Epilogue

To say that the months since Miranda had called Rory into her office, what felt like so long ago in September, were hectic, would be an understatement in Rory's opinion. She had never thought, could never have imagined, what had transpired from that one meeting. Her life, previously routine and mundane, had been flipped on it's head.

But then, much like after a massive storm, the sun came out and life continued on. Logan's story was on the lips and minds of people for a few months. It was reignited after charges were formally brought, but by the following September, Rory was simply another by-line in the newspaper.

She wasn't upset by that. She hadn't gone into journalism to be a part of the story. She'd wanted to be a reporter to tell the story, to remain behind the pen. She was glad that she hadn't really received too much notoriety for the whole thing. The one thing that she had gained was a new appreciation at work. Miranda no longer seemed to disregard her and treat her like an insignificant nobody. In fact, shortly after she'd published her story on Huntzberger Enterprises, she got another story. And another after that.

Her personal life had settled back down as well. She'd told Ricky about his father a few days after her mother's wedding. He hadn't been particularly upset or angry. Like so much else in his life, he took in the information, sat on it for a few days, and then, about a week after, asked Rory if he could meet him. Since then, Logan and Ricky had met up a few times with fairly good results. Logan's house arrest was making things a little bit more difficult, but Ricky seemed to be thriving.

In terms of her romantic life, it had been pretty nonexistent. She hadn't had a date since Thanksgiving with Logan. Her life had been too crazy for her to really think about it. The spark that she felt with Jess was still there, still smoldering, but both of them had returned to their previous lives in which they only saw each other on the rare occasion.

But then came that one late September morning, as Rory walked through the streets of New York, on her way from dropping Ricky off to her job with a coffee stop in between. She walked into the coffee shop, a place she'd been to every day that week and the weeks before with no incident, and nearly walked into Jess. He had been leaving, hot beverage in hand, looking down at his phone, as Rory had been walking in.

"Jess!" Rory exclaimed, both from surprise at seeing him and in warning that she was there. Jess, surprised that someone in a city as large as New York knew his name, looked up and stopped. He was only a few inches from colliding with Rory and sending his coffee all over her.

"Rory?" he asked. "What are you doing here?" he blinked a few times before looking around.

"It's the only coffee shop between Ricky's school and my office. What are you doing here? I'm here basically every day and I haven't seen you here before." She smiled warmly at him. Jess had stopped close to her and hadn't yet moved away which was causing Rory's face to flush and her emotions to go a little crazy.

"I have a meeting around the corner," Jess responded. He was still standing familiarly close to her and that seemed to embolden Rory.

"I was thinking about you today actually. I was wondering if you would like to get dinner for me sometime this week, if you're not too busy." Rory asked her question and then held her breath. Her life had changed so much in the past year, could it change just a little bit more?

The End