The Thrill of the Chase

fourteen

Logan walked into his dorm room early on Sunday morning, he had just taken a taxi from Saturday night's brunettes house home. He looked at his watch and saw that it was just past 8am so he would have lots of time to return to bed to catch up on some sleep after his late night. Before he went to bed he remembered that he was supposed to see Rory at some point that day, he wanted to check in with her about that in the hope that he would have a reply from her when he woke up. She had previously mentioned that they could hang out at her place for the afternoon, he was hoping that that meant that the sex band was being lifted. Logan enjoyed spending time with Rory but he enjoyed it a lot more whenever they were having sex.

Hey Ace, Are we still on for today? Text me later and let me know what you have planned. X

Hopefully Logan would wake up to a reply from her and he could go and get some afternoon delight, once he had caught up on his sleep and energy from last night's brunette first, obviously. He wouldn't want his performance to be lacking, not that he thought that could ever happen.

As Logan fell asleep on one side of campus, on the other side Rory was beginning to stir.

Ugh 9am, why am I awake so early? She thought, before reaching for her cell to see if there was anything on it that may have woken her up. There was a message from Logan checking in to see if they were still on for that afternoon, checking its timestamp, Rory guessed that was what had woken her. Why is he texting me so early? Actually he is probably just heading to bed.

Yes, would around 3pm work? I can meet you on the quad at a coffee cart, or you can just come to my dorm if you would like.

Once the text appeared to have been sent, Rory rolled over and went back to sleep, hoping to continue her dreams about a certain brunette.

"Hey, come on in," Rory said, nervously, as she gestured for Logan to enter the dorm when he arrived.

"Thanks, I brought you a latte," Logan said, handing her the coffee with a kiss on the cheek as he walked past. "So how have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you around as much recently."

"I've been busy, my Dad's been in town, and then all the normal assignments and things, it's just been a lot recently," Rory answered honestly, as she sat down on the armchair leaving him with no choice but to sit on the couch, alone. "How about you?"

"It's been steady, my Dad's been his normal pain in my ass, and I've been starting the planning for the next life and death brigade event, which means Finn and Colin are pains in my ass." Logan answered, laughing at his own attempt at humor.

"I can see how that would be stressful," Rory answered, taking a sip of her coffee and looking at the ground, she was trying to build up the courage to start the conversation she was dreading.

"So what would you like to do? Watch a movie? Relax? I'm easy so it's your choice," Logan smirked leaning back against the couch cushions with his legs spread, in what she assumed he thought was an inviting image.

"Well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about something before we did anything."

"Sure. Shoot," he responded, gesturing for her to continue.

"So, well. I don't even know how to start. Right, well we have been doing this no strings thing for a while," Rory paused, while paused she looked up and Logan smirked cockily at her, which confused her, she couldn't understand why he was smirking, couldn't he tell where she was going with this? "So it's been a while, and I've been doing some thinking. The arrangement isn't really working for me anymore."

"So you'd like to re-introduce sex?" Logan stated smugly.

"What?! No, why would you think that?" Rory asked, shocked, looking at him in confusion.

"I thought that was where you were going with this, that you wanted to re-introduce physical intimacy again. Hang on, if that's not what you meant, where are you going with this?" Logan asked, this time with his own confused expression.

"What I was trying to say was, I no longer am getting much out of this no strings arrangement. It seems my Mom and Paris were right, casual dating isn't really my thing, it isn't something I want to continue for the long term. So I guess what I am trying to say is, it's been great, and I have really enjoyed the past few months, but I think it is time for us to go back to being just friends, with no benefits." Rory inhaled deeply, she was a bit breathless after rambling that all out.

"So what? You want the strings? Is this some kind of reverse psychology attempt at getting me to commit?" Logan exclaimed, jumping up and beginning to pace.

"No, Logan I wouldn't try to trick you like that, and I'd like to think you know me well enough to know that," Rory stated earnestly.

"I thought I did too, but now I'm not so sure," Logan half shouted.

"Logan, I just honestly don't see us going any further with any kind of romantic relationship. Even if I did want the strings, we are just too intrinsically different for it to work out in the long term. You are an awesome friend, and you were the perfect person to experiment about this with, but you know that we want different things in the long run, and it is better to accept it now, rather than later when there may not be any kind of friendship salvageable," Rory said honestly.

Logan sighed, sitting back down on the couch. "Okay, I can kind of see where you are coming from. So friends?" he said as he leaned forward to shake her hand.

"Friends," she agreed, shaking his hand, before leaning forward and kissing his cheek. She watched as he got up to leave, when he was almost at the door, he turned to speak.

"Did you tell Robert yet? We could go and commiserate together."

"Tell Robert what? That I was ending our arrangement? No, that was between you and I, I wouldn't tell him that before I told you," Rory replied, hoping he wouldn't realize she was lying, she hadn't meant to tell Robert, it had just popped out, and she hadn't discussed what she had planned on saying with him.

"No, I mean, did you tell him that you were finished with casual dating and it was back to just friends?" Logan said laughingly, thinking that Rory was being intentionally obtuse.

"Oh that," Rory answered quietly. "Well, we haven't, eh, had that conversation."

"Of course, I'll not mention it to him," Logan replied, nodding as he opened the door.

"Logan, wait, I don't want you to leave with the wrong idea, and I might as well get all of the awkwardness out of the way at once. I don't mean that we haven't had that conversation yet, what I meant was that, that conversation won't be happening, not on my end anyway. Robert might think differently."

"You mean?"

"I mean, that I plan on continuing to date Robert." Rory said, holding her breath as she awaited his reaction.

Logan just looked at her before turning, leaving briskly and slamming the door behind him.

"Well that went well," Rory stated aloud to the now empty room.