AN:
Some of you asked and I will reply: I want Rory to explain what happened with Logan's baby to Logan herself (in part through a flashback), but I've given some hints if you've really been paying attention. But it's been vague, intentionally - I know. The last chapter also briefly hinted at the fact that she had been very close to telling Logan before anything happened. In part I think this vagueness and hinting illustrates well how Rory doesn't really dare to look at that whole thing as a full picture yet - like only dares to accept the fact in bits.
The looks between Finn and Rory were about the fact that she told Finn how she was lonely, and generally Finn was supportive of her putting herself out there more. Seth was just not what he'd expected, and I imagined he might actually blame himself a little for that. Besides, I think it wouldn't hurt Finn and Logan to have a talk at one point.
Chapter 26
October 20th, 2021
Wednesday really wasn't the perfect time for this. But Rory felt like being hard to reach could turn into her disadvantage if this continued for much longer. It had taken some effort, clearing her evening of homework reading and asking Lorelai to entertain Em for the night, but there she was, home from work in record time, hastily shaving her legs.
She was just finishing up, and rinsed the excess foam off her legs, when she heard voices coming from downstairs - Lorelai and Em had arrived. With Em around the house, it wouldn't have been the first time she'd ended up with one leg shaven and the other not.
Rory continued to moisturize her skin, adding a dash of Tocca Florence behind her ears and between her breasts. Oh she was going all in alright - and she was pretty sure Seth knew it too, their discussion having been a pretty direct one about their weekday dinner date, containing plenty of hints of their intentions. The anticipation was definitely making her a little nervous.
The only trouble was that it felt a little technical. Like the third date was the time they needed to get this over with - like she was doing this to shed that initial awkwardness as quickly as possible. In part that was probably true, but she wasn't really admitting to herself that properly, claiming to feel at least some excitement towards the man (or maybe it was just towards the situation itself). But whether that was just the general nerves or something more - she struggled to differentiate.
Em burst through the bedroom door just as Rory was slipping on her purple embroidered lace mini dress, having probably seen her car up front. Her dark grey underwear matched, but it wasn't anything too flashy or seductive, hence she wasn't too worried about Em catching a glimpse. She didn't want to look like she was trying too hard.
"Mommy!" the girl exclaimed, hugging her mother's legs, as Rory zipped the dress up.
"Hey, Em, how was school?" Rory continued with their normal after-school discussion, after giving her a kiss. This time it had been just Lorelai who had gone to pick her up instead of her, giving her a chance to get a head start at getting ready, needing to shed her work look, which tended to hide under sweaters and full cover tights.
Rory continued to do her makeup - just a quick base, some blush, light contour to her eyes, and mascara, topping things off with some rosy pink lip ink, while she continued to talk to Em, who was sitting by Rory on the bathroom counter. They could hear Lorelai downstairs calling for pizza or something similar, the word calzone having been thrown around. Lorelai still preferred calling over apps, liking the game of judging people by their voices and as Luke was the kind of man who didn't like paying the middle-man that household was pretty stuck to calling directly to the sources of their takeaway. But the call created a pleasant homy sound around the house, Rory had to admit - almost like old times with the addition of Em.
"You look so pretty," Em commented, running her palm over the embroidered pattern of Rory's dress, taking in the texture.
"Thank you, baby," Rory exclaimed, giving the girl another little kiss, and continued to pull her hair up into a low and messy bun, wanting to expose her neck.
Rory had been honest with Em the night before, and said that she had a date. That of course had followed an explanation of what a date was. She hadn't been out on a date since Em was about two - but those couple of times had been sort of out of need to be with someone other than Jess not for actual hope to find someone significant. So she wasn't sure that those counted, and Em had no memory of those times. But now Rory kept that pretty straightforward with Em too - it was when two people wanted to find out if they liked each other. She aimed to create at least a similarly open relationship with Em that she had had with her mother. She hoped Em would tell her about her first kiss - one could hope she guessed, realizing that even she hadn't told that to Lorelai right when it had happened.
"What happens if you like him?" Em asked, her little heart-patterned legs dangling off the vanity, playfully. Em almost looked like a little cupid like that.
Rory should've known she'd get a row of these questions from her. Em was definitely approaching her 'why' phase. That was what happened when you told a kid things.
"Then I might see him again. People go out for dinner at a different place, sometimes to the movies or just for a walk," Rory tried to keep things simple, continuing to bring a few more examples.
But as she answered that, she did begin to think - could Seth be someone she pictured taking any of the next steps? At the moment she really couldn't picture bringing Seth home to meet Em for example, or to be someone she chose to spend time with over Em in an amount that would make her girl miss her. Like if she had a weekend for her she certainly wouldn't choose to go away for a weekend trip with her, for example. Deep down she wondered if that meant something, or maybe it was just too early to think about things like that. Right now Seth was someone she liked, not someone she was falling for, at least not yet.
Despite the thoughts that had crossed her mind, having not had much time to dwell on it then and there, having been late as she was, three and a half hours later Rory laid on her stomach, just a linen wrapped around her hips staring at the surface of the bedsheet at an one bedroom airbnb apartment at West Hartford Center.
Everything had gone as expected - first an art exhibition - something contemporary, dinner and a quick stroll in the direction Rory had already planned for them. She was not so headfast that she would've slept with him no matter what - no, she wasn't that desperate, but he had done things right too. Seth had been the perfect gentlemen, opening doors for her, keeping up an intelligent and slightly flirty conversation, light touches here and there, added compliments every now and again. It almost felt like a game. If you did enough things right this was where you'd end up - in bed and naked together. They'd both done enough for that.
"I should have these thrown out," Rory mumbled, having not realized she'd said it out loud, still observing the linen that to her looked a little worn out. The airbnb was definitely a very nice one - decorated in neutral beiges and whites, filled with modern furniture and everything one might need for a stay in an new city. Rory always preferred airbnbs in cases like this - not having to deal with the reception, but it was not like she'd needed to deal with anyone in this case.
"What?" Seth responded, lifting his head off the pillow, both of them having just laid there for a few minutes, cooling down.
"Oh nothing," Rory said as she turned to face him, looking a little flushed, her hair messy, having not really looked at him directly since the actual intercourse - even then actual eye contact had felt a little off. "I just said I should get new linen in here," she added.
"This is yours?" Seth asked, gesturing around this place, connecting the dots in his head. He'd probably noticed Rory feeling a little too homey in there too, having not needed to explore the place much as they'd come in here.
"Oh yea..," Rory began, humbly. "It is," she admitted with a small smile. She continued to explain that she owned a couple of Airbnbs in Harford. The city being a frequent conference destination she really could be quite satisfied with their occupancy. She didn't bother explaining that she actually owned six in total, having decided to get some additional real estate with the money from the sales of the Gilmore estate, not liking to brag. She'd hired a manager to take care of everything, not having to think about it herself. And since the place had been vacant, there not being any conferences in town this particular week, she hadn't hesitated to use it. She'd done it before. It wasn't like she was going to bring guys she dated to her home while Em was there, and even if she was at Jess' - that seemed too personal somehow.
Seth commented something general at that, having not realized that was the case and said that the place looked nice. But this reminded them both of the fact that during their dates they'd never really gotten into explaining much about each other's background. He knew she had her own house, but he also knew that the teacher salaries were not great. Rory knew from Seth in general that having tenure at Yale meant that one had a stabile job, it didn't necessarily mean one was well off, but there was perhaps more of the prestige there nonetheless.
"I didn't realize you were like the rest of the Brigade bunch, you know," Seth commented, sitting up in bed. He really wasn't bad to look at without his shirt on, but if her latest comparison was Jess who really put some effort into his muscles, it was a difficult comparison to compete in.
"Like what?" Rory asked, sounding a little confused, deciding she also needed to go to the bathroom. She gathered up her clothes from the floor while staying covered by one of the bed sheets.
The sex itself hadn't been bad - sort of mediocre, but then again first times rarely were otherworldly. There had been compliments and adoring touches, a sufficient amount of foreplay, and a few different poses. He'd gotten her off in the process - that was the point, wasn't it? But her state of mind wasn't in that place where she was looking for seconds.
"You know - family money," Seth implied.
"Oh," Rory responded, having not realized it would matter. "Well kind of - I grew up without it though," she explained, somehow sensing Seth wasn't treating it as a positive trait. She didn't like feeling like she needed to defend herself like that though. Did it really matter where they were at?
"I just always thought you were different from them," Seth explained, not hurrying to get out of the bed.
"Well I kind of am - I grew up with nothing, but I went to prep school, I am in the D.A.R - technically at least. It was my grandparents that had money, I really didn't grow up with that until we realized we couldn't do without it," Rory explained not going too into the details. "You know - for what it's worth I thought you were too," she added, realizing she must've assumed a little too. She even wondered whether that one time Seth had mentioned the club when texting her he'd done that on purpose. Sometimes guys liked to show off like that.
"My dad didn't join the club until his 60s, he worked his way up. I was on scholarship," Seth explained.
"So did my mom," Rory replied. She thought this was something that'd make them similar - that should've been a positive, but she couldn't shake the feeling this was an issue for Seth for some reason. Was the guy really that shallow that he was bothered by the woman having more money? They were so far from her showing him her net worth, but she really had believed that it wouldn't have mattered in any scenario.
"Does it matter? You sound like it matters," Rory needed to ask, heading for the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
"I guess it doesn't. I didn't mean.. I don't know - I was just surprised," Seth explained apologetically, speaking to Rory by now through the closed bathroom door, getting dressed himself.
"What do you think? That money makes me shallow? Is that it?" Rory said a moment later, emerging from the bathroom a moment later, half dresed, sounding annoyed. "Because believe me, I thought that too at first, but I've learned a thing or two," she added.
"Rory, please, it was not what I meant. I'm sorry," Seth apologized.
"And if you tell me you were a scholarship kid, that should only really have taught you not to do that to people. Because surely in those circles, back in college, you were judged all the time. I know I was," Rory said, continuing to zip her dress up.
Seth was almost dressed by then too, just buttoning up his shirt.
"And I worked very hard not to be judged," Seth admitted.
"Well - so did I. I also didn't want people to judge me for my grandparent's money, just the same. It wasn't black and white," Rory replied, having gotten a little agitated at this discussion. She could sense that his meaning had not been to cause that reaction in her, but it had brought out some trait in him that she just didn't appreciate or rather didn't really understand yet. It wasn't the sort of thing she'd throw him out over or declare she never wanted to see him again, but it did raise an orange flag.
"I can believe that, and I'm sorry I said anything, I didn't mean to judge - it just took me by surprise," Seth replied, managing to calm Rory a little.
"I just don't like talking about any of it," Rory confessed, and pulled her by now too messy bun into a pony tail by running her fingers through her hair.
"Point taken, lesson learned," he replied, and pulled her closer for a brief kiss, which in all-honesty had lost some of that initial desire they'd started out with.
They left together, walking together over to Seth's black Hyundai Santa Fe, and from there Rory guided him for a couple of blocks to drop her off at her house. They didn't talk much, but it really was a short drive, less than five minutes.
"It's a nice place," Seth commented politely, not really getting a good glance in the dark.
Rory was sure that her place should've been a prime example of how humble she was about her inheritage. But she felt too tired to point that out, having had a long day.
"We should do this again sometime," Rory replied, speaking vaguely and without much effort to being flirty. It hadn't been a bad evening, just the aftertaste was less than what she'd hoped for. There were no butterflies in her stomach, she wasn't giddy from having done the deed nor had an inner craving for its repeat.
They parted with a quick kiss, and Rory slipped out into the night.
"So, how did it go?" was Lorelai's expected question, as Rory put her keys in the bowl on the counter. Lorelai was sitting on the couch, where she'd settled to watch the latest season of Sex Education. She was planning on staying over, the couch being a pull-out, not bothering to drive back. She really didn't mind doing this every once in a while, even sometimes when Rory had just a lot of work to do or Em was sick.
"Fine," Rory replied, sinking into the couch next to her, and toed off her ankle boots. Rory's change of hair-dos did the talking that they had gotten further than just the dinner, and she really hadn't made that expectation a big secret around Lorelai.
"That bad, eh?" Lorelai asked. Em was already in bed, the time being past 10 PM.
"Just sort of 'meh'," Rory replied, not feeling up to going into a lot of detail.
"But it's good to know everything works, you know - down there," Lorelai hinted, teasingly, not knowing anything about her one off encounter with Jess.
"Mom!" Rory groaned, there being a certain depth of things which she didn't feel comfortable discussing with her. "But sureā¦," she shrugged, feeling too tired to argue with her. She had done what she'd set out to do - she'd put herself out there, found her release. She just wished she was more excited of the fact.
AN: The inspiration for one of Rory's airbnbs can be found if you search "33577573 airBnB".
And I know many of you hoped Rory wouldn't slept with Seth - it was for that reason I didn't go into too much detail with it. But I think the end result was a positive nonetheless from a ROGAN perspective.
