AN: Thanks for the reviews! Today is a shorter chapter day - sorry. Maybe there'll be another today ? not sure yet. More Finn and Charlie coming up but just giving it to you in smaller bits.
Rory was having her breakfast in the kitchen with Finny as G reached the kitchen to grab some breakfast before school. G had spent a long weekend in Boston with Christopher.
"Hey! I didn't hear you come home last night," Rory said. "How was Boston?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
"I kind of weird actually," she replied, continuing to grab a banana for herself and sat down by the kitchen table, winking at Finny. "Dad was like trying to spend every second with me - I mean I understand why but it was a little intense," she explained. Besides her room in their Boston townhouse just didn't seem like hers anymore - the early adolescence thematic of that bedroom, filled with her stuffed toys and random paraphernalia she really no longer connected with.
"He's feeling guilty for being away, I suppose," Rory explained.
"I guess," G replied.
"Now would be a good time to ask for a pony if you ever wanted one," Rory added jokingly.
G smirked. If she needed anything like that - sure, but there was very little she lacked.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something," G began, having been wondering about something.
Brody seemed to have taken an interest in her, and she was feeling pleasantly flattered. He'd messaged her throughout the weekend, and he was turning out to be kind of cool to simply chat with, which was quite surprising to her as she really hadn't expected anything other than the physical out of him. If he'd just been after sex, she was sure he wouldn't have bothered.
"Ask away," Rory suggested, in the meanwhile cleaning Finny's milk-whiskers off.
"What's the house policy on me inviting people over," she asked. While Brody had a place of his own, it was kind of messy and she would've much rather just prefered inviting him over to her place.
"Friends? Boyfriends?" Rory specified.
"Well… I've been seeing this guy but we're not officially an item or anything… just so I know whether it would be okay if he came over one of these days," she replied hesitantly.
In a way Rory was glad to hear that she was connecting with someone - maybe it'd help ease her loneliness.
"And I know you are going to ask anyways so - yes, we're having sex," she anticipated her next question.
Rory exhaled. It was funny how this was not something G seemed to be awkward or embarrassed about, in fact she was probably treating it as something more normal than most adults. She was almost saying as if something she was proud of, maybe even something to make her seem older or more mature perhaps - but Rory couldn't quite tell.
"Right," Rory sighed. As long as she was safe and it was consensual there really wasn't much she could do if they were doing it already. "Can I think about it?" Rory asked, realizing that this really wasn't a very easy decision to make. She was just 16, even if she was experienced - and in this situation it was her taking the responsibility of what exactly she was facilitating.
G left for school, leaving Rory pondering over the matter.
There was G's best interest to consider, and simply the fact of letting someone she didn't know into their house. Despite the separate stairway, it wasn't like her apartment was completely sealed off from the rest of the place. For this reason it was also about their family's privacy. But then again she was a little surprised and worried, having only now realized that G had never before really asked about having friends over. Not even to study with or simply to hang out with. Maybe that had been a big clue Rory herself had miss of her being lonely.
She was jolted out of her thoughts some minutes later, having taken Finny upstairs to the playroom by the ring of her phone.
The ID said Lisa Mori. She felt instantaneously both dread and relief - it was like another life knocking on her door.
"I thought we were going to take the ferry?" Charlie asked as Finn pulled up by a modern riverhome just 15 minutes away from Charlie's apartment. They'd made an early start and Charlie had obviously done her homework on where they were headed. She was well prepared having brought the only backpack she had but it was just half packed for the day trip.
"I said we are going to take a boat, and here we can get a boat," he smirked. "I need your help carrying the second surfboard though," Finn added, as he got out of the car. He'd stocked up on anything he could think of - event preparations often being his things back in the day.
"Whose place is this?" she inquired, noting the area definitely being residential not just some boat rental place.
Charlie was wearing the same clothes he'd first met her in, shorts and a casual t-shirt, and for the first time she had her mid-back length hair unbraided that morning.
"This is actually my parent's place. I didn't grow up here, but there were five kids so it made a lot of sense for them to get something smaller. And it's my dad's boat that we're taking," he admitted, anticipating her next question.
His parents had sold their childhood home after the youngest of the kids, had gone of too college - keeping a 9 bedroom house really hadn't made a lot of sense when it was just the two of them left and none of the kids could really blame them. It had been a little sad for all those involved nonetheless, especially after seeing how different the choice they'd chosen was. Instead of a having a vast piece of land, a lush garden that Finn's mother had attended to herself with the help of two gardeners, they'd settled on a much less high maintenance riverhome, where the only outdoor space was a large balcony and access to a boat mooring. To Finn this was a lot more to his tastes really - this is how he wanted to grow old someday - enjoying but not flaunting the luxuries of life without having to think too much about maintenance. And his father was certainly doing that, only really acting as a consult in the family business most of the time while his older brother Jamie had taken quite willingly the reins, and spent most of his time out fishing or playing chess with his friends.
Finn had agreed with his dad that he'd take the boat. It was his pride and joy and ever since he'd sunk the yacht with Colin and Logan, he kept teasing him on it each time he wanted to take one of his boats out. He just hoped neither of his parents would be up this early, because he was pretty sure he wouldn't hear the end of it otherwise - either from the boat angle, or from his attempts to claim that she was just a friend. It was safe to say that his mother was eager to see him settling down like all of his other siblings already had.
"I got you a funboard, I hope that's okay - the longboard is a little tricky to fit on the boat," Finn explained as he was getting his two boards off the roof of his car. One of them was a little more used, the blue pattern scraped off noticeably, but it still did the trick.
Charlie simply smiled at him, like she was keeping something to herself.
"What?" he asked.
"I haven't used a longboard since I was 19 or something," Charlie replied, letting on that she may have not exactly been entirely honest when she'd first said that she had a some experience.
"Where exactly have you been surfing - Montreal?" Finn inquired teasingly adding a French accent, some disbelief in his tone, as he got the portable cooler and his own backpack from the trunk.
"Hah…," she smirked. "I grew up in Broad Cove, Nova Scotia," she shared, adding, "It was really boring there," laughingly.
"Ugh, icy waters - you'd have to pay me to get in waters that cold," Finn commented, making a teeth chattering motion. But he had to admit that this new information was making him very curious to see what she could do on the water.
They both pulled their backpacks to their backs and attempted to carry everything in one go along the passageway that went along the side of the house and down to the boat mooring.
"This is us," Finn announced, as he set down the surfboard and gestured towards the Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41 catamaran. It was just one of his dad's boats, and it really was nothing terribly fancy compared to the sailboat he kept at the East Coast Marina, but frankly he appreciated it being slightly more humble in this situation. Just 39 ft, three small cabins and two decent diesel engines to supplement the sail. Finn had taken this boat to Solomon Islands and Vanuatu once, so it was safe to say he was fairly capable on the water with it.
"Definitely better than a ferry," Charlie replied, approvingly. "I still have a small cuddy cabin in Halifax," she added, making the connection in Finn's head from the picture of her steering a boat in one of the pictures he'd seen on her profile.
"Let me guess, you moved for college?" Finn continued the guessing game they liked to play.
"Yup, McGill," she replied.
Finn recalled Colin once making fun of Canadian Universities - McGill included, not quite recalling what he had compared them to. But in this situation he really didn't care. Having been essentially a foreign student at Yale a lot of those 'all-american' jokes really hadn't rubbed off on him.
They continued to pack the boat and Finn checked on all the essentials before heading off.
"And you went to… NYU? Or here - Melbourn?" she reckoned.
Finn was tempted to lie frankly. The minute he said Yale, she'd make a million assumptions about him. That he must've been smart, studious, well-off - more than she probably already thought, high society slash secret sorority spoiled brat - all of which he probably was, except the studious part. But then again - why did he worry so much?
"Nope," he replied. He was almost just going to let her keep guessing, but just before he released the tether holding the boat by the mooring, he added, "Yale," and went to turn on the engines, hesitating in seeing her reaction.
Charlie joined him at the helm, taking a seat at the bench next to where he stood, and watched him pilot the boat down the river, not saying a single comment on his revelation.
Finn made casual commentary on what they saw along the way, Charlie observing the surroundings with curiosity while beginning to braid two simple french braids into her hair, her hands almost moving on automatic.
"It's amazing how you do that all by yourself," Finn commented, being very close to complimenting how gorgeous the outcome usually was.
"This is just one of the things I've set myself a goal in - I used to be quite shy, hardly ever doing anything with my hair. So I decided to teach myself. And now it's just become so organic I don't even think about it," she explained, quite appreciating him noticing it.
"So what other goals have you set for myself?" Finn inquired.
"Well…. This year is definitely about experiencing different things, meeting new people, finding myself new priorities, not dwelling too much on what others think of me, not buying anything I don't absolutely need - a certain minimalism to exist, you know," she explained. Finn could tell there was more, but these things alone were pretty interesting.
Finn continued to helm, glancing at her as he pondered.
"You want to know why," she stated, not asked, a little awkwardly.
"I mean - I don't need to know, but I guess I am curious," Finn admitted. He could tell she wasn't ready to share everything yet, hence instead of making her feel like she had to, he changed the subject. "You want to steer?" he suggested instead.
"So you think you're going to do it?" Jess asked as they drove home from Boston in his BMW. They'd had a long day - starting off with a joint session that morning at her therapist's and then so that Jess wouldn't have to cancel his afternoon signing in Boston, he'd brought her along.
Sure they could've just taken two cars. It wasn't as if they didn't have plenty to do at the store as it was, the opening being just days away. But somehow they both knew that more than anything they needed to focus on sticking together right now.
It was the first of Jess' book events Celeste had been to, regretfully, and to be honest, she felt quite guilty for not having gone to see him like that earlier. She'd loved seeing him in his element like that - confident, knowing his book excerpt he liked to read in these things by heart by now. In her eyes he was born to do just that - tell stories. His choice of words was sharp, blunt and definitely masculine, just like the Jess she'd first met - determined, successful but at the same time rebelling inside, wishing he was rather wearing his leather jacket instead of the blazer. She felt incredibly proud of him.
At Dr. Thompsons they'd discussed trying another set of meds with Celeste, which she'd been a little reluctant to do. She'd gotten into a good balance with the ones she had - they didn't make her too sleepy or make her gain too much weight like some others had and she wanted to be able to function. Hence the only other thing really to do was to map out other things that she could do. Among those things was doing something about her past. The therapist had suggested either posting the letter or actually going to see her mother, but Dr. Thompson didn't know in detail the complexities of those relationships. But then again she and Jess knew that the NDA didn't really prohibit contact, she just couldn't claim to be Odette.
"I'm not sure," she replied after a lengthy silence. She wasn't sure if she could, or if she wanted to - down to the practicalities of travel if she did. The letter would surely be something, but she couldn't be sure that her mother actually got it. She wasn't even sure if that would be enough to really change something in her.
He knew he shouldn't be pushing her in any way, but he too was desperate for solutions. Whatever could help, they should do it, right?
"Thanks for coming with me," Celeste said as she observed him, and reached out her hand to take his. She was thanking him for more than just coming with her and he knew it. "And I think…," she began, "I need you to let you publish the book," she added.
Jess kept driving, not saying a word.
"That didn't come out right," Celeste corrected. "I want you to publish it," she said. It was as much something she needed to let him do as wanting him to express his thoughts through this medium. She needed to stop feeling embarrassed for her condition and this was a start.
He glanced at her, ensuring that she'd really meant it.
"I think I need to find another editor," Jess stated.
Lauren didn't get the relationship him and Celeste had, and that was going to influence the way the story came out. And in that sense he was actually glad that he hadn't rushed it and had had the time to figure this out. Lauren was a great editor, but there were things she was better left out of. She wasn't going to like it, but it wasn't her book or her decision.
He wanted to do it, but he wanted to do this right.