Chapter 113
January 16th, 2022
It was Sunday evening and while Logan and Rory had spent a large chunk of time over at his apartment, simply for Loki's convenience, over that weekend, they were now back at Rory's, the puppy in tow. Currently Loki was chewing on a dog rope, hungrily. Boy, did this puppy like to chew. This also meant that all the valuables had been collected off the floor, and Rory's favorite leather boots were hanging from the hook in the foyer. Thankfully the upstairs were off limits for the puppy. With wires, they just needed to keep their fingers crossed at this moment, as the area surrouding of Rory's desk just had too many of them to clear all of them. Besides, it was not like anyone was too eager to do any major changes to this place with the impending move.
The contractors had been given a green light on their new house. There were a few doors to be replaced, repaint several rooms, install a new kitchen, and a few of the bathrooms needed some freshening. But all this was minor enough not to be expected to draw out over months, rather weeks - if they were lucky.
Even on the furniture front Rory had been already active enough, it giving her something to do even between her classes and on her spare time, as she'd been more and more reluctant to give her job the attention she'd sacrifised for it before. In part she was still just telling her that this was just about avoiding getting a decorator for their house. If her mother could decorate her own house, so could she, couldn't she? And without having any expectations worthy of Architectural Digest or Wallpaper, sure the two of them could handle it, wanting the place to feel a little bit more personal.
Half of Saturday, when Logan had taken Loki to puppy school, Rory had quickly copied off the assignments she'd used last year, only adding minor alterations for her classes next week. She'd truly lost that drive for it, and was doing a little more than the bare minimum. Besides the house - she'd still continued to search for information on her grandmother, and had even managed to get several files of archived materials from Smith's sent over to her, the D.A.R connections coming in handy once again. Now the two heavy binders were just waiting for her attention. But that research was what she was doing willingly. Still - she still knew that she'd need to have a real talk about her mother on the topic. As it was Lorelai who actually knew anything, hopefully filling in a lot of the gaps that Rory had been left with.
Luke was doing a lot better, still being monitored, but at least sounding like his usual self. Rory wasn't really sure how her mother was doing, truth be told, having not had a lot of chances to really catch up, other than settle for some over the phone banter. She knew that when her mother was being particularily light on the topics, when there were bigger issues below the surfaces.
Even Rory's and Logan's therapy had taken a bit of a back seat. Sure they still went, and still did the homework, though they both agreed that they were not really feeling its benefits presently. The current worksheet they were just presently finishing was not really hitting that spot that they felt needed to be addressed. Yet putting a finger on just what they needed wasn't that easy either.
"I realize that I'm going to have to open up to you more, tell you my small worries and even if they don't directly concern you," Rory expressed, being nearly through with the vulnerability worksheet they'd been assigned. They'd tried to shift the worksheet in the direction that felt most recent to them - part of it was kind of working, part of it not really.
"I would really appreciate your patience and understanding. You could perhaps help me by moving in with me and just being mentally closer. So I'd not feel like I need to prioritize what we talk about when we see each other," Rory continued. Both of them knew that this exercise was not really about physical requests liked that.
"How about…," Logan pondered. "If whenever I ask you 'how are you' when we're alone, you promise to be honest. List me your emotions, even if you don't feel like elaborating. It was something my therapist in London told me once," he suggested.
"Okay," Rory sighed, beginning to think back to if there had been any moment when she hadn't been honest with him when he'd asked. Had she hurt him by that at any point. She couldn't quite recall. But perhaps his suggestion was more generic than that. "If that's not always possible then please would you just not be mad at me if I delay telling you something until I figure it out?" she said, but added that ending to that sentence somewhat hesitantly, not quite sure what to add. So she'd finished the sentence with something.
"Just keep going," Logan urged, glancing at the time, knowing Em was due home in a few minutes. "I promise not to be mad at you when you make mistakes, as long as you don't shut me out," Logan added, not quite liking her request. But he too got that it felt a little forced.
"I hope that this will help us by teaching us to open up better and not worry much about the other's reaction," Rory said. "Thank you for listening to how I feel," she added, rolling her eyes at how corny this worksheet had been.
Logan had already finished his own sheet some minutes ago, having focused on how feeling unloved had been his area of vulnerability. His answers had been significantly deeper than Rory's, but he'd also felt like there were some layers he wasn't so eager to share either. Simply because he didn't want to break down, as if some topics still felt too raw to unwrap. But it was a step closer… closer to sharing more things openly, nevertheless.
It was then Rory could see Jess' BMW pull up in front of her house through the blinds, and with the exercise sheet finished just in time she folded them up, certainly not wanting Jess to know about them, and walked over to toss them into the trash in the kitchen. Logan was not clueless to his and Em's arrival either, and while the need to hide these things from Jess was not fully comprehensible to him, he did understand that perhaps showing weakness was indeed not her aim.
The footsteps could be heard on the front porch just moments before Em blasted through the door. Jess, with a recently trimmed beard by the looks of it compared to the way Logan had seen him a few weeks ago, stood right behind her. Logan could definitely see what Rory must've seen in him, and despite it being history - he couldn't help feeling a hint of jealousy every time he'd seen him at his best.
A round of greetings followed and Em hugged Loki even before getting to her mother, leaving Rory a little disappointed but in awe of their cuteness together nonetheless. As Jess pushed the door closed behind him, it was clear that he wasn't aiming on leaving just yet but had something to say.
"Now you're just not playing fair," Jess chucled briefly at Logan, having heard all about Logan's puppy from her daughter. Seeing the love in Em's eyes towards the dog, however, was another story, making it so much more real.
Logan shrugged humbly, but could see his point. This was hardly equivalent to the lame Christmas present incident. But he could tell their interaction had changed from accusatory to something closer to a brotherly banter, something like him and Robert used to converse in - sort of borderline liking the guy but being competitors at the same time in some things. It had always been a matter of rivalry between him and Robert as they often liked the same girls, for example. At least Jess didn't seem to be after Rory anymore.
"Ah, well, that's just the tip of the iceberg, I'm afraid," Rory budded in. "We bought a house this week, we should be moving in a month or so," she added, knowing she needed to tell him.
"Congrats," Jess replied, politely. He'd already heard about it from Em, actually.
"Thanks," Logan replied.
"I actually wanted to have a word with you," Jess said, looking at Rory.
"Sure," Rory urged, sensing he wanted a word in private.
Logan continued to demonstrate to Em the few basic tricks he'd already managed to teach Loki. 'Sit' was already mastered, 'lay down' not so much, but since everything was done by sign language, it was a little more challenging.
"Thank you for helping me with mom," Rory said, as she led Jess towards the kitchen, which was at least more or less out of Em's earshot. It certainly came in handy to have Jess in Stars Hollow.
"It was what Luke asked of me," Jess replied, with a shrug, having been a great help over at their house to clean up and fix some of the cabinets these past two weeks. He didn't even minding helping.
"Still...," Rory exhaled, feeling grateful.
"It's no problem, really," Jess replied.
"So?" Rory asked, leaning her hip against the kitchen counter, her hand. Even though she didn't use her kitchen much, it was definitely looking more and more small and worn in her eyes too.
"We ran into Lisa at the market yesterday. Over at Dooseys. I didn't plan it, but it happened and I just figured you should know," Jess explained.
"Right," Rory exhaled. Rory didn't really know where Lisa lived, that part having been absent on her social media profiles. But it did sound a little convenient.
"And… I introduced her by name, but honestly I wanted to introduce her as my girlfriend. I know it's fast, but it just didn't feel right hiding her," Jess explained, holding off on adding that it also felt unfair that he'd have to hide her.
"Um..," Rory began, but didn't really know what to say. She wasn't going to object, she couldn't, considering what she'd already subjected Em to.
"I don't mean anything too intense. Just maybe invite her for dinner the next time Em's with me or something," Jess suggested. He was already doing a lot more in terms of involving Rory in these decisions than Rory had done, and in a way his words were making Rory actually feel guilty for the way she'd handled things at the time.
Thankfully, Rory quickly corrected her hesitant stance and replied, "Yes, of course, that's fine." But Jess was no oblivious to her reluctnace, but he got it. But he also felt it was time. He wasn't going to jump into marrying her, moving in with her or anything like that. But he didn't want to hide the fact that he had someone special in his life, even if that simply involved answering her phone calls in Em's presence and not watching every word.
"Okay," Jess inhaled. Asking her had been a little difficult for him too.
"And…," she began, wondering it she had any right to ask this at all.
"What?" Jess asked, expecing some kind of request from her.
"I'd like to get to know her a little bit better too. I mean not straight away, but eventually," Rory added, beginning to ramble.
"Alright, sure," Jess sighed, feeling uncomfortable. He didn't really picture it, but surely there'd be scenarios in which they might see each other, the five of them.
It felt strange being in the same shoes Jess' had been a few months ago, and for the first time Rory had begun to really grasp how she could've done things differently.
"I'm sorry that I didn't consult you before… with Logan," Rory said, just as Jess had turned and begun to leave the kitchen.
Jess nodded appreciatively, and continued to say his goodbyes to Em.
