Palo Alto California - September 2015
Scattered champagne glasses sat on tables in the conference room, empty food trays had been cleaned up and stacked for the garbage. A few co-workers still chatted, though at 9pm many had gone home already. The party had been winding down for the last hour, and Logan Huntzberger found himself slipping back into his old office one last time.
Everything had already been packed up and shipped to New York. It was amazing how their small tech start-up had developed into such a success in just eight short years. They were now a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation, and he had been tasked to head up the brand new, New York office. He was going to miss this place, and miss seeing these people every day, but he knew it was time for another fresh start.
He was not one for big goodbyes, so he slipped out quietly, and headed back on foot to his apartment a few blocks away. It had been a rough few weeks, the rush to pack up and move back to the east coast had taken its toll. The expected conversations with his girlfriend had not surprised him. She had expected to be moving to New York with him, it had been after all, four years. She had expected to be getting engaged, but the idea was not something that Logan agreed with. It was clear, that she loved him, and she would make a good wife. Just not for him, he didn't love her, not enough. As much as he hated it, his heart still belonged to someone else.
It was on this cool California evening, that Logan for a moment let his mind wander to her. Although he hadn't spoken to her in eight years, he followed all of her work, from her time on the Obama campaign forward. He was especially proud when she had an article published in the New Yorker. He had almost called her to congratulate her for that accomplishment, but he couldn't bring himself to pick up the phone. It wasn't his place, not anymore. These last few years though, her writing did not seem as passionate anymore, not as full of excitement, it made him worry about her, but it really wasn't any of his business. Maybe his relationship with Elizabeth would have worked better if he hadn't spent so much time on what could have been rather than what he had right in front of him.
California hadn't been all that it was cracked up to be, the house with the avocado tree never happened, not without her. He spent more hours than he ever imagined, in the office, throwing himself into his work to mask his pain. It had put a strain on his friendships back east, and prevented him from being too involved in the social scene in his new life. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was not happy.
As he unlocked his apartment door, he could hear his cell phone ringing. He had forgotten it on the counter in the rush to get to his farewell party on time. Not quick enough, he grabbed for the phone and saw that he had a dozen missed calls from Colin, Finn, and Honor. His gut sank, he knew something must be wrong. He hadn't heard from Colin or Finn in months, and Honor knew he would be celebrating tonight.
He redialed the last missed call- Finn. It barely had a chance to ring when Finn picked up.
"Logan, we've been trying to reach you for hours…" Finn said.
Logan had tried to cut him off "Finn, what's wrong, what happened?"
"It's Rory."
Logan's heart skipped a beat.
"What does this have to do with me?" Logan tried hard to show resolve and not let Finn know how much that name still hurt him after all these years.
"Listen mate, I know you don't truly feel that way. I know she hurt you, I can't begin to imagine what that felt like, but this is important. It's Richard, he had another heart attack. He's gone."
Logan felt his heart sink, Rory had been so close with her grandfather, Richard understood her in a way that no one else did. He had to go, now. He wasn't scheduled to fly out for another few days, but he had to go to her. He had to see that she was ok.
"I'm getting on the next plane." Logan replied, running around his apartment trying to gather a few things for the next few days.
"Don't bother mate, not yet. Rory is on her way home to her mum, she's taking some time off. I'll let you know when I hear more."
"Thanks", Logan hung up the phone and sank down onto his couch. Out of instinct, he dialed her number. Even eight years later, it was like second nature to him.
The number you have reached is not in service. Please hang up and try your call again later.
He cursed, though he shouldn't be surprised. It had been eight years, and he had gone through two new phone numbers since then.
There was nothing else he could do tonight, so he poured himself a scotch, had a drink, and resumed packing up his life in California.
...
Somewhere in North Carolina- Two days prior
Rory Gilmore was bored. Sitting in a diner in the middle of nowhere, waiting for some stupid guy to become the new world record holder in eating the most sweet potatoes in one sitting.
"Is this really what my life has come to?" Rory muttered under her breath. It had been eight years since she graduated Yale. She felt that her first job had promise, following around an up and coming senator and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama.
Well, he had a lot of promise, me not so much. Rory thought bitterly. The campaign trail had been a great experience, she saw history change before her very eyes, and wrote about it with her very words. Times were tough however, and thanks to the economy, soon after, Rory found herself without a job.
You have lots of promise Gilmore, I wish I didn't have to do this, you'll land on your feet though. The great ones always do.
She hadn't landed on her feet though, not really. She had taken short term gig after short term gig, travelling all over the country, to report on things that were just well, not news. This was not what she had signed up for.
As she sat there with her fourth cup of coffee, she tried to start writing, while some slob on the other side of the diner stuffed himself with sweet potato after sweet potato. Rory hadn't even had any, and vowed that she would never eat another sweet potato again after this. After sitting for 20 minutes staring at a blank computer screen, she thought maybe Mitchum Huntzberger was right all those years ago. Maybe she didn't have it, maybe that's why she couldn't get any decent reporting job. Not that she had tried nearly as hard as she could have to get one. The Huntzbergers owned so many papers, and she couldn't bring herself to apply to any of them. She couldn't risk running into Mitchum, or even worse, running into Logan.
Deep down, she still loved him, but he had made it clear, it was all or nothing. Proposal or break-up. It wasn't even that she wasn't ready to say yes, it's just that everything was so uncertain with graduating Yale, having no job, and being so young. She wanted to marry him, god had she wanted to marry him, but she was scared, and needed more time. Time to grow up, time to explore her career opportunities, time that he wasn't willing to give her.
The first few days after the breakup were tough, but nothing was as tough as the first few months on the campaign trail. Not only was she heartbroken, but she was homesick. She cried herself to sleep every night for weeks. She kept herself at a distance from all the other reporters on the campaign, not wanting to get too close to anyone, this assignment was her first, she wanted to do well, but she was fearful of getting hurt by the short timespan that she would be involved. She threw herself into her work instead, receiving several job offers, but stayed out of loyalty. Not that it did her any good, when she lost her job, none of the other papers were able to hire her either. Tough times they were.
She really hadn't had much luck in the dating world since, a series of short term relationships, if you could even call them that. Not staying in one spot for very long does that to a person. Not that she really cared, her heart wasn't in it. She hadn't found anyone who made her feel like he did.
Rory was snapped out of her daze by the ringing of her cell phone. Looking at the caller ID it was Luke. This struck her as odd as it was always her mother who would call, though Luke would usually talk to her for a few minutes as well.
She had always considered Luke to be a father figure to her, and now that he and Lorelai had been engaged for six years, with no plans to make it more official, she felt that he truly was a step-father to her.
She stepped outside the diner to answer her call.
"Hi Luke, what gives me the pleasure of receiving a phone call from you today?" Rory greeted.
"Rory, it's your grandfather. He had another heart attack, it's not looking good kid."
Rory felt like she was going to vomit. Everything went out of focus around her, she could barely process what Luke was saying.
"Wheres… Hows… Whats..." Rory struggled to form a coherent sentence.
"Your mom is at the hospital right now, with Emily. I hate to ask you to do this, but you need to get back here as soon as you can." Luke responded.
Rory hung up the phone, not even saying goodbye. She stumbled back to her table, tears filling her eyes. She grabbed her laptop, the keys to her rental and ran out the door.