AN: I managed to finish the next chapter sooner than I expected. Here you go...
Chapter 53
November 14th, 2021
Seeing this particular brunette, now thankfully equally aged as she was, was definitely not one Rory had anticipated seeing at Logan's nephew's birthday party. But it really did make sense - friends who happened to live nearby and often had kids around the same time, would frequent events like these. Rory could only be glad that Megan was the one of Honor's bridesmaids she saw in front of her, not one of the other, but was definitely a ghost from the past, which had caught her off guard.
"Uh-uh," Rory managed to respond to Megan's question on whether her name was Rory.
"Oh yeah, I'm moved back," Logan decided to intercept, making Rory feel thankful in the midst of her momentary loss for words.
"You did? Wow, big change," Megan continued.
"Which one is yours?" Logan inquired, diverting to the subject most adults at this party were more than happy to discuss.
"Alex is over there," Megan continued gesturing at the boy that had opened the door for them earlier, adding, "and honestly I've no idea where Katie is," and looked around searching for her youngest, before brushing her momentary concern off and took a sip of her mimosa instead.
Thankfully Megan skipped inquiring about his or Rory's presence in more detail, her children providing more than adequate discussion topics for the next few minutes until she saw some other friend of hers arrive and headed off to greet her.
"That was close," Logan exhaled, joking nervously.
"Just tell me Walker and Alexandra aren't going to pop out from behind the next corner," Rory muttered, barely audibly. But as she'd said that, she realized by the look on Logan's face that he hadn't quite meant that for the same reasons as she had. For her the first memory concerning Megan was Honor's wedding, for Logan she was just someone annoying and someone who knew of that the two of them had dated before, almost expecting the 'Are you two back together?' question.
Logan raised the corner of his mouth humbly, trying to take in the humorous part in this, but clearly her words had stung a little closer to the nerve than she'd meant it. Logan really didn't think any of those other girlfriends of his sister's would be here, knowing they either didn't have kids or live further away but he wasn't about to explain that. But he did begin to worry a little who else were they going to see here.
"Let's just go grab some food?" Rory suggested, regretting having said a word. Of course Logan knew she would know Megan from that wedding if he thought about it, but she hadn't needed to bring up something that they'd already discussed, something that was really by-gones.
"Yeah, good idea," Logan exhaled, and guided Rory towards the dining room where the buffet table was set out. Rory could almost sense the air move behind her as Logan made an almost automatic move to touch the small of her back in the process - but retracted, knowing they needed to be as two friends for today.
Em was deep in play-land, by now wearing a unicorn horn headband and running around with the other kids, having blended in in an instant.
"Should we get Em something?" Logan asked, after having grabbed a plate and gone for a few skewers, a noodle-wakame muffin tin, and a mini Scotch egg, his selection remaining a modest one.
"Oh, no… I'll be happy if I get some leftovers in her once we strap her into her car seat," Rory explained. "She'll rather starve than take time to eat at a party like this," she added, stepping aside for a second to look how Em was doing, and saw that Em really had no interest in what her mother was doing at this point.
Rory didn't want to be impolite, but the buffet selection at this party was incredible, making Rory's mouth water already. Her plate definitely was looking more full, a handful of tiny cheese and bacon scrolls topping off her selection of everything.
"Hey, these look really good, you should grab a few," Rory suggested, adding one of the scrolls from her plate to Logan's. She'd never really thought about what or how much Logan ate, but now in light of the new information - that there were moments when he'd lost his pleasure in food, she was now taking note of all these little things. But the minute she'd said it, she felt like she probably shouldn't have. It wasn't like her to push him.
She really did feel like the day was turning out to be a horrible one in terms of how she was reacting, almost feeling like she was about to step on another land mine any second.
"I can't eat like you Gilmores do, you forget," Logan replied, smugly, but didn't fight the lonely scroll.
Rory smiled in return, considering that perhaps she really was overreacting and doing just what Logan had told her not to do - treating him differently because of what she now knew. She needed to learn how to balance this. She just hoped she would know how.
They watched the kids play from afar, enjoying their meals, having found a little window seat to sit in, just the two of them, talking casually about the place and amazing birthday parties Em had had, having gotten the Lorelai Gilmore birthday treatment. Logan expressed how much he envied Honor's kids, who seemed to be getting the best of both worlds by having both the opportunities and the love.
"There the two of you are," Honor exclaimed as she soon appeared, taking a seat next to Rory, and gulped down her glass of water.
Honor definitely looked like she was in full on party mode here, accepting guests and delegating everything that needed doing, and this even with a full staff for the day. She looked like she needed a break. Rory knew well what that was like, but this was like trying to do a kid's birthday party and running a Emily-Gilmore-the-first level event for the grown-ups at the same time. But this was what mom's did.
"Here we are," Rory smiled, shrugging lightly, still feeling nervous around Honor.
"So Logan tells me you've been teaching?" Honor began.
"I have," Rory replied.
She went into telling Honor the highlights of what teaching at a private school was like, appreciating Honor showing interest. Honor had her own share of private school experience, but far less than Logan, for sure. Honor was also already looking into a prep school for Linus too, her 11-year-old, and even though she still had a few years to go before she needed to make a final decision, she was at it early even considering Chilton as an option, despite the lengthy commute. But Rory supposed surely to someone who had lived in boarding schools throughout her teens, the option of getting her son a place on his own or using the student housing option, which Chilton actually had too in limited extent, wasn't ruled out.
Rory asked a little about Honor's work, which now was the HPG, but focused instead on the way she was balancing that work rather than the reasons for her being in that position, not wanting to discuss Logan's sudden departure from London.
"Logan, I nearly forgot - Josh was looking for you earlier… something about.. em.. the wine or something," Honor then recalled.
"Smooth, sis, real smooth," Logan snorted, but gave them the space, reading well into her agenda of wanting a word alone with Rory.
"So… am I about to get the talk here? Because I am pretty sure I'm too old for one," Rory chuckled nervously at the situation. She hoped Honor wouldn't blame her for everything that had happened like she sometimes did.
"Rory," Honor exhaled. "Is that what you think of me?" she continued, making innocent eyes at her. "I'm glad you're here. I really am," she said, touching her upper arm, being the type of person who touched and gesticulated a lot while she spoke. "But does every cell in my body want to tell you to be super careful with him? Hell yes! But my guess is that you've both gone through a lot of stuff, so I don't really think I need to do that. If you're here with him - I need to trust you just as much as he does that you don't intend him harm," Honor continued.
Rory nodded, indeed agreeing with her. It was becoming clear to Rory by the week that she needed to tread carefully with him, while not wrapping him in bubble wrap. It was a balancing act that she was still learning. This concerned their pace, their next steps, her getting her stuff with Jess sorted in a way that didn't involve putting Logan in the back seat in a way that'd hurt him if things didn't go according to plan. She even thought that maybe she could no longer be the weaker part in this, looking for Logan to comfort her? She wasn't quite sure how to do that yet - would this all mean keeping him at arm's length for some time? Would she now continue to question every single thing he did - would she need to question his reasons when he jogged by in the evenings?
"I guess... what I really wanted to tell you is that you shouldn't be discouraged by the gossip that's out there. It might even come up here - some of these people knew Odette you see. God, I hope it doesn't, but if you two are not really here publicly as anything more than friends it might be something that they don't really know to keep their mouth shut about. I don't know exactly what he's told you but because he's been keeping to himself there's a lot of crap the papers in the UK wrote about him. It isn't very pretty," Honor explained.
"Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine," Rory responded. That was probably what Paris had referred to the other night, as she'd asked whether Logan had left his pregnant wife. She'd cautiously kept away from googling him, not wanting to know. That much she trusted him already that if there was something she needed to know, he would tell her.
But Rory was thankful for the warning, for she really hadn't thought about how much Odette had run in their circles. Five years was a long time. Even she could think back to all the family member's and friend's birthday parties she'd gone to with Jess for two and a half years. No matter where they had really been with their relationship, they'd still made appearances - family gatherings, company events and other social occasions. An unmarried family of three was almost as strong of a unit as a married couple without kids in that sense.
"Just, yeah… I don't want you to spook because of something that isn't really something he can influence. Like if he dares to screw up again - that's his problem, but not because of something ridiculous like what the press might say," Honor continued.
"Thanks," Rory said, humbly and nodded again.
"I was just looking at your little girl there before, as the photographer was doing some pictures…," Honor continued. "And I just for a moment forgot that she wasn't his you know, it was really weird. Like I just thought back to why couldn't he have spent the past four-five years happy instead of everything he put himself through. Like this was some alternate universe, you know," Honor added. "He made a choice - whether it was something left unsaid or not, but he did make a choice… but I don't think he deserved that life, you know?" she discussed.
Unknowingly her words had hit close to home, but Rory swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn't think Logan had actually told Honor about the miscarriage, but she knew Honor had known about them.
"Yeah," Rory exhaled, not wanting to be the woman rushing to the ladies room in tears because someone else saw what she kept seeing every day. She needed to be stronger.
In the meanwhile as Logan had gone through the house looking for Josh, whom he was unable to find, he was pulled aside by a few people who were curious to his new work front and for a change he actually felt pretty relieved to discuss it. While his work was only just beginning, his sister's friends did know a lot of potential clients. It was yet another situation in which whether he liked it or not but his name would actually likely help him along this process.
As he talked to two men about what his start-up did, Rory and Em made their way past them quickly, searching for the bathroom.
"It's the third door to the left," Logan said attentively, gesturing towards the hall.
"I heard about your divorce," one of the men, Josh's younger brother Mark, noted. "But it sure looks like expressing my symphaties doesn't really apply to you," he added, raising his eyebrow, looking after Rory, making a clever and appreciative observation. That sweater dress of Rory's really did show all of her best curves.
Josh's family knew the backstory, so they really were not casting judgement on him leaving. But divorce was still divorce.
But now was the moment when Logan truly and desperately wanted to agree with him and confirm Rory to be indeed here as his date, girlfriend… anything.
"Too early for congratulations just the same, but a man can hope," Logan mused.
Thankfully, the rest of the event passed uneventfully and none of the adults made a comment about Odette and Logan, many perhaps having more tact than that by this stage of their life or some even sensing the chemistry that Honor saw so clearly between Logan and Rory well enough to be sensitive about it, Honors cautioning at this point having been unnecessary.
As by the end of the party, as the kids all watched the magician who kept pulling rabbits out of his tophat, their mouths in awe, as Logan and Rory kept to the back of the more dimly lit billiard room that had been transformed into a small theater, leaning against the wall. It had taken some time to begin to feel comfortable in this setting, not dreading for every question people asked them. But they had reached a balance soon enough, reminding them how well they'd worked in the past at various mingling event. Friends or more - didn't even matter.
The looks that travelled between them now were dense with sexual tension, their only release that day being that gentle brush of one's finger's against the others when noone was looking.
