Besides the generally positive atmosphere of dinner, the best aspect by far was the fact that Mitchum was not yet back from Toronto. He would be back tomorrow, and they would officially be in business... They would give the contracts one more once over, have final discussions with investors, announce the merger Monday and by Friday we would be surrounded by sycophants who worshiped at Mitchum's feet. But for now, I was happy that Logan could take some time to appreciate his own success.
I had heard stories from all of his coworkers about how the company had grown over the years; at one point it was pretty much only Logan, Scott, and Michael making offers to finance online papers before they started taking on bigger clients. It never ceased to amaze me how much he had accomplished, but I was having a hard time keeping the Gerry issue out of my mind.
At the end of the night, Logan and I walked to the car and I was expecting him to continue to revel in their success, but instead he turned towards me, "So...?"
"So?" It's not that I'd forgotten about what was going on with Gerry, but I wasn't exactly expecting to talk about it either.
"So, what's going on?"
"It's nothing..."
"Ace…"
"Really, it's just work stuff…"
"Work stuff. That's all you're going to give me? Come on, Ace you're head's been somewhere else half the night, you've been up late every night this week, you ran out of the apartment this morning…"
"I wanted to get copies of my article…"
"Rory, come on… I know you don't want involved, but…"
I exhaled as I sat back in the seat of the car, and tried to play things off as smoothly as possible, "Gerry's just kind of giving me a hard time, but its fine."
"He's giving you a hard time about what? The Times?"
"I guess? I don't really know actually, but he's got me competing with another reporter on the WikiLeaks piece and…"
"You're competing?"
"Yea… I guess I get it, you know, he's trying to get the best stuff he can from us, but I don't get why he suddenly flipped on me like that. One minute I'm Katherine Graham, the next I'm Fred Becker…"
"You are not Fred Becker."
"I am… I totally am… I'm worried Gerry's going to start ignoring me all together; I'll get bumped from features and pushed around from one assignment to the next until…"
"Rory…" I took a deep breath; I guess I'd been leaning a little towards manic at that point. Rein it in a little, come on. "Why didn't you tell me all of this was going on?"
I took a deep breath, "I don't know. I wanted to handle it… I just wish I knew what was going on… He's gotten my articles that I've sent to The Times, he knows I'm with you and that I know Mitchum…"
I stopped long enough to notice that now Logan was the one whose head was somewhere else. We had just pulled up in front of the building and Logan was pulling out his phone.
"Logan?"
He was typing a text message or an email, something that had clearly monopolized his attention. The driver opened my door for me, while Logan opened his own, distractedly walking around the back of the car, still typing. We were in the elevator by the time he had finished reading through what he had written and sent it off.
"Care to share with the class?"
"Just taking care of something…"
I raised my eyebrows at him, silently urging him to give me more information… If I had to share, so did he.
"Just give me a few hours on this one?" I looked at him suspiciously, but he seemed pretty serious, so I let it slide for now.
He kissed me on the forehead as we walked to the door. When we got inside he went straight to kitchen, but I was ready to head upstairs.
"Where are you going?" I was standing on the second stair, but I could see him leaning his head over the counter. Curiously I descended the two steps, came around the corner and found him holding a bottle of Champaign with two glasses on the counter in front of him.
"What's this?"
"Just a little something to celebrate…"
"What are we celebrating now?"
He looked at me with a sideways glance as he poured, "Your article."
I shook my head, "Are you going to do this every time?"
"No… but now, you're officially on a roll. Not one, but two articles in The New York Times? No stopping you now, Ace." I smiled, knowing that he understood what had been on my mind that morning.
Thursday morning Logan was taking his time getting ready while I hurried around the apartment, as per usual.
"Don't you have to go work today?"
"I'm procrastinating until I can no longer avoid meeting with Mitchum."
"A surefire way to start a successful partnership…"
"Hey, I've got until Monday to back out…"
I rolled my eyes at him as he leaned against the doorway, sipping a cup of hot coffee. Rather than dwell on it, he changed the subject, "Oh, I got a text from Colin last night."
"And?"
"He seems to think that our dear friend Finn is avoiding a certain someone…"
And here I thought Finn might have finally grown up a little. "Oh…"
"You didn't let me finish…" He was smirking, "He thinks he's avoiding Leslie so he doesn't have to admit that he might have actual feelings for her."
I gave Logan a 'Really?' look, "Well doesn't that sound familiar…"
"My thoughts exactly…"
"It sounds like you might be planning something, Huntzberger…
"Maybe I am… Maybe we get them both here tomorrow night?"
"I like the way your mind works" I kissed him as I headed downstairs, but I had one last thought before I left, "Hey… No backing out." He knew as well as I did that he deserved this more than anyone, and he smiled.
I met up with Les at the coffee cart and proposed that she come over for a movie night tomorrow. I may have suggested that Logan would be out, but I since both of them seemed to be running from each other I thought a seek attack might be best.
Unlike yesterday, I knew that Gerry would be in a meeting this morning so I got right to work on my article. I spent some time looking again at the information Jeremy's friend had sent me, editing and adding, as well as some of my other research.
About an hour into my day I got a text from Logan, "Meet me for lunch?"
I smiled, "Of course."
Life had been so crazy the last few weeks that we hadn't had lunch together since that oh so fateful Sunday five weeks ago…
Five weeks? How was it possible that my life had changed so much in less than five weeks?
A little before noon I left for McConnell's to meet Logan. He greeted me with a kiss, we sat down and ordered, but only a few minutes after our food arrived I couldn't help my curiosity, "So, have you met with your dad yet?"
"No, but I have the distinct pleasure of basking in his majesty's presence this afternoon..." I was proud of how mature Logan had become when handling his father, but I had to admit that I was glad to see that there was some of the old Logan was still in there. "I did, however, find the invitation to the Benefit on my desk this morning…"
"Don't tell me… It got lost in the mail. No! It was intercepted by a group trying to thwart the coup d'état of the New World Order. Power to the People! Bring down the one percent!"
"Yea! Damn those upper-class elitists." He knew full well that he and his family were pretty much the embodiment of the one percent, but I appreciated his enthusiasm. "No… apparently, it was supposed to be a surprise all along."
"Oh how lovely…" I rolled my eyes at the thought of Shira supposedly planning a surprise Benefit.
"Right… Anyway, what do you think about inviting your family?"
"My family?" It hadn't even occurred to me…
"Yea… I know it's probably not Luke's thing, but your mom? I know it's a fundraiser, but the money doesn't matter… Or your grandparents, maybe?"
That was more likely, and I had to smile knowing that he knew better than to ask Luke to come. "Yea, I guess… Emily will be appalled by the late invitation, of course."
"I can imagine, but your family seems to be pretty supportive of…"
"Don't tell me Logan Huntzberger is looking for backup."
"Hey, I'm just saying that it couldn't hurt to have a couple of people in our corner…"
I completely agreed with him, but a little teasing never hurt. "Okay, I'll call her."
"How about your mom?"
"I don't know. I'll ask, but I it might be safer to keep her away from your…" Before I could finish my sentence I was distracted by an incoming email from Gerry. I read through it quickly… Unbelievable.
"What?"
"Gerry just sent me back my article… no real notes; just sent it back saying it needed more. This whole thing started with him giving me crap for putting too much into that article on Saudi Arabia, and now he says I don't have enough?"
Logan was tight lipped as he sat across from me. He definitely had something to say, but he was holding back… "What?"
He put down his fork and looked at me, "Before you say anything, I know that I'm not supposed to be involved, but…" But? Despite my moratorium on mixing business with pleasure I found myself waiting with baited breath while he seemed to be steadying himself.
"Last night, when I was 'taking care of something'…" Is this about me? He took another deep breath, obviously conflicted, given my request that he stay removed from my work life. "I think this is about Mitchum."
Now I was just confused, "What's about Mitchum?"
"This thing with Gerry; it's about Mitchum."
"Mitchum? But I told him that there was no way that…"
He shook his head, "It's not about you and Mitchum; it's him and Mitchum."
I had to stop myself from shouting, "What?"
His expression was ripe with disgust, "Last night when you mentioned that he'd gone from one extreme to the other… I had my assistant check to see if Gerry had any history with HPG." I stared at him, with all hope of keeping my two lives separate pretty much lost. "Apparently, he applied for several editor positions in the company, and lost out on all of them."
It took me a second to process all of it. I should have known something like this was coming, but it didn't make it any less infuriating. "He's bitter?" I guess being bitter was as good an excuse as any to turn against an employee. I frantically ran my hand through my hair. He can't do this. How could he blame me for Mitchum not hiring him? "How am I supposed to deal with this?"
"I don't know, Ace… I…"
"No." I knew I shouldn't have verbalized that question. Of course Logan would want to do something about it. It wasn't fair, he wanted to fix it, and I loved him for it, but… "I will figure this out…"
"You sure?"
Technically, I shouldn't even know about what happened between Gerry and Mitchum, so maybe I should try to smooth things out first before I go accusing him of acting nefariously. "I'm sure… I have a meeting with him later today and we're going to talk about my article and I'm going to find out why he's unhappy with it."
"That's it?"
"For now, yes…" Yes. "I'm going to handle this with a level head. I wrote a good piece, I deserve to be printed."
"Okay…" It was clear that Logan would be going about this differently, but for now, that was my plan.
After lunch I headed back to the office. I was glad to have a little over an hour to finish my additions to the article before I headed into this meeting, especially considering what Logan had just told me. I can't believe that he could act like this.
I had just printed my latest draft and was about to read through it when Gerry walked by my desk, "Gilmore, I see you've added yourself to my schedule?"
"Uh…" Where did all of my confidence go? "Yea… Yes I did."
"Well, let's go…"
He kept walking towards his office… I really wish I'd gotten to give this a final read through, but here goes nothing.
Before I sat down I handed him the folder containing my new draft and a few extra pages of notes.
"What's this?"
"It's another draft. It's the more that you wanted."
He looked surprised. "Already?"
It felt pretty good to have caught him off guard considering the way things had been playing out. "Well, I never actually stopped working on it…" A little sucking up couldn't hurt, "And to be honest, I think I sent you the first draft a little prematurely. I really just wanted to make sure I got something to you quickly since…" Don't mention Duncan; be professional. "Well, I wanted you to know I'm committed to this."
He nodded and opened the folder. I thought I'd driven that last point home pretty convincingly, but the look on his face as he flipped through the pages hadn't changed. I felt myself starting to ramble, "I've picked up another source; I think you'll be pleased with what else has come through, and there's still some more research there if you think it needs to be fleshed out…"
He shut the folder and cut me off, "Okay; I'll look through it."
"You'll look through it?" That's it?
"Yea… I'll let you know." He dropped my folder on the stack in his inbox, rather unceremoniously I might add. He was clearly done with our meeting, so I stood up and started to leave. For a second I seriously considered asking him about Mitchum, but I thought better of it and headed back to my desk.
He'll let me know? I found myself wondering if Duncan had sent him anything yet… He must have. Gerry wouldn't be holding out for an article that he hasn't even seen yet. For all I know, Duncan could have beaten my first draft to Gerry and I was two steps behind the whole time. I printed another copy of this draft and read through it, editing myself as I went… it could use a couple of tweaks here and there, but it's good. I know it's good.
When I got home that evening I was exhausted, mostly because of this thing with Gerry, but once I sat down I remembered that I owed calls to my mom and grandmother about the Benefit... Oy.
I instinctively started dialing my mother first; there is usually no question about her being the sane one, relatively speaking of course, but I had a minor panic at the thought of putting her within swinging distance of Logan's parents… Double oy. I'm pretty sure that my grandparents would jump at the chance to rub his family's faces in the fact that they were standing behind us while they Huntzbergers weren't, but that meant they would have to cancel Friday night dinner. Plus Mom was always my first call…
"Hello, Daughter!"
"Hello, Mother." She was very chipper, I was decidedly less so… this could be ugly.
"Well aren't we cheerful this evening?"
"I guess one of us is…"
"I am. Luke is visiting colleges with April today and tomorrow, and Landon is at a play date for another half hour, so for the moment it's just me and Paul Anka."
"Your husband and son abandon you and you're excited about it?"
"Hey, do you know how rare it is to have moments when I don't have to worry about anything? It's like the first like hour of Home Alone when Macaulay Culkin realizes he made his family disappear…"
"Well then, lucky you…"
"Indeed… so what's up?"
"I…" It was a little drawn out; a fair warning for her.
"Uh oh. Should this be an uh oh thing?"
"Maybe?"
"Okay; hit me."
"Would you have any interest in attending a Benefit for the Journalists of Tomorrow?"
"A Benefit? Like an event my mother would be attending? Are you joking?"
"No."
"Why?"
Deep breath, "Because it's being thrown by Logan's mother." I spoke the sentence almost as if it had been one word.
"Excuse me?"
"Yea…"
"Logan's mom? The woman who…"
"We really don't have to go into all the reasons that Shira is on the less than popular list…"
Mom gave an 'are you kidding me' laugh, "Less than popular? The woman is practically a sociopath… Her list includes Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini… you know pretty much all the leaders of the Axis Powers…"
"I know! I get it; believe me I get it…"
"Then why are you trying to get me to go to this thing?"
"Because she organized it as the launch for the merger."
"Oy."
"Exactly."
"Not only that, but she waited until pretty much the last possible minute to tell Logan about it."
"She sprung it on you?"
Now it was my turn to laugh, "Me? No." I thought about how I had eavesdropped on the conversation between her and her son, "Actually, now that I think about it, Shira has yet to actually acknowledge me. She told Logan on Monday."
"Monday? When is this thing?"
"Next Friday."
"Next Friday? Wow, really last minute."
"Yea, I mean I guess she could have really waited for the last minute and told him like next Thursday, but then she wouldn't have given me the opportunity to worry about it for the next week."
"So… this is about you?"
"Not entirely… At least I hope not, but yea. It's a good cause, but the timing and the scale of the event are a bit suspicious."
"Yikes… Sorry kid, that's rough."
"Yea; so can you come?"
She didn't answer; bad sign.
"Well, do you really think Luke would go?"
"No, of course not, but…"
"And it's a Benefit; seats at this thing have got to be expensive…"
"We'll pay; you just have to show up. It's Friday night. I'm going to ask Grandma to come next, so it's not like you'll be missing out on Friday night dinner…"
"Oh she'll love that… I can see her face now. She'll be Joe Simpson watching Jessica and Nick walk their first red carpet… Her golden couple making their debut…"
"We are not making our debut. And we are not her golden couple… Really? Nick and Jessica?"
"Sorry… but you totally are. You and Logan are everything she didn't get from me. She's going to get to show you off, let everyone know how successful and happy and in love you are…"
"Mom."
"You should let my mother have her moment..." I was surprised by how genuine she sounded. "Besides… I should be at the Inn. We're hosting the East Coast Senior Geography Tournament next weekend."
"The East Coast Senior Geography Tournament? Like seniors in high school?"
"Well, the town is hosting, but a lot of them are staying at the Inn... and no, seniors as in senior citizen."
"Who knew?"
"Right? They have to keep their minds sharp somehow I guess… Anyway, it really should be all hands on deck…"
"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"
"Appropriate Golden Girls practices and procedures should be in place, of course." There was a pause in our conversation before she spoke again, "Hey…"
"Yea?"
"You'll be fine, Hun. It's a public event, how bad could she be?" I rolled my eyes at the thought. "And the grandparents will be there to back you up…"
I agreed, a little surprised, but pleasantly so, in the faith that she was putting in her parents.
After talking to Mom, I dialed my grandparent's number, "Gilmore residence…"
I didn't recognize the voice; must be another new maid.
"Is Emily there, please? This is her granddaughter calling."
"One moment please…" One moment turned into several, and then I could hear Emily yelling at the poor girl for something in the distance.
She got to the phone and answered, "Rory?"
"Hi, Grandma…"
"I have to apologize for Emmiline; how you can't find a person to answer the phone is a mystery to me. I was in the basement for goodness sakes, not Timbuctoo."
"The basement is always the first place I look…"
"Well she knew I was working on getting the house ready for spring, I've been looking at lighter fabrics for new drapes, and all of the patio furniture is in the basement."
"Of course…" Agreeing with everything she said was the only way I was going to make it through this conversation.
"Anyway, tell me, what can we do for you? Will you be coming to dinner tomorrow? Are you bringing Logan?"
"No…"
"You haven't broken up already have you?"
"No, Grandma, we haven't broken up."
"Good…"
"But we're not coming for dinner tomorrow…"
"Well, just as well I suppose; your grandfather is out of town for the weekend."
"I'm actually calling about next Friday."
"Next Friday? Well that would be fine, too. You're always welcome, you know. Both of you." There was an obvious emphasis on the both of us… She really was going to love this.
"Actually, we were wondering if you'd be interested in joining us for an event next Friday."
"An event?"
"A Benefit, actually. For the Journalists of Tomorrow…" I was trying to sell her on the cause in an attempt to downplay the short notice, but I failed miserably.
"A Benefit with only a week's notice? That's absurd. And no proper invitation? Who ever heard of…"
"Well, we, I should say Logan, just found out about it the other day; it was supposed to be…" I was disgusted with the notion that it was supposed to be a surprise. I couldn't even bring myself to say it. "Anyway, Logan's company is merging with HPG and this Benefit is supposed to celebrate the merger…" Come up with an excuse for the late notice. "…Everything was kept kind of hush-hush until things were finalized…"
"So I'm supposed to believe this was only planned in the last week?"
She wasn't buying it. I guess I should come clean, "Logan's mom is actually in charge of the event…"
"Shira?" She paused and let it since in. "Well of course she is. Can you imagine? Planning a fundraiser for the Journalists of Tomorrow and she didn't bother to invite us, the grandparents of a journalist… and it's not like you're just some journalist, you're Lo…"
When she stopped short in the middle of Logan's name it was clear that she was beginning to grasp the situation; that I was probably the reason Logan hadn't heard about it until now. After a few seconds of silence I knew that she was beginning to seethe. "Well, does Shira know that the invitation has been extended?"
"Um… I don't think so?"
"So we would be crashing this event?"
I smiled to myself hearing Emily say that she would be crashing anything. "Not technically; I mean we would pay for your…"
"Don't be silly Rory…" I could almost hear the wheels turning in her head, plotting against Shira's snub. "We'll give her cause a very good donation." I imagined that it would be a number that Shira wouldn't be able to turn down; at least not without making it obvious that they were unwelcome.
"So you'll be there?"
"Oh, well be there…" It was a little intimidating knowing how conniving she could be. "Are you mother and Luke coming?"
"No… It's not exactly Luke's idea of a good time, and Mom is going to be stuck at the Inn."
"Well, how nice of her to let me know that she would be missing dinner…" I didn't mention that the Inn was just an excuse; that Mom was actually trying to be generous and give Grandma her 'moment'.
"Hey, Grandma…"
"Yes?"
"Thank you." I hadn't actually said why I wanted them to be there, but she understood.
"My pleasure."
I still hadn't heard from Logan at 9:30 I decided to take my copy of A Tale of Two Cities up to bed… it occurred to me after the fact that there may have some subconscious reasoning in my selection.
I must have fallen asleep with the reading light still on, because I woke up when Logan turned it off. I looked at the clock… close to one.
"Working late?"
He crawled into bed next to me and kissed my forehead, "Marathon meetings with lawyers, and lawyer's lawyers, more lawyer's than I've ever had interest in knowing…"
"So clearly your favorite part of the job…" I only got a grunt in return. I was about to ask if they were finished with the all of the lawyers but when I turned, he was already asleep.
Friday morning Logan was dressed before I got downstairs, "And so it begins…"
"What?" He was flipping through The Wall Street Journal when I came up behind him to plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Late nights, early morning… impossible hours…" I was kind of kidding, knowing that the merger was going to be rough, but I really hoped this wouldn't last forever.
"I know… We've just got to get through this merger."
"So, where are you off to this morning?"
"Getting the board members together for breakfast… HPG and the newly rebranded Huntzberger Media Corporation... One big, happy family." I smiled hearing what was only the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"The fun never ends, huh?"
"Never…" He put down the paper and grabbed his briefcase, "This is your fault, you know…"
"My fault?"
"Yes, your fault…" I could easily tell that he was teasing me now. "You and all of your 'I'm so proud of you' and 'you deserve this'... I could be back in California right now, happily enjoying life without Mitchum..."
"Oh really? Happily enjoying life, huh?"
"Yea, you know… Happily being a relative term." He winked and kissed me on his way out the door, having thoroughly enjoyed goading me as he left.
** I do not own any characters or content related to Gilmore Girls or any other entities mentioned. **
A/N - I hope you're all continuing to enjoy the story... The Benefit should be in either this coming chapter or the next ( I haven't decided yet) but definitely be ready for some sparks!
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