As Finn dropped Charlie off at the coffee shop, taking an Uber, it was like stepping out of a cocoon for the first time. Everything felt so different - senses sharpened and at the same time fogged by the cloud of fluff that seemed to surround the two. They'd spent three days in that apartment after their date, barely setting their noses out on the balcony to dine, going outside only once and that for a very practical reason of running out of condoms. It had been their bubble, and their alone - catered by the DoorDash and entertained by themselves and some Netflix in between. Other than lovemaking, they'd laughed, played, talked and even fought - though the topic of their first fight hadn't been anything more dramatic than whether pineapple belonged on pizza.
"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Finn confirmed, pulling her close, now finally feeling like they'd broken down the wall of tension. He'd pondered on several occasions whether it was too much too soon to just stick around after their first real date, though - perhaps it was like third or fourth - hell, who was counting! But it hadn't seemed like something she'd wanted him to do nor something he'd truly needed to do, and they'd agreed that it wasn't weird at all. And then just one day had turned into another...
In a way they'd already had their first trial run of cohabitation, without actually putting any labels on it. They hadn't really had 'the talk' but there really didn't seem to be any reason for it - there was no confusion this was something exclusive.
"Hm-hm," she mumbled in agreement, strangely enough feeling a little sentimental to part from him - even if it was just for a day.
Their lips met, lips and tongues savoring the moment.
"Now I just need to scrape myself off the floor," she joked with a twinkle in her eyes, it having been a running joke how his kisses made her knees weak. She stroked the fabric on his shirt shoulder, still finding it kind of funny that Finn was wearing the same clothes he'd had on during their date, having simply removed the vest, caringly just before they parted.
Finn stole another quick kiss and watched her step into the coffee shop. He took a deep breath as he walked backwards down the curb towards his Uber. Oh, he knew he was in trouble.
As the driver took Finn to his sister's, glimpses of their three days of carefree bliss flashed in front of his eyes. He recalled what it felt like to hold her while they'd slept - carefully avoiding the thought of sex not to make the driver too uncomfortable, but he wasn't able to push it too far in his mind - her curves, her scent, feel... and even taste, and how her touch on his skin felt - still freshly imprinted in his brain.
Finn wasn't naive enough to state that he'd never experienced anything of the sort before, there had been occasions when he'd let himself immerse in a few short flings that too had resulted in long weekends cooped up together partying, but this time there had been hardly any alcohol involved. Usually those flings burned up just as fast as they'd flared. The difference here was that Finn was not the same guy anymore.
Eventually the reality check had been Charlie's - having to take a shift at the coffee shop. But they'd both agreed, that since they were here, on this continent, they shouldn't really spend their time just cooped up anymore - she wanted to try more surfing, see the city some more, and Finn had to admit that a big part of coming back to his hometown this time of year was to embrace the warmth, hence he really didn't object, making it a point to make her free days count. She'd explained her reasoning behind not wanting to give up the job though she was willing to try to drop a few shifts, and he got it - she wanted to feel like she wasn't splurging, she was being responsible - that was just who she was. But that really wasn't going to stop Finn from treating her like a queen when he could, even though she'd told him he didn't need to.
"And who might you be?" Sylvie asked him jokingly, as Finn stepped out of the Uber in a satisfied manner, as she was just packing up her kids into her car to take them to their preschool. She hadn't seen him in three days, and he certainly looked like he was returning from the longest party, or in this case, a date - the vest thrown over his shoulder, the other hand in his pocket, a stubble on his skin and yet not hungover at all.
"Your long lost brother of course - oh, please, will you take me in, I've been sleeping under the coconut tree," Finn exclaimed theatrically, sinking to his left knee and positioning his hands in a begging position.
From the corner of his eye Finn could already see the Sylvie's kids waving and screaming something at him from the car and he waved back at them.
"Poor choice of trees, brother," Sylvie laughed and waved him off, before getting in her car.
Finn shrugged, and dragged himself along the footpath towards the poolhouse, already sensing the satisfied smile his sister was giving him behind his back. And for once, he didn't mind, unable to swipe the broad grin off his own face just the same.
"Can you talk?" Celeste texted Rory, after she'd put Evie to bed.
For a good ten minutes there was no reply, but then it was Rory that called her.
After both giving each other a quick recap of what had been going on at either side of the State line, like they did roughly weekly these days besides the occasional visual texting they liked to do on the go, the two listened to each-other's silence for a moment. They were past needing to fill every second with chatter, they essentially just wanted to be around each other but it was a little difficult to do that over the phone.
"I think I need to confess something," Celeste began.
"What? You mean about G?" she asked, guessing it.
"Yeah - I didn't know you knew," Celeste replied, sounding surprised.
"She mentioned something…," Rory commented.
"I didn't mean to cross a line with her, I just… she reminds me of me and I don't know - I thought maybe I could help?" she hesitated. After reading all she had in that short time she was actually beginning to doubt how much simple books would help her.
"I'm not mad... though now that you speak of it with such seriousness, I feel like maybe I don't really know what's up with her," Rory noted, beginning to worry.
"I think…," Celeste hesitated, wondering where to draw the line of what to tell Rory. "Don't tell her I told you this, but I think all of her very mature behavior is much down to acceptance seeking - she just wants to be wanted," she explained.
"I wouldn't be very surprised…," Rory sighed, thinking of Christopher. She almost wondered how and to what extent did she herself ever struggle thanks to Christopher's absence. She had never truly searched for his acceptance, she'd had full blown abandonment issues that had surfaced years ago but she had by now dealt with it.
"She clings to men like they're a lifeline - and that really isn't very healthy," Celeste added.
"Men?" Rory asked, really only knowing about Brody and of the crush she'd had but that had to her knowledge never happened. But it was just the word choice that worried her for a moment - 'men' not 'boys'.
"I am no psychologist, but I kind of see a pattern," she replied, actually wishing she could offer anything other than speculation.
"I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do here… insist she talk to me, take her go to therapy, tell our dad?" Rory threw options in the air.
"You know how she wants to go into psychology herself, right?" Celeste began.
"Yeah, she's mentioned it," Rory replied.
"Sometimes they do check for these things in the admissions - not directly of course. But there are evaluations to see whether applicants are mentally ready for a career in something like that. At least in France - I don't really know how it works here. And maybe going to a therapist with that explanation that it will give her inside knowledge and she can prove that she can recognize her own patterns and handle them with a clear head would be something she'd be open to," Celeste discussed.
"Hmm.. that's not a bad idea really," Rory reacted.
"But I think we should talk to her together," Celeste advised.
"Can you come visit?" Rory suggested. "The next week will be insane - I still need to do gift shopping and then there's the gala…," she listed, having already explained to Celeste her worries about Mitchum potentially staying over.
"I guess, but just for a day," Celeste replied, thinking over her schedule.
Jess was truly enjoying being back home after more than a month on the road. No more unpredictable coffee, lumpy pillows, shortage of bedside outlets... but most importantly what he was truly appreciating now was the warmth of Celeste next to him as he slept, the inextinguishable desire that they still had and the way she took care of him without him asking for it. Whether it was bringing him a cup of coffee unexpectedly, or making his favourite meal for dinner - or simply doing some share to the work she didn't really need to be doing like mailing the store orders before he'd even gotten up.
The feeling was mutual - but what having Jess home meant for Celeste was also about flexibility. She was no longer feeling like the single parent, despite having had family around - now she was a lot more free to do what she wanted without needing to feel guilty about asking someone to babysit.
The store was doing alright for the first week. It got most of its browsing crowd in the afternoons and this enabled both of them a lot of freedom. For a few wandering tourists it was good to keep the store open also in the mornings and as it was slow, Jess could easily do his editing while simply having the store door unlocked. The webstore created most of their sales at this point. It was not what he'd expected, but it was fine, just involving less interaction that he had been hoping for. But it was winter - people travelled a lot less during winter.
Celeste was still taking a few shifts at the Inn, went to her weekly therapy sessions and she still made it a point to take time to be with Evie at least a couple of days a week, taking her swimming or trying some alternative child development techniques on her - some Waldorf, Montessori, Piaget, and Reggio Emilia - but she was picking what she liked out of all of them, the end goal being that she offered Evie more of herself than her family had. These teaching methods were also something her and Rory spoke about quite a lot, Rory now actually being a qualified teacher, which was kind of funny, come to think of it, as she'd never really worked in a school nor was she planning to.
Celeste was just returning from taking Evie to her daycare that morning, letting out a deep puff of air as she emerged through the store door. Now using that door, instead of the kitchen door in the back, was becoming a lot more convenient, but it was also a little exciting to hear the store bell ring each time. They had their own book store - it was still hard to believe.
"It's freezing out there," Celeste stated, her teeth chattering demonstratively, and unwrapped her scarf that had also covered part of her hair and coat, stomping snow off her boots. The temperature had dropped below 25 degrees that day and it was beginning to snow again. She hung up her coat in the back of the room and then returned to the store to hang out for a bit.
Jess had already shoveled the snow from the front of the store, and had now settled in his modern, but mid-century design-inspired, swivel chair with his second cup of coffee, staring at his computer screen that was now prominently positioned on one of the large desks in one store corner. He at least hoped that he would get enough work down here in the store without needing to hire any more help to man the place, at least for the time being until they got their bearings.
"They did promise more snow in the afternoon, we might actually get a snowstorm," Jess replied, turning his swivel chair to face her, feeling not at all worried. He was rather thinking along the lines of taking Evie sledging.
"Yeah, but I wanted to go to the City on Friday," she complained, having agreed with Rory she'd try to make it happen. While she had winter tires on her car, she wasn't that experienced of a driver in these conditions, driving into the city feeling like enough of a challenge, having not really done that herself since late summer.
"So you take the train..." Jess suggested, seeing it as no big deal. Frankly he felt a little calmer having her take the train too, but he knew better than to suggest that.
"I guess," she sighed. She was loving her car by now - despite her initial reluctance towards driving it. She was still an avid supporter of other means of transport, especially in Stars Hollow, but still it had its perks - allowing her to decide when and where she went.
"Were you just joking when you said…" Celeste began, adding, "about me perhaps making a good sex-ed teacher?" hesitantly, surprising Jess with her seriousness.
"I…," Jess stuttered. It really wasn't like him to stutter. He hadn't taken it seriously at all, but as he was still tiptoeing around some topics with her, he wasn't really sure what to say.
"I just… with the reading and, you know, how I've always wanted to communicate these things to the audience in my book or art without the false shame. And I've been complaining about everything that's wrong with the system now, here especially…," she explained, almost hating to admit that the idea that Liz had suggested her, which had made her laugh about it, had actually began to grow on her. And now when Jess had mentioned it a few days ago, she just wanted to know if he believed she could do it. She needed an honest opinion, as perhaps in the midst of looking for distractions for herself, she might just have been getting ahead of herself. The last thing she wanted to do was start something only to discover a week later that it had been just a whim.
"Well - I most definitely would've loved to have gotten educated on sex by you," Jess smiled, and playfully pulled Celeste into his lap and she let out a yelp. He was struggling to keep the conversation entirely on fact - the idea simply seemed a little funny but he knew it was a little juvenile of him.
Celeste scolded him by slapping his shoulder playfully.
"But I'm serious. There were flyers up at Doose's the other day even, they've posted it like three times to the Stars Hollow Facebook group. They have like hardly any requirement other than having a college degree and no criminal record. But honestly I think I'd want to take some classes in Hartford if I did that. It said there might be some course I'd have to take, but I honestly don't think this is about just giving them the 'talk'. It's also so jumbled up - mental health, health behavior, physical health, communication…," Celeste explained, trailing off to a lot of areas she really did know quite well.
What Jess did see, as he held her on his lap, was that glimmer in her eyes he hadn't seen in years. He saw excitement and determination. So what if the reasoning for that drive was to simply give a couple of lessons each week to some teenagers.
"Hey, if you feel like you want to do it, you do it. I know you'll do great," Jess assured. "Go, take classes - I just want you to be happy," he added.
Celeste ran her fingers through his hair, hugging him.
"Just try to not make all the boys fall in love with you," he smirked, as the hug broke, slipping his arm up her thigh over her smooth dark green panty hose just under the hem of her dress with a hint of possessiveness.
"Right," she laughed and got up.
What she really should've expected but hadn't at that moment, was Jess getting up right after her.
Jess walked to the door and locked the front door and flipped the sign to say closed.
Celeste definitely recognized that smirk.