Chapter 29
October 27th, 2022, Cambridge, MA
As Rory had been in a lenient mood that day, she'd not argued, when Logan had suggested lunch, or brunch…, at a slightly upscale restaurant just near campus.
They'd had some eggs and avocado toast, along with probably the biggest conversation about their own growth throughout the years, this time not only Rory, opening up about her career a little, but also Logan, while staying clear of the topic of Odette, also shared how he'd done some pretty cool things at the company in the past five years. Careerwise - the last five years had been fruitful years, even if Rory was no longer using the same yard-stick for the measure of her success. She'd even proudly told him how she'd learned to invest and overall manage her fortune - while not actually going into the numbers and names of particular stocks - she'd just been proud of herself for figuring out how to do it and to do it herself.
"Before you go…, there's something I wanted to suggest for this weekend," Logan said, having already begun to think in the beginning of the week what to do with the two this time. Mostly it had so far been Rory with the brilliant ideas for outings, but he didn't want to come short - he'd just never really had to think about kid appropriate entertainment this way.
"Yeah?" Rory replied, taking the last sip of her coffee.
"I was thinking of flying you two over to see a show in New York. There's this big bubble show this weekend and there's this certain Aussie who's dying to see both of you. I know it's short notice…," Logan explained, apologetically.
It was short notice and Rory was a little skeptical whether Logan had actually thought things through. Taking a plane - even if it wasn't a long flight was still a lot for a 5-years-old, which meant she'd be tired and cranky even before they got to the show probably.
"And I mean, it wouldn't have to be a quick there and back, we could stay over, one or two nights - up to you," Logan continued to sell the idea, and added at the slightly skeptical look on Rory's face,"Separate rooms of course," really not wanting to push that part.
This morning had already involved many major steps - including him revealing to Rory how he wasn't indifferent towards her when it came to maybe potentially considering them growing into something more one day. And he was enjoying immensely how this new Rory didn't seem to be fighting that with every fiber of her being, but - dare he say - was enjoying the flirt.
"And you just assume, I'm free, is that it?" Rory teased, slightly biting her lip.
Logan raised the corner of his mouth, hopefully.
"I'm not. The general idea can be postponed. However, Finn is in Barcelona next weekend," Logan replied. It wasn't an issue to get new tickets, but he was kind of hoping he would get to see the spontaneous side of her, several spontaneous trips they'd made to the City coming to mind throughout their years.
"I'm going to have to blow off Angie's brunch," Rory replied, but Logan was already sensing that she was leaning towards a 'yes'. "And you know I'm perfectly capable of paying for our flights and hotel, right?" she added, showing some backbone. She didn't like him using the phrase 'flying them over to'.
"And here I was thinking of using Blade," Logan smirked back, having wanted to spare his daughter some time going through big airports for this little trip, and use a private helicopter service instead.
Rory knew what he meant, and honestly that alone would've been a weekend's worth of experience for Em.
"I'm not sure I want her to get used to things like that...," Rory replied, fidgeting with her cup. She was speaking not only about the helicopter, but in general too - just flying over somewhere to see a simple show - not even something they'd waited half a year for or something she'd been talking about for months, but just something that had seemed like fun three days earlier.
"Well… I think spoiling her and showing her things that come with me on occasion, the perks - shall we say, are two different things," Logan argued tentatively, for the first time feeling like he had some say in things that concerned their daughter. He hardly lived that kind of lifestyle these days, but there were moments, and this being a prime example, when he felt like he could do more and spruce things up by allowing himself to enjoy what he could afford as well.
"I just don't want this to become a competition on who buys her the biggest Christmas present next," Rory replied, for a moment getting a reality check that this could indeed be the first step. "It's easy to get her expectations up," she added.
"Well… that's not how I meant it. I just thought by skipping JFK or Newark would make it all less tiring for her," Logan replied. "And by all means - we can agree to coordinate any future gifts," Logan added, holding up his palms as a sign of surrender.
"And the hotel has got to be child friendly…," Rory said, giving him an not entirely convinced answer, and continued to convince Logan to let her pay for the hotel if he was insisting on the helicopter. She did believe it would be a great experience for Em, and she herself was dying to see Finn again as well - it was not like she had never enjoyed such luxuries herself and not enjoyed them. And the City had a lot else to show her daughter - museums, the Zoo, shops, many of her favorite desserts and so on. Why should she deny Em anything if they were within their grasp?
October 29th, 2022, Upper East Side, NYC
While Logan hadn't held back on the choice of the aircraft, the snacks on board and the luxurious transfer to take them to a hotel of Rory's choice, Rory had intentionally decided to splurge a little too.
After all, because she lived humbly on most days and had learned to put her money into good use, she could in fact afford to do a lot of the same things Logan did these days. In part she wanted to prove that she too knew how to spend money - not just spend it but spend it well - when she wanted to. And demonstrate that she was not just defined by the way that she'd been brought up.
Rory been brought up to be almost ashamed of the money the Gilmore's had, and with iron-cast principles that money and success had to be earned with hard work and not flaunted extensively, along with the belief that money made people superficial, snobbish and shallow.
More than anything Rory had wanted to demonstrate the balance she'd reached, not that she needed to prove anything to Logan. It wasn't just Logan with the money anymore, and honestly - even if perhaps that made her sound insecure, to her it made a big difference that she didn't feel like a charity case.
While Rory hid behind the convenient excuse that the choice of rooms - a grand suite at the Pierre - was mostly so it'd be more convenient in regards to Em, both Rory and Logan sensed there was more to it. The story was that this way Em would get time with both of her parents in the living area and that it would be easier to coordinate their coming and going, not having to text or call every time.
They'd spent some pretty special times here, the two of them - years ago. And while she was still cautious about making any concrete advances, she was curious of how the setting would feel, in some scenarios even hoping for some tension - some a little more intimate late night conversations maybe? - that was usually where she stopped herself from daydreaming to not get ahead of herself.
They'd gotten there last night pretty late, and after a room-service dinner along with some kids' movie, there had, however, been none of that, and Rory, feeling dead tired herself from a long day, had climbed into the king-sized bed she'd shared with her daughter and dozed off before she knew it right along with her, only switching off the table-side lamp sometime in the middle of the night.
"Good morning," came a husky voice from behind her, as Rory was preparing herself a cup of coffee, while she let Em sleep late. It was Saturday morning after all, and other than meeting Finn for lunch, and the show later that evening, they had no concrete plans. She couldn't deny that she'd hoped to see him alone in the morning.
It was definitely the closest moment to present of the tentative intimacy she'd pictured, sillily, but it was just the two of them in the living room, Rory in her nightgown with her robe loosely around her body, and Logan similarly casually dressed. No makeup, no bra, no collars or buttons...
"Good morning," she replied, needing to clear her voice before she did.
She regretted she hadn't bothered to brush her hair or teeth yet, feeling strangely eager to look good for him. But realistically thinking she knew he'd seen her in way worse of a shape - when she'd had the flu, or once even during a food poisoning incident and several times when she'd been hungover or fresh out of bed. The only difference now was her age, which was hardly doing her any favors, but with her newfound confidence she refused to feel paralyzed by the reality and straightened her back and decided not to show that she cared.
"Coffee?" Rory asked, glancing briefly towards him again. She'd always loved his morning look - his hair a little messy, beard unshaven.
"I wouldn't mind a cup," Logan replied. "Should we order breakfast or…?" he asked.
"If you're starving…," Rory shrugged. "She might be down for another hour or so, hardly ever more…," Rory added.
"I guess, coffee will do for now," Logan said, accepting the coffee Rory was handing him, the one she had initially brewed for herself. "Thank you," he added, feeling how this dynamic - this utterly mundane and ordinary dynamic of making the other a cup of coffee came back so naturally. She'd done this for him all the time.
"An interesting choice of venues, I've got to say..," Logan replied. It wasn't the room they usually had at this place - this was a two bedroom after all - but the view of the park was the same, perhaps a floor off or so. He could recall the two of them parading around naked and feeding each-other tiramisus, then burning off the calories.
"What can I say, it was short notice..," Rory replied innocently, taking a seat on the dark leather Chesterfield couch, and folded her legs underneath her. She leaned her arm on the armrest. She wasn't entirely certain that showing quite this much cleavage, or nipple through the nightdress, was what she'd aimed at doing, but adjusting herself now felt more awkward than just letting things be.
Logan joined her in the living room, on an armchair closest to her, and took a sip of his coffee, glanced briefly at her bare skin - not even the cleavage the white silky night dress generously showed, but just her neck and collarbones. He was not oblivious to the perk nipple that showed through the nightdress, the other being covered by the robe, either. She still had that elegance and grace. One could forget oneself to stare, and it was a challenging minute, trying to think up more neutral conversation topics.
Logan definitely enjoyed this little game she was playing - it was as if she was fishing, kind of… well, technically she seemed to be playing the game he was - he was sure by now. They both seemed to be playing the game of seeing how much it'd take to make one of them make an actual move. But never before had their first move been quite as terrifying as now.
September 23rd, 2013, Hamburg, Germany
Rory stepped out of the Steigenberger, her brain buzzing from the day spent listening to a series of speakers of the Investigative Journalism Conference. A long day in an air-conditioned room on top of being somewhat jetlagged from her flight over the day before, and her eyes felt red and other than food, she mostly thought about getting back to her own hotel room and applying some eyedrops to ease the itchiness.
She was saving a hundred bucks a night by not staying at the venue but had rented herself a airBnB at Hamburg-Mitte, telling herself how saving some money was only the secondary reason behind trying to see where normal people lived whenever she visited some place. She would've wanted to say she was here covering the conference for some major magazine or a paper, a web-page even, but she wasn't. She'd hoped one of her freelance jobs would cover it, but in the end it had been her own thing to squeeze into her schedule, wanting to do at least some self-development, the fact that she'd never made it to grad school still weighing on her. But it was good for connections, certainly.
Graduating from Yale had been above all a reality check. Things, people, jobs pulling her in every direction and all she really was was undecided. She'd never again, after having been so decided on Harvard until the beginning of her senior year, wanted to 'put all of her eggs in one basket', and having 'a lot of irons in the fire' was a recurring theme in her life - if one were to speak in cliches.
Rory pulled out her phone to help guide her back to the subway, to take the train back to St. Pauli, but the GPS seemed to be struggling to locate which way she was positioned. She walked one way a few steps, and then another, hoping the location to be determined more swiftly this way. She in theory knew from which direction she'd arrive, but since she'd been in a hurry and taken the taxi that morning, she didn't know which way was the closest subway station.
She was just about to give up, and just pick a direction and walk and figure it out the old fashioned way, when a voice, a ghost-from-the-past, stopped her.
"And here I was thinking I was seeing things, but you're a little hard to miss," the familiar voice said, possibly referring to her bright red dress, causing Rory to look around and search for its source.
"Of all the gin joints! Hi," Rory exclaimed, seeing Logan, suit-cled, a little thinner and his hair cut a little shorter than she remembered.
"Hey," Logan said.
"What are you doing here?" Rory asked, only then realizing there were three other businessmen waiting for him by the entrance.
"Just in town for some business," Logan said, sounding as casual as if they were still close friends.
There hadn't been complete radio silence between them since her graduation. They'd talked - apologized and grieved their breakup on the phone a couple of times when Rory had been on the campaign trail, her decision to do that proving to Logan even more how the clean break had been the only right thing at the time, even though he'd realized it hadn't been fair of him to put her in the position in the first place, thinking back. She'd been sorry for being unable to reply with a 'yes' and that had been that. They'd moved on.
They'd run into each other once, very briefly, at a random gallery opening, but as both had been there with their respective dates, they'd only exchanged a quick 'how are you?' that time.
"Right. Me - a conference, which just ended for the day right in there," Rory replied, gesturing at the building behind Logan.
"Ah, believe it or not I actually thought of you when I saw the signs," Logan said, adding, "I'm staying here."
"What a coincidence," Rory said, feeling baffeled.
"Hey, are you free for dinner? I'd love to catch up," Logan suggested.
"It sure looks like those guys over there might have plans for you," Rory nodded towards the businessmen who were talking amongst themselves but glancing towards Logan every once in a while.
"And you'd be the perfect excuse to bail," Logan replied.
"I guess, I could be," Rory replied.
From that moment on things moved pretty fast. Rory made her way to the nearest pharmacy for some eye drops and Logan finished things up with his business partners and they reunited in the same spot.
They had dinner at one of the upper scale fusion places, a place that didn't demand a formal dress code, and drowned a few complimentary Jägermeister shots and a bottle of wine along with their five (small) course meal.
They talked, walked along the beautifully lit cobble-stone streets and admired the canals that looked almost magical. It was so easy to slip into them and as at that moment they had nothing holding them back, they did step into a version of them.
One admiring brush Rory's cheek to brush a stay hair behind her ear… and that did it. The electrifying touch against her cheek made her step close a fraction of a second later and melt into his embrace, her lips pressing firmly against his hot and inviting mouth. All they'd needed was one trigger.
October 29th, 2022, Upper East Side, NYC
There was definitely that tension again - the two of them simply sipping their coffees just a few feet between them. Logan was trying to observe imperceptibly how her chest rose and fell along with her breaths, noticing how there was a whiff of her natural aroma in the room - not a bad scent, and most important how her eyes wandered the room and kept landing on him, his face, possibly neck, maybe even the V-neck of his t-shirt which was a little deeper than he usually wore outside.
They exchanged a few words, but it was nothing of significance - stuff about the day - what time they needed to be ready, where they were meeting Finn and so on.
But they could both tell that had they touched, even if just for a second, it would've been a very slippery slope. But at this point it wasn't about hurrying it, it wasn't about killing that tension - it was about lingering in that apprehension for as long as they could manage, knowing now how this was half the fun. Neither had felt a draw that strong in what felt like forever… but they were cautious, mature and still had their common sense.
It was the sweet voice of the 5-year-old that broke that tension for that morning - "Mommy?" Em asked from the bedroom, having woken to find herself alone in an empty hotel bedroom.
"I'm out here, Em! Coming!" Rory chimed, raising swiftly from her seat and gathering herself. As she briefly glanced at Logan in passing Rory got a rather satisfied and slightly cocky smile in return. God, he was infuriating…
AN: a productive weekend behind me but since I have a bunch of things to finish for work next week, the beginning of the week might be a little quiet.