Chapter 56
November 16th, 2021
"This mascara makes my eyes itchy!" a pop-star-like female voice spoke on the radio.
"I hate having lumps in my lashes," another one chimed in.
"I want a mascara with vibrant colors! Airbrush effect! And all-natural ingredients that don't make anyone's eyes itch! Organic and vegan!" the voice continued, and added in a preppy voice the brand name that she was selling before the clip finished with a Christmasy pop-song.
Rory had almost forgotten what regular radio was like, the commercials being just as bad. Rory's phone battery was running low, and she'd resorted to the car radio to reset her brain after her underwhelming workday. Tomorrow was another day - she would do better. She just needed to figure out how to switch better between her personal and professional life.
Generally, getting to Em's school to pick her up was a pretty good switch, but lately she just had so much more to think about that the borders were becoming more fuzzy, one thought carrying onto the next part of the day. The focus had been drawn from the two pillars of her life, Em and work, to learning to balance those with what she wanted for herself beyond her career. And that because her teachers career alone hadn't made her happy either.
Rory got out of her car. She pulled her shoulders up and held her coat around her neck tighter, the November weather having gotten a harsh icy breeze compared to this morning. She made it across the grass, taking a short-cut to the entrance, wanting to get back into warmth. Her hands dug into her coat pockets and she made an attempt to open the door mostly using her elbow, not wanting to take her hands out. She made a mental note that she really needed to dig out her winter coat and gloves, being as cold-sensitive as she was. She was also one to postpone things like that more often than she probably should've.
Before she got the door open, however, there was a hand that reached out and opened the door for her.
"You seemed to be struggling there," a voice said.
But that voice - it took her a moment to place it, not quite ringing a bell.
"Thanks," Rory said, feeling silly for having put her convenience ahead of looking silly, not quite looking at whoever had helped her. Surely, she'd heard the same voices time and time again at this school, like she'd heard most teachers and parents.
"Excuse me. Rory?" the voice repeated, as the door swung shut behind her.
"Uh? Yeah?" she said, finally having let her shoulder relax and looked at the person asking.
"Tristan!?" she responded in disbelief, looking over her glasses that had gotten a little foggy from the temperature difference - something she still wasn't quite used to.
It was a miracle he'd recognized her, being dressed in a very nondescript dark wool coat and slacks, her hair pulled into a simple ponytail.
"And I was this close to calling you Mary," Tristan chuckled, demonstrating what he meant by his thumb and index finger.
"What on earth are you doing here!?" Rory exclaimed, and without hesitation gave him a friendly hug.
Tristan definitely no longer looked like just some teenage jock, he was bigger. She wasn't even sure but somehow he seemed taller even. He wasn't even necessarily a lot more muscular, but if she were to be honest he had what one might call a dad body. Nothing notably excess on his stomach, but sort of evenly divided sturdiness.
"I'm picking up my son," Tristan replied, his message fitting Rory's first impression of him.
"I can't believe I've never seen you around here - Em, my daughter, goes here too," Rory explained, took off her glasses to wipe the fog off with a paper towel she found in her pocket.
"We recently moved, it's his first week here," Tristan explained. He wore a parka that hung loose, showing something Rory somehow would've never pictured on him - a black and white flannel shirt.
"I guess, 'welcome back' is in order then," Rory replied, feeling strangely nervous all of a sudden.
"Thanks," he replied casually.
"I should probably go get Em, she's expecting me," Rory added, unsure whether this was a good moment for catching up with this strange nervousness. The contrast was steep - he looked so differend, and she knew - so did she, and not in the most positive way. But it seemed silly to be bothered by that, it was not like she wanted to impress him.
Tristan nodded, understandingly. He seemed to be waiting for someone, probably his son, the foyer by the entrance serving as the waiting area in this school.
Rory made her way past the information desk and around the corner, down the hall towards her daughter's classroom. Sometimes Em got too caught up with what to pack, wanting to bring all of her worksheets and drawings home to show her, so she lost track of time.
It was as she peeked through the glass window of Em's classroom, she was surprised to see some sort of a meeting taking place, with both Em's class teacher and their music teacher standing in front of the classroom.
It was the class teacher that slipped out of the class as she saw her through the winodow.
"Ms. Gilmore, hi. We're keeping them an extra hour today to discuss the Christmas play, I thought I sent everyone an e-mail about it last week, but as it seems I've must've left some parents out by mistake. I'm sorry. We shouldn't be much longer though, 20 minutes tops," Em's class teacher explained, gesturing down the hall and Rory indeed noticed another mother that she'd seen around but didn't really know.
"Oh, alright. It's okay, it happens," Rory replied, knowing as a teacher how sometimes there was just too much to manage to keep track of everything. And it was not like a twenty minute wait would be a big deal for her.
The only negative aspect of this wait was that during the day she'd been considering whether or not to have a talk with Em about Logan, and with not having as much time for this as she'd imagined, she wasn't sure she would have a good moment for that. Maybe it was the universe telling her that it wasn't time to tell Em that she was dating him just yet?
For a moment Rory considered texting Logan and telling him to come half an hour later, but as her phone was already in red she dismissed that thought, knowing that realistically speaking it wouldn't matter. Em would still be hungry at her normal dinner time and Logan really didn't care if her house was messy. All she really needed was to change out of her work clothes, maybe grab a shower, while the food got delivered. She certainly wasn't attempting to cook tonight, staying realistic on a short time frame in an already messy kitchen, recalling having not even loaded the dishwasher this morning.
She glanced at the clock on the wall, and for a moment considered what to do. And the answer really seemed logical.
Rory made her way back down the hall, deciding to check if Tristan was still there. She'd been left with a bit of an uncomfortable feeling on how she'd fled earlier, not always having the best reaction to surprising situations. Sure, she'd had a valid reason, but the least she could do was ask how he'd been. And of course there was a good chance he wasn't even there anymore.
She made her way back around the corner, and saw indeed the tall man leaning against a wall.
"It seems they're running a little later than usual today," Rory sighed, as she approached him. She could just hope that she wasn't coming off as eager.
"Mrs. Walsh's class?" Tristan asked, and pushed himself straight from the wall that he'd been leaning against.
"Yeah," Rory sighed, a dubious smile creeping onto her lips. Was this possible?
"Liam is in her class too," Tristan replied.
"What a coincidence!" Rory exclaimed. "It seems the first half of the alphabet was left off the mailing list or something," she made a guess, recalling the last name of the woman's whom she'd seen waiting by the classroom last name to begin with B - Buck, Burt or something like that.
"So they must be of the same age, more or less," Tristan made a note of the fairly obvious.
"Yeah, Em's four, but she's a little advanced so she's in the class with others who are a little older," Rory explained. She didn't want to come off like she was showing off, but she saw no point in hiding something she was proud of either.
"No wonder there," Tristan chuckled. "Liam just turned 5," he added.
"So how have you been? I meant to ask you before, not sure why I didn't," Rory asked, apologetically. She laughed lightly, still feeling some nervousness.
"Pretty good myself," Tristan replied. "We just moved from San Diego," he added and his tan certainly showed it.
"That's a long way. Must've been hard for your son," Rory commented, based on the time of the move - mid-semester usually meant a sudden move. She could already feel the nervousness begin to scatter.
"He's pretty used to moving, but the aim is to not let him get more used to it than he has to. Hopefully we'll be able to stick around for a while here," Tristian explaind, adding, "my mom is not doing so great - she has trouble walking. And she's not the easiest person to take care of. She hasn't been able to keep a nurse longer than a week, so we moved back so I can at least look after her in part."
"Well, I'm sure she appreciates it," Rory replied.
"Let's just say she's not so great at showing it," Tristan snorted. "But she likes seeing Liam more, that's for sure," he added.
Rory recalled Paris telling her once how Tristan's mother and father were not that great, and sending his son to military school spoke of Tristan's father alright. But apparently blood really was thicker than water, but it didn't feel like her business to go asking what had changed.
"I bet," Rory sighed, and leaned with her back against the wall, and unbuttoned her coat now that she was inside.
"What about you?" Tristian asked, somehow that part of catching up having not been on Rory's mind at all.
"I've been good. But you'll laugh once you'll learn what I do," she let out a low toned laughter.
Tristan looked her head to toe, observantly, clearly trying to make an educated guess. "A teacher, right?" he guessed.
"God, is it really that obvious?" Rory looked herself over, but chuckled at her own expense. "Chilton no less," she added, continuing to laugh.
"That place did always suit you, if anyone… and I mean that in a good way," Tristan replied. He laughed, but not in a mocking way.
"What about you? What do you do?" Rory inquired.
"Ex-military, ER nurse - but I mostly worked at the Navy Medical Center. Did a few years at the NATO hospital in Germany, some other places," he added.
"And here?" Rory continued, feeling surprisingly relaxed around him now, having warmed up a bit from the initial surprise.
"Still at the ER," Tristan replied with a sigh.
"Don't take it the wrong way - but somehow I never would've figured you to have an interest in medicine," Rory said, unsure where such openness had suddenly come from.
"None take. I wouldn't have thought of it myself back then," Tristan replied and chuckled.
"The teaching and Hartford is still sort of new to me too, I guess. I've been in Chilton full time only two and a half years or so," she explained, squinting her eyes a little as she did the math.
"Interesting career move," Tristan noted, clearly interested in learning more.
"I tried a career being a reporter, writer… a lot of freelance mostly," Rory explained. "Didn't quite pan out as I'd imagined," she admitted, humbly. She was no longer as embarrassed by that fact, but after the type of day she had, she wasn't quite feeling up to boasting how well she was doing at teaching either.
Maybe she really did peak in high school? Or at Yale Daily News?
"Well what fun would life be if it did throw us a couple of curve balls," Tristan noted, already seeing his son head in his direction. He sure seemed to have a healthy attitude.
The kid looked a lot like him, something about the nose and the eyes.
"It was fun catching up," Rory said, beginning to head off in the direction of the classroom to get Em, walking a few steps backwards.
"Yeah, maybe we'll see each other around, now that these two seem to be classmates," Tristan added, and casually waved her off, and pushed the door open for his kid.
Rory got barely a 'bye' out of her as she nearly stumbled into Em who'd already reached her.
"Ugh, sorry," Rory apologized, holding Em's head. "Did I hurt you?" she asked to make sure.
"You've gotta watch where you're going, mom," Em scolded her in a serious tone, sounding like a little old person, and didn't really answer her question.
"Yeah, I guess I do," Rory laughed, feeling entertained.
It had been entirely innocent - just running into someone whom she hadn't seen since high school - junior year to be exact. But it had been good to see Tristan, somehow it felt good to learn that military school hadn't screwed the guy up completely and that perhaps it had actually turned out to be a good thing for him. But she was only really speculating at this point, that was just the impression she'd gotten.
She wrapped Em up as well as she could, putting her scarf tighter around her neck, getting a little whine in return, and led her towards the car, saying, "Come on, sweetie, we've got to think on our way home what food we want to order tonight. What do you think Logan would like?" she discussed, knowing she'd probably just have to stick to their friendship that evening.
AN: Don't panic ROGAN fans!
