Meant to Be

CHAPTER 15 - A SIMPLE QUESTION

Rory didn't reach out to Logan over the next few days. The familiarity in his text, and more so her reaction to it, had caught her completely off guard. She had spent so much time doing everything in her power to convince herself that Logan was in the past that she felt uneasy about their recent communication.

Rory didn't have too much time to dwell over how she was feeling when Jake arrived at her apartment on Friday night.

"Hi babe. I'm back," Jake said as Rory opened the door.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so happy to see you," she responded.

"Get dressed. I am taking you out to dinner tonight," Jake beamed with his killer smile.

Rory smiled sweetly back at him and headed back to her bedroom to find something to wear. "Be right there, Jake!"

A few moments later Rory was dressed in a simple black dress with matching black heels, her hair tied up in a loose bun, "Let's go!" she said enthusiastically to Jake.

Jake had taken her to a lovely Italian restaurant a few blocks from his apartment. The food was delicious and the setting was rather intimate with most of the lighting coming from the small votive candles on each table.

Jake took the romantic moment in and looked longingly in Rory's eyes. "Rory, you know how I feel about you. I need to know that we are on the same page. Hell, I need to know if we're even reading from the same book," he awkwardly looked down as the words came out.

Rory was caught off guard. She wasn't expecting him to put her on the spot like this. "Jake, you know I care about you so much. It just takes me a while to express things. Don't give up on me. I will get there too," she replied. Jake smiled softly and grabbed her hand from the table, bringing it to his lips to place a small, tender kiss on it. "I can wait for you to get there," he said in return.

Rory smiled back at him and soon they were in the car back to Jake's apartment. Rory sat quietly looking out the window as the cab rolled through the dark Manhattan streets. She couldn't help herself from wondering that if Logan had asked her the very same question tonight, if her answer would have been different.