Chapter 109
"So, after my third callback, he says to me - 'A girl can't play Oscar Wilde. I want people to take this production seriously,' like he's Peter Brook or something. And not some goateed sophomore from… I don't know… Northumberland," Lucy continued to share her brief experiences on trying to establish an acting career in London. "So, I give him my most foppish stare and say - 'Life is too important to be taken seriously'," she added.
"Nice," Olivia encouraged Lucy's storytelling.
"But on the way out," Lucy continued, while they'd made it to Rory's door and Rory began to unlock it, secretly feeling all kinds of nervous doing this. It was the first time she was inviting her friends to their new home in London.
"As I'm making my dramatic exit, I walk right into the glass door," Lucy added. "Like smack," she sighed dramatically.
"No! Ouch!" Rory reflected, sympathetically.
"So, the next semester he keeps hounding me about how I'd be perfect for his production of 'California Suite' because I have such a gift for physical comedy," Lucy continued, stepping into the apartment observantly.
Rory chuckled.
Their apartment was located on Pembroke Mews, a lovely cobblestone street, in Kensington. The house, with its white tonality and yellow brick second floor was adorable both from the outside and in, even if the apartment itself was a little bit more modern to accommodate their tastes. Rory and Logan had barely laid eyes on their neighbors, one of them being an elderly woman with a Yorkie and the other a man who they always just saw coming and leaving on a taxi cab with his hand luggage, looking like a busy business man of some sort.
The first thing one saw after opening the door, was a long stairway, taking them up to the second floor, where their apartment was.
"Holy crap," Lucy commented, being very outspoken, as they reached the top of the stairs. "This is some place. You…are rich," Lucy stated the obvious that Rory hadn't anticipated to show as much as it did. But the art on the walls, the location and the upscale furniture they'd had a interior decorator pick out for them made it pretty obvious.
"And you've got some wild stuff," Olivia noted, checking out the Doug Kemp pop art on one of the walls. There were also cool books and a few cool knick-knacks Rory and Logan had found on one of their scavenger hunts to London's second-hand markets.
But just as Rory was about to worry about them literally counting her money by her possessions or asking further questions about the source of the wealth, Lucy surprised her.
"Well, I must eat. I'm positively famished," Lucy announced, forgetting the rest.
Somehow Rory had avoided a lot of detail, while still dropping some hints every now and again that she had traveled quite a bit and was no stranger to the fancy dining and shopping. But clearly to Lucy it at least didn't seem like high priority.
Rory sighed from relief, while remaining tentative.
"The kitchen's that way?" Lucy asked, and Rory pointed her towards the front of the house, where she followed her, helping Lucy carry one of the two take-away bags.
"Nice sound system," Olivia pointed out, boldly put on some music - playing whatever was on the stereo, and followed them to the kitchen with the wine they'd bought.
"Do you have wine glasses somewhere? What am I saying - of course you have wine glasses," Lucy said.
"Um, yeah, they should be some in here," Rory opened the bar cabinet to show her. She secretly hoped Logan hadn't recently restocked his scotch selection, so the bar would look more suitable for a college student, not wanting to emphasize the wealth any more.
"You have a hell of a lot of choice in here, Rory," Lucy commented approvingly, seeing around 20 different bottles of various alcoholic beverages, most of them full.
Rory and Logan didn't drink much, but it was something Logan had grown up with having close at hand, even if he didn't really expect to have visitors. Hence having a fully stock bar cabinet was in part also a standard they didn't really think about unless someone pointed it out for them.
"Look, I found a cocktail shaker!" Lucy announced victoriously.
"Genius!" Olivia commented.
"Now we just need tequila and lime," Lucy replied, already getting an idea to try out Wine Margaritas. "Or… rum and juice," she added, glancing around the kitchen, unsure if Rory had any lime. "Who's up for cocktails?" she announced.
"Wow, you're quite a mixologist," Rory commented, sounding kind of impressed of the way Lucy's brain worked. "Feel free to check the fridge for whatever you need," Rory added.
"She used to work at a bar once," Olivia commented.
Suddenly Rory's phone rang.
"Oh, that must be Logan," Rory said, having agreed to meet back home for a movie night. She desperately hopes he wasn't calling to cancel. There had been too many cancellations, as truthfully, she was getting a flashback to last year with his schedule.
"Hey!" Rory chimed, trying to not sound apprehensive. She knew if Logan did cancel, it wasn't really his fault. It was just the way things were.
"Hey!" Logan replied. "You having a party there, Ace?" he asked, curiously, hearing the last CD he'd been playing blasting on the background.
"Oh, no..," Rory laughed. "Just hanging out with Lucy and Olivia," Rory pointed out the obvious. He knew that had been the plan.
"Hi, Logan!" Lucy chimed in loudly, wanting to greet the mystery husband they'd never seen.
"Hi, Logan!" Olivia added similarly.
"Just girls, huh? Your new boyfriend's not over?" Logan teased, feeling the only thing to really do in his situation when he'd been a rather absent husband recently was to joke about the matter.
"Nope, just us girls hanging out in our underwear throwing pillows at each other. You know, girl stuff," Rory teased back, getting an amused glance back from Lucy.
"Sounds very wholesome and loud," Logan commented. "But I guess, I better hurry up to catch a glimpse of that," he added, playing long.
"So, you're on your way?" Rory said, actually coming off a little surprised.
"Damn straight I am," Logan replied. "Anything you need me to pick up?" he asked.
"Not unless you're in the mood for something healthy," Rory replied, her smile growing wider at the prospect of him joining them.
Logan chuckled, already guessing what the menu might entail.
"I'll be there shortly. Love you," Logan assured, stepping into the elevator at his office as he said that.
"Love you too," Rory chimed in return.
As Rory continued to chat with her friends and pour the snacks out of their bags, Logan's elevator began to close its doors. Suddenly a hand appeared, stopping the doors from closing.
"Hold up," a voice said, nearly dropping something in the process.
As the doors opened back up Logan saw a blonde woman, he'd only really seen in passing, trying to salvage the contents of her cardboard box.
"Sorry. I'm such a klutz," the skinny-looking woman said in a strong British accent.
"That's alright," Logan said, and attempted to keep the doors open so the woman could pick up the couple of items she'd dropped in the process.
As he waited, Logan already made the logical assumption that for some reason the woman was having her last day and frankly he became curious whether it had been a voluntary or forced dismissal.
"What a day," the woman exhaled in a mumble, as she finally stepped into the elevator and repressed the button to the exit floor.
"You alright?" Logan asked, compassionately.
"I'm brilliant, actually," the woman replied sarcastically.
"I take it you're doing a bit of an exit march?" Logan inquired, curiously.
"Exit march, walk of shame, standing my ground… whatever you want to call it," the blonde commented.
"Something happen or..?" Logan asked, the elevator ride down from the 21st floor taking a while.
"Now when the CEO asks you that question most people know that it'll either end up with him begging for the person not to sue the company or me feeling like a dobber," the woman replied.
"But what sort of a CEO would I be if I weren't interested in what is going on in our company?" Logan shot back just as the elevator doors opened with a ping.
The woman let out a puff of air as she marched out the door and Logan thought she wasn't even going to dignify him with an answer.
Logan wasn't going to insist - he had places to be. And certainly, he could ask around tomorrow and have Stephen find out who the woman was.
"I guess not then. But I do hope suing us isn't high on your agenda - because I did ask..," Logan called after her, as they made it cross the lobby.
The woman pushed the emergency door open, not bothering with the revolving door, and took a few more steps as Logan followed her, aiming to take towards the curb to hail himself a taxi. It was generally not a problem this time of day in this area.
"You know what…," the woman suddenly turned, and almost shouted at him over the street noise.
"What?" Logan asked, loudly, feeling a little intrigued.
"That marketing director of yours is a misogynist dick!" the woman spit out.
"Good. So, there's something we agree on," Logan was quick on his words.
The woman burst into laughter. "Ah…," she exhaled, clearly having some sort of a nervous reaction. "The name's Bobby, by the way," she added.
"Logan, Logan Huntzberger," he replied, stating the fact the woman already knew.