Unfinished Business

3

Rory:

I quickly composed myself inside. I couldn't let him see how much he flustered me. He dropped the change into the palm of my hand and he held me by the arm to help keep me steady as we stood back up.

"Logan. Always the gentleman." I said smiling.

"Well I didn't want to see you fall on the icy sidewalk." Logan replied.

"Miss, your coffee." The guy behind the cart said still holding out the coffee.

"Oh I'm sorry. Thank you." I said, taking the coffee from him and moving out of the way.

I sipped more coffee before saying anything else, taking in every inch of him. He looked really good, happy even. Things must have been going well with Odette. No doubt they had tied the knot shortly after he returned to London.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked in between sips of coffee.

"Well, I was getting coffee." He said with a sly grin.

"Haha Huntzberger. You know what I mean. What are you doing in New York?" I said.

"HPG is acquiring another newspaper and they sent me to finalize the paperwork." He said. That made sense, I mean what else was he going to be doing there. "What about you? Are you living in the city?"

"Me? No. I just had an interview at the Times. I'm still living in the Hallow. I'm still the editor of the Gazette. Somebody at the Times got wind of my work and wanted a meeting, and I'm not one to turn down an opportunity like that." I said nonchalantly.

"No, your definitely not." He replied.

There was a lull in our conversation, if you could call it that, and I played with the corner of the coffee sleeve. "Were you gonna get some coffee?" I asked, motioning to the cart.

"Yeah I was going to get some..." He said trailing off.

"Well, you should probably do that." I said with a small laugh. "The coffee's not that bad here."

"Really? That's something coming from a Gilmore girl." He said, and I could see a secret laugh in his eye.

"Well, I've really got to be getting home." I said, starting to turn to leave. I didn't like to keep secrets from Logan, and right now I was keeping a major one, so I felt like I needed to escape.

"Hey Ace!" He said, catching me before I could get away. I took a deep breath and turned around with a smile.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I'm gonna be around for the week. Do you think you might be interested in meeting up for coffee? Or over lunch and catching up?" He asked, now having coffee in his hand.

What was I gonna say. Of course I wanted to spend more time with him. But, if I spent more time with him he was gonna figure something was off. So, did I say no? No, he would definitely think something was up. I just had to be careful. Last thing I wanted was for Logan to find out what I was keeping from him.

"Um, yeah, sure. I don't see why not." I said.

"So, I'll call you?" He asked."

"Yeah." I said, inhaling more coffee and turning to go again.

"Rory?" He said and I turned again. He hadn't moved.

"Yes." I replied.

"It was really great to see you." He said. It made me stop for a second. It was really good to see him too. It was something I never thought would happen again in fact. But, here we were standing mere feet from each other in New York City.

"It was really good to see you to Logan. I'll see you soon." I said, tipping my cup slightly in his direction, and then started back to the building where my car was located.

***

"Wait, stop and backup." Mom said as we sat at the kitchen table with strawberry and brown sugar pop-tarts.

"Logan was in New York. He was at the same coffee cart as I was. Apparently, the company is purchasing another paper and he's there to close the deal." I summarized.

"Okay." She said, taking it all in.

"He asked to catch up and I agreed to it." I said, starting to freak out. I stood up and started to pace back and forth in the kitchen. "How could I agree to catch up with him. He's gonna know something is up. Or I'm just gonna spill, I'll be an open book and tell him all about her." I said, panicking now.

Mom sat at the table calm and collected. "Well hun, maybe it's time. Maybe you should tell him. He has a right to know, he's always had that right. I told you that when you told me."

"But he's gonna hate me. He's not going to want anything to do with me once I tell him. Like seriously, think about it. I'm just supposed to sit there and say 'hey Logan, guess what. You've got a three year old daughter. Sorry I kept it from you for so long. But, glad you know now.' How do you honestly think that will go over?" I said.

"Well, I think you might want to put a little more thought into how your gonna say it." Mom said.

"Right." I replied sarcastically.

"But seriously kid. You'll figure it out. Don't worry to much." She said and got up to go check on Logan.

I sat back down at the table and set my head in my hands. "What am I gonna do?"