The One - Gilmore Girls

Chapter 39

Just like Logan and Rory, Ricky had fun the last several days, but he was ready to be home. School would start on Tuesday, so Logan would start back to work one day before they did.

Amazingly, it took nothing to settle into a routine. Rory knew when Logan usually got home from work, so, most days, she stayed at the school with Ricky until about the same time as well. They made supper together most nights, then settled in to a movie or tv shows that they could watch while they spent time with Ricky each night after supper.

Rory couldn't have been happier. She wondered from time to time what they would do once they closed on the new house.

Logan was also extremely happy with how they had settled in too.  He planned to ask Rory to move with him after he closed on the house, but he didn't want to rush her. It would be better to give her the time to get used to them living together. If he played his cards right, she wouldn't want to live apart ever again.

Surprisingly, January flew by, and it was time to sign the papers and close on the house. On the last Friday in January, they signed the papers and then picked Ricky up from school. They headed to New York to finish packing up anything that Logan wanted to bring with him of his and Ricky's.

They were taking a break for lunch on Saturday and just walking out of the restaurant when Rory heard an unfamiliar voice call out to them. They turned around and Rory saw a beautiful brunette woman and the man with her hurrying toward them.

"Oh my gosh, Logan! I haven't seen you in forever!" She gave him a hug while he was looking a bit shocked.

Rory thought she detected a very faint accent, but couldn't identify it.

Logan replied to her, "hi, long time no see!"

"And Ricky, my gosh, you've grown a foot!" She said and then hugged him.

He beamed back up at her, "hi Odette!"

Rory tried to keep her jaw from dropping. It was that Odette...right? She could tell that Logan kept glancing at her to check her reaction, so she tried to keep a polite smile on her face. They had never actually met, because who wants to meet your not-really-boyfriend boyfriend's fiancé? The newspaper pictures did not do her justice at all. Everything about her was perfect, no wonder Shira had picked her.

Then she turned to Rory, "and you must be Rory! It's so good to finally meet you!" Then gave her a hug too.

If Rory had been eating, she would have choked.

Then Logan finally spoke, "of course, ya, Rory this is Odette and her husband Nick."

Odette nodded and Nick shook her hand, while she was still trying to form a single word, much less a sentence. Finally she managed, "nice to meet you both."

"It was really good seeing you both, but we actually have somewhere to be, sorry." Logan said, trying to extract themselves from the situation.

"Of course, let's get together sometime. Nice to meet you Rory!" Odette said.

"You too."

"Bye Odette!" Ricky said as they turned and left.

Rory was still reeling. Logan was still in touch with his ex-fiancé? And their son knew her too? How did she not know this? Wouldn't this be something you would tell your girlfriend? Especially when you were sleeping together while being engaged to the woman????

They went back to the apartment in silence, and Logan asked Ricky to go to his room and keep making choices about what would stay and what would go.

He walked over to Rory, who was sitting on the couch, still silent. "Soooo, hell of a coincidence running into Odette huh?"

She just stared at him, not sure how to respond for a moment. "Does she live in the city?" He nodded. "How does Ricky know her?"

He knew she was being too quiet, there was definitely a storm brewing inside. "They have lived here for about five years.  We run into her from time to time and usually grab coffee when we do."

"What do you tell him?"

"Just that she is an old friend."

"Does Nick know who you are?"

"Yes. Rory, you know we never had a romantic relationship...what's bothering you?"

"What's bothering me??? We just ran into your ex-fiancé, and I find out that not only do you keep in touch with her, our son, who might I add was the final straw in breaking that engagement, knows her too! Why wouldn't you have ever warned me? I couldn't have been more shocked today! I can't believe Shira even let you break up with her. She fucking perfect isn't she?"

"Rory, please settle down. It's not a big deal. So she's still in my life. There was never anything remotely romantic between us."

"I'm sorry Logan. I need some time to think. I'm going to see if Ricky wants to stay or go. Maybe you should start living at the new house right away." She walked to Ricky's room and he wanted to go home because he was tired. "I'll text you once we're home."

They got to the car, and Rory held it together until Ricky had fallen asleep. She sat and cried quietly. She didn't notice that Frank had been watching her closely. What was Logan thinking? Isn't that something you should tell your girlfriend? Especially when she is kind of the reason you broke your engagement???

When they got home, Frank got out and gave her a hug. She texted Logan, "we're home. I need some time to think. Text me if you want Ricky, otherwise, I'll plan on you picking him up regular time on Friday."

Logan hadn't moved since they left. He was in shock. Of course there was history between them all, but it was water under the bridge, right? Why would Rory doubt his devotion to her? He saw Rory's text and was even more confused. She was basically saying that she didn't want to see him until Friday...how was he supposed to reassure her that there relationship was rock solid when she didn't want to talk to him? Finally he texted her back, "Friday is fine, a lot of moving to do. Call if you want to talk. I love you."

He eventually fell asleep on the couch and didn't bother to go to bed when he realized where he was during the night.

Meanwhile, Rory was just going through the motions, while thinking about Odette. She wanted to ask Ricky about her but knew it wasn't right to put him in the middle.

The next morning, she got a text from Logan, "I love you, have a good day."  She couldn't bring herself to respond. 

Each day that week was the same.  She pushed through, trying not to think about Logan and Odette.  Each morning he texted, she never responded. 

Friday afternoon,when he came to pick up Ricky, Ricky asked why Rory wasn't going with them, and the only thing she could think to say was that she had too much to do...more like too much thinking to do.  Logan didn't try to touch her.  He just asked how she was, and she said fine.  They both knew she was lying.