Another tedious publishing conference, he'd been happy not to suffer through these while he'd been in California but that time was over now. He had been successful on his own but with his father's health issues and an open space on the board it was finally time to take his role in the family business so with nothing to keep him in America full time, he did a lot of the traveling his father was advised to avoid. This week he found himself in Hamburg being the face of HPG. He looked around the room, a mixture of people he recognised and strangers although he knew all of them, dull business men and women who would hear his name and ask where his father was, then either try to flirt with him or try to hide the disappointment when he informed them it was just himself at the conference and move the topic onto politics or current affairs.
As he looked around the room for the first group he would attached himself to, he thought he saw someone extremely familiar, it couldn't be could it? A couple walked past and blocked his view for a moment and she was gone. No, it couldn't be her, what would Rory Gilmore be doing here? He made his way around the room, looking out for her just in case. This was the part of the evening they were all supposed to get to know each other, his job to get some business cards of people or small companies who could join HPG. At least after this there would be the speakers and he could sit at the back with a drink or two, luckily he hadn't been asked to speak this time.
He glanced the back of someone who might have been Rory, but by the time he excused himself from his current group he had lost her again. An hour later Logan had resigned himself to the fact that Rory Gilmore was probably in Stars Hollow or, was it Friday? Would she still be doing dinner with Richard and Emily on a Friday? Either way she would be in Connecticut, not here. He headed back over to the bar for a refill before more mingling, only half an hour until the first speaker was due.
There she was again, there was no mistaking it was Rory, in a stunning blue dress talking animatedly to a small group in the corner. Animatedly wasn't a good sign, either she was upset about something or someone had suggested putting pineapple on pizza and based on the group she was with they were not talking about food. The look on her face reminded him of his first conversation with her outside her dorm at Yale. But that still didn't answer what she was doing here? Logan couldn't help himself, he needed to find out. His legs had stared to move before he understood what he was doing, he couldn't keep himself away from this woman. As he approached the group he recognised one of his father's business associates, Bill.
"Good evening," Logan announced his arrival.
"Here he is, finally returned to the family business I see. Hope they are treating you well." Logan gave a tight lipped smile to the man in question and prayed he didn't try to make introductions, there was no introduction necessary here. "Rory have you met Logan Huntzberger?" He did it.
"Yes, we were at Yale together." But Logan wasn't fast enough.
"Oh I know Logan," Rory started with an ominous sigh, she was looking a bit over everyone's head as she spoke, waving her empty glass around as she went. How much had she been drinking Logan wondered. "I stole a boat to try and prove myself to him." Lots apparently.
"Okay, they don't need to hear the full article, Rory, the headline is enough." Trying to laugh it off and willing someone to start another topic.
"At the time I thought it was to prove myself to his parents- hey," she leant away from him as he placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her away from the audience. "You know his mother Shira said I wasn't cut out to be a Huntzberger, first time I met her!" her voice was getting louder as they started to leave the group. "And Mitcham said I didn't have what it takes to be a journalist, which had always been my life's plan." She was talking to anyone who would listen now, waiters, bar staff, everyone, unfortunately the porter in the lift had no way of getting away from it and no matter what he did Logan couldn't stop her. He had never been in such a slow lift before, why had he agreed to the penthouse suite on the top floor? "I jumped off a 7 story scaffolding when I first met him," Rory was counting them off on her fingers as she remembered. "Then stole a boat, fell out with my Mom, went to live with my grandparents, dropped out of yale. Anything else?" Finally she stopped talking and looked at Logan.
"No Ace, you've pretty much covered it. Except for calling me Judi Dench." Thankfully the lift doors opened, Logan handed the porter some notes as way of an apology and practically pushed Rory through the doors, it was only now he realised she was still holding her glass.
"Right yeah, he belittled my friend, he started an argument in the corridor, he embarrassed me in front of everyone in a lecture, he kidnapped me (although it was willing napping)"
"Ace, there's no one else here, who are you telling?" Rory looked around as Logan opened the door to his suite, she was obviously shocked to be in a completely different room with no one else around.
"Oh, umm, you?" she gave a little nod to convince herself as well as Logan.
"But you're talking about me in the third person."
"Ok fine, you belittled my friend, you started an argument in the corridor, you embarrassed me in front of everyone in a lecture, you kidnapped me, twice now. Where are we?"
"My room, you need to stop drinking. And stop embarrassing yourself. Coffee?" he took the glass out of her hand and set it on the table.
"Huh, Mitchum paying for this room is he? Room?" she scoffed, "This isn't a room this is bigger than my apartment. Maybe I should get some room service. Does this sort of place have a minibar or just a standard bar?" Rory took off searching through the rooms for the bar. Logan stayed in the lounge area and made some coffee, it looked like he was going to need it to keep up with her this evening. Rory wouldn't get herself up to much trouble in there, she'd started searching in the bathroom. Logan just started pouring the coffee into the mugs when he heard a god awful noise coming from the bathroom. He rushed in just in time to see Rory lean over the jacuzzi bath and empty her stomach for what was clearly a second time judging by the room and her clothes already. This was certainly no longer a tedious publishing conference.
"I couldn't find the toilet." Rory mumbled after a moment of quiet.
"It's ok, go lie down, here take the bin with you incase you go again. Change out of your dress too it's covered, here's a robe." She took the two items and headed for the door, when she went outside she just stood there. "Right." Logan called to let her know where the bed was as he turned on the shower fixture to clean the worst off the bath, the jets were going to be a real pain.
He did the best he could with the bathroom, years of experience cleaning up after Finn had taught him the best ways to get bodily fluids out of most things. Plus hotel staff were always in a better mood after splashing some cash their way and that was something he had plenty of, luckily. Logan was concerned how quiet it had been while he had been cleaning up, considering her little tirade downstairs he imagined Rory would be sitting waiting to start on him again although he wasn't sure exactly what he had done to deserve it. She had been the one to turn him down, embarrass him in front of everyone. Break his heart. He knew what drink did to her though and it seemed she hadn't got any better over the years. So he was very shocked to find her curled up asleep on the super king, the poor blue dress in a heap on the floor, shoes discarded en route to the bed. There had been a good chance he would have been sharing this bed tonight but never in a million years would he have guessed this.
Logan walked back over to the coffee he had made a few moments ago, no point in it going to waste. He drank his cup lent up against the counter in the living area trying to get his head round the evening. He picked up the phone and called room service, he needed to get Rory's dress cleaned for her, he had no idea where she was staying and she certainly couldn't go anywhere in the hotel robe. The maid came and collected the dress and assured him it would be back first thing in the morning. Just as he was about to make himself comfortable on the sofa for the night Rory gave a little cough and mumbled something, concerned incase she was sick again Logan picked up the other mug of coffee and sat himself next to the bed. It was obvious Rory was angry at him, he just didn't understand why.
There had been a time when he had been angry at her, after all they had been through, annoyed at how selfish she had been, she wouldn't even entertain the idea of marriage, even being engaged was a no for her. But over the years he realised he just missed her, something would happen that he would instinctively want to tell Rory and then remember they weren't together anymore, he couldn't even message her, it would be too strange after all this time. No one else had come close to how he had felt about Rory, even after all this time she was the one he wanted to be with, yelling at him, being sick in his bathroom, in his bed, well he'd take the bad with the good. But would she even want that, if her anger had been anything to go by he didn't think so. He had been given a second chance, a surprise meeting that had put them back in each other's lives if only for a short time, he wasn't going to miss this chance, even if it was just an opportunity to call her the next time they bought a business or the next time Mitcham actually listened and took his advice, the next time Honor had a child, he wanted to share all those things with Rory.
Logan sat there all night convincing himself he had to try, he would find out why Rory had acted like that last night and do anything in his power to put it right. It probably wouldn't improve her mood to find him sitting here staring at her the moment she woke up though. He had pulled the covers over her through the night as she started shivering and moved the bin further away when it was clear she wasn't going to be sick again. He called room service again and ordered some breakfast and the morning paper and sat himself at the table at the other side of the room ready to have a civilized conversation, hopefully.
He could hear her starting to wake so lifted the paper to give her a moment. She didn't say anything, so he looked over hopeful that the anger had disappeared through the night.
"Morning, I couldn't find anywhere that would make a taco at this time in the morning but I've got waffles, pancakes, bacon, eggs and some interesting looking pastries over here." Food was always a good peace offering
"Taco?" She didn't sound angry, confused and a little hoarse maybe.
"It's your hangover remedy isn't it? Or have you progressed to burritos now?" Logan smiled at the memory all those years ago of her bursting into his dorm room.
"No, umm, waffles are fine. I just need…" Of course Logan should have known she would want to freshen up.
"There's a spare robe over the chair and extra toiletries in the bathroom just to your left."
Rory was a while in the bathroom, the longer she took the more anxious Logan was for their conversation. She was planning something in there and that couldn't be a good sign. Finally she came out in her freshly laundered blue dress and sat herself at the table across from him, picking up a plate and helping herself to bacon, eggs and waffles. Then she poured herself a cup of coffee and started eating! Logan was just building up the courage to say something when she started talking a mile a minute.
"I'm not usually in Hamburg, just doing some freelancing here at the moment so I wont be here long, a few more days at most. I'll be heading back to the states, I travel a bit but not as much as I'd hoped once." she took a breath and Logan was struggling to understand why she was telling him this. "Are you living in Hamburg now?"
"No, I'm actually based in London again. I travel quite a bit though." This was nearly as stupid as talking about the weather surely there were more important conversations they should be having now, although breakfast probably wasn't the best setting.
"Oh right, no. I never travel to London." Did she look sad about that?
"Umm, well I come back to Hartford for the holidays." Is that what she wanted to hear?
"That's nice." They ate in silence for a bit longer. Logan couldn't take it, he had to tell her how much he missed her, ask what the problem was last night.
"Ace, I-"
"Look, you don't need to do this okay? It can be like Vegas, you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."
"Vegas?" He was shocked at the way she interrupted him, he didn't know what she was talking about.
"Yeah, Just have fun. None of the real world stuff here."
"So, we're ok?" He wasn't sire after her outburst last night.
"Sure, we've both got our own things now. I mean its been 7 years, things have changed haven't they?" And with those words Logan's heart closed up again from self preservation. He didn't like it but he had no choice. Had she moved on? Was she with someone else now? He wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.
They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence. Then Logan had given Rory a head start, clearly neither of them wanted to be seen getting out the lift together. He watched her go thinking that would really be the last time he would see her, then went to get ready for his business meeting feeling worse than if she had spent the whole night shouting at him.
He checked with the front desk on his way out for any messages, none, and they informed him his car was waiting out front. He couldn't believe his luck as he walked through the front door to see Rory waiting on the sidewalk just outside the building.
"Hello again." She jumped and turned to him.
"Oh Logan, what are you doing here?"
"On my way to a business meeting. Can I give you a ride?"
"Oh, no I'm fine. Something will be along in a minute. I'm sure."
"Come on, where are you headed? If it's on my way I can drop you off, if not you can take the car after its dropped me."
"No, I don't-"
"I insist. We're still in Hamburg aren't we? Or should I say Vegas?" He smiled.
"Vegas? Sure," They got in the car together, Logan slightly happier now than how they left things but he still didn't like the idea of Rory moving on. At least he could have an excuse to talk to her at the moment but exactly how long could Vegas last?
