Chapter 112
February 11th, 2006
"It's weird, you know?" Rory said, lifting the board of bruschettas from the kitchen counter to the table.
They were at Martha's Vineyard, that one time when Logan and Rory had invited Lorelai and Luke to join them. It had been windy and chilly, yet immensely peaceful beginning to a weekend, at least for Rory. Logan had come a long way - there was no crazy bar-hopping with Colin and Finn, but he free-willingly just wanted to spend the weekend with her, simply reading the paper in the morning at the coffee table, snuggling up in front of the fire place and going for walks.
"What's weird?" Lorelai asked as she was discovering the joys of mashing potatoes.
"I don't know, it just hit me," Rory began. "These could be the ones," she exhaled, not even believing she was admitting that thought out loud. It was safe to say she was on a very high high with Logan at that moment.
"The ones?" Lorelai mouthed meaningfully.
"The ones, you know?" Rory repeated, standing next to her mother. The thought was a little scary, but somehow also reassuring.
"Yeah," Lorelai responded, repeating again "yeah," a moment later, as if not quite believing her daughter's thought process.
They continued prepping for dinner for several minutes, mostly in silence - at least not saying anything of great significance.
"Have you ever thought what it'd be like?" Lorelai decided to ask Rory.
"What?" Rory asked, being a little hesitant of what she was aiming at.
"You know - having someone like that as the one," Lorelai said, the thought frightening her more than Rory probably.
"What, like how he's going to buy me a castle and whisk me away to luxury resorts every weekend?" Rory replied, doing a bimbo impersonation, not taking the question too seriously. She tried to make a joke out of it. It was mostly that she didn't want to ruin the day by ending up talking about Logan's family's expectations.
"Uh-uh," Lorelai played along, letting the seriousness of the question go. "And have kids called Bentley and Mitzie running around the yard while a Mrs. Doubtfire-look-a-like brushes grass off their chinos and you're just getting your nails done by the pool," she added, speaking in an elevated voice attempting to impersonate one of the girls she used to know in high school.
Rory really wasn't with Logan because of fancy gifts or trips, though these little perks he kept offering her certainly didn't hurt. If she could just be with Logan Huntzberger, the smart, generous and handsome guy who would have to work his way up, she would've actually preferred it that way. But at that point it did only seem logical that if she would end up with Logan - the future that they would have someday would be quite similar to what her mother and herself had just described, minus the bimbo voice and the kid's names. Perhaps containing a little bit more travelling and adventure for the two of them.
Still - it was the logical assumption that Logan would be the one with the fortune, and she'd be the one who'd be forced to sign a prenup and always viewed by certain people like the gold-digger that landed the whale. That especially if she'd give up on working like the Huntzbergers expected her to. There was no winning with them - should she keep proving herself, likely never quite measuring up to Mitchum's standards or just accept defeat?
January 21st, 2022
"Come on! Forget the lights," Rory urged as she giggled and pulled Logan through the front door of their pitch dark new house. She was pleasantly intoxicated by the Wenzlau Vineyard's Pinot Noir, which she'd drunk almost the whole bottle of while Logan had settled with a single glass. It wasn't the perfect night for getting drunk and celebrating the purchase of their house, as it was a school day - but Rory was high on what she got right now, knowing that there were ways to survive the following morning in front of the classroom, having cautiously held off showing her students the movie "Hidden Figures" before Christmas. It would certainly come in handy that following morning.
Rory was also not terribly proud of being used to indulging quite a lot in alcohol in the past years. A glass of wine in the evening was more of a regularity than an odd event, and with Logan being so clear-headed these days, she was actually beginning to feel like she should be holding back herself. And now, as the larger goal was also to have a baby, she knew that this would probably be one of the last times she got that drunk in a while.
"I feel like I should've carried you over the threshold or something," Logan complained, not appreciating her haste. "Plus now I feel like we're trespassing," he added, at the lack of lighting and needing to show light with his phone flashlight to pass through the foyer.
"Look who's talking?!" Rory laughed, her eyes wide. "Do I have to remind you of the fact that you were the one with the key to the dining hall on campus?" she added, teasingly. They made their way through the living room and dining room, Rory pulling him along by his hand. Rory also loved the renovated antique hardwood floors in this place, their little squeack actually giving it some more character.
"Yeah, and you're the one who convinced me to steal that yacht," Logan played innocent. "Worked your womanly wilds on me and everything," he added, unable to hold back his laughter. They both knew those negative reasons behind that misdemeanor, but they'd joked enough about it since then for it to have lost those emotions long ago.
"Uh-uh, sure, that was what that was…," Rory chuckled. "At least I always paid for my ice cream. Hey, I even did community service, I settled by debt to the society," she listed, rubbing his nose in the fact that he'd gotten off with a fine. The truth was that that community service had actually done her good, subjected her to a whole new set of skills she didn't know she had - leadership skills essentially, increased her stress tolerance and certainly subjected her to a wider range of humans than she'd ever met before.
"I'd say we've both changed plenty," Logan said, suddenly his voice turning a lot more serious, and pulled her close by her hand, wrapping his hands around her waist. "You've tamed me, you're the only one that ever could," he said, huskily and kissed the bare spot on her neck that wasn't fully covered by her scarf, causing her to giggle.
"And I've become a little less sheltered," Rory admitted, using the words he himself had once used to refer to her. This was Logan's doing, there was no doubt about it. She was nevertheless enjoying this hold he had on her.
"A lot less," Logan added, loving the way she'd embraced being pushed outside her comfort zone. Wheter that was in the jobs she did, how she travelled, how she was in bed... It was her determination that he adored too, he just wished she'd care a little less about what others thought.
It was as he thought that, he realized for the first time that he wasn't really all that different. This whole thing with his family and the company - the reasons for his avoidance was largely about what others thought. He wasn't quite at the threshold of changing things, unsure how to overcome things, but it was a first step towards recognizing his own flawed thinking.
Rory smiled, but pulled away from his grasp - wanting to experience more of this house at this late hour. She continued walking through the kitchen hastily, and made it to the study that was fully illuminated by the moonlight. The sunroom was just adjective, and the room was quickly becoming her favorite, despite being several degrees cooler than the rest of the house due to the large number of windows.
"You know I'd never imagined us like this," Rory began, and stretched out her hands around his neck and looked straight in his eyes.
"Like what? Together? At a joint house?" Logan asked, not quite following.
"No… that I could imagine," Rory admitted. "I just… I'd never thought I'd be the one buying it. And no - this is not me saying anything negative about your contribution. I don't care about that. I was happy to do it. I know it's just for now and really…," she blabbered, her drunken state straying her words a little. "But it always seemed like such a thing that was predestined by your family. How I'd be almost forced to live at some high-gated Greenwich community or next door to your parents, how we'd be forced to have a maids and nannies, kids named Mitzie and Bentley... and how I'd probably never see you because of your work…," Rory listed, her youthful thoughts from over fifteen years ago coming back to her mind. She was so glad things were different.
Logan frowned at those particular name suggestions, but figured this was just another one of the Gilmore jokes he wasn't fully getting yet.
"Well we'll probably still need to hire some help," Logan admitted, thinking of the size of the place and the vast back yard. "I might end up adding a fence too," he added, less seriously.
"I know… it's just…," Rory pondered out loud. "It's just that I never expected to feel this equal in this, in us..., and I guess it just makes it all so much better," she confessed.
"You've always been my equal, Rory," Logan replied. "In everything that matteres," he added.
Their lips brushed against each-other, gently moistening them as they let the kiss linger, Logan's hands finding their most natural position on her lower back. They swayed there from one foot to another, as if dancing, hearing the imaginary tune of 'Moon river' play in their heads.
It was so peaceful there - just the two of them in their own house. And while the smells, textures and little noises of the place were still unfamiliar, they were already making memories that were very much their own.
