AN: There's an interesting dynamic in my readership. I always get the least comments/reviews on Sundays. You'd think people have time on Sundays to read. But no worries, just an observation - I understand you have lives (which clearly I don't have enough, but this is an escape for me so...).
But anyways - the last chapter was pretty stuck on what was happening in the OS, including the awkward entrance to Luke's, but I actually felt like it was even cringier now that Logan was there with them and Rory had developed some sense of critical thinking about all of it. But so be it. It anything - the point was that Logan doesn't really want to live in SH even if he gets used to the place more.
Chapter 74
"So kind of you grace us with your presence, Lorelai" Emily chimed, as if nothing was a miss as she handed both Rory and Lorelai a martini, having both of them now sitting on her couch on a Friday night.
As expected, Lorelai had been reluctant to come, but Rory had assured to her it would be weirder if she didn't, almost feeling like she needed to bring proof as a sign of reconsiliation. She'd almost hoped her grandmother would be happy, but she was getting mixed signals at best.
If anything Emily was treating this as the arrival of the mischievous and stubborn child back home after having run away from home, but overall carrying the mood that she'd always known they'd return.
Rory was oblivious to everything that had happened between her grandparents and her mother - the fights and agreements Lorelai felt they'd betrayed her on concerning Rory. All she'd ever gotten was - 'your mother is not coming' or 'she has other engagements' which had reminded Rory a lot of the time Jess' mother hadn't called to invite him over for Christmas that first year. But all was well now - her mother was right there, they were talking.
"Ah, there you are," Richard said, having been finishing up a call in his office.
"Hi, dad," Lorelai said.
"Hi, grandpa," Roy added in harmony.
"So, Rory? How's everything?" Richard inquired, going about this the same way Emily was.
"Everything is good. Calm," Rory said.
"And how's Logan?" Richard continued to inquire.
"Working on a research paper on macroeconomic metrics as we speak," Rory replied, knowing her grandfather was likely interested in such things. Logan had a good excuse to be spared from the weekly dinners because he would otherwise fall behind on his school work because he was essentially pulling double duty if one counted Yale as work.
"That fiance of yours is really turning out to be a fine studious man, isn't he? Must be a tough year for him too. A lot of pressure," Richard sympathized.
"Can't disagree with you there," Rory replied.
"Any concrete job prospects? I mean - has he mentioned what and where he'll be doing once he graduates within the family company?" Richard continued to inquire, leaving Lorelai shuffling in her seat impatiently. Rory knew that at the very least Lorelai wanted her parents to show some interest in her, now that she was back, but Rory was getting a feeling this was going to require some sort of an apology first, which really wasn't what her mother was eager to do.
"Nothing concrete yet, I think he hopes to get to deal with the IT and Technology part of it if he can," Rory explained, honestly not knowing a whole lot about Logan's titles. But not so much because she didn't care or remember but that Logan never liked to boast about such things, as if being ashamed of it somehow. In that way they were similar, liking the idea of earning one's position with what one did or could do.
"Those are forward thinking paths certainly. But locationwise - no abrupt relocation plans after you get married?" Richard continued to inquire, leaving Rory a little puzzled.
"I'm not sure. He's mostly been traveling around now, working from home, and occasionally in the City," Rory shared, hesitantly, feeling like they were up to something.
Richard nodded approvingly.
"Rory - are you all set for dress shopping Sunday? Isn't that so exciting?!" Emly chimed, shifting the subject.
"Very exciting," Rory reflected politely. "I was actually thinking perhaps we could make it a double booking that day, if that's possible. I mean mom needs a dress too and it'd be kind of nice to do this together," Rory suggested.
"Oh..," Emily replied, sounding obviously disappointed. "I'll see if that can be arranged, but I doubt there's anything there for your tastes. But we'll see..." she added, reluctantly.
"Wow, mom - tell us how you really feel," Lorelai mumbled.
"Well what is it that you want me to feel?" Emily exclaimed, offendedly.
"Maybe half the excitement about the fact that I'm engaged too. And by all means don't tone down any of the power on Rory's. I don't need you to plan my wedding, I can handle that myself. But maybe a polite question to how I am doing or how's Luke doing?" Lorelai let the words pour out of her, causing Rory to mumble - "Oh boy..," already sensing this was not going to go well.
"Well, Lorelai, I was just getting to that," Richard saved the moment. "How are you? How is Luke?" he added.
"Fine, thank you. And Luke is great. We just finished our remodel," Lorelai shared.
"Remodel?" Emily inquired, forcedly.
"We added some more space upstairs - made the bedroom bigger, and the bathroom," Lorelai shared.
"She's got double sinks now," Rory pointed out the irrelevant small detail.
"And I assume you've informed your insurance company on your changes?" Richard replied.
"You're my insurance company, dad," Lorelai reminded him.
"Still, there's a proper procedure for things like that," Richard added, knowingly.
"Ugh. Yes, dad," Lorelai chimed, sounding annoyed but suppressed.
"And when is the wedding?" Emily then asked her daughter.
Lorelai took a deep inhale as if finally having something grand to tell them. "June 3rd," Lorelai exhaled, giving the date to all three of them at once.
"June 3rd?" Richard reflected.
"June 3rd?" Emily repeated with slight contempt in her tone.
"June 3rd! Wow!" Rory chimed along, honestly not thinking it would be this soon - sooner than hers.
"That's so soon," Emily took the words out of Rory's mouth.
For a brief second Rory thought about whether there was indeed some rush for her mother to get married before she did - was it an age thing? A motion to prove something? Or maybe it was just her mother kind of thing where she saw no reason to wait since this was no society wedding but a town square type of thing, most likely. She wasn't sure whether to read into it or not, but whether she liked it or not by the date being earlier than hers, she did feel a little like she'd just been put on the back burner. She knew she shouldn't be feeling this way - she was already married, but she couldn't help it.
"That is soon," Richard reflected.
"We'll have to see if we're free. We haven't gotten a save-the-date card or anything. We're sending Rory's out already next week." Emily added, shrugging her shoulders. "That reminds me…," she began, and rose, headed over to her desk under the stairs and returned with a couple of invite samples for Rory to choose one.
Lorelai groaned, not really being the 'save-the-date' kind of person, but it was made very clear to both Rory and Lorelai that the grandparents were still playing favorites.
It was as the two made it out the door, when they both again felt like they could breathe. Lorelai because of the weird avoidance, and Rory because of the series of wedding decisions she kept getting asked about.
"Well, I think we've officially reinstated Friday Night Dinners," Lorelai sighed, disappointedly.
"Yeah! God if I never think about another invite design in my life I'll die happy," Rory sighed, adding - "And what was all that talk about Logan's plans about…," frowning her nose.
"I think they might be thinking about giving you two a place to live - apartment or a house or something," Lorelai offered some insight.
"They wouldn't!" Rory exclaimed, worriedly.
"Wouldn't they?" Lorelai shot back, along with a meaningful look.
A few days later Rory was sitting at her desk at the apartment, looking through job ads. Of course right she was hardly using the desk purposefully, the Connecticut college course having turned out to be a breeze for her, having already finished all the assignments ahead of time for the whole course and was just delaying handing them in so she could adjust them according to what she heard in class. But she knew she was going crazy having this little to do and while for a moment there she had considered asking her grandfather about that administrative position, after Friday Night Dinner, she was more and more reluctant to involve them in her life even more so, the prospect of having to accept a house from them as a potential wedding present being daunting as it was. Unsure if that was the case at all or her mother's imagination, she was yet to mention the possibility to Logan.
Suddenly Rory's phone rang.
"Hello?" she picked up.
"Hey, it's me!" a female voice said.
"Who's 'me'?" Rory asked, having made a few calls that morning so she was not quite recognizing the name.
"Oh, my god. You don't recognize your best friend's voice," Paris' unmistakable voice sighed with contempt.
"Sorry, Paris. There's noise here," Rory fibbed.
"So I'm returning your call," Paris said, Rory having nearly forgotten about it.
"Thanks. I just wanted to tell you something," Rory began, being sure to get an applause, or an appreciation at least, from Paris. "I'm coming back to Yale," she said excitedly.
"Of course you're coming back," Paris replied, sounding unimpressed. "What are you gonna do without a degree - drive a forklift? Or in your case - plan tea parties?" Paris added somewhat rudely.
"Well, I was calling to ask you if you could keep your eyes and ears open for a job for me. I mean, can be volunteer or paid, just something in the governance field or political writing or such. I know you must have a lot of contacts with employers and donors…," Rory added.
"That campaign you did really got under your skin, didn't it?" Paris reflected.
"I wouldn't say, but I just choose to focus my energy on a field that's more independent..," Rory added, not needing to specify independent from what.
"Do you still want to come back to the Yale Daily News?" Paris asked. "Carlos is handling the political beat now, and honestly he stinks," she added, speaking this way right out there in the middle of the newsroom, getting a groan of disapproval in return.
"Yes, if that's possible," Rory said. It wasn't a job, but it was writing and if anything she was just thinking of this to keep her mind and pencil sharp.
"Yes, that can be arranged," Paris replied. "I'm here now. Carlos - the politics beat goes to Rory, take general interest along with Laura," Paris said, speaking to Carlos.
Rory cringed on the other side.
"Why is it so quiet over there? Is it a slow day?" Rory asked instead, finding the quiet puzzling.
"No, everyone's here. I just like a super-quiet atmosphere," Paris explained, shedding some light into the madness that was going on there. "No extraneous talking, and I even had the computer keyboards deadened," Paris explained.
"Okay, so I'll drop by tomorrow, okay?" Rory said.
"Fine," Paris agreed, ending the call.
As soon as Rory put her phone back on the table, it rang again.
"Hey, mom!" Rory picked up, actually checking the ID this time.
"Hey," Lorelai replied.
"The thing with dad went okay?" Rory asked, knowing Lorelai was going to see Christopher that morning.
"It was fine. He was telling the truth," Lorelai replied. "Nothing too horrible, except for the "frings"," she added.
"The what?" Rory asked.
"The combo basket of fries and onion rings. Good in theory, but…," Lorelai replied.
"So what did he want to talk to you about?" Rory inquired curiously.
"Well, his grandfather died," Lorelai said.
"Oh," Rory exhaled, unsure why his dad hadn't just called her himself. They hadn't had a fight, and as far as she knew he'd just been busy with Gigi all by himself.
"Apparently, it was one of those un-sad deaths, like Buddy Hackett," Lorelai continued.
"No one was sad about Buddy Hackett?" Rory frowned, not following.
"No one I saw on the news," Lorelai added. "Anyway, he left Chris money, a lot of money, and now he's offering to shower us with it. Want a Bentley?" Lorelai shared Chris' punchline.
"I don't think so," Rory replied, feeling uncomfortable at the thought.
"How about a castle?" Lorelai added.
"What would I do with a castle?" Rory asked in return.
"I'm relaying the offer," Lorelai explained.
"Dad should keep the money for himself," Rory said.
"Are you sure there's nothing you want? A brewery, a Faberge egg or what else did he mention? Paying for Yale through a PhD, vacations, a cannon from the civil war.." Lorelai continued, Rory's thoughts stopping at the mention of Yale.
"Actually, I think maybe there is something I want. I would maybe let him pay for Yale," Rory suddenly said.
"Seriously?" Lorelai replied.
"Yeah, it's the kind of thing parents usually pay for right. And I mean grandma and grandpa are paying for so much already, it doesn't really feel right if he can pay for it, does it? And now there's all this talk about a house, and they already got me a car and the wedding and..," Rory continued, nearly spilling the fact that her grandfather had given her a credit card in confidence already a while ago.
"And what?" Lorelai asked.
"And it's just so much. I feel like I am getting all this wealth for no reason. Like I don't deserve it. I most certainly didn't earn it. First grandma and grandpa, then Logan, then dad..," Rory listed. "Logan actually gave me a copy of his credit card the other day. It's like a black Amex and I'm scared to even touch it. I tucked it away behind my other cards in my wallet, so the cashier wouldn't see it by accident when I get Chinese," Rory confessed.
"Oh, wow..," Lorelai exclaimed.
"I know!" Rory exclaimed.
"Well, that's what you get for marrying rich, I guess," Lorelai added.
"I'm not even contributing. All I'm doing is taking a class that's too easy for me and going to meet Paris tomorrow to start writing for the Yale Daily News again, but that's not really contributing, is it?!" Rory went on. "I don't even know how to tell grandma and grandpa about dad paying for Yale or how to stop them from getting us a house?" Rory exclaimed.
"You know you could probably get your dad to cover the house too, or at the very least tell Emily and Richard that he offered first. In the end you may choose something else entirely but at least with your dad we'd know he wouldn't be surprising you with something ridiculous in 'Scarsdale' or 'Greenwich'," Lorelai said, squinching her nose with contempt audibly, as two highest household income villages.
"Now that's an idea," Rory replied, the gears in her head beginning to turn.
"Wow, I now not only have rich parents but also a rich daughter," Lorelai noted, even though she could've also said the same thing about her ex and her current fiance, Luke being not poorly off either, despite not parading it.
AN: Another small ask from you - I am looking for ideas on what might be something small that Logan does to end up in the doghouse for a bit. They're being too perfect in my mind and I feel they need some drama. I don't want it to be major, but just... something. Any personal thoughts? Experiences? No cheating. All I am coming up with is disagreeing on living arrangements after they marry (but I have other plans for that and don't want to use this yet) and disagreeing on something wedding related (but I don't think Logan really cares about the details). It's also too soon for prenup-related drama.