It was Saturday morning, Jess and Celeste lingered in bed, him having woken her up rather pleasantly. Celeste was now slightly propped to her side, a pillow under her belly, Jess' fingers tracing it's smooth surface.
"Are you happy?" she asked, after a lenghty pause.
"Wow, where did that just come from? Early morning and already asking the serious questions," Jess exclaimed laughingly, feeling caught off guard. She wasn't doubting his feelings for her, was she?
"Well, are you?" Celeste continued to inquire.
"Yes, I am," Jess replied, kissing the top of her belly and then her lips. His stubble was a little rough, his hair messy and inneed of a hair cut, but she didn't really mind.
He stared at her questioningly, wondering what brought this on.
"I just started wondering… I haven't seen you at work before, and I guess all the corporate stuff doesn't seem very 'you'. Maybe I'm just imagining it, but it doesn't seem like you enjoy it much," Celeste explained, hesitantly. These were the little things where she was reminded by the fact that she hadn't really known him that long - she had impressions of him, and she wanted to believe she understood him better than anyone else, but she couldn't be sure - no matter how intensive their relationship had been so far, they didn't have years of experience on reading each other.
"Well does anyone really love making status reports?" he asked in return, half-jokingly.
"Yeah, but you're a writer, an editor," she pointed out.
And in that sense she was right - those were the reasons he'd gotten involved in the business in the first place.
"Well those things haven't dissappeared, they are just a little on the back burner right now," Jess replied.
"And are you okay with that? I just mean... I just hope you know that you shouldn't think that you need to do those things for me, for us," Celeste clarified.
Jess smiled. "Yeah, I know," he replied, feeling incredibly lucky to have her. "I kind of feel it is my responsibility, not in a bad way, but the type things that we publish, it's a bit alternative, and I feel like there is a need for this type of business, and when Chris and Matthew left, I just felt I couldn't just leave it. And I think there is just a lot to do right now when things are just picking up. Later when I have a full grasp on it all, I can probably shift a lot of it to assistants to comply. I'm still learning myself," he explained.
"But do you miss the writing?" Celeste asked.
"I do, but it'll just have to wait until it can't wait any longer and it comes pouring out of me," Jess said, as if it was the most normal process.
"I'm sorry you couldn't take the book you wrote about my story any further, I really liked it," she said. She still sometimes wondered about that - he'd written it with such enthusiasm, like he'd said - it had poured out of him.
"Well I still have it, technically, and if I, we, feel like going further with that I'm sure with enough alternations in the details it'd still be possible, but it's not something I have to do," Jess replied. Getting the story out of him was one thing, getting it published was not necessarily.
"Auch, here she goes again," Celeste sensed the baby kicking, rather painfully in fact. Jess placed his hand near the spot as well with a shushing sound. He loved feeling her, envying Celeste a little for the connection she was already forming with her. He'd seen Celeste read out to her, talk to her when she didn't know he was near, and it was an amazing sight.
"I think we'll soon have more urgent things to think about than that book. And any new ones will come when they come," Jess added with a smirk, seeming content.
"True," she replied with a smile. "I better start getting ready, I'm meeting Rory in a few hours. Hopefully she's had a good night's sleep and feels up for the little outing I have planned," Celeste added, beginning to pull herself up from the slumber with a sigh.
"Hey-hey-hey," he pulled her back, kissing her once more, this time with a little more intensity, before letting her go.
Spas were really not Rory's frequent past times, but this time, after a lengthy goodbye to Finny she'd finally just let Celeste pull her out of it, giving up the control. The two now sat at a day spa, just a few blocks away from Rory's, just in case, getting facials, side by side, cucumber slices on their eyes, wrapped in fuzzy blankets.
"Thank you for making me do this," Rory said, knowing Celeste would get the sentiment.
"Hey, I expect the favor returned sometime in April," she replied, jokingly.
"I'll try my best to keep that promise," Rory replied.
"Hey, Rory, do you mind if I ask you something?" Celeste inquired, hesitantly.
"Of course not. What?" she replied.
"I know you have other stuff on your mind, but are you honestly happy with the way things are with you mom?" Celeste asked. Strangely enough this morning seemed to be all about wanting to make other people happy.
Rory removed one cucumber from her eye, glancing at Celeste, who had already removed both of them before asking. "Do I miss how things were before? I do.., but I don't really know how I can ever go back there, there is no trail leading back," she replied. "But why do you ask?" she inquired, removing the other cucumber as well.
"I overheard her talking one time to Luke about you, it was a while back, and I just… I don't know, I felt bad for her," she fibbed. "And please don't take this the wrong way or get upset by this - but just my viewpoint is that if I was you, if there was a history of a relationship with my mother that was good, and if there was even the slightest possibility of getting that back, I'd work on it. And I know it's not your priority right now, understandably, but pushing her further away isn't helping either. See her with a therapist if that helps, or just have her come over to help out, I think she'd really appreciate you even asking," Celeste explained. She sensed Rory going all serious on her, closing her eyes again laying back in the recliner, wordlessly.
"Please don't be mad," Celeste added, fearing she might have crossed a line.
"You're expressing an opinion and I'm not mad," Rory replied, calming her. "But it doesn't mean that I agree. I've been going to therapy on my own for a while now, well not recently, but a part of what I've learned there is that I need to limit those relationships that cause my problems. And I'm not cutting her off, it's just the amount of time I spend with her and whether that is alone with her or not - those things I can control. And honestly, I haven't felt this good about a lot of my issues, since I started that. And yeah, I'm sorry that she feels that bad, but I don't want to dwell on the past, hoping it is something that can be brought back. I'm moving on. Maybe we'll both grow, maybe we won't?" Rory replied seriously.
"Okay," she said quietly. She felt like treading a very fine line - of having too much of an opinion on any of this - if she pushed, tried to make her understand where she was coming from, she could lose her too.
"How's Jess? I haven't seen him in ages," Rory changed the subject.
"Working like crazy," she replied. "I wish he had more time to write, and well soon, this will only get crazier," she added.
"It's been a few years since he's published something, hasn't it?" Rory tried to recall.
"Yeah, he wrote a pretty good draft this spring, but that is a little tricky. There's an NDA involved with that," Celeste explained, rolling her eyes, hinting at what it had been about.
"Aren't you quite the muse?" Rory commented humorously.
"Yeah, I wish," she chuckled humbly.
"How's he adjusting to the idea of the baby?" Rory asked, a moment later.
"He's kind of amazing," Celeste replied smilingly.
"Aw...young love, so cute," Rory laughed teasingly. God, how she missed thoset times.
"I can't wait to see him with Evie, I think he's a little sad he doesn't get to experience this part," Celeste explained, stroking her bump.
"So you've decided on a name already?" she asked.
"I wanted Ivy at first, he suggested Evie, and while I am not 100% - I want to see her first, but I think that name is going to be in there somewhere, yes," Celeste replied.
"It's cute. Is she going to be a Mariano?" Rory asked.
"Yes, that I am sure about. My name is just a cover, essentially carrying no value. Though, I wish it wasn't Jimmy's name too. Jess has made enough of a name for himself by now that the idea of Jimmy just reflects badly on the name," she explained.
"I've never met him, so I can't really comment. I didn't know you had," Rory noted.
"We actually went over there a few months ago, just for a few days. He hoped to work something out with him, and we told him about the baby, but he was just… I don't know… not someone who Jess needs around," she replied with a deep sigh. She wasn't going to go into details, the process having been difficult for both of them, and it was very personal for Jess.
"Too bad," Rory sighed. She hadn't ever really asked Jess about his time in L.A, the time bringing back painful memories for her too, and she really knew almost nothing about his relationship with Jimmy. It seemed that nobody really had escaped parent issues, they were just different in their content, extent and how deep they cut.
Rory closed her eyes for a moment longer, already sensing her bra feel a little tighter than she would've liked. She opened her eyes again, glancing over to her phone for time.
"You itching to get back?" Celeste inquired, reading her well. Luckily she hadn't pushed it - having made no other concrete plans and the apartment was just a few minutes away.
"Kind of," Rory replied, apologetically.
It was quite literally no more than 15 minutes later, having had their faces cleansed and moisturized, as they were already in the elevator heading up to the apartment. Celeste wanted to say quick 'hi' to Logan, having not seen him in weeks.
"There they are, my two favourite men," Rory exclaimed seeing Logan entertain little Finny in the bouncer.
"Hey!" Logan greeted the two. "Back already?" he smirked.
"She missed him," Celeste replied, as Rory went to wash her hands.
"Yeah, I almost expected her to come back sooner than she said at first. But thank you for taking her out, she needed that," Logan said, making faces at Finny who was staring right at him.
"My pleasure. But I do agree that she probably needs to feel a little more like herself," she added.
"I bet you are hungry?" Rory said, as she returned and reached down to unstrap Finny from the bouncer, the baby cooing at the sight of her already. She settled onto the living room couch, one leg bent under her, placing a nursing pillow under him and letting out a sigh of relief as he latched on.
