Another Look

Chapter 10

Rory stepped out of her house into the warm summer evening as soon as she saw Logan pull up. She was ready to go, and somehow waiting courteously until her date came knocking just felt old.

"Now, Ace, you're supposed to wait while I come to the door, have you forgotten all the dating etiquette?" Logan said, stepping out of his Lexus.

"Come on, Logan, we're not in college anymore," she dismissed his banter, putting her phone in her purse.

"You look beautiful, Rory," he added after a lengthy pause, taking in her amazing figure and the way her pale skin looked in contrast to her dark hair. She wore a greyish blue off-shoulder light chiffon dress, showing off her long legs in grey heels.

"Logan, thank you. You look good too, I like the sunglasses," she said, referring to his shiny aviators.

"So where are we going?" she asked, taking the passenger's seat.

"It's a bit of a drive, but you'll see," he replied briefly.

They drove to a small inn at the outskirts of New Haven, where a dinner table was set up on the porch overlooking the ocean, just for the two of them. The porch was lit up with string lights hanging from the ceiling. As they devoured their sea-food menu, with a bottle of excellent Sauvignon blanc, they discussed the recent twitter curiosities and the not so recent Pulitzers. This reminded them very much of their lunches in London a few years back, but this time, it was guilt free.

After dinner they snuggled up, a little awkwardly at first, in the porch swing, wrapping themselves in a blanket. Rory pushed off her shoes and pulled her legs up under the blanket while he wrapped his hand around her, gently stroking his fingers against her shoulder. The string lights moved in the wind, and soon the ocean was only heard in the darkness.

"Logan, you know you don't really need to try so hard anymore, you don't need to impress me. I would spend time with you even if we watched TV at home or had a simple coffee somewhere. I've seen your tricks, I am won over," she explained. She knew Logan was the kind of boyfriend to really go all out when it came to dates - gifts, trips and private dinners, he'd bought her a Birkin bag for God's sake. While she'd appreciated it all and did so now too, she felt it was a little unnecessary at this point.

"Rory, I am not doing this to win you over, I too know that I don't need to, but I want to, you deserve it. I want to make it up to you any way I can," he explained.

"Make it up to me?" she inquired, raising her eyebrows.

"That I didn't recognize sooner that you wanted more than Vegas," he sighed, adding "It took me a while to grasp it fully and by then I just felt it was too late," he explained apologetically.

"I asked for Vegas, I assured you that on more than one occasion. In some ways that was all I thought I could ask, and I don't regret it in that sense. It enabled me to spend time with you, despite the unfairness of the situation to other people," she said, knowing it had been an incredibly selfish arrangement, but it had been a terrible year for her, she had taken then what she could to survive.

"Why did you feel like you couldn't ask for more?" he inquired.

"As dr. Burg has now explained to me, it was a result of low self-esteem and a couple of fallacies in my thinking back then," she began. "Apparently I didn't think I could live with the responsibility of changing your life around with the chance that you may later regret it."

"Sounds like a smart man," he stated, adding, "You don't still think like that, do you?"

"The situation is different, but I guess I now recognize at least how it was flawed thinking and I have to trust you to be able to make your own decisions," she explained.