AN: Here's chapter 5! I still seem to be having some issues with uploading and updating. Chapter 4 posted last night, but it didn't seem to update the story again. I just left it posted this time though. I would really really love to hear some feedback though! I have the rest of this story written, but am starting to draft something new as well, I'd love to hear your opinions. Thanks!
Two days later
Logan slid into a booth in a quiet bar in midtown New York looking a little disheveled, and exhausted.
"Look what the cat dragged in" Finn commented. "Could you possibly look any worse?"
Logan sighed, not really having a response to that comment.
"Come on mate, it's only been two days. Maybe she just needs time to process everything." Finn tried to tell him.
"Finn, she left me. Alone in her bed. No sign of her, just a note that says I'm sorry. How am I supposed to respond to that?" Logan was slightly agitated.
Logan continued on "She broke my heart once, when she told me no. Now she's done it again by leaving me after the best night I've had in eight years, with no goodbye, and radio silence. She won't call me back. I've called, and called." Logan rambled on.
He laid his head down on the table. "God I sound pathetic."
"Ok mate, let's step back a few paces. What happened? Start at the beginning." Finn told him.
"I missed the memorial service because I was in California for a business trip. I should have been back in plenty of time, but my flight got delayed because of the storm. Once the flight finally took off, we got re-routed to Boston, so I had to get a rental car, which got a flat on the side of the highway. I had to wait for my father of all people to show up, in the middle nowhere Massachusetts, to get me back to Hartford, and arrange a tow truck to get the rental back to Boston. By the time we got back to Hartford, I had already missed the service."
"I was beginning to think that the universe was telling me to stay away from Rory, now I think it may have been right." Logan told him.
"What did you guys talk about, when you finally saw her?" Finn pushed
"We didn't. I told her that could wait, she was just so sad." Logan replied.
"I found her in the pool house, she was hiding from the crowd. She burst into tears when she looked at me." Logan pressed on.
"Before I knew what was happening, SHE kissed me. All those feelings came flying back, after eight years it was like no time had passed. Finn, it was the best sex I have EVER had. Everything just felt right, then, lying next to her, I had the best sleep I've had in years, and I just start to think that maybe something is finally working out for me, that maybe we can undo all the damage from her graduation day eight years ago, and I wake up to find her gone with nothing but this note left behind." Logan took out the note and laid it on the table in front of him.
Finn looked at him and sighed. "So you're telling me that you discussed nothing? Does she even know that you are back on the east coast for good?"
"Well, I. Oh…" Logan started. "She asked me if I had come here all the way from California, I nodded and told her that she would never believe the whole story and why I missed the memorial service. She was just so sad looking, I didn't want to risk making matters worse."
"After everything that happened, I figured we could discuss it the next morning. And we saw how well that went" Logan finished.
"So let me get this straight." Finn said. "You show up out of the blue, after having no contact for eight years, through some crazy chain of events end up sleeping with her, meanwhile she thinks you flew across the entire country to see her, and will be flying back across the country anytime, only to go back to the way things were."
"Even if I was going back to California, why would she automatically think that things had to go back to the way they were?" Logan looked confused.
"You know, for being a smart guy, you can be pretty thick sometimes mate." Finn responded. "You were the one that told her it was all or nothing eight years ago, that you weren't willing to do the long distance thing again. No offence but now that it's been eight years I think It's time to tell you what a colossal idiot you were that day. She waited for you when your dad sent you to London, she nursed you back to health after the accident in Costa Rica, she stood by you through thick and thin. Meanwhile she was just about to take her first steps into the unknown, and you laid a heavy ultimatum at her feet. Can you blame her for getting freaked out and saying no?"
"She hurt me more than you could ever imagine that day." Logan responded looking a little angry but also guilty. "I realized years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life by giving her that ultimatum, but she could have said yes, it could have been a long engagement."
"Mate, you walked away that day and didn't bother to look back at how Rory handled things."
"She seemed to handle things just fine, if you ask me." Logan told him.
"Mate, I ran into Rory three months after you broke up. She was at a campaign event in New York. I almost didn't recognize her, she was a shell of the person she used to be. I managed to get her to go grab a cup of coffee, and she spilled her guts to me. How she was heartbroken and homesick, crying herself to sleep every night for weeks. After that I made a point to check in with her once a month to see how she was doing, and anytime she is in New York we try to make time to grab dinner."
Logan looked at Finn with sheer surprise. "I knew you two were still in contact, but I wish you had told me just how much."
"She didn't want you to know mate. She was under the impression you wanted nothing to do with her. She tried calling you, you know. But you had already changed your number. She thought that was the final nail in the coffin."
Logan sighed and leaned back in the booth thinking about what a mess of things he had made.
"Look, just give it some time to let Reporter Girl calm down, next time I'm talking to her I'll try to put in a good word."
Logan half smiled, still feeling dejected. "Thanks man." He got up and headed out of the pub.
Finn sat there for a few minutes more, thought about everything that had happened in the last few days and smiled. He had an idea.
...
At almost the same time, on the other side of the city Jess Mariano walked into a coffee shop where he was supposed to be meeting Rory Gilmore.
He saw her sitting in the corner, aimlessly stirring her latte, and generally not looking herself.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Rory looked up, gave a half wave and motioned for him to sit down.
"Ok what was so important that you couldn't tell me on the phone, that I had to come up all the way from Philadelphia for to discuss in person?"
Before she could answer, a similar latte was put down in front of him, which he eagerly took a sip of, it had been a long day already.
"I slept with Logan."
Jess spit the latte out of his mouth with such force that Rory received a spray.
"Ok hold on, you need to start from the beginning. Where did you even see Logan?" Jess asked, somewhat agitated since he definitely did not like Logan Huntzberger.
"After the memorial service, you were already gone. I couldn't take it anymore, so I slipped out and went back to the pool house. I was sitting in front of the fire, in my pyjamas, with a glass of scotch, drinking alone, when I heard the door open. I thought it was mom." Rory started.
"But it was Logan?" Jess asked.
"Yes, it was Logan. I took one look at him and I burst into tears. Before I knew what was happening he was hugging me and I was bawling my eyes out on his shoulder. He held me until I stopped crying." She paused.
"When I finally calmed down, I told him how I was too late, that I didn't get to say goodbye to Grandpa. I started crying again." Rory continued.
Jess sat there and continued to listen.
"He soothed me and told me everything was going to be alright. It all felt so normal, so comforting, I didn't want to let go. Then he told me he'd missed me. I don't know what came over me, but I got this insane urge to kiss him so I did. Then one thing led to another, and you know… Well.." Rory blushed.
Jess flexed his fist, out of reflex. "Did he push you to?"
Rory cut him off before he could finish that sentence. "No, it was me. I initiated it."
"I hate to admit this, but it was the best sex I have ever had. And then, I slept better than I have in years. But I woke up, saw him lying there and panicked." Rory told him.
"I knew I couldn't get through another painful goodbye, he told me eight years ago, that it was all or nothing. It's been nothing for eight years, I couldn't handle that rejection again. I got up, packed my things and left him there in my bed."
"So you're telling me, a guy flew across the entire country to make sure you were ok, even though you haven't heard from him in almost a decade, he comforts you, you kiss him, then sleep with him, and leave without saying anything?" Jess asked.
"Well… I left him a note…" Rory looked half embarrassed again.
"Rory, what did the note say?" Jess asked.
Rory stalled looking very interested in her latte all of a sudden.
"Rory…"
"I'M SORRY" Rory raised her voice.
Jess looked up confused.
"The note said I'm sorry." Rory told him.
"We'll do you really want my opinion?" Jess asked.
Rory nodded looking glum.
"You know I don't like Logan, he was a dick to you giving you that ultimatum. But Rory, use that brain of yours. A guy walks back into your life after eight years of no contact, flying across the entire country to do so. Just to make sure that you are ok. Does that really sound like someone who wants nothing?"
Rory sighed. Jess was probably right, but she was leaving tonight for her next assignment and didn't want any drama clouding her judgement. She knew that when she and Logan spoke there would be words, and she wasn't ready to deal with that. Not yet. She had to get going, she gave Jess a hug and headed out the door.
As she was walking down the sidewalk her phone rang. The caller ID indicated that it was Finn. Knowing that he had probably been speaking with Logan, she pressed decline. She couldn't deal with that. Not right now.