Unfinished Business

14

Rory:

I stood as Logan made his way over to me. 

"Hey Ace." He said smiling from ear to ear as he leaned in and quickly kiss on my cheek.

"Hi Logan." I said tightening my grip on my bag just slightly, to keep from fidgeting.

"Wow." He said. "You look great."

"Really? Because I wasn't sure. I don't really dress up like this these days." I said now moving my clutch from one hand to the other.

"Yes. You look quite beautiful. You should dress up like this more often." He said.

"Well, when the occasion arises." I said. "So where are we headed this evening?"

"We are headed to Charlie Palmer Steakhouse. I hear it's supposed to be one of the best." He said motioning for me to take his arm. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be." I said, lacing my arm through his before we made our way outside.

A black town car was waiting on the curb and Logan graciously opened the door for me to climb inside. I slid across the seat to the other side of the car. The cool leather under the exposed part of my legs felt good on my heated skin from the nerves racing through my body currently. I felt as if I was back on my first date with Dean all those years ago. But instead, I was with Logan. The father of my child. I had no reason to be so nervous. But here I sat, butterflies and all. Logan climb in and the car pulled out into traffic.

"How was you day?" I asked him.

"Relaxing. I finished looking over the final documents for that new startup company, did some laps in the pool, and I went through the albums..." He said trailing off.

"Did you enjoy them?" I asked.

"Yeah. Thank you for keeping a record of the past couple years." He said smiling at me. But I could see in his eyes that he was still hurting.

"You're welcome." I replied turning to look out the window.

***

Logan:

Rory turned away from me to look out the window. What I wanted more than anything right now was to be able to have the easy banter between us that used to come so naturally. But, nothing was the same anymore. I wish that I could tell her that I still loved her, even after all this time, even after everything we had been through. But I didn't want to scare her off. Right now she seemed like a little bird and if I got to close she would take off on me. So instead, I decided to keep my distance for right now. Maybe I would find the right moment, eventually.

"So how was your day?" I asked, trying to bring her back into the car.

"It was okay. I went and finished the final touches on the Gazette while Logan hung out at the Inn with mom. For some odd reason she likes Michel." She said with a small smile. "Then I went and joined her at the Inn for a while before we all went home and I got ready to come here."

"Was the drive okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. Not to bad. No real traffic, except in the city. But, that's to be expected." She replied.

"Yeah, the city is always awful." I responded. 

She was beautiful when she smiled. I wished I could see it more often. I hated that I had to go back to London soon. Especially with everything that had changed in the past few days. One thing was for sure, we were getting a fresh start.

The car pulled up outside the restaurant and I climbed out of the car first, turning to offer my hand, helping Rory out of the car.

"Always a gentleman Mr. Huntzberger." She said.

"Only for you Ms. Gilmore." I replied with a wink.

"That must make things tense in the boardroom then." She laughed.

I joined in her laughter as she climbed out of the car and re-smoothed her dress down. We walked through the doors of the restaurant and were greeted by warmth and the smell of freshly cooked steaks as they were brought to the tables. 

"Welcome to Charlie Palmer Steak. Do you have reservations?" The thin blonde said from behind the hostess station.

"Yes. It should be under Huntzberger, for two." I responded.

"Thank you Mr. Huntzberger. If you and your guest would take a seat we will be able to take you to your table shortly." She said with a beaming smile. 

I thanked her and we moved out of the way so other could continue to check-in for their reservations, then before we could get comfortable we were being called for our table.