"Happy New Year, you guys," Celeste greeted, as they stepped into Rory and Logan's penthouse the following afternoon. The place looked a lot different without the sun shining through the large gridded windows like it had in the spring and summer, now almost completely buried in a low fog that had hung above the city since early morning, fittingly sleepy for the day when most people were sleeping off their hangovers from the night before.
They'd long planned on getting together on New Year's Day for a late lunch, Celeste having not seen Logan since the HPG gala and with all of them feeling like each-other's most immediate family these days, it seemed only natural. Celeste hugged Logan first, then repeating the motion on Rory while she held Finny in her lap, facing outwards.
"Happy New Year," Logan replied for the both of them, extending a half hug to Jess as well.
"So how was last night?" Rory inquired, as gestured the two towards the dining room and kitchen, where Logan had been finishing up a fish curry, having learned the perfect recipe for making Rory her beloved Indian food without having the whole place smell like garlic and turmeric for a week.
"It was pretty cool - good music, interesting people," Jess replied, projecting a glance towards Celeste, with whom the business oriented night had organically turned into a date night, ending with the two walking back to their car in the middle of the night flirty and giddy like teenagers. They'd both known, without saying it out loud, that it was probably the last time they could do that in a while, not without planning ahead, and in some ways it had been their goodbye to some of that freedom.
"They went to the Author's Guild party," Rory explained to Logan, who didn't quite know what they were talking about.
"Oh right, good," Logan replied approvingly, who carried the curry to the table, placing it onto a large wooden trivet.
"Jess, can you grab some plates from that cabinet over there," Rory asked, knowing he wouldn't mind.
Jess complied, adding, "we met quite an interesting bunch. Noah invited us, but you might also know Derek Farrow and Layla Roth," Jess added.
Rory settled Finny into a high chair, that reclined, by the dinner table setting some colorful toys onto a play arch in front of him to entertain himself for a while. He hardly ever occupied himself for more than five minutes or so but it was worth a try at least, so the parents could actually grab a bite to eat.
"Oh yea?" Logan said while carrying the bowl of rice to the table, while Celeste brough the colorful cabbage-carrot slaw. Logan had spent the past fifteen years at various New Years Eve parties, one fancier than the other, but this year had been quite different - mostly just hoping that the partying outside and the fireworks wouldn't wake Finny and being glad for any hour of sleep that he did get.
"I went there in 2015 I think," Rory recalled in passing.
"You eat, I'll play with Finny for now," Celeste suggested to Rory, seeing Finny beginning to kick his legs in the chair, clearly wanting a change in positions. She placed the baby onto her lap as she sat, his stomach against her belly, leaning back a little, placing her finger into his palm while her other hand held his but. "Oh, Evie seems to like you," she reacted, feeling Evie kick vigorously, so even Finny must've felt her.
"You're really cute with him," Rory commented and took a bite of her food. The guys certainly agreed, seeing how glued Celeste's gaze was to Finny, Celeste having caught Finny's attention as well, making him clearly happy of the change of position.
"So you'll think you'll hire Noah?" Logan asked, some minutes later.
"I was meaning to ask you about him actually. How well do you know him exactly?" Jess asked, in a serious tone, setting down his utensils for a moment.
"He worked for a sub-company the HPG has in Hamburg and he worked there for at least 6 years so definitely loyal business-wise and he knows what he's doing. When I stayed there for some time back then, we used to go for drinks every once in a while. And to me he left a positive impression at least. He has a good hunch of the international markets, but for now I guess he's just looking for something local to get started back in the States. I'm not going to pretend he won't get bored of simple editorial tasks after some time, but I'm sure you could persuade him to stay a year or so at least with a fixed contract," Logan advised, thinking practically.
"Yeah, he definitely seems a little overqualified for the editorial position," Jess commented.
"I hope you're not feeling threatened, Jess," Rory asked, clearly having no filter with the three of them. She'd discussed the topic with Logan when he'd first offered Jess the position and Logan had made it clear to her that he had no doubts in his abilities.
"Not exactly, just…," Jess began, not really sure what to say.
"Don't worry, your position is safe as long as you want it," Logan assured. In his eyes Jess made up for his less than stellar CV by his character that seemed to fit Truncheon's image like a glove, plus he had the needed experience from Philly and Logan really saw no reason to replace him, their personal relationship only confirming his trust in him.
"I think partly there's a little bit of a trust issue that needs clarifying," Celeste began, handing Finny over to Rory who had somewhat hastily finished her food by then. "Yesterday he was pretty insistent that he knew me from somewhere. He seemed genuine enough, saying that he thought he'd seen me somewhere but couldn't quite place me. And I guess it's possible, but you probably get it… I just want to know that he won't start digging if he keeps seeing me around the office for example," Celeste explained.
"I can't think of any reason why he would mean anything bad by it, even if he has seen you," Logan replied to Celeste. "But I suppose, you could explain that it's complicated and you'd prefer if he didn't ask questions, hint at witness protection or something like that and add a NDA to the work contract. We've done the latter a few times so it extends to not discussing who are involved in a particular project for example," Logan suggested to Jess.
"That's an idea," Jess replied, taking a sip of water.
"But if it's uncomfortable, there's no obligation to hire him. You can just tell him you're going in another direction. Ask from inside the company if someone wants a transfer or something," Logan suggested, knowing that he desperately needed some help before the baby came.
"Yeah, I'll think about it," Jess replied, continuing to eat. He felt stuck - with the limited information he had and a screaming need for another editor, it was a difficult decision which he wasn't quite how he was going to fix without getting even more information first.
"So I heard April is coming to stay with you for a while?" Rory commented, recalling Luke telling her something about that in Nantucket.
"She is, yeah," Celeste replied. "She's getting the downstairs apartment and hopefully she'll help me out with Evie a bit in her spare time," she added, digging into her own food finally.
"I think she told me once she used to babysit," Rory recalled, adding, "very convenient," approvingly.
"How did things with Shira go?" Celeste asked curiously, between bites.
"Well… Shira is Shira, sure, she put up a good face and stayed polite, but..," Logan began, sounding sceptical already.
"But clearly that was just a big facade to get to see the baby. I felt like I was handing over Finny to the Queen Grimhilde or something when she wanted to hold her," Rory jumped in, knowing Logan wouldn't mind the comparison.
"But now we can relax for a bit at least - we've shown him and she's seen him. I doubt she'll start paying frequent visits or anything like that," Logan added, feeling relieved to having gotten it over it with.
"I assume Mitchum was a little better at least?" Celeste continued, after swallowing a bite.
"He was…," Logan sighed. "He was good - he's been pretty good with Honor's boys as well. But somehow with Honor's kids I never noticed how he handles babies this well," he added. In a way this had left him pondering how much time had his father perhaps sent with his half-brother without the rest of them knowing it - as it seemed like he was a lot more hands-on than one would expect from having a team of nannies at hand like Shira and him had had with Honor and Logan.
"Wow, I wish I'd seen that," Celeste noted.
"Honor was adorable, I swear, I could almost bet that Finny made her start to think about having another one," Rory laughed. She knew Honor probably wouldn't, her being a little older than Odette - but who knew.
"That's going to be a little tricky if Josh wants to move to Frankfurt," Logan commented.
"Jess, are you feeling a little nervous already? About Evie?" Rory asked, noticing Jess had been a little quiet.
"Who wouldn't?" Jess asked in return. "But I guess I've been reading up a little, feeling a little bit more informed than I was," he replied, having read the book Celeste gave her in two evenings cover to cover. What being more informed meant was also that he was probably more scared than ever - about all the things that could go wrong and he really wasn't too surprised Celeste had an occasional nightmare, naturally hoping those would subside.
"God, I was a mess with these two," Logan sighed, gesturing at Rory and Finny.
"Yeah, we saw," Celeste laughed, trying to stay optimistic.
"Just make sure you let us know if we can do anything to help," Rory emphasized, continuing on bouncing Finny on her side.
Before New Year Celeste had had another appointment with Dr. Norton and while Evie seemed to be doing just as dandy as last time, she'd used the time to also inquire into the dreams she'd been having. He'd explained to her that her hormones were influencing her sleep patterns, and while getting a lot of sleep was considered a good thing - sleeping more also meant that people usually dreamt more. Hence his recommendation was to try to limit the number of hours she slept in a day, while still getting the recommended amount. With this she was pretty much back to the same pattern she'd been in the early months of her pregnancy, going to sleep a little earlier and getting up before dawn. But it was a little challenging dragging herself out of bed, the bed being significantly warmer in the colder nights than the room, and reluctantly dragging herself from Jess' embrace.
Yet on most mornings she was quite successful at that, spending her early morning hours going her yoga exercises which she by now knew by heart and only went to class every once in a while for the company, rather than the exercise, or listening to one of the financial podcasts she followed while cooking Jess somewhat elaborate breakfasts or lunches to bring along to work. She tried to limit dragging herself around town these days, hoping this way she'd tire out a little less and hence didn't need the nap. And for over a week now she'd been nightmare-free. But she did miss the swims, which she now tried to fit into her evenings and take a car over to Truncheon to go home with Jess right after. That day she'd arrived without informing Jess much in advance that she was coming, having decided to head for the Marriott quite last minute, having gotten their update that the pool was closing for the next two week for yearly repairs. She'd texted him just as she stepped outside Marriott, waiting for her Uber to arrive for the short 7 minute ride. She could've walked, but having tried some water aerobics exercises that day, her legs felt too heavy for walking 20 minutes, besides - she always hated the way people seemed to look at her whenever she decided to walk somewhere in her condition - as if not having a car was somehow something to be embarrassed about. It was one of the few things she actually missed about Paris.
As her ride arrived, she quickly glanced over to her phone, seeing only that Jess had not seen nor replied to her text. She hoped he hadn't left yet, which was unlikely, but decided to go see it for herself either way - Jess rarely minded her just showing up, and if he did it was rather due to his need to stay on a while longer than anything else.
As she heaved the tall glass door of Truncheon Publishing open she was surprised to find an almost empty office, Bilal just packing up his stuff and heading out the door with a swift nod. He was a little odd, but efficient enough - but definitely not the people person they'd hoped to run the events instead of her, for now it seemed it was likely Jess himself or Jenn who would need to cover her part when she took her maternity leave.
"Jess?" Celeste asked out loud as she came from behind the corner, not seeing his cubicle straight away. There was no reply. As she stepped around the corner she could see why - Jess was in his glass cubicle with Noah the door closed, the glass muffling almost all of what they were saying, only leaving some more louder exclamations audible. She froze in her path, wondering if she should be seen, but realizing both Noah and Jess, whose desk was positioned sideways, had already seen her, there was no point of hiding now and she took a seat in the coffee nook, opening her water bottle to take a drink and wait. She pretended to browse her phone, but really all she wanted was to look and hear what they were saying. For the brief glance she'd gotten, their body language at least had seemed fairly relaxed, so perhaps things were alright?
It wasn't too much later, perhap 5 minutes or so, when their voices suddenly resonated, letting her know that Jess' office door had been opened.
"Alright, so I'll send you the contract in the next couple of days, look it over," Jess said as he shook Noah's hand. Celeste stood up and now leaned against one of the concrete columns, her water bottle still in hand observing them.
"Oh, hi, Celeste - was it?" Noah greeted her as he was heading towards the door.
"Hey," she nodded, smilingly.
"Good to see you again," he added, and waved as a 'bye' as he exited.
"Hey!" Jess greeted her with a small peck.
"So he's 'in'?" Celeste asked, turning to Jess. While she did trust his judgement, she hadn't quite heard as much discussion on the matter at home that she would've liked. She felt like pouting a little, for him not talking to her before his final decision, but clearly the decision was already made.
"Yeah, he's just too good to pass down - if I want to even think about getting rid of some of my task load it's got to be him, not someone who's never done things like this. And I told him generally that we have employees whose backgrounds, while completely innocent are on need to know basis, hence there'll be a NDA in his contract, which he seemed to be fine with," Jess explained, sensing her gaze being a little hesitant towards the decision.
He did make a good point - if she wanted him to work a little less, this was a good chance at that.
"And what if he does ask questions?" she asked.
"You refrain from comments and you tell me," Jess assured me. He seriously doubted the man was going to start DNA testing her or something, besides it was his job on the line which he clearly wanted so he could get back on his feet on this side of the pond. It wasn't like there were many editorial positions available that came with the perks HPG was willing to offer him, with knowing he might look for bigger challenges after a few years.
"Okay," Celeste replied with a sigh. She didn't like this tension that Noah came with, but what could she do? There was always going to be some possibility that someone was going to have doubts, especially when it came to the people who'd known her in person, like Evelyn for example.
"You're mad? Should I have not?" Jess said worriedly, after observing her for a few seconds. Maybe she hadn't told him everything?
"I just wish you'd discussed this with me, but it's okay, really, I get it - you need the help, and there's the NDA, so I should be good," she replied. She figured the number of time she was going to be in the office was slim anyways - knowing there were just two more launch parties planned for January and February, which were pretty much done, just needing to be executed. Hopefully, with staying out of sight - there wouldn't be any further questions about it.
"I'm sorry, but I did think about your side in this. But I felt it was my position here to make the executive decision, that was better for the company," he added apologetically. In his mind he'd taken all of the precautions, both personal and legal - he genuinely seemed like a nice guy, talented - and other than those few lines at the party, he really didn't have reason to doubt him.
"It's okay," she repeated. She did understand.
"And you know what - if someday you think you could consider being in the same room with him again - you might actually find him quite helpful. He's been an editor on quite a few slice-of-life comics series," Jess added, knowing this would perhaps shed light into another layer of Noah Celeste really didn't know about. Perhaps she could give him a chance?
"Is that all of your stuff?" Celeste looked over April who was standing in front of their brownstone stairs with two suitcases. She'd expected more, knowing her internship was for 6 months.
"It's all of it, I'm pretty low maintenance. I've been going back and forth Boston, New Mexico and Connecticut for a while now, so there's really not much point in accumulating a lot of stuff," April explained. Celeste had already learned by now that April tended to be quite talkative.
"I'll just go get the keys so you won't have to drag those up here and back down the stair. Meet me down there!" she said, closing the front door behind her.
She looked for the spare set of keys they had, and unlocked the door to the even narrower stairway leading downstairs. They'd hardly used the narrow staircase before, somehow having done most of the moving back and forth between two floors through the outside porch that had a much sturdier set of stairs, plus as they'd renovated during the summer, moving things up and down those stairs had been significantly easier on the narrow walls. Sure, Luke and Lorelai had used them during Thanksgiving but still, it felt like a secrete passage almost. She turned the keys in the downstairs lock and let April in.
"Welcome," Celeste said somewhat gallantly, adding, "Jess is at work, he should be back around 7. You're welcome to join us for dinner if you want," she offered.
"Oh wow, that's nice of you. But really, you don't have to. It's bad enough I'm crashing here, you really don't have to feed me," April said, rolling her suitcases forward.
"Don't be silly. I mean, we need to set some ground rules naturally, to make sure we understand each other but you're still family - dinner is our way of welcoming you to the city - it's a given," Celeste insisted.
"Alright, thanks," she replied humbly.
"As you see the living room here is pretty bare, but there are some stuff over here which you can sort through, maybe there's something that you can use," Celeste explained as they glanced over the livingroom and kitchen area, gesturing towards the bedroom that led out to the back yard, which was pretty much like their spare storage, at the moment also holding a lot fo their baby gear. She'd held herself back from going ahead and decorating the living room as well - mainly to get her a couch, but as she'd assured she was okay with getting some of her own stuff. "And here is the bedroom. Lorelai and Luke stayed here once, but linen is fresh and there is a spare one in the other closet," Celeste explained.
"Wow, now I do feel like I'm being spoiled," April replied, as she glanced over the well-decorated bedroom and the entire size of the place.
"Well as I said, it has been just standing empty here. I'm just glad someone uses this," Celeste replied.
"So how does this work exactly…," she began, adding, "I'm not exactly the most socially capable person perhaps, so I'll just outright ask," she explained. "If I need to ask something do I text you guys or just come on upstairs? Should I use the front door or take the inside stairs and knock first?" she hesitated. April was the type of person who may have seemed a little awkward, and clearly she felt it, but made up for her hesitance with words - never being embarrassed to ask or explain herself.
"You can come and go as you please naturally. Use the back yard, but no smoking please," Celeste explained.
"I don't smoke, don't worry," April replied.
"You can use the stairs - and I guess you don't really need to knock first when you come to have dinner or when we're expecting you. If it is something quick you need to ask, I think shooting me a message is probably quicker even - if I'm upstairs in the study it'll take me a good few minutes to come downstairs," Celeste explained, cradling her bump. She was feeling like she was turning into a penguin - walking all funny these days.
"Alright," April replied.
"And honestly, I don't really know how exactly everything will fall into place, you know, get comfortable. I like the fact that there's someone, someone who is family, living here, but I don't want to impose myself on you nor feel like I am no longer free to do what I want upstairs, when I want to do it, you know?" Celeste explained.
"I get it," April said. "Just tell me if anything bugs you, okay? Because I'm not too good with reading hints," she added.
"Sure," Celeste replied. "Listen, I don't know what you have planned for today, but could you help me with something today - like in 10 minutes? Oh, wow, time flies," Celeste said, glancing at the time on her phone. "It shouldn't take long, 5 minutes tops if the guys are on time," she added.
"Okay, sure," she agreed. "I'm pretty much just set on unpacking today, the flight was pretty tiring," she added.
"Okay, you can come straight up then. I'll leave you to it for now," Celeste said as she began trailing back to the narrow stairs. The task of getting upstairs already seemed daunting.
Ten minutes later April was upstairs glancing with admiration at the light colored living room and the graphical art on the walls, Celeste had brought along from her Greenwich house.
"Oh, great, so I'm just going to tell you from here what I need as I don't think I can climb all the way back to the 3rd floor again," she sighed, rolling her eyes, beginning to seriously regret owning a townhouse instead of an apartment.
"So upstairs on the 3rd level there's a guest room with a walk-in wardrobe, and there I have some boxes packed up with some clothes. There's some movers coming to collect those boxes any minute now. And don't ask why, but I don't want to show my face when they come - it's not that the boxes contain anything illegal or nasty, they're just my dresses," she laughed, realizing she was sounding a little loony. "I just don't want them connecting them to me," Celeste added apologetically.
"Okay, so open the door, pretend I live here, guide them to the boxes - sounds good," April repeated.
"Yeah, there are 4 large boxes up there," she added.
It was then the doorbell rang, and Celeste made herself scarce by going to the kitchen. She knew it was a little weird, asking for her help like this, bound to raise some questions, but on her defence even the thought of climbing those stairs right now was too much for her right now.
She could see from the distnace, through the thin living room curtains, the men carrying off the boxes, all four of them. God, if they only knew where those dresses had been and what they'd seen, let alone their net worth. But instead of loss, like she'd expected, she felt a strange sense of relief.
"That was a lot of dresses," April said as she returned downstairs, having seen another half of the wardrobe still full of things she'd decided to delay parting with for a little while longer hoping she might still fit into some of them. "And the place looks lovely by the way," April added.
"Thanks, and really - thank you for helping me with this," Celeste replied.
"No problem," April replied. "Also, I wanted to ask you where the nearest grocery store is - I'll need to stock up the fridge a little," she added.
"Oh, right," she reacted, almost having forgotten about the practicalities of her moving. "I usually order stuff delivered, if you want you can make a list and I'll add them to our semiweekly order," she added, but I can show you on the map where there are a few smaller places," she suggested opening up her laptop and inviting her to come sit by the dinner table.
She spent the next hour showing her around on the map - where to get food, where the good organic produce store was, train station, park and a few good take-away places they frequently ordered from. It felt strangely comforting - taking someone in like this, and having someone around - and even though she was 23, Celeste couldn't help but to feel a little maternal, or perhaps sisterly would've been more accurate, towards her. Maybe it was just her hormones - but did it really matter if it felt good?