Rory woke up to her cell phone ringing repeatedly. Then she remembered the night before - when she left Stewart's apartment after he fell asleep. They had a weird, intense conversation and then he fell asleep and she just left. She knew that if she wanted to work things out with him, the thing to do would have been to wake him and crawl into his bed with him. Instead, she grabbed all her stuff and ran away like a kid. She called and whined to her mother then spent most of the night cyberstalking Logan on Google. She sat up in bed and reached for her phone. Stewart. Of course it was Stewart. She owed him an apology - she knew that much. Instead, she couldn't bring herself to speak to him right now. Instead she decided to text him. "Hey, sorry I left last night. I just needed some space."

"Take all the time you need and don't bother contacting me unless you are ready to explain yourself." was the reply she received.

She sighed and got up to have a shower and go to the office. She glared at her phone as she walked slowly around her bedroom aimlessly. Rory knew she was wrong and was causing arguments to push him away - but she couldn't help it.

Rory spent the next few days just going through the motions. She went to work, she ate boring lunches, she went home, she watched trash TV, and she went to bed early. Even the weekend came and went. She cleaned her apartment, did her laundry in her favorite super-specialized sorting method, and she practiced making German chocolate cake.

She had been working on a perfect recipe for a few years. German chocolate was her favorite so she decided to learn to make it from scratch. Every recipe had too much chocolate, not enough, too much coconut, not enough pecans, whatever. She had made about 75 cakes at this point and was still working on her recipe. One day it was going to be perfect. Because she didn't want to eat an entire 3 layer cake by herself, she called Paris to drop by for cake. Paris showed up on Sunday afternoon with Doyle in tow. The old friends had coffee, cake and ice cream while talking about old times. Doyle asked if there was trouble in Paradise because she wasn't wearing her engagement ring. She was startled to realize she wasn't wearing it and had not been wearing it in several days. She quickly fibbed and said the stone was loose and it needed to be repaired, but her face must have betrayed her. Paris narrowed her eyes at her friend and pursed her lips, trying to figure out what was happening.

On Sunday evening, Emily called. "Rory, its your grandmother. How was your weekend?"

"Oh, it was fine Grandma. I just got to see Paris and Doyle," she said trying to think of benign conversation.

"Wonderful. Its so important to keep up a social life at your age. Was Stewart not available?" Emily inquired. So much for benign conversation.

"Well, Grandma, you know his hospital schedule is very busy..." Rory tried to make a generalization about Stewart.

"Yes, of course. Please give him our regards. By the way, do you have your gown yet for the gala? I really want to coordinate this time," Emily said excitedly.

"No, Grandma. I've gone out looking and haven't found anything that I loved. I want something beautiful and I just don't like the fashions right now, I guess," Rory tried to appeal to her grandmother's affinity for shopping.

"Oh, yes, I know. Everything on the rack is currently designed for someone 15 years old or 90. There is nothing for anyone in between! That's why couture is the only way to go for an event. Of course, its too late for that now. We're less than 3 weeks away at this point. You need to go to Saks, Neimans, Bergdorfs, Bloomingdales, and every where else you can think of until you find a gown! Can you take time off of work this week to go?" Emily asked anxiously. "I can meet you in the city if you need a shopping companion."

"I'll take care of it, Grandma. I promise. The next time we talk, I will have a dress," Rory promised.

"Okay, Dear. Please let me know once you have your gown," Emily pressed on.

"I sure will. Good night, Grandma."

"Goodnight, Rory," Emily said and disconnected the call.

Rory decided to email Richard. She hadn't seen her grandpa in a while and they liked to have lunch and talk when his business brought him to New York. Richard must have had his computer open because he replied right away. He invited her to lunch on Tuesday. She needed to talk to someone and he was always an excellent sounding board. Richard also was an avid reader and was great to talk to about books and movies. They had lots in common considering he was a man 40 years older than she.

Rory drew herself a long, hot bubble bath. While sitting in the bubbles, she thought a lot about Stewart and realized that she had not spoken to him in six days. And she felt a lot more peaceful without speaking to him. She was so conflicted about marrying him. She cared about him as a friend and respected him as a person, but one night they had a little too much wine, fell into bed and called each other boyfriend and girlfriend since then. After months of that, he proposed and she accepted. She fell asleep thinking about Stewart and the best way to handle it.

She woke up at 2am in the morning. She woke up panting and sweating - either she had a bad dream that she couldn't remember or her conscience woke up her. But, there it was clear as day. She knew Stewart deserved someone madly in love with him. Someone who couldn't wait to see him - and that just wasn't her.