It was an exceptionally warm September day when Finn, his leather biker jacket thrown over his shoulder, stood by the playground, watching Leah explore the textures on a climber that was out of her league. For some reason the age appropriate attractions never really appealed to her.
"Hey, I know that kid," a strong female voice spoke suddenly.
"Excuse me?" he asked, turning around.
"This is Leah, right? Rory's kid, so you must be…," the short haired blonde wearing a white Crepe blouse began bluntly.
"Finn," he replied.
He had heard Rory mention her, with an intriguing combination of love and vex, and he recognized her from some of her pictures. While she'd heard about him, knew about him, and had actually heard his voice a couple of times from around campus as he hung out with Logan, they'd never truly met before.
"You must be Paris," he commented.
"Good to finally put a real live face to a name," she said, waving to her daughter who was ready to slide down the highest tube slide.
"You live around here?" he asked.
"Few blocks east," she replied before shouting towards the funnel ball court, "Timoteo, you better apologize right now for taking his ball. I mean it!"
"You've got your hands full, I see," Finn noted.
"Thank god for the nanny on weekdays," she sighed. "And Doyle has them part time, so it's not this hectic every day," she added.
"Leah, watch out, you'll fall," Finn said, moving Leah out of the way of the most busy stairway the older kids were using to climb up to reach the slides.
"Have you tried this?" she asked, pointing at the net climber that was placed underneath the slide, adding, "My kids used to love these - plus it's out of the way and there's something to hold on to, it took them no time at all to hold on and climb the first row."
"Leah, do you want to take a look at those colorful toys on the net?" Finn asked, showing her how the objects on the net moved around.
"Timoteo! Play nice!" she yelled towards the swings, adding, "You're lucky you got a girl, they're way easier."
"I am not complaining. Always thought fearfully that if I ever had a boy he'd be a menace if he was anything like me," he laughed.
"Timoteo, do I have to come over there?" Paris warned. "It was nice talking to you, see you around," she added, seeing that the conflict between Timoteo and another kid was not going over smoothly and began to walk over.
"Catch you later," he replied, turning his attention back to Leah who was clearly enjoying her new position, as she giggled through the net making faces.
"Lauren just called, she has a stomach virus or something," Rory sighed, as she sat down at the breakfast table with her cup of coffee.
"How bad is your schedule today?" Logan asked, looking up from his phone.
"Research Ethics and Approaches to Political Economy, and I could really use a couple of hours on the book," she said, sounding already rather desperate.
"I can keep an eye on her," he replied. "I have a Skype meeting at 2 PM but she usually takes her nap around that time anyways," he added.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"I am sure I can handle it, I've done it before," he suggested optimistically.
"That was for an hour, this is the better part of the day," she hesitated. While they'd spent plenty of time together the three of us and he had indeed played with her a lot, most of the other chores Rory had taken upon herself. In a way it was her way of giving Leah her all, when she was there, almost as if making up for the first half a year of nothing being fully present.
"Just go, we'll manage. I'll text you if there is anything," he said.
About forty minutes later Rory kissed Leah and Logan goodbye.
"I guess it's just you and me now, Leah," he said kneeling down next to her.
Leach stared at him with her bright blue eyes asking "Mommy?" There were only a handful of words she spoke - 'Mommy', 'daddy', 'Lolai', 'no' and 'Pinky', the latter referring to her pink elephant. Logan secretly felt some pride in being the gifter of said pink elephant.
"Mommy went to school. She'll be back soon," he assured.
"Pinky?" she asked pointing at the couch where her favourite stuffed toy lay.
"Sure, lets go get Pinky," he offered, smilingly.
They played with blocks, read a few books, ate some fruit and a couple of corn puffs as a snack, after which they went out to swing and slide in the backyard. Logan typed a few quick one or two-word responses to his e-mails one handed while pushing her on the swing. After lunch consisting of plain boiled pasta, some carrot sticks and a slice of cheese and a glass of milk, the real challenge awaited.
Leah was visibly tired, her hand already rubbed her eyes, but she didn't want to settle. Tears began to form as she only asked for "Mommy?" and shout "no" if something didn't suit her. After trying holding her while he walked around the room, reading her a story and singing, however poorly he could, he was at a loss. He knew Rory's second class had just started, and making her worry was the least he wanted to do. He even considered calling Finn for advice. He had one last attempt and that was her Pinky. The moment her hands pulled Pinky against her face, her sobbing sieced. Two minutes later she was asleep, as if nothing had ever been amiss. She must've been to tired to remember what she wanted. Logan was a little disappointed in himself, not having thought of that before. But the important part was that he had, and could now sigh from relief.
He still had twenty minutes before his meeting, just enough to grab a banana and a quick sandwich. As he ate, he realized he'd never really realized how all-consuming taking care of a 1 year old really was. He was tired by 2 PM both mentally and in some strange way also physically. It wasn't as if he had carried her around all day or done anything exhausting but it were just his muscles that had been tense the entire time. He had been outside of his comfort zone, but he'd survived.
"I've decided, I want to celebrate my birthday this year," Rory announced, adding, "it's been a while," having skipped in almost completely for two years. Two years ago the visit for Life and Death Brigade had been the closest things to a celebration with it's bitter-sweet ending and the year after she had not felt up to it.
"Sure, you want to have it here?" Logan asked, who was sitting at the dinner table in front of his laptop.
"Why not. I'll ask Lauren to babysit and I'll have it catered, if needed later, cleaned." she suggested.
"Who are you inviting?" he asked.
"I was thinking the guys," referring to Finn, Colin and Robert, "Stephanie too, Paris, Lane, if she can make it, and you could invite Honor, Lorelai and Luke of course, maybe I'll even invite Gwen," she listed.
"Do you want to tell them about us or do you still think it is too soon?" he asked.
"I think we can, it'll be a friendly crowd," she said.
"Then I think you'll want to wear this," he said, pulling out a sleek wooden ring container from his laptop bag that lay besides him.
She opened the container and found a rose gold ring with a round blue sapphire with salt pepper diamonds on the sides, something unlike she'd never seen before. It was clearly a one-off piece.
"Wow, this is so beautiful," she said, taking in out of the box.
"Let me," he said, walking over to the other side of the table. At least he could do this the traditional way. He pulled her up from her seat and placed the ring on her finger, giving her a gentle kiss.
"Rory, good to see you," Mitchum said as he hurried to the elevator Rory had just stepped into to head for the staff meeting. She thought it'd be a good change to show up in person every once in a while when her schedule enabled it, having rode in in Logan's hired car that morning.
"Mitchum, hi," she greeted, hiding her ring instinctively. She hadn't planned on seeing him.
"I heard you did quite well with your first assignment," Mitchum sait, staring at the dial.
"I hadn't really heard any comments yet, but good to know it was positive. It was quite a rewrite," she replied.
"Most editors would've dropped it," he added plainly.
"I didn't really know that was an option," she replied.
"It is always possible, while not preferred. So you did good," he said.
"Good to know, thank you," Rory added, as they both stepped out of the elevator.
"I'll join your meeting today," he informed, "I'll see you in there in a few minutes," he added.
Rory certainly had not expected her real life visit to the office to turn out this stressful. While she knew Mitchum had been very positive to her these days, both at their meeting and today, she still felt on edge with him. As if being judged, watched, and now there was the matter of her ring, Logan had slid on just the night before.
"Welcome everyone, today we have Mr. Huntzberger here with us, and I believe Shana is ready to give a quick overview of our recent results," Alex said to a staff of 15. "And later we'll be diving up a couple of new titles," he added.
Shana quickly went over the facts and figures of the past month. Rory's first edit was in fact finished and she was glad to get it off her table. The marketing team would now take over anything concerning its sales, thankfully, as she never really wanted to meet Owen Mars again.
"Mitchum, anything you'd like to add?" Alex asked.
Mitchum stood up from his seat, taking a deep breath. "I think the numbers look alright, I do believe that in the future the preliminary assessments should take into account the opinion of the actual editing author more. I see you've put out a couple of titles that most publishers would've thrown overboard, but you've managed well with those. The question is, is that something we want to be known for? My guess is not, we are not some bottom feeders, this is the HPG for God's sake," he said, ending a little angrily.
"Okay, so we'll set up a new practice. Preliminary assessment followed by the assessment of the editor. It will take more time, but if that isn't an issue, we can do it," Alex suggested, sounding nervous.
Rory took a sip of water calmly, while she was a little tense around Mitchum, being on first name bases with him and knowing him for a while, did give her some confidence, especially compared to Alex.
"So the new titles, read it through if it doesn't feel right, send it back," Alex continued.
"Sean, you'll get "The third evening", Rory, this one's for you, he offered and Rory reached out her hand to grab it, holding her glass in the other. The title said "The opposite of sad". And while somewhat negatively tuned from her last experience, there was still a little excitement in her gut to see what it was about, like she had with any new book.
After the few last titles were handed out, Alex finished the meeting, and the room scattered. Rory had been sitting in the back corner and it took her a while to reach the door. Before she reached it, the room was almost completely empty, Mitchum said, "And Rory, best wishes," before heading off to the next floor himself.
Rory pulled out her phone quickly giving Logan the head up. "I think Mitchum saw the ring." While his comment had been pleasant, she feared of what might follow that little piece of information.