Chapter 137

March 5th, 2022

Rory and Logan left the Paintbar, which was not really very far from where Rory used to live, about 8.15 PM, having gotten seriously side-tracked from their original plan for the afternoon. Rory was hanging onto Logan's arm and giggling. No, she wasn't drunk, just drunk on emotion - and entertained by the fact that Logan had no artistic gene in his body much like she didn't when it came to painting. But it had been fun, there was something relaxing about just mixing together colors to create new ones and put brush to canvas. And they'd both gotten a pretty good laugh at trying to draw the other.

"That was fun," she replied, joyously. Rory wore a burgundy satin balloon sleeved mini dress, which was much shorter than she normally would ever wear. But since it had ended up in her closet on her mother's request one time - ages ago, and Logan had appreciated the large bow tie at its back, saying it reminded him of unwrapping a present, and complimented her by saying it was a crime to keep those long legs of hers hidden, she'd eventually relented. She loved how Logan made her feel sexy and it didn't hurt thinking onwards to the things Logan's mind wanted to do to her, which she could read form the way he looked at him, and that even despite the athletic part of their day had already provided them sufficient excersise. The tiny paint stain on the inside of her thigh, on her thights, certainly spoke of more naughtiness as well.

"I'm glad you liked it, I thought it'd be something different," Logan replied, as they continued down the street, his own wool coat hanging open, and his arm over Rory's back. Rory snuggled into his side, one hand reaching around his chest under the hem of his coat, cozily.

"But now I definitely feel like I could eat an entire menu somewhere," Rory pointed out, lightly.

"Ahaa.. Did you really think I didn't think of food?" Logan raised his eyebrows, laughingly.

"I knew there was a reason I loved you," Rory teased, looking at him, and sealed it with a small but loving peck.

The restaurant really wasn't very far, and with a casual and carefree chatter they got there in no time.

"Honor's friend from college is opening this and since she's already fretting about flying off to London again and wants to spend the weekend at home with the boys, she sent me her invitations. I've met the guy too, though just briefly," Logan explained as they noted the lengthy queue in front of what looked like a middle-Eastern fusion place of some sort.

The place looked trendy and people had certainly dressed up a little, but nothing so high class that Logan's simple sweater look wouldn't pass.

"Looks like it might be a while," Rory said, sounding worried, at the sight of the queue.

"Well come on, we've got invitations - I'm sure this is just the line for drop-bys," Logan suggested, and pulled Rory past the line. This was so him - used to having the privilege to go first, and frankly to Rory it had always been sort of borderline - whether to let herself be indulged in that or feel a little embarrassed in front of all those people that they passed.

"Hey, Rory? Rory Gilmore?" a sudden voice stopped Rory at her trail, and she let go Logan's hand.

"Hey…," Rory replied, turning to see who it was, and recognized a face she vaguely recalled from high school standing in the line. One of the Puffs - Lem? Lana? Or Lily? Rory couldn't quite place the face to a name. But what truly caught her by surprise was the man on the woman's side - it was no other than Seth.

"Oh, hey," Rory repeated to Seth as well, and she could already feel her face turning at least a shade redder than what it had been.

A similarly humble "Hey," followed from Seth, as he noticed her, leaving him looking surprised as well.

It took Logan a moment to realize Rory was no longer following him, but as there seemed to be nobody at that moment talking to the doorman, he just glanced back to see that Rory had seen someone she knew and continued to speak to the man, assuming he could just go get her in a moment.

"So how are you? Oh my god, it's been such a long time," the woman - blonde, perky, whose name Rory still did not recall - continued.

"It has, really… I've been well, you?" Rory asked casually.

"Oh the same," the woman replied. "You two know each-other?" she asked, having picked up on their earlier greeting.

"Oh we've met in college," Rory replied in passing, and glanced a look towards Logan, who was just about to come and get her anyways, and she got the wave to head over. Frankly Rory was relieved to skip experiencing Logan and Seth face to face and she could only hope it'd stay that way for the rest of the evening.

"Sorry - I've got to go, it was nice to see you," Rory replied hastily but still politely enough, excusing herself. She couldn't get away from there fast enough.

"Well, you look like you've just been cornered and not saved quick enough," Logan replied, hearing Rory'd deep exhale of relief, as they were already being led inside by the hostess, to whom clearly Logan's name had been enough to move things along.

"Just someone I knew from school and SETH!" Rory replied, making her eyes pop out as she mouthed that name.

"Ah… right," Logan laughed. "Well we can just hope they seat them right next to us in that case," he added, teasingly.

"Don't you even joke about that!" Rory chuckled. They handed over their coats and began to relax, the warmth of the room along with the bouquet of aromas already being very inviting.

But as it did become clear very soon, the place was the kind with long communal tables where one indeed ended up sitting next to random people. They'd been to these types of places before, especially in London, and not always had it been a bad experience though a bit of a lottery.

However, their laughter quickly died out once they got to their table.

"Hi," was Lisa's surprised response, her laughter from the former discussion she'd been having dying out. Jess, dressed in a black casual blazer, who was sitting across from her, and hadn't quite seen anyone approaching was struck mute altogether.

There was a heavy glance from Rory to Logan, but both realized that doing anything that would even resemble objecting would've be way worse than simply taking their seats. They were adults after all, and they were supposed to be civil, or better even learn to get along. Rory and Logan were the last ones to be sat at the end of the long table.

"What a small world," Logan commented, casually, not showing in any way that the situation was anything abnormal. After all, even he knew that Jess and Rory had even briefly discussed the topic of having dinner together sometime, the four of them. But now faced with the situation it still seemed a little daunting even if his and Rory's position in this wasn't exactly the same.

"Hi," Rory replied, and took a seat next to Jess, but directed also an unspoken question to Jess, which even to Logan's surprise, Jess got in an instant.

"My mom wanted to make a girls night. Some new line of body scrubs and cream recipes she's been dying to try out," Jess said, explaining Em's whereabouts, sounding almost a little apologetic for being caught out and not at home with Em.

Rory, however, looked a little more frightened at the sound of his explanation, than she'd been before.

"Don't worry - the strongest thing she's using is lemon juice, I checked," Jess assured, smiling knowingly.

"It's my fault, I dragged him out here," Lisa explained. "I was abroad for a few weeks and then a friend of mine got me these invitations and I just begged him to come, he didn't stand a chance," Lisa explained, showing a much more outgoing side of her, compared to the Lisa Rory had known from their prior interactions. Clearly they'd missed each-other. Lisa was dressed nicely too, wearing an emerald green velvet dress with small gold buttons in the front, vintage by the looks of it. It was the kind of clothing item that Rory admired, but never really felt like herself in.

"It's fine, just a co-inc-i-dinc," Rory said, trying to sound funny and unbothered by any of this. She knew she needed to correct her stance - it was not like she'd never had a night to herself when Em was in her care, she'd just never caught Jess in a similar position or vice versa.

"I believe we haven't officially met," Logan decided to grab reins and introduce himself. There had been a brief introduction at the dog farm, but it had been mere seconds, and he felt Rory could use the diversion too.

"Oh, sorry - I forgot," Rory apologized, having gotten so caught up in the moment.

"Logan Huntzberger," Logan introduced himself.

"Lisa Irvine," Lisa replied, and shook Logan's hand politely. While Rory didn't want to be in her position, Rory couldn't help comparing herself to her. Lisa's hair was curled from the ends and beautifully side-swept, pinned up on that side that was closes to Logan's, exposing her gorgeous minimalist earring that dangled down to her shoulder. Rory hadn't bothered with more than combing her hair that day, and her former sexy confidence was replaced quickly to something less confident.

"Well it seems your friend and my sister have a friend in common then," Logan replied, explaining in brief how they'd gotten the invitation, and continued to clarify how he knew the owner from an event that sounded a lot like a Life and Death Brigade event by its description.

It was then the waiter arrived by their side. There seemed to be a system where they filled the long tables one by one and served the tables also in similar order.. Whether that was something just particular for the opening evening or not, remained unknown. But as the four were already talking, the water treated them as a joint order.

"What can I get you?" the energetic looking server asked the four of them, his notebook and pen ready.

"What do you recommend?" Logan asked, before any of the others had a chance to respond. There were two menu options printed onto their tablecovers, some type of fancy fabric print, a rather interesting take, but the restaurant was not short of the unusual.

"Both of the menu options are the chef's selection to bring you the very finest our restaurant has to offer," the waiter said politely.

"But if the chef were here which one would he choose?" Logan continued, sneakily, unknowingly taking the leader position at their part of the table.

"I believe the chef would prefer of the kofta and the quail tagine with golden raisins," the waiter replied, feeling forced to lean in a more specific direction.

"I think that sounds good, what do you think?" Jess jumped in, directing the question towards Lisa.

"Um... I'm not a huge lamb fan, I have to say," Lisa commented, squinting her nose a little, thinking of the kofta, not quite speaking to the waiter but amongst themselves for a moment. But none of the conversations were truly private at a table like this. "I'll have the baba ganoush and hummus appetizer plate and the shakshuka," Lisa said, struggling a little pronouncing the name of the dish, going for the vegetarian option.

"I'll take the kofta and the tagine," Jess replied, kurtly, being a little annoyed by not being as in sync with Lisa as he would've wanted to be. That was the trouble with young relationships. Even though Jess was quickly becoming very close to Lisa, all of this having happened quickly and unexpetedly, there were things he was just learning about the women.

"I'm definitely going with the tagine too," Rory agreed, her stomach already grumbling.

"Me too," Logan added.

"And we recommend a crisp, pale, Costières de Nîmes' region's rosé or a fresh, plump-textured, garnacha from Navarra with these dishes," the waiter continued with his wine recommendations.

"Garnacha sounds good," Jess answered, sounding to Rory a little like he was wanting to appear knowledgeable, though she knew well enough that Jess' knowledge of wine was mostly book-based and mostly limited to the most popular wine grapes, knowing little about regions and undertones. He was no 'wino' and that was what she'd liked about him.

Rory almost wanted to say something to get Jess to relax, she especially didn't want him to feel like he needed to prove anything to Logan. But she realized prettys soon that she too was comparing herself to Lisa just the same. They were managing, but it was awkward nonetheless.

"Rory?" Logan asked, jolting Rory out of her thoughts, making her realize only then that it was her turn.

"Um.. the same," she replied quickly, completely forgetting for a moment that technically she was supposed to be avoiding alcohol. But as she'd said it she also realized that the response was kind of perfect - she didn't want to give Jess' mind any more food for thought by going non-alcoholic either. Jess would've known that to be a little unlike her and she really didn't want to start explaining her choices.

"Same for me too. And one of those cucumber water pitchers you have on some of these tables," Logan requested and cast a slightly questioning look towards Rory.

As the waiter headed off, having noted that that was all for the time being, Lisa spoke up. "I think the strongest thing I've had these last two weeks is cucumber water," she comments in a light chuckle.

"Lisa was in Costa Rica," Jess explained.

"Oh? What's in Costa Rica?" Rory inquired, politely. But she had to admit, she was curious too.

"I took the youngest of my dogs for a dog show there, it's good for their training. It was at some eco-resort - no alcohol, no caffeine - nothing," Lisa explained. "Beautiful place though," she added.

"Training your dog for what?" Logan asked what Rory already knew by having social-media stalked her a while ago. While Rory knew there was nothing to worry about, she couldn't help but to feel a little envious of Lisa and Logan having a topic in common. To her Loki was just something cute and cuddly - the theoretical part of it was all Logan.

"Oh, I have therapy dogs," Lisa replied.

"That's cool. I've seen a bunch of them in London, once I saw one it was hard to not see them everywhere," Logan said, finding it genuinely interesting, having once gotten talking to one guy, who had a black labrador for that purpose, in the waiting room at his therapist's office.

"You got a dog too, recently - didn't you? Em keeps talking about him - Loki was it?" Jess asked, as the water pitcher was brought to the table.

"I did, been training him too.. It's been fun, tiresome too… a lot of sleepless nights in the beginning there, but no regrets," Logan replied, and continued to talk about Loki's little quirks, which surprisingly eliminated any chance for an awkward silence at the table until their drinks arrived.

"So how's the new house?" Jess asked after a while, and took a sip of his wine.

"It's big, too big.. Maybe.. Bigger than what I'm used to," Rory replied, humbly, not wanting to brag. "But I like it, we've made it into a home, haven't we?" she added, directing her glance towards Logan. She wasn't quite sure how to frame it.

"I do believe that first dent in the banister marks it as ours," Logan added with a broad smile, at the same time finding it a little peculiar to see Rory on her toes like that, clearly picking her words and thinking about what her words might sound to both him and Jess. He wasn't quite sure what she was so worried about. Surely Jess knew they were enjoying their house to the fullest?

Rory had been stroking the stem of her wine glass for a while now, struggling deciding between taking a sip or not, feeling like either route she took held some kind of a major consequence.

She could think of the worst case scenarios - of something going horribly wrong with her very early, potential pregnancy - or rather with the egg floating somewhere in her fallopian tubes. Alternatively she could imagine Jess making a big deal of her not drinking anything, possibly even blaming her for not wanting that second kid with him as she'd told him several times. She could just picture those fights they'd had so vividly. Rory could imagine Jess saying that she was putting her new relationship ahead of Em and a thousand other tiny things. She didn't want to come off bothered either - by this setting, by this situation, by these men and woman at her table... it was safe to say she was overthinking it, possibly even having a panic attact.

After a deep exhale Rory took a sip, a rather large one.