Lorelai stretched out her limbs, still laying on her bed under the warmth of her down blanket. It was early on a Sunday morning and she really didn't feel like getting up. But this day wasn't about her. Hence, with making as little noise as possible - which she really wasn't very good at - she snuck out of the bed to get cleaned up and pulled on a lacy red negligee she kept around for special occasions.
At her age - well, at their age - sex was becoming a little predictable. Sure, there was always that possibility and neither needed to convince the other in great length when they needed it - they still had that. But somehow deciding to go all out on it, took that little more extra effort, just like this morning.
As Lorelai emerged from the bathroom, she knew already that Luke wasn't really fully asleep anymore. His breathing was different, she could tell.
"Good morning," Lorelai announced in a low voice from the bathroom doorway, presenting herself as seductively as she could against the doorway. She sometimes came off a little comical when she tried too hard, which was not what she was after, but the line between actually sexy and that was thin.
She could see the corners of Luke's mouth curve upwards and his eyes began to slowly open. She could tell he appreciated the view.
"Morning," Luke replied smilingly, stretching out his arms and propped them behind his head. Getting a birthday wake up like this was becoming a tradition, and he knew better than to say anything that might divert her from her plan.
Lorelai climbed into the bed in a cat-like manner, and kissed him on the lips, while he let her hands wander on her hips and waist.
"Happy birthday!" Lorelai said, making sure he saw plenty of cleavage, making him smirk.
She moved lower, stroking his hardening bulge with her body, loving how his face hid nothing when it came to appreciation. Lorelai nudged his boxers a little lower, freeing his arousal and licked her lips to keep him anticipating a little while longer.
The gasp that left Luke's lips as Lorelai's lips sank around his member was music to her ears. The man certainly deserved it all on his birthday. Her tongue licked, swirled and repeated, continuing a rhythmic up and down movement, holding him with one of her hands, while his manly fingers caressed her shoulder, neck and hair. She could already taste that he was close. After all she'd had years of practice knowing just what he liked. She sped up just a little, wanting to alternate the rhythm. She was so focused she hardly didn't catch the rushing footsteps that were headed towards their bedroom accompanied by Leo's panicy voice saying something about water, before the door opened.
Lorelai could barely throw herself onto him, to hide the act in question - but even without any actual visible body parts the sight that Leo saw was pretty compromising nonetheless. The sexy red negligee and her slightly reddish lips had hardly helped. Awkward would've been an understatement.
"Luke, there's water everywhere!" came a panicked yelp, but his original thought was clearly disrupted by the shock of what Leo saw. "I swear I didn't do anything," he added. "Sorry," he added and rushed back downstairs in tears, leaving the door after him wide open.
"Oh, boy," Lorelai sighed to Luke, an heaved herself up from him, beginning to get dressed.
It wasn't like they didn't have sex under the same roof while Leo was home, they'd just never done it in a way so he'd know about it. At first being extra careful by locking their door or keeping extra quiet - later they'd relaxed a bit as Leo hardly ever came up to their floor, being extra cautious like he always was. Well this time he definitely got a very skewed view of what went on upstairs.
"I'll go check what's up with the water," Luke groaned, adjusting his boxers and pulled on a pair of sweats instead.
"Maybe you should go talk to him about - this," Lorelai suggested worriedly. She really didn't know much about little boys and the sex talk.
"So you'll go check what's up with the water? Do you even know where the water off switch is?" Luke asked, pointing out the more urgent matter at hand.
"Okay fine, you got a point there," Lorelai added as Luke was already out the door.
As he followed the hallways towards the stairs he already saw Leo's wet footprint stains on the floor heading up and then down again which didn't look promising. As he reached downstairs it became clear to him rather quickly what was up. No matter where the leak was he needed to turn off the cold water, as that was what was spread out across the first floor reaching almost to the living room.
Luke waded through the low water, his feet getting a little crampy from the cold. It wasn't cold enough so the pipe could've burst because of the cold but it was cold enough.
He quickly found the master switch - at least there was no more water pouring onto the floor. The culprit was the downstairs bathroom where the inflow pipe had burst from a joint. Clearly the joints were just old - but the damage was done.
Leo had shut himself into his room, and Luke felt a little baffled of what he was supposed to do. So he really did the only thing he knew how - and began pulling large bath towels onto the floor from the adjacent hallway cupboard one had to walk through to get the bathroom.
They needed to clear out the water before it did more damage.
Lorelai came downstairs in a haste, unpeeling her Santa socks as soon as she saw the water.
"Hand me my fisherman's boots," Lorelai asked. She was really not a fan of the cold and wet.
For once getting her those boots off the boat supply catalogue had proved useful.
Luke knew it was better not to argue, and handed her the boots, he could swear she hadn't worn once until now.
"Hmm.. I remember them being larger," she commented. Or maybe she hadn't even tried them on?
"Help me clear this mess up. We'll need to get some heaters in here and air the place out properly today," Luke instructed. "I'll need to fix the pipe, but you can probably get enough hot water from the water heater to make coffee," he added, knowing the priorities.
"Did you talk to...?," Lorelai asked, nodding with her head towards Leo's bedroom.
"Not yet," Luke replied, continuing to toss a few more old towels and rags onto the floor to absorb up the water.
"Leo? You okay in there?" Lorelai asked, having knocked on his door.
"Yeah," he replied in a weak voice.
Lorelai peeked through the door. "Okay if I come in?" she asked. The kid was sat up on the beg, his legs pulled up to his chest. He'd clearly been crying.
"I was just brushing my teeth, I didn't mean for that to happen," Leo began clearly shocked enough by the first part of the event. The entire time they'd known him, he'd always been frightful of their response to anything he might have done wrong. Clearly some damage had been done, and Lorelai's heart broke every single time he waited for her response with that look on his face - as if expecting yelling or worse.
"The place is old, things break - I wasn't your fault," Lorelai explained, in a soft voice.
"Yeah, the joint is rusted through, see," Luke pitched in showing him the joint in question as he walked into the room too.
"And I'm sorry you had to see that upstairs, that's just something adults do," Lorelai tried to address the topic number two, which was a lot more awkward than the first one.
"I know, I'm so sorry. I promise I'll always knock first," Leo whimpered, almost sounding more worried about their reaction to the latter than the burst pipe.
"It's okay, it was an accident - you don't need to cry about it," Lorelai tried to calm him
"Andrea always yelled at me if I went in the room when she had friends over, sometimes she wouldn't talk to me in days if I did," Leo blubbered.
Leo hadn't really spoken a lot about his time living with Andrea, only as much as he had been asked directly about it. But clearly this particular topic had slipped everyone's attention, including the social worker's.
"Like guy friends?" Lorelai asked a little hesitantly.
"Uh-uh," he nodded, breathing heavily.
"And they'd come and do stuff like that?" she continued, gesturing her finger towards the upstairs.
"Yeah," Leo replied, beginning to calm down a little.
"Did that happen a lot?" Loreliai inquired a little further, wanting to know if the suspicion that had been raised in her mind could indeed have been the reality he'd had to live with.
Leo shrugged. "Sometimes every day, but not when she had a job," Leo added.
Lorelai glanced at Luke, both taking a deep breath. This was was horrible to hear - Andrea clearly had been making ends meet by selling her body. What was worse, was that she'd done it while Leo had been home, and with the accompanied drug use and potentially shady crowd being around their house.
"Leo, I just want you to know that we're not upset with you. Sure, knocking is polite, but that will never be something we'll yell at you about or punish you for. Accidents happen. So you don't need to be scared of us, and I know it's not easy to think back to that time when you were living with your aunt," Luke said, crouching down by his bed. He glanced one brief look towards Lorelai but he just had to say - "I can't make any promises, Leo, but I need to ask you one thing," he began. "If it was possible - would you want to keep living with us and not go back to your aunt?" he asked. He could sense Lorelai's shock at his question but even though he kept looking at the boy instead of her, he could almost telepathically tell that she wasn't mad. No kid should have to live in conditions like that, plus the constant fear, neglect and who knows what else the social worker had missed. They now had a chocie to make - whether to use that information to get permanent custody of Leo or not. But they both knew they needed to do something, they needed to try to give the boy a better life.
"Hey there! It's me Travis Swanson," the radio talk show host began no more than five seconds later than Jess had landed in the chair across from him, having been running a little late.
"And me, Callie Galloway," the younger female co-host pitched in.
"It's a beautiful November morning here in Charlotte, the weather is sunny and as our weather announcement just a few moments ago promised it's going to be 60 degrees today. Can you believe it? It really seems like winter just doesn't want to come. But enough about the fenology - today we have something much more interesting to share with you as a part of our Bookwind programme. Callie, care to tell the viewers which book blew in from our door this morning?" Travis spoke, a hint of the Appalachian accent rolling off his lips.
"Well Travis, I actually brought my own copy, so no flying was involved, but we do have an author with us today, who will help us shed some light to his new book, which I have to say I LOVE, but as a fan I am perhaps biased," Callie replied.
"Yes, listeners, today we have with us Jess Mariano who is author of his latest book 'The Jump'," Travis said. "Welcome to Bookwind!" he greeted Jess.
"Hi and thanks for having me," Jess said, feeling slightly out of place. With his written word things were easy. He could go back a thousand times, which usually was very close to the truth when it came to the earlier chapters of his books. He never did TV shows, but he knew that diversifying his promotional sources was in his best interest, hence he occasionally accepted Laurens suggestions to go on some literary programs along his trips. Lauren was his editor, but back in the day she'd also done something along the lines an agent would do. These days the tasks of an agent i.e putting the book tour together was on both of their shoulders, Jess knowing a lot of people and places himself and if it was just the two of them on it, it just meant no-one else would be getting their cut from the sales. It was smart. Going on radio and making social media posts was smart too, but nevertheless live radio was something he was a little apprehensive about, especially having been running a little late, nearly having slept in, and having not had a chance to go over their discussion points before the programme. They were flying blind this morning.
"So tell us about this book - 'The Jump'? What's the genre we're talking about there?" Travis asked, playing a little oblivious.
"It's a novel, and I'd have to say it's borderline between fiction and non-fiction actually - I've borrowed a lot from my own life. But essentially it's about a catalyst and that catalyst could either be a person or an event and how sometimes these things can alter the way we see the world around us. And quite often these changes can be unobservable to the people around us, but inside we are different people after that change happens. The title 'The Jump' refers to the moment one might jump into water or air and see things from a new perspective," Jess gave a brief summary, he'd given on numerous occasions already.
"You make it sound great, and I concur - it was, I read it in like two sittings and I couldn't put it down, I swear," Callie commented.
"Well thank you," Jess replied with a smile.
"But tell me - now that you mention that it's borderline non-fiction - I have to say I'm curious to find out what has been the catalyst in your life?" Callie asked.
"The answer is right there on the dedication page, it's meeting my wife, as for an event - I'm sure a lot of people agree with me that having a kid changes everything. But I have to say that more and more these days I begin to see how sometimes these catalysts can also be events in which might try to throw your life some curveballs," Jess replied, having been knee deep in writing his next book half the night, hence nearly having missed the programme.
"Sounds exciting," Travis commented. "Now I almost wish I had that wife of yours here in the studio with us to see what a real live muse looks like these days," he chuckled.
"Don't we all?" Jess replied, laughingly. He did miss her.
"So, Jess, other than your own life - where do you get your ideas?" Callie continued.
"I read a lot myself - mostly Scandinavian and North-American authors. And I have to say while book tours kind of suck - being away from home and travelling all the time - they're really good for inspiration," he admitted.
"Can you give our listeners a few names or titles as examples of what books inspire you?" Travis asked.
"Jo Nesbø, Stina Jackson, Rachel Kushner, Ove Knausgaard, Lisa Halliday… , I could go on for days here," Jess listed and chuckled.
"Well I certainly have my reading list for the next half a year filled up," Callie laughed.
"So Jess, what are your plans after this book tour - another book or perhaps back to the administrative part of publishing - I heard you were managing a publishing house in Brooklyn for a while?" Travis asked.
"Yes, there is definitely something new in progress - this past few weeks have been a highly productive time for writing my next manuscript actually," Jess admitted. Writing was affecting his sleep, he couldn't stop - he was pretty sure if this kept up another week he'd have the first draft finished by the end of the week. He often wrote in short intensive chunks - but this had never happened to him before.
"Wow, that's so cool - writing while promoting your previous book!" Callie commented. "But I have to ask - how do you not mix these two up when you go to signings or speak to your listeners like today?" she asked.
"Thankfully there is some connection between the two, so it's pretty easy," Jess replied.
"So you'd call it a sequel?" Callie inquired.
"I think that's a bit too early to say - I have to admit, I haven't even shown it to my editor yet," Jess replied, wanting to bite his lip as he'd said it. Clearly showing it to Celeste was more important and Lauren was sure to listen to his interview and be asking about it from him the minute after he was through. In a way he'd just dug himself a hole.
"So you're a full time writer now?" Travis asked.
Jess chuckled. "There are what ten people in this country who can call themselves that - I'm far from it. So no, I'm not quitting my day job," Jess replied.
"Honest man," Travis replied. "So what kind of job do you do?" he continued.
Jess was a little confused. While there were often a lot of inquiries about his books, his person had never been of much interest to people.
"I still work for Truncheon Publishing in part as an editor," he began, hesitating whether he should mention the bookstore. He knew that it would've been stupid not to - Christmas was coming and they needed all of the publicity they could get, despite the doors being still closed. "And me and my wife are actually opening a noir niche bookstore pretty soon," he added, seeing Travis' face light up at that response.
"Wow - a noir specialist store - that sounds fascinating," Travis commented. "Where is this store and when are you opening?" he then asked, making Jess panic momentarily. They had only set a preliminary date and he really wasn't sure if that was even realistic. But with all the money they spent on the place - they'd be stupid not to promote it like this.
"The store is called 'Apparatus Bay'," he began, feeling grateful that he'd at least had the smarts to register the trademark and domain name by now. "And we have this incredible location, it's an old repurposed firehouse actually, in the small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, just 30 miles off Hartford," Jess explained.
"Wow, that location alone - it sounds amazing," Callie commented.
"And we've planned the opening for the 6th of December. We're already on Facebook, feel free to click follow and we'll keep our fans posted," Jess added, feeling the heaviness of the fixed deadline on his shoulders. This meant that Celeste was very likely going to have to get a lot of things done on her own, which he wasn't sure he should be putting on her at this point - surely she had enough going on at home, with work and Evie.
"I'm sure our listeners and I personally know where to take our Christmas shopping this year," Callie added smilingly. "Will you have an online store as well?" she asked.
"It's not our first priority, but yes. The store itself is sort of like a destination store. We're going to be hosting events there, it also functions as an art gallery - so it's definitely something that is worth the visit. There's even a bit of a running joke between my wife and I that in a town as picturesque and safe like Stars Hollow, it's almost ironic to have this place called 'Apparatus Bay' with all the gruesome murders and schemes of the noir genre - the contrast is sharp, I tell you," Jess chuckled.
"Well, there you have it - Jess Mariano - and his latest book 'The Jump' which you can find online or tonight at 'The Bookstore Next Door' where Jess will have a signing and you, our listeners, will have a chance to meet the author in person," Callie wrapped things up.
"Thank you for having me," Jess replied, taking a deep breath. He frankly didn't know whether to be relieved or not - in a way it was surely good to spread the word but on the whole the book he was supposed to promote had gotten very little attention.
As he walked out of the studio, he knew that soon enough he would get a call from Lauren, and he wasn't mistaken. He now just needed to figure out how to convey the news to Celeste in a way that wouldn't freak her out. December 6th was just weeks away.
"Wow, the pancakes look delicious," Rory exclaimed as Celeste returned upstairs from the kitchen carrying two large plates of pancakes, the thin and large kind - crêpes. Gigi had helped her bring some berries, ice cream and jam upstairs along with the coffee on a tray. When there were so many of them, the kitchen breakfast table really was too small for all of them, so Celeste had arranged to have breakfast on the main living floor where they had the 10-person dining table.
"Finny and Evie, come have breakfast," Celeste suggested, seeing the two deep in a game of building a Lego Duplo castle. The two played so effortlessly, she honestly felt a little bad for interrupting their game. "You can continue after breakfast," she added.
Thankfully the kids were pretty hungry so the two hurried towards the dining table without much objection.
Rory looked much better than last night, Emma having slept a good 4.5 hours in one stretch, letting her postpone feeding her a little. Of course that had ended up mixing up their schedules, that she swore by, but she'd just been too exhausted. But thankfully the twins were now catching up with their schedule by sleeping peacefully in their soft carrycots on the pullout couch in Celeste's study, with the door open, allowing the five to enjoy their breakfast peacefully, while Maya was taking her morning off, which she no doubt deserved.
"So what time will you be heading back today, G?" Rory asked practically, thinking what time she should have Hallam pick her up.
"I'm in no hurry. They didn't leave us any homework, so maybe just after dinner?" G replied. She wasn't looking forward to going to Manhattan all by herself to be honest, but she had school tomorrow, and being around people, Celeste in particular, had provided her with the type of distraction that she really had needed.
"Okay, I'll tell Hallam," Rory replied, as she cut up Finny's pancake for him.
"And Rory?" Celeste began.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"I was serious about getting you some rest," Celeste insisted, sounding stern but friendly.
"Oh I don't know - I'm just feeling like someone is getting less attention than the other all the time. I'm not sure I'd feel right just taking time for just myself," Rory replied. The guilt of dividing her attention was near constant.
"So we do the next best thing - we take the next three days and give the kids equal amount of attention. Today you'll focus on Leigh, tomorrow Emma and Tuesday Finny. Lane said she can come and help out, and I know Lorelai has Tuesday off and Liz can come if needed on Monday," Celeste explained, having taken it upon herself to make sure they had backup.
"You're really given this a lot of though," Rory said, sounding a little surprised.
"It's not just me - we all agree - you need to take a break, it's not healthy - and I know it's not maybe how you wanted to start off your day but you must agree that the best kind of mother is the kind that is well rested. You yourself told me that when I struggled to ask help with Evie," she reminded her.
Rory didn't reply, but she knew she was right.
"If a whole day is too much, we'll start with half a day," Celeste relented. She just really wanted her to make a start. If she could just make a start - that was enough.
"Fine. But we'll see how it goes," Rory replied. The biggest struggle was getting Emma to take the bottle and that was something she really didn't want to be in the same room for, knowing that hearing her loud cries would make her ache in more ways than one. She wasn't good under stress when she was tired.
"Don't worry, everyone will be fine, and you'll feel much better too," Celeste soothed her, hugging her from the side and then dug into her own pancake.