Logan finally gathered his courage and bit the bullet. There had been no reaction from his mother in three days since Honor had accidentally told her about his marriage. He had no wish to speak to her expecting an insult after another aimed at Rory, but she was his mother. It was strange how that sentiment lingered despite the way she behaved. She hadn't even ever been a particularly good mother.
"Logan," the unenthusiastic voice on the other side of the phone answered.
"Mom, I'm sorry," he said straightforwardly.
"You should be," she huffed bluntly.
"Dad told me he'd tell you himself. I called, but you were in bed already and he said he would tell you. I thought you knew," he explained.
"Well your father hasn't exactly been talkative these days," she shrugged.
He doubted her mother knew what was up, or she would've just spilled it herself. It was what she did: dump all her problems on to her kids.
"How's the baby doing?" Shira asked, surprising Logan, who had stayed quiet a moment too long, with the question. He'd expected a scolding about the marriage, but that never came.
"Looking good, he is beginning to kick harder now. I got to feel him just the other day," he replied excitedly, as if hoping for a normal reaction of excitement in return.
"So it's a boy?" she asked.
Again, another detail he had failed to share.
"It is," he sighed.
"Have you thought of a name yet?" Shira inquired further.
"We're still bouncing off ideas," he replied, fearing his mother would begin listing the names of recently deceased family members. He had a pretty good idea Elias was high on that list, and that was the last name he wanted to hear. He'd dreaded his grandfather enough that he'd actually considered removing his middle name altogether along his recent name change, but had relented, realizing the addition of Gilmore name alone was likely enough shock for them. Another thing he'd failed to mention. And now just didn't seem to time.
"And I heard you bought a house?" she continued.
"We did, well Rory did actually," Logan replied. Technically he had paid for it to get the ball rolling more quickly, but since almost simultaneously Rory had received the money for the Gilmore house and he knew how much Rory disliked using what she still considered his money, he'd let her believe she'd bought it. It was all one joint account now anyways. Both of their names were on the deed, it was theirs, and having both Rory and Shira believe she'd contributed certainly didn't do any harm.
"She did?" Shira replied in disbelief.
"Richard left her the Gilmore residence and she sold it," he explained.
"But why on earth would she sell it? That house was custom made for their family," she commented,
"It was too big," Logan replied.
"Too big!?" Shira laughed.
"We live differently than you do, I am sure you realize that," he added trying to stop the train of thought he could sense from her voice.
"Is there anything you need? For the house or the baby, I mean," she offered after a brief pause.
"We haven't really decorated the nursery yet, but we don't really need anything, Honor promised to help Rory with the shopping," he replied.
"Alright then," she replied a little disappointedly.
Logan somehow felt a little bad for her mother. She was all the way across the Atlantic with a husband that was barely home, barely spoke to her. And while she probably still didn't approve she seemed to have a soft spot for another grandchild. She'd been a better grandmother to Honor's kids than she had been a mother. Logan couldn't help but to have a tiny glimmer of hope, but he realized there'd plenty to overcome before her and Rory's relationship was anything resembling the normal.
"If you want to get him something, I am not stopping you, just nothing major, okay?" he relented, feeling he might regret saying that later.
"We'll see," she sighed. "Thank you for calling, Logan," she added.
"Bye, mom," he said.
Logan had almost forgotten who he had been speaking to, as he finally said, "see you all next week." His first class had flown by and he had been in a strange haze of trying to sell his class and himself, as if this had been a sales pitch. If it had been that, he would've nailed it. But he was unsure if this was what was expected of him in this format. The 38 students began to slip out of the lecture hall, except for a few that lined up to speak to him, to his surprise.
"Mr. Huntzberger-Gilmore, my name is Aidan Petersen. I was wondering whether you have any suggestions for internships in this particular field I might be able to look into," the student asked.
"Well Aidan, alright if I call you that?" he began.
Aidan nodded.
"I think this is something pretty much every publishing house is doing at the moment so any one of them really, it depends on whether you're looking for any field within the sector in particular. But I assume you were hoping to get your foot between the HPG doors, with that I am sorry I will be of little use, as I do not associate myself with the company anymore," he replied, clearly disappointing the student.
"Alright, thank you for your time," he said and scattered shiftly.
"And what can I do for you?" Logan asked as he was packing up his laptop, not even glancing at the person in front of him until she spoke.
"Hi, I was wondering whether you are available for supervising my thesis," the blonde pixie haired student spoke. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself," she corrected, adding, "My name is Zoe Murphy".
"You realize I'm not actually a member of permanent staff here, plus I am not even sure I'm actually qualified. So you'd definitely have to check with your advisor first or the head of curriculum, I'm not even sure," he replied doubtfully, before glancing up. The girl definitely stood out from the crowd, her arms and neck covered in geometric tattoos.
"But if they say it's possible, would you be willing to?" she continued persistently.
"What's the topic?" he asked with lukewarm interest in the reply.
"I was thinking about the big data and data mining aspect of this. I now it's still a little vague, but I haven't exactly completed the course yet either," she added smilingly. "I did my undergrad at MIT on data science," she explained.
"The combination is certainly interesting, but how about you first talk with them and then if they think it's possible we can talk about it," he said. He wasn't really terribly enthusiastic about taking on further teaching related tasks, other than those he was stuck with, but the keywords she'd mentioned did raise his interest. These were the things that would probably innovate the business that was clearly struggling.
"Rory, hi," Paris greeted as Rory stepped out of the examination room after her routine check-up.
"Hey, good to see you," she replied, hugging her in greeting. "You should've just come in, I didn't know you'd be waiting," she added.
"I am technically not allowed unless you give written permission," Paris explained.
"Oh, right. I could give you that. May come in handy if I freak out during delivering. You always were good at snapping me out of a meltdown," she noted half-jokingly.
"The arrival of the baby usually does that," she replied.
"I can't wait to meet him," Rory said, hopefully.
"So, is Huntzberger thrilled that it's a boy? Men usually are," Paris asked.
"Not specifically, he is just thrilled," Rory replied happily. They both have in a way assumed it would've been a boy, but she was certain it wouldn't have made a difference.
"Everything okay otherwise?" she asked, gesturing towards the examination room.
"Oh yea, it seems to be alright. Apparently all the complaints I have are 'perfectly normal'," she replied unenthusiastically. Cravings, outright constant hunger, having to pee every twenty minutes, back pain, feeling like a manatee and shortness of breath were her daily reminders. Plus he loved kicking her at night, meaning her sleep schedule had shifted significantly.
"I know it can be a lot to take in, all the changes. Just try to think how lucky you are. We get women here all the time looking for surrogates because they couldn't stop vomiting the entire 40 weeks or had to be on full bed rest for 12 weeks with their previous baby," Paris replied.
"Yikes," she commented.
"Well, so far sounds like pregnancy is agreeing with you, you look good," Paris noted.
"Want to get some lunch, I'm starving?" she suggested.
"Sure, let me just grab my purse and coat. I'll meet you at the front desk," Paris said, heading down the hall to her office.
"How are the kids?" Rory asked as Paris returned wearing her grey wool coat.
"Gabriela switched to ballet this year, and Timoteo is sticking to judo, which is great, but I already feel like I should just start driving Uber right now and bill them on the 18th birthday," she noted walking down stairs to head for their favourite Italian palace down the street.
"Having the baby is going to hit me so hard," Rory noted with an accompanied sigh . "Kids were never really something I longed after, sure I always get along with them, but just having to alter so many things about the way we live our life seems like a lot," she added, beginning to feel a little overwhelmed, having just recently begun to flip through a couple of parenting books.
"I'm not going to lie, it can be a lot. To me the biggest shock was the sudden lack of control of my time," Paris replied, and they both knew she had had help. "Like deciding when you want to go to bed - you can't do that when the kid is fussy for whatever unknown reason no matter how tired you are, and that is something not always a nanny can even help with. They sometimes just want you, and only you," she explained insightfully.
"Logan got me four months off before the book tour starts, so I guess that's something," she sighed hopefully.
"And it'll fly by so fast," she cautioned.
"How's Logan doing at Yale?" Paris asked as they reached the restaurant and were led to their table.
"He just started his course. He knows the subject but I am not too sure how keen he is on the actual teaching," Rory noted, picking up the menu.
"Huntzberger teaching at Yale - that does sound off. He'll have a line of students fawning after him though," Paris commented, thinking briefly about her relationship with Asher Fleming. Their connection had been different, but she knew what people assumed, what they often assumed and rightfully so.
Rory could totally imagine that. Logan looked exceptional, having improved with time like fine wine, and he still had the presence of someone in power when he spoke business. It didn't help that Rory wasn't feeling too comfortable in her own body these days.
"Don't go there, Rory," Paris warned, catching her deep in thought.
"Go where?" Rory asked confusedly.
"He's not that dumb," Paris commented.
"And what can I get you two?" the waiter interrupted them a second later.