some of that so you can open up Fort Knox."
I realized that I was standing there holding my work bag, my duffle bag from the weekend, my coffee, my mail and my keys. I let him take my bags while I undid the deadbolts and unlocked the door.
"You know we could probably find you a chain and pad lock for this place; then you might actually be able to compete with this neighborhood."
I rolled my eyes as I led him inside. "Logan, it's not that bad."
"There are bars on the windows."
"It's New York, lots of buildings have bars on the windows. Besides, we can't all be up-town and high-rise living like all you Huntzbergers."
"Yea, all us Huntzbergers…" We had been joking, but his voice had gotten quiet again. I realized that since we had lunch last week, I hadn't given a lot of thought to how he was adjusting to being back on the same coast as his family.
"Hey, come here…" He had put my bags on the floor and pulled me in for a kiss. "…can I take you to dinner?"
His quick change of subject was a clear sign that he wasn't interested in approaching that topic tonight, but I was both happy that he was here and hungry. I kissed him back, "Dinner sounds good."
It felt good to finally being comfortable with each other again. I grabbed my purse and Logan feigned impatience in the time it took me to redo all of the locks on my door. When we got downstairs there was a car waiting at the curb.
I didn't know what or if he had made plans, but I pulled him away from the car, "Let's walk."
"But…"
"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" I teased.
He didn't miss a beat, "Not in this neighborhood."
Last time around he had always surprised me with grand gestures, and ended up kind of sweeping me off of my feet, but this time I wanted to do it differently.
"Look Logan. I told you, I don't want to rush into this. I don't want to try and just pick up where we left off. You said it yourself; if we are really going to do this, it's going to be complicated. I know we can't start from scratch, but maybe we could start small. Maybe just… date?"
"You want to date?"
"Yes." I smiled, happy with what I had just come up with. "I want to date. Nothing fancy, nothing over the top, no dramatics… just a date. Think you can handle that?"
He stood there, once again wearing that amused look on his face. He laughed cautiously through his response, "Yea, I think so…"
"Good." I took his hand and started to walk down the street. "There's a really good Chinese restaurant a couple blocks away… perfect for a first date."
I smiled back at him; he rolled his eyes and shook his head while we walked. I could practically hear him thinking, 'What have I gotten myself into?' This was going to be fun.
The restaurant, much like my apartment, was kind of a hole in the wall… I maybe could have seen Logan coming into a place like this in college, but judging by the look on his face when we walked in, he had clearly been frequenting more impressive establishments since joining the ranks of the business elite.
I followed his eyes around the room that was decorated in a manner that was painfully cliché, yet delightfully kitschy... Red and gold banners, paper lanterns, Buddha candle holders on every table. Al's Pancake World would be lucky to look this authentic on pot sticker night.
His eyes had found their way back to me, and gave me a tentative look.
"Oh, just trust me!" A case could be made that I was enjoying his uncertainty a little bit too much, but it's not like I was trying to torture him… it honestly is good Chinese food.
The waitress led us to a table at the back of the restaurant, near the kitchen door. If we were lucky, we'd get to see the owners later; they were a husband and wife who had a tendency to engage in arguments in the middle of the dining room, spoken entirely in Mandarin. I never understand a word of what they said, but it was part of the experience.
Since he was trusting me, I took the liberty of ordering what I consider to be all of the highlights of the menu for us… too much food for two, but that's why they invented to-go containers.
I did a mental victory dance when the food arrived and he tasted the Mongolian beef.
"Ace…" He nodded approvingly with his mouth full.
I smiled proudly at having won him over. "What did I tell you? It's good, right? Here, try these…" I piled an egg roll, garlic shrimp, sweet and sour pork, and some chow mein on his plate.
"Hey, slow down, I'm not a Gilmore, you know…"
"Well, you're not going to win any points with my mom talking like that…"
I took a risk bringing up my mother after the other morning, but I was glad to see that he laughed at the comment.
We talked, and laughed, and ate our way through the rest of the meal, which did end up including a particularly entertaining show from the proprietors. When we were finished, the waitress put a little tray on the table with our bill and two fortune cookies.
I broke open my cookie first, and read the fortune aloud as he reached for his,
"'You will conquer obstacles and achieve success.' A little generic, but beggars can't be choosers. What'd you get?"
He was reading the strip of paper from his cookie with a big grin on his face, but then he folded it and put it in his pocket without saying anything.
"What does it say?"
That smirk of his was playing across his face, "I'll tell you later."
"Logan, come on!"
He shook his head. I would have kept pushing the matter, but he distracted me by reaching for the check. I beat him to it.
"No way. This is the best part about this place."
"Better than the owner coming this close to throwing dishes at her husband?"
I nodded and smiled before I opened the book that held the bill, which came to a grand total of $37. We had both had our fill and there were at least two more meals worth of leftovers boxed up in front of us, all for what I'm sure was a fraction of what he had spent on drinks the other night.
Despite his protests, I paid the bill and we left with the big bag of leftovers. Logan stopped outside of the restaurant and pulled out his phone.
"Hey. What do you think you're doing?"
"Getting a car?"
"Nope. You agreed to date me… that means you're going to have to deal with living like the other half once in a while. We go to crappy restaurants, we eat left overs, and we survive without car service. Welcome to life styles of the working class." I had started walking as I spoke, and turned to make a grand gesture to go with my last line, only to see that he was still standing where I had left him, just looking at me.
"What? Not regretting your decision already, are you?"
He smiled and fell in sync with my stride, "Not at all."
He put his arm around me and I leaned my head against his shoulder while we walked back to my apartment. I breathed in his familiar scent; I was still having a hard time believing that all of this was really happening.
When we got upstairs I opened the door and put the leftovers on the table. Logan was leaning on the frame of the open door, perhaps waiting for an invitation that I wasn't ready to extend tonight. Instead, I came face to face with him on the other side of the threshold.
"Well, you got dinner and a show… good first date?"
He grinned and nodded. "So… does a first date include a kiss?"
"Probably not for a gentleman…"
"Well, good thing I've never been very good at that gentleman stuff." He leaned in as he spoke and planted one, soft, perfect kiss on my lips.
It took me a second to wipe what I assume was a very goofy smile off of my face as he stepped back from the door.
It suddenly occurred to me that we hadn't finished the cookie argument. "Hey, are you really not going to tell me what your fortune said?"
He continued to back away from the door; before he started down the stairs he gave me a mischievous smile, "Goodnight, Ace."
** I do not own any characters or content related to Gilmore Girls, or any other entities mentioned. **
A/N - I'm very happy to see that so many of you seem to be pleased with how this Rogan saga is playing out... Please let me know what you think of this latest event in their story, I'm dying to hear from you! xx