"Hey," Logan said, as he stepped into the foyer from outside, took off his coat and headed for the kitchen to see who was there, hoping to catch Rory after his business trip, which had dragged on longer than he'd expected.
"Hey, you're back!" Odette, who was just cleaning up after making herself a late dinner, greeted him. "I think Rory is asleep, she was feeling a little tired when I last saw her," she explained.
"Alright," Logan sighed, slightly disappointedly. He ran his finger through his hair, and looked into the fridge in search for something. The meal on the airplane hadn't been to his liking, too salty, hence he was still a little hungry.
"You can have some of my quinoa salad I made for tomorrow, if you want," she offered.
"Sounds good, thanks," Logan replied, taking the rectangular glass container out of the fridge and scooping about one thirds of it into a bowl for himself.
"How was your trip?" Odette asked, putting water to boil to make herself some tea. Briefly the thought crossed her mind that if Logan hadn't found his way back to Rory, this conversation could've actually become their day-to-day dynamic - not the worst thing in the world, but definitely not what she wanted now.
"Oh, just the usual. It's been taking longer than I expected to get people trained to do what I used to do," he sighed, as he continued to eat. He was visibly tired.
"I ran into someone from… the past," Odette shared her unpleasant run-in with Evelyn.
"Anything serious?" Logan asked, as he took a bite.
"Hopefully not, but I just thought you should know too in case..," Odette began.
"If someone contacts me?" Logan said with a nod. "I know," he added, assuringly. They'd talked about this before, and he of all people knew how important it was to claim to not know anything about Odette's present or the connection to the new name.
"Yeah. It was my brother's ex from a while back who is now getting married to someone else, so it really could be nothing, but at least theoretically it could come up. At least she doesn't know the new name," Odette clarified.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Now you can legally change the name again if it does come to that, but I'd hate to see you having to keep running like that," Logan added, after swallowing another bite.
"You haven't heard anything from them already have you?" she asked, worriedly.
"Your dad did call Mitchum just after the press-release when he couldn't reach you, but as far as he told me he tried to reason with him if anything. Shira is a weak link, and I guess that's on me, but she's not really engaging much with anyone these days," he added, realizing that Shira too knew where Odette lived.
"I figured he might. I'm just glad Mitchum seems to be on our side. Never thought I'd see the day but…," she said as she shook her head in disbelief, as she poured the hot water into her cup. She'd gotten very lucky with Mitchum's help.
"They're getting a divorce, you know, my mom and dad," he shared the recent news he'd learned the other day from Mitchum. Logan had called Shira to check up on her, at least out of politeness - Shira was his mother after all. And that call had left him with an understanding that Shira didn't dare to show her face anywhere much these days. She'd been upset - however, it was her pride that was hurt more than anything else. But he doubted she would actually do anything vengeful, instead she was the type to cling on to whatever she could, and in this case it was the financial support Mitchum had left her with.
"Seriously?" Odette reflected surprisedly, sitting down. "God, I don't even know what to say to that. Very unexpected, I guess? Are you feeling okay with this?" she continued, feeling concerned. Divorces were certainly nothing unusual, but when people who'd been together as long as Mitchum and Shira had, despite everything - despite quite literally just putting up appearances for decades, splitting up publicly was quite unusual.
"Seriously, and I'm fine. Dad looked so relieved though," he added with a half-chuckle. The thought definitely took some getting used to, but it had been good to see Mitchum like that.
"You don't think he's planning on going up to Maine to rekindle things with that woman do you?" Odette asked, blowing onto her tea, while recalling Logan telling her about Mitchum's long-term affair that had resulted in his half-brother Owen decades ago, who knew nothing of the Huntzberger association.
"I doubt it, she's married and as Rory told me she seems happy, but who knows. My dad isn't exactly predictable," Logan replied, continuing to eat.
"Life works in mysterious ways, doesn't it..," Odette sighed, taking a sip of tea and stretching out her legs under the table. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined the course her life had taken over the past year or so, not to mention the position she was in now. She'd never been this independent, though still having to be a little careful, and in a way she wanted to savor that feeling.
The connection to Jess was undeniable, but she didn't just want to put a label on it and lose a part of that independence straight away. She didn't want to explain to anyone why, how often or in which way they spent their time together. And perhaps that had been the reason she'd kept it to herself, not outright lying to anyone but not exposing it either.
The long awaited bed for Rory's and Logan's new master bedroom at the new penthouse, finally arrived and Rory spent the consecutive hours packing up the final things they still had at Odette's hoping to surprise Logan by moving them to their own home by the end of the day.
Odette watched Rory gather up their items from their room. They'd had several rooms for them to use there, but they'd only really occupied the bedroom, spending the rest of the time in the common rooms on Odette' s side of the townhouse. They had indeed become a family of sorts, but to Rory the place had never really felt as much like home as their new place did already.
"Can I help?" Odette asked, feeling uncomfortable just watching Rory packing everything on her own. She knew how careful Logan was with her, not wanting her to do anything too strenuous, and as she was one of the few other people who knew about the pregnancy, she did the same.
"Thank you, but I think I have things covered here," Rory replied, gathering up their chargers. There really wasn't much left - toiletries, some clothes and shoes, a few tech items and books and other smaller articles.
"I'm going to miss this, you know. It just felt nice to have people around the house," she confessed. She had always been very independent and quite used to living alone, but having the possibility to talk to someone at home for all these months, had been quite pleasant. Like some form of room-mates that she never really had when she was growing up, even while in university she'd always had her own place.
"I'm sure you won't be alone long," Rory said hopefully, thinking of her plans for a baby.
"God, I really hope so," she exhaled a moment later. But she knew that the idea was way more complicated than Rory knew about. Still, at the thought of that possibility, Odette's mouth curved upward slightly together with a light blush on her cheeks. There were possibilities surely - there was Jess, and there was the hope for the baby… with the IUI or without. She didn't quite dare to hope for the latter yet though.
Odette wanted to help Rory anyways, needing something to do, and pulled down Rory's luggage from the top shelf of the cupboard, placing them open on the bed so Rory could just throw in the last of their clothing items.
"You look a lot happier, you know," Rory noted, packing up her small selection of spring shoes, she still had around.
"Thanks, I guess I am. It's been nice living a life that isn't constantly monitored, assessed and commented on. I can hang out with anyone I want, date anyone I want, I could even go make embarrassing and public mistakes right now," she noted, laughingly, amused by the thought. She didn't want to worry Rory about her own issues with trying to stay hidden. Rory knew the basics, but the near constant worry was not an easy thing to carry around, and Rory had enough on her mind.
"You know, you're starting to show a little," Odette said, gesturing at Rory's slim form with a tiny, barely visible, bump that her leggings were soon no longer able to hide. "When do you have your appointment?" Odette added, recalling that Rory should be almost 12 weeks soon.
"Thursday," she sighed. There was both hope and fear in her voice.
"Hey, I know I'm not a doctor or anything, but I have a good feeling about this," she assured, rubbing her upper arm supportively.
"When do you have your next IUI?" she asked with genuine interest. She quite like the idea of the two of them having babies around the same time, or at least the possibility of their kids growing up as friends.
"I was supposed to have it next week actually, but I postponed it for now," she fibbed. She'd actually almost forgotten about it, but given the situation, she was planning on postponing it at least by a month, making a mental note to call the clinic the next day. She knew Rory would want some kind of an explanation so she told the closest thing to the truth that she knew, without allowing Rory to jump into assumptions and labels. "I'm not really sure if I should say much more. It's kind of new. But I'm actually seeing someone," Odette confessed. Rory knew she'd been on a date the other night already so surely that wouldn't be a huge surprise. "I decided to give it a chance, without the added pressure of the insemination," Odette explained. She just felt like she needed a break, time to think.
"That's great. I really hope it works out," Rory replied, tossing the few final items into the suitcase. She zipped the suitcases closed, and with Odette's help lifted them onto the floor and rolled them to the foyer.
"So we'll see you on the weekend at the party?" Rory stated, hugging Odette goodbye. It did feel a little like the end of an era and she wondered for a moment whether Logan would've wanted to be a part of that moment. She brushed the thought aside, as it really was just a moment rather than anything grand - after all Odette wasn't going anywhere, but they were moving on to their own independent life. It was a strange friendship that had formed between the two, one that Rory would've never imagined half a year earlier.
"Definitely," Odette agreed, hugging back.
Odette had surprised Jess at 00:01 AM on his birthday with a small box of home-made macarons and herself in a sexy black dress, risking it by just showing up at his doorstep unannounced, having just texted him a few times before arriving to make sure he was still up. The crooked smile on his face had been totally worth the late evening cooking and travel across town. Besides, he'd definitely showed his gratitude in return as well.
Jess didn't have to go in the following morning, having to just work on the editorial part, which he could do from anywhere, so they took their time savoring their coffee and eggs along with the macarons the next morning at the small kitchen table, her bare legs propped up on an empty chair next to him.
"Rory and Logan moved out. You could come to my place some evening, we could cook something..." she suggested. She just wanted to share the news - that her place was finally just hers. She was beginning to see the benefits of having the whole place to herself. There was nobody she needed to explain herself to, watch when and how she did things - she could just walk around naked if she wanted to.
"I guess that's good," he commented, not overly enthusiastically, and took a sip of coffee. There was something about the sneaking around that he couldn't quite shake. Maybe it was just a bad choise of wording from her side or bad timing. Or maybe she wasn't comfortable having him over when they had been there, though he'd been there the first time already but even then it had been under the assumption that the others didn't know about his presence. Surely he was just imagining it and she wasn't really ashamed of him? This insecurity he felt with her every once in a while, which he tried to hide to the best of his ability, was unfamiliar to him. He almost felt like a puppy running after her sometimes - with the differences in status, perhaps even the age and her life goals - it sometimes felt like she was calling all the shots.
She wasn't sure, but she could sense something off about him, like he had just become a little withdrawn.
"Everything okay?" Odette asked, hesitantly.
"I'm just wondering if you've told them about us," he said, putting down his mug.
"That I am seeing you specifically?," Odette began. "No," she answered her own question, not really seeing why this would be an issue.
"And now, when we go to the housewarming party on Saturday, are we going together or just pretend like we hardly know each other?" he asked a tad too sternly, hardly recognizing himself as he said it. He hated being that guy, this usually was something women did, at least in his own experience, wanting to define the relationship somehow, wanting some confirmation from her that she wasn't just toying with him.
"You're not seriously upset about this?" Odette asked as she looked at him surprisedly. He appeared confident to her almost the entire time, she'd not expected this from him. "We've just been seeing each-other for a few weeks, do we need to define us now?" she inquired.
"I don't know," Jess sighed, feeling discouraged, running his hand over the side of his face. "I guess we don't," he replied, not wanting to discuss the topic further. He was upset, but he didn't want to make a huge fight out of this. Instead it was like a silent simmering just under the surface, balanced by the fact he didn't want to be that person who got upset about things like that.