AN: Thanks for the reviews!
I hope you don't hate me for doing so much real estate shopping in this story - I can't help it - I really like it. Besides there needs to be some other filler before the babies come - wouldn't want them to come too early now would we.
"So this is it?" Celeste sighed, not quite understanding what she was feeling as she held the matte black B4-format book in her hands, it's front cover making an illusion of depth with different black-and-white patterned, almost topographical, lines. They'd titled it 'Occultis aperta' meaning 'in plain sight', the English version, while suited well for social media, having seemed somehow too simple for the book itself. This needed to be more exclusive than anything she'd post or sell as prints, another idea she'd thought of, if course there was enough interest for the book first.
"This is it," Noah reflected, adding, "well, as soon as you confirm this and I'll give the printer's a 'go'."
Celeste browsed through it page by page, re-checking every text, down to print quality. She was happy with what they'd put together, having carefully even created something of a build up from innocent societal topics to the ones that had a hint of erotica. It was classy, clever and still a little naughty.
"I really do think it's going to do great. It's different, it has the potential..," Noah spoke, momentarily speaking as an editor instead of a co-author.
"If you say so yourself," Celeste teased.
During the past few weeks, she'd somehow found a good rhythm with Noah, having been able to little by little look past her insecurities that concerned him. They were co-workers, to some extent friends, even sharing a love for double-talk which was central to their book. And while she still preferred to see him at work, to keep things very clear that there would be nothing other than that, she felt at peace - she didn't dread working with him like she had in the beginning.
Maybe it had been the moment with Michel, that had made her realize that there were always going to be some people out there who would know her from her past. The question largely was how she would handle it and depending on the situation and person she could easily fluctuate between her official cover story, claiming that she was a look-alike, and the witness protection story, which was relevant too as it came to the origin of her documents. She knew she needed to refrain from ever saying out loud who she really was, and as long as that was the case she'd held onto her part of the contract. She hadn't googled her brother in the past two years, and she didn't want to - hoping that part would forever stay away.
"If I say so myself," Noah repeated, smilingly. "So what's the big plan now - besides me running the launch show and you keeping up the Instagram? I mean with Jess pulling back from Truncheon - I bet you have something big planned, right? Moving?" he inquired curiously.
This was his personality - he was naturally very curious and had difficulty keeping his mouth shut, in many cases making assumptions three steps ahead. But Celeste knew this by now.
Celeste shrugged, having no real plan other than just getting the book out - she hadn't thought any further. "It might be an option, but nothing certain yet," she replied, knowing that they had set aside time that very night after Jess got home, having arrange for April to babysit, and really discuss the topic of moving in depth.
"I figured," he sighed.
"But for what it's worth - I have enjoyed this - making this," she held the book close to her heart. "And I guess I just wanted to say thank you - thank you for being patient and understanding," Celeste added.
"Hey, it was my pleasure," he assured. It almost would've been a moment to hug, but he'd learned his lesson - he too didn't want to push any boundaries in this now established fragile balance that seemed to work when it came to work.
Logan had had a weird day. He'd started off at his home office, but he'd discovered in the matter of seconds that their internet connection was not working. A phone call later he'd learned it was some pre-planned maintenance work that he hadn't been informed of, but as it involved the entire area, there wasn't much to be done about it. Rory had Maya at home to help out so he'd headed to the HPG office, having planned a few web conferences for that morning and one face-to-face meeting for later, which would've meant he would've had to go in either way.
He really hadn't been in the office in a while, people hardly expecting him to make an appearance. He'd even given his assistant Margareth the possibility to work from home most days of the week, only really needing her to go into the office to check through his mail twice a week these days.
He did the conference calls at the office and grabbed some light lunch at his usual place, that he'd actually begun to miss a little - he was liked here, the waitresses there quite enjoying to flirt with him - maybe it was that mostly the men in that place were above the age of 50 and took a lot less good care of themselves than Logan. It was a thrill, but for Logan what made this fun now was keeping everything casual and innocent, knowing that was what Rory and he had agreed to, and that was what Rory had on occasion done too - a few times even with Logan present. It was the kind of jealousy that was good for the relationship, at least to their's.
As he was about to leave the restaurant, his two o'clock called. It was Hugo Grace, the guy both him and Rory knew well from their New Haven days.
"Logan Hunzberger," he answered his phone.
"Logan, hi," Hugo said.
"Hey," Logan replied, adding, "I hope you're not cancelling on me, I was looking forward to catching up." He genuinely was.
"Well, that depends..," Hugo began with a slight chuckle. "I could theoretically meet you, but I'm stuck at home watching my 2-month old. My wife just got a call to go for an interview she'd been looking forward to and I just had to let her go," he explained apologetically.
"We seem to like the same type of women," Logan noted, laughingly. "Do you want to talk online or can I come over - I'd prefer not to postpone, we're sort of taking it day-by-day with Rory as well and I don't really want to plan meetings more than a week in advance," he explained.
"Would you terribly mind coming over? I don't want to be much trouble," he hesitated.
"Nonsense, it's no trouble," Logan replied. Him and Hugo knew each other long enough, both knowing that neither was defined by their current income or work title. And Logan certainly wasn't the type to believe that just because he was COB people had to come to him necessarily if they wanted to talk.
Soon enough Hugo had texted him his address and no more than half an hour later Logan stood in front of a red brick building just a few houses down the street from Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich village.
"So that's the little guy!" Logan noted excitedly, keeping his voice down, as he entered the townhouse, after having changed some casual greetings. The baby was dressed in navy blue, comfortably dozing in the living room in his portable crib, Hugo looking understandably tired as any new parent did. Logan could only really muse over the idea of very soon having two babies of his own at home again.
"Yeah, his name is Ethan," he replied proudly. "Would you like something to drink, coffee?" he asked, not wanting to spend the entire time discussing the child in question.
"No, I'm good," he replied humbly.
"So how's Rory? I read the Times piece on her," Hugo noted, pouring a cup of coffee for himself, gesturing Logan towards the back of the house, bringing the baby monitor along. Hugo opened up the door to the back yard, which surprisingly wasn't just a narrow slice like most townhouses had but a communal back garden streching out the entire are between the block of houses, with welded garden furniture, various forms of vegetation and even a shallow fountain that susurrated pleasantly in the background.
"She's Rory…," he sighed, "she'd trying to do everything," he shrugged a moment later. "She has big plans like she's always had, just in a different field," he replied with pride in his voice. Hugo knew about them expecting twins, they'd sent him the announcement as well, still considering him as a friend first and work-contact second.
The guys continued to talk for roughly an hour. Hugo, who was currently working for a startup that developed news databases and fact checking applications, had a proposition to include a few HPG newspapers in their test groups, and Logan had nothing against it, knowing what Hugo did was innovative and most likely a few years ahead of the game. Hugo, while a little older than him, had also done pretty well for himself, and as a bonus married rich, like he liked to point out jokingly - her wife Rosanne having inherited the house in question from her father who'd been some sort of a famous movie composer.
"It's a nice place you've got here," Logan finally commented, having quite enjoyed the different scenery for their meeting.
"I'm definitely not complaining, the neighbours are nice, though it'll be a bit of a lottery now that one over there is for sale," Hugo noted, gesturing towards the slightly more grand Federal style townhouse two houses away from their's.
"Kid-friendly or…?" he inquired, glancing the place over - he didn't know any of the details but it certainly looked big enough. He'd heard about these private garden type neighborhoods and here usually the biggest question was whether residents considered children a nuisance or not if they took over the common garden area with their games.
"Well, we wouldn't be here otherwise, we have a 5 and 7 year old who are at their grandma's in Cape Cod right now. Some of the residents are a bit older, but they don't seem to mind," Hugo explained. "Are you guys looking to buy?" he asked, but his train of thought was interrupted by the baby monitor and he excused himself, saying he'd be right back.
Logan stood up and walked a few steps over to the house in question, looking over its interesting form. He wasn't a huge fan of the iron bars on the three ground level French doors, but surely, that was something that could be changed. As he counted upwards, he got five stories, the third floor triangular bay windows definitely standing out amongs the other buildings. Just by the house there stood a full grown tree casting a welcome shade, overgrown by a lush ivy. On the downside, at least from the outside, it didn't look particularly freshly renovated.
"You want me to get you the owner's contact info? I don't think he's put it on the market officially yet," Hugo said as he returned outside, the little boy on his shoulder, a light blanket over him, clearly seeing that Logan had taken an interest in the place.
"I'd be willing to do this on one condition," Jess finally stated, having been going over all of their options, including considering moving back to Philly briefly, having come to a conclusion that he too had a certain interest in making the move. He wanted to give her a chance to try this, understanding well how denying her this would only really leave her wondering 'what if?' and eventually maybe even lead to her resent him for not agreeing to it. But it wasn't just that - with his job as the manager coming to an end in the next coming days, he was experiencing a strange set of emotions as well.
"What's the condition?" Celeste hesitated. She'd been feeling guiltier by the second as she'd listened to Jess list all the things he'd once hated about the place, and she'd already begun to give up on the idea altogether, feeling she just couldn't ask him to do that for her.
"We give it, say, a year, and if it isn't working for me, we'll reconsider - it doesn't have to be New York, but just… I don't want to go there with the feeling that it's now and forever. If I define this to myself as a trial, an adventure or an experience, I can see myself living with it," Jess explained.
"A year," Celeste repeated. That didn't sound half bad, after all she wasn't sure either.
"A year," Jess reflected.
"So what should we do with this place?" Celeste asked, gesturing around them.
"If it's a year, then we probably shouldn't sell it yet, right? It would be good to have a place to come back to, and there's April to consider. I'd hate to kick her out unless we have to," Jess discussed.
"I wouldn't feel comfortable just buying another place there from Evie's trust fund, maybe we could just get a mortgage for the place there or something, or we could rent some place?" Celeste pondered. She knew that involving banks might actually turn out to be a little tricky but she hadn't fully looked into it yet - after all she only had two years of credit statements to show for and no permanent place of employment, despite owning a nearly 4-million-dollar townhouse.
"The rental market in Stars Hollow isn't exactly abundant," Jess replied, actually having looked into it earlier. "Or we could rent this place out, maybe April could keep an eye on it?" Jess suggested.
"Okay, that might be an option. Logan also offered to help, if we were to need it," Celeste added.
Jess rose, and paced across the room. "Can we just not go to Logan every time we need financial help?" he huffed, perhaps a tad too strongly. "I'm sorry…," he began but then some underlying emotion got the better of himself - "I just don't like that it's your ex who has all the power and money to solve all your problems, while I can't do squat," Jess added. He was surprised to discover that after giving up his job, he did actually feel like he'd lost - while he knew he hadn't but it was the way he felt the society judged him - like he hadn't been capable enough to climb the corporate ladder. And maybe he wasn't? Still - he couldn't quite shake the feeling that in certain occasions Celeste missed that comfort that came with the elite - the freedom to make substancial financial decision at the snap of her fingers and the connections that she now couldn't use to get Evie a place in a good nursery school or to get her a new identity, an extreme example, but that was what the Huntzberger name could do and he couldn't.
"Jess..," Celeste said, looking at him pleadingly. Jess had hardly ever referred to Logan as her ex before, it was something they'd very briefly talked about in the beginning and from there on he'd almost pretended she'd been Logan's beard or something - but clearly it hadn't been quite that simple. She knew he hadn't meant his statement as severly as that, but clearly he did feel something. "He offered, I didn't ask, but I said we wouldn't take it… I just thought you should know he offered," she added apologetically.
"I know - that was out of line, I'm sorry..," he sank down to the couch again, burying his face in his palms for a moment to gather himself.
"What's going on? This isn't like you," Celeste asked, taking his hand and drew circles in his palm, calming him.
"I think I just need a fresh start too, but I'd like it to be ours - I want to make it happen, not go asking for charity," he explained.
She could tell it had to do with his career change, and she knew he'd tell her if he needed to. But she knew, that he always didn't - but pushing never worked with him either, so she let it go for now.
"Okay, then we'll do that. A fresh start. I'll set up some places for us to see, maybe Saturday will work for them too. Let's explore our options," she suggested, trying to keep her excitement under wraps.