45 - The Planner
It was a quiet and long ride back from the party, the silence almost palable to an increasingly annoyed Rory as the street lights streaked by her vision. She still didn't know what to do about Marty. He'd been almost back to his old self again in the last few days since his lastest projected had ended, their relationship better now that he was less distracted. Then Rob had to go and pull Marty aside and whatever he said put Marty back on edge. To say that Rory was frustrated would be a massive understatement.
Keep your cool, Gilmore, Rory reminded herself. Keep your cool and remember what Mom said about pushing too hard. Don't make any ultimatums. Be like a cucumb-
"We're there."
She looked over at her boyfriend, slightly startled to discover that they were parked outside her apartment building. "What?"
"We're there," repeated Marty, a look of concern on his features. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she lied.
"No, you're not."
"No, I'm not," Rory admitted with a resigned sigh. "But then again, neither are you. Right?"
"Should've known you'd notice," he said, releasing a sigh of his own. He leaned back in his seat, hands tightening the steering wheel for a brief moment before loosening his grip. "I have news. Whether or not it's good news is up for debate."
The reporter felt her stomach tighten in dread but remained silent so Marty could gather his thoughts and continue. It was almost a full twenty seconds before he finally spoke again, his eyes straight ahead.
"I got offered a promotion at work."
"I don't quite understand," Rory frowned, perplexed. "How can a promotion not be good news?"
"When the offer requires me to move to another city, that's how," he explained slowly, like it was difficult to get the words out.
"Oh," she blinked in surprise.
"It's a good offer," her boyfriend continued. "More responsibilty, higher pay..."
Rory laid a hand on his thigh. "But you'll have to move."
"That's if I even take the promotion, Rory," Marty said, finally meeting her gaze.
"And why wouldn't you take it, Marty?" she implored, blue eyes meet brown.
"But what about us?" he countered in earnest.
"We'll do the long distance thing for a while."
"Then what?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
"Come on, Ror-"
"How long do you have until Rob needs an answer?" Rory interupted.
"End of the month," he answered.
"Wow, that's not a lot of time to get things in order," she noted aloud, already formulating a plan to deal with this latest obstacle.
"I recognize that look," stated Marty. "You're making up lists in your head right now, aren't you?"
"Settle on the best plan, exploit the dynamic within, develop it without, follow the advantage, and master opportunity," the reporter explained, her right index finger held upward. "Thus victory will surely be yours."
He stared at her. "That sounded a lot like Sun-tzu."
"I may have paraphrased a bit, but you get the general idea," she grinned.
"You are taking this way better than I thought you would," her boyfriend noted.
Rory reached over to grasp his hand, bringing it to her lips. "I am not going to let a little thing like distance break us up, Marty. Not if I can help it." She kissed his fingertips. "Beside, if there's one thing I excel at, it's planning."
"I guess Paris picked the right girl as her maid-of-honor then," he joked.
"Oh, that reminds me!" the reporter exclaimed, his hand still in her grasp. "Remember to get the weekend after next off for the wedding. The maid-of-honor can't show up without a date, now can she?"
"I'll do it Monday," Marty promised.
"Be sure that you do, Mister Harrison," Rory grinned, feeling like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Sure, there was still much to do in order to solve this problem, but at least now Rory had a goal to strive towards instead of floundering aimlessly in the dark like she'd been doing for the last several weeks. "Now that all that's more or less out of the way, how about you walk me to my door?"
"It would be my genuine pleasure, Miss Gilmore," he smiled back.
Moments later, when the couple had ascended the stairs, Rory felt her cellphone vibrate from inside her clutch, which brought them to a halt just half a dozen feet from her apartment. Before the journalist could retrieve it though, whoever it was calling Rory had apparently given up after only two rings.
"That's the third time this week that number's called me," she muttered, her light blue cellphone now out so the reporter could look at its caller display. "I wonder who it could be."
"Have you tried calling them back?" Marty asked, concerned.
Rory nodded. "Yeah, but whoever it is ignores me."
"Well, if that's the case, just block the number," her boyfriend suggested.
"I'll do it later," she shrugged, her cellphone once again tucked into her clutch. "Or maybe next time I'll catch whoever they are and actually talk to them." She turned to Marty and placed her arms up onto his shoulders. He followed her lead by slipping his arms around her waist, then pulled Rory in for a deep kiss. When they separated an undeterminable amount of time later, Rory smiled up at him lazily. "Stay?"
He grinned at her as his girlfriend began unlocking her apartment door. "Is this another of your devious plans?"
"Whatever are you talking about?" Rory grinned back while once more grasping his hand in order to lead Marty inside, the heavy door clicking shut behind them.
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