“Paris I need his number now!”
“It won’t do you any good right now.” Rory had rushed into the Apartment, screaming at Paris as she unlocked the doors out of order, in order to avoid Paris attacking her in her attempts to gain access to her best friend. Paris seeing the Rory was in no mood to put up with her normal hostel talking was just trying to get some answers from Rory in her unstable state. Sometime in Rory’s yelling through the door and her anger ranting once she got inside Paris heard Mary, King, Logan, Ass, Dumb-whitted, bible boy, date, and finally I need Tristan’s number NOW!. Rory having ranted for a good thirty minutes was calmer, however her pacing proved she was still mad.
Rory was so sure Paris would have the information she needed to get a hold of her old high school crush that she was not listening to what Paris was saying. She just kept glaring at Paris’s refusal to give her the number she was so sure that would end her troubles.
“Just the number Paris.”
Paris sighed and tried again to reason with the hysterical girl. “I only have his office number, it will do no good until seven. Why don’t you try to study some more for your test and I will give you his number first thing in the morning.”
Rory stopped her pacing long enough to look at the clock and see that it was already seven-oh-five. Pointing at her watch Rory was about to start again, but Paris was already looking through her address book. “Fine here you go, but I wouldn’t…” Seeing that Rory was already dialing she just went back into her room to leave Rory to deal with her own problems.
“Good morning, Mr. T.A. DuGrey Personal Line, this is Wendy how my help?”
“I would like to talk to Tristan…please.”
“Mr. DuGrey is unavailable. Could I please take a message or set up an appointment for you?”
“An appointment would work. As soon as possible.” Wendy sounded nice enough, but Rory was to agitated to pay attention to anything but being able to talk to Tristan.
“If I could please have your name and number, his secretary will call you back with in six to ten business days.”
“You are not his secretary?” Rory asked getting mad again
“No I am the receptionist, now your name please.”
“Ugh…I can’t wait a week I need to get this taken care of now!”
“I’m sorry miss, but…” Wendy was not use to getting anger females on Mr. DuGrey’s personal line, occasional on the business line one or two would call but never on the personal line that was reserved for family and close friends of Mr. DuGrey. She was not sure how to handle the situation.
“No, I tried to do this the proper way. You tell Mr. DuGrey that if he doesn’t call Rory Gilmore back with in twenty-four hours he will be very sorry.” Rory quickly hanged up on Wendy, only to turn around and have Paris right behind her.
“You forgot to leave your number.” Paris said with one of her rare smiles.
“He was the one to “Mary” me, I think he should be able to figure out how to get a hold of me.”
“And what if he doesn’t call.”
“Not now Paris.” Rory said while storming into her old room were a few of her belongs still remained. Logan was at first against her leaving items there, but Rory simple said that she couldn’t part with it all, her mom didn’t have room for it with the finishing up of the remodeling still going on, and she would probably spend at least a few nights a week hanging out, meaning studying or working on the paper, at the apartment and might need the place to crush.
“Five…four…three…two…one…”
“UGH! Give me that phone.”
“Okay, but do try to be nicer this time.” Paris handed Rory the phone and proceed to walk into her room.
“Good morning, Mr. T.A. DuGrey Personal Line, this is Wendy how my help?”
“Yes Wendy, this is Rory Gilmore again.”
“Ms. Gilmore, Mr. DuGrey is still busy.” Wendy could not believe that this hysterical women was trying to call again. Though Wendy wrote down the message to give Mr. DuGrey she was going to pass it through Helen, Mr. DuGrey’s personal secretary, instead of giving it to Mr. DuGrey personally, which is what she would normally do with the messages she received from his personal line. Mr. DuGrey was a very socially busy man and dealing with crazy women was not penciled into his schedule. Of course Mrs. Helen was currently out of town and Wendy was suppose to be filling in for the two days, but Wendy was still not going to bother her sometimes quick tempered employer with this coded message.
“I was not expecting you to say anything else.”
“Would you like me to add to your message?” Wendy was looking at the message she had just finished writing and wondering what else the cryptic Ms. Gilmore would like to add it. The secretary’s eyes were drawn to her phones blinking red light, signaling that her employer would like to speak to her. “I’m sorry Ms. Gilmore, but may I please put you on hold?”
“I would not like to be on hold, but I understand, just please don’t leave me there for long.” Rory was getting frustrated but she took heed to Paris advise and was trying to stay calm and not getting hysterical again.
“How may I help you Mr. DuGrey?” Wendy said through her phone.
“Good morning Wendy, has anyone called on my personal line?” Tristan was expecting his mother to call, having just sent his regards to not being able to attend her garden party that would take place next week.
“I’m sorry Mr. DuGrey but there have been no calls through your personal line.” Wendy said a little shaky.
Tristan heard the unsurety in her voice and knew she was lying. Wendy was new, and was afraid to upset her new employer. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to pass everything through Helen, but with Helen taking a long weekend, Tristan was hoping Wendy would step up and start testing Tristan’s boundaries with phone calls and appointments. “Are you sure a hysterical women yelling to talk to me immediately did not call my personal line this morning?” Tristan said with a smirk on his face.
“Well, I’m sorry Mr. DuGrey but there is this one woman who has called twice wishing to speak to you, but I was going to have Helen call her back next week. She is still on line three if you would like to speak to her.”
“Wendy that would be my mother, and that is how she always is, I will pick up the call in a minute. Oh and Wendy you could of just given me the message and then I would have told you what I wanted done.”
“Yes Mr. DuGrey.”
“Bye.” With that Tristan hanged up. He hated having sectaries that were either afraid to give him messages or couldn’t wait to grab his attention. Wendy was young, new to the field, and happily married according to Tristan’s personal secretary and good friend Helen. This gave Tristan hope that after three years of working for his father that he would finally have a receptionist and desk secretary that would last longer than a month. Helen wanted and deserved some vacation time and without a stand-in she absolutely refused to leave Tristan’s side.
After taking a few minutes to clear his desk of distractions, Tristan took a deep breath to deal with his mother. “Good Morning Mother, and before you blow up in my face about Wendy she was just doing her job. And it is not her fault or my own that I will not be able to attend your garden party, and don’t demand to talk to Helen either because she is on vacation. Now what can I do for you?”
Rory was a bit surprised. She was expecting to hear Wendy’s voice not the voice of the man that she had just spent ten minutes ranting about, and half the night trying to figure out how five years after the last time she had seen him, he was still managing to tangle in her relationships. She took a deep breath and tried to stay calm.
“I’m sorry Tristan to disappoint you but I was not going to blow up in your face, as you so gracefully put it, about not attending a garden party. And now that I have time to cool down I think Wendy did a wonderful job dealing with my hysterics first thing in the morning. But seeing that I have finally left you speechless I will assume that she did not tell you who you would be speaking too. If you have not figured it out let me remind you…”
“Rory Gilmore.” Tristan could not believe the voice speaking to him over his phone. After five years of not seeing her, even though Paris would speak of her constantly, he was beyond surprise to hear her voice over his personal line. He assumed that one day they would run into each other at one of the many social events that they both made appearances at, however he never thought that they would speak on the phone. “Is this a social call?” He couldn’t believe that he sounded so harsh speaking to her, but it was said now.
“Glad you did not forget, and no this is all business.” He sounded different than what she remembered, not cocky, not agragint, more harsh and business like. She was not sure how to deal with this side of the King of Chilton. The cocky smart-ass she could handle with ease, in fact she was good at matching all his ‘endearments’ with her own comebacks. But Tristan had changed, she had changed, and though she needed to discuss high school matters, they were not in high school anymore.
“I was not aware that you were in the insurance business.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what business do we have in common?”
“The business of you marrying me,” Rory was so shocked by his attitude that whatever calm and peace she gained went right out the window and she was pissed off again.
“Excuse me, I was not aware of any betrothal between our families.” Tristan was shocked by his attitude, he was talking to one the girl he was always willing to change for, well at least five years ago he would have changed for, if his parents wouldn’t have drive him crazy if his grandfather would not have gotten so sick, if she would have shown the least bit interested in him. But that was all in the past and this was the present. He had taken his ‘rightful’ place in the family business and was now trying to balance his responsibilities while not changing into the man that ‘fathered’ him and the man that he now heard talking on the phone.
“We aren’t betrothed you….you…ugh…its about you calling me Mary, and thus ‘mary’ed’ me.’ Rory lost her passionate and her normal since of pop-culture references that she inherited from her mother. When her mother got upset she was able to come up with witty comebacks, but not her, no she just got tongue tied.
Tristan was a bit taken back. Why would Rory be bring that old nickname up now? “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Ugh, don’t you know the connotation behind calling me Mary?”
Tristan was a bit lost. Why did he call her Mary? Then it all came rushing back to him. First day of sophomore year, and his ‘friends’ were joking around on how he was the new King of Chilton, since J.R. graduated the year before, and no one else had the personality or social skills to take his place except for himself. He was laughing and joking around with his ‘friends’ when he laid eyes on the brown hair girl that look like fish out of water just standing there looking around her with deer in the head-lights eyes. He stopped laughing and it took all but a few minutes for his friends to realize that their new ‘king’ was not paying attention to them. And that’s when somebody, Joey maybe, that said ‘That must be the new girl. Grandparents are from Hartford, but her mother was a high school slut who got knocked up and ran away. She is supposed to be smart, but not quite in our league. She would be a perfect Mary.’ Yeah that is how he got the idea, being a cocky teenager just receiving his first power trip he claimed her as his Mary.
“I know what the name means Rory, however I am wondering what this has to do at present,” he said with a sigh, never expecting to have this sort of conversation with Rory Gilmore. Some how she must of learned what exactly the name meant, and thus wants his head on a platter.
“It would seem that Logan will not continue to date me until we take care of the de-marying.” Rory said in a huff.
Tristan was beyond shocked by that proclamation. “I’m not sure what kind of guy you think I am but…”
“Ugh…I mean taking me out on a date. According to Finn we just have to date. I have never and still do not plan on sleeping with you, just because of some stupid tradition.”
“If you think it is just some stupid tradition then why did you make this phone call?” Three years ago if he would have made this come back, he would have had a cocky smirk on his face, but now it was just a cold and almost exhausted question.
“Because I love Logan, and if this is important to him, I will do whatever it takes to make us a couple again. I did not go through all this just to lose him because of some stupid high school, cocky, power hungry boy thing.” Rory let out the remaining of her breath, took a new deep breath and continued. “Now when are you free to go on a date?”