"The pool installer is coming tomorrow. The porch will have to wait until we have the outside finishings all one, but you can use those temporary stairs to go take a peek inside," the grey-bearded contractor said, gesturing first at the roughly 35 ft wide hole in the ground and then towards the side entrance through the living room glass doors.
"It's beginning to take shape," Rory commented approvingly. The house still had bits and pieces missing, half of it still being painted from the outside, but indeed, it was beginning to resemble home more and more.
"It really is," Logan sighed, stepping into their future living room.
"I do love the space," Rory added smilingly. The living room had high vaulted ceilings and large windows facing west, overlooking the pool. The kitchen hid just around the corner, opening up to the living area with the soon-to-be breakfast nook and leaving the rest just out of sight. They'd compromised on a lot of things trying to keep things compact and practical while adding the potential functionalities of most high society houses such as a large butler's pantry in case they ever used a caterer and some extra storage spaces around the entire place aiming to keep the living space uncluttered.
"It certainly feels more homey already compared to the City apartment," Logan continued.
Rory continued down the hall to the master bedroom excitedly only to find a couple of painters cleaning up the masking tape and floor protection paper. "Sorry, I thought nobody was in here," she added apologetically, having jumped into the room a little too enthusiastically, before taking a more controlled peek around the place.
"You got everything picked out for the interior you wanted?" Logan called out from the study.
"If you sent your study specifications to the designer, we should be good to go. I can add the small stuff later if there is anything missing," Rory explained, following him to the study. Their studies were linked together by a pair of double doors, enabling them to essentially share a study but when needed close the doors for web-meetings and calls.
"I asked Mitchum, you know," he stated, as Rory joined her in the study, taking a look outside the window outlooking the vast greenery along the side of the house.
"For time off?" she asked.
"I have a year, starting August, but before that I have holiday days that I need to use up. So essentially I'm off starting from the wedding," he announced proudly.
"Oh Logan, that's great," she replied happily, throwing her arms around his neck. "But wait, what happens after a year?" Rory hesitated.
"I'll hopefully have a plan what to do with HPG by then. I don't want to repeat the same pattern," he said. "But I'll get back to work then I suppose. I'll try to work something similar out like I had until now, so I wouldn't have to be away the full working week," he added, hoping that he could somehow arrange there'd be less travelling.
"I hope so," Rory added, walking hand in hand towards the other wing of bedrooms. Leah's room was bright and roomy. It already had a nearly finished bathroom with rich yellow hexagon tile, still missing the fixtures and furniture.
"Finn is going to think it's too bright," Logan commented.
"His relationship with the sun has notably improved since college," Rory laughed, continuing to the slightly smaller bedroom that already had a minimalistic geometric wallpaper put up.
"I like the wallpaper," Logan commented on Rory's choice, unsure if he should comment anything else. He knew well what this room was, despite its current neutral appearance.
Rory had hesitated for weeks whether or not to turn the room specifically into a nursery, feeling the added pressure of not knowing if and when it would actually become that. Logan had been struggling keeping his hands off her ever since she told him, not that she was complaining, quite the opposite. Still there was no news on that front. Rory hadn't considered how nerve wrecking waiting for the two stripes to appear actually was. The last time it had just happened, unplanned and she had been oblivious. While it might not have felt like that back then but not knowing had been bliss. To occupy her mind Rory tried to shift her thoughts to the house and the wedding.
Rory had just handed over her last final, having promised herself to at least carry out until the end of the semester to keep her options open for next year, when she found Gwen waiting for her in the hallway.
"Hey," Rory greeted.
"Hi, up for some coffee?" Gwen offered.
"Definitely, yes," she replied. They hadn't really been close but they'd still had a cup of coffee every now and then. Schoolwork had been enough of a topic and she was glad she could consider her at least in that way a friend.
A cup of black liquid gold in their hands, they took a seat on the lawn, observing the bustling end of semester scenery around the campus.
"Were we ever that young and silly?" Rory commented on a group of freshmen casually.
"I'm transferring to Cambridge next semester," Gwen announced suddenly. "I need to be closer to my mom," she explained.
"That's too bad, but good for you and your mom I suppose," Rory replied, unsure what position to take. "Cambridge really is a great school," she added.
"I am not really sure what I'll do next year," Rory sighed a minute later.
"Why? What's going on?" Gwen asked surprisedly.
"De Vries doesn't think I have what it takes, I either need to change supervisors, switch to a master's or I guess quitting altogether is always an option as well," Rory explained.
"You can't quit!" Gwen objected.
"Well it did feel like someone pulled the carpet from under me," Rory continued, feeling discouraged.
"Who cares about what De Vries thinks! And honestly, I don't think it even matters whether you do a PhD or switch to a master's, but the topic you are researching is important. You shouldn't just throw it in the corner because he said so," Gwen lectured.
"To whom is it important? According to him, not to me at least, apparently I don't have the drive," Rory explained, still feeling defeated by his words.
"How about every woman in this entire business?" Gwen began, "Even if your thesis changes little in the grand scheme of things, it is still a measure to scientifically pinpoint the issues in gender eaquality and draw out the implications of motherhood or any other causes for discrimination they've faced. Mental health, disability and race - take your pick. Your research subjects already put themselves out there for you, even if just anonymously. They gave you their stories, you can't just let them down now. It's about time someone began cracking that glass ceiling. You must realize that your position in the field will give you the upper hand on this, a thesis by Rory Huntzberger will actually get read by more than just a few scientists," she continued to lecture.
Rory felt uneasy. She'd been too preoccupied with her own issues, the possibility of a baby, the wedding and the book, and she had indeed forgotten what had driven her to write her proposal in the first place. In that sense professor De Vries had been right - she'd lost the sight of the bigger picture, the value of her work. But now she could see it again. She had herself experienced being judged by her looks, marital status and she'd known friends who had had even to put up with harassment when working as writers. It was clearly more challenging for a woman to make it into the big leagues in this business, now she just needed empirical proof. Well at least more of it, already having transcribed the first round of interviews.
She realized she was quickly becoming less and less objective about the HPG, being indirectly almost promised any position in the corporation she qualified for and wanted, in the long run. She didn't like the idea of that being just handed to her through marriage, but this was the changed situation. The least she could do was to ensure she was qualified and knew what she was doing. And then just maybe, if and when she did end up at the HPG she could actually change something based on the outcome of her research.
Lorelai sat at 1 AM at her kitchen table with glitter glue all over her hands working on an assignment sheet. Rory's bachelorette party was fast approaching and as her matron of honor it was her task to make sure her daughter would get the very best of her party planning skills. Instead of doing the sophisticated and controlled version Emily had suggested to her, she felt in her heart it was her last time to really go all in herself - a bachelorette party by Lorelai Gilmore was after all handcrafted, junk food filled and pop-culture ridden. It was perhaps the last of its kind, she thought.
She'd almost begun to accept her daughter's new lifestyle - her choices regarding her new house, the wedding and her career plans. A big part of that had been that she seemed to have a little more time to hang out these days, but she knew that was largely due to her not working a day job, which on it's own conflicted with the way she had thought she had raised her. Lorelai knew that Rory didn't enjoy that position particularly. Still those were the things that made Lorelai worry, that perhaps indeed, the bachelorette party was indeed a goodbye of some sort.
