Despite the nighttime interruption, which had certainly rather been a pleasant one than not, Logan hadn't slept too late the next morning. In fact, he was bursting with excitement. It wasn't so much for Rory's drunken babbles about starting a family, his impression being that even if that was the goal, it wasn't happening right this minute. He doubted Rory had been deadly serious about, truthfully, and he put it down for a momentary lapse of… something, even if he did agree on it being in their future plans.
But he was excited about giving his 'yes' about the job. He was even eager to tell his sister and Rory's family about it, unconsciously at the very least craving someone's approval of his ability to provide for his wife and for himself. It was just the way he'd been brought up and he couldn't help but to measure his success with something like that. So, by 10 AM when Rory finally began to let out little sounds as she stretched herself, her head hurting a little, Logan had already drafted together his e-mail about accepting the job offer and was just wanting to confirm things with Rory in the morning before he pressed 'send'. Until that, he'd been browsing real estate ads. The prospect of a cute little house or maybe a nice apartment with a big balcony sounded like such a dream to him. He saw his life being a lot different on the West Coast, and he couldn't wait for it to become reality.
"How's your head?" he asked, seeing Rory begin to open her eyes. He walked to the kitchen and brought back a glass of water for Rory.
"I've had worse," Rory replied, squeezing one of her eyelids shut because a ray of sunshine was shining straight onto it, before shifting her position.
Logan clearly had a questioning look on his face, and his excitement was hard to hide as well. He took a seat on the bed next to her.
It all came rushing back to Rory in a moment. Even if some parts of it, or rather the way she'd suggested some things last night, made her feel embarrassed.
"So, Silicon Valley - here we come?" Rory asked, trying to sound chipper, guessing his most burning question.
"Are you sure?" Logan asked.
"It's that or living off someone else. And I mean, my odds of landing something are almost as good there as they are here," Rory replied, mostly just thinking how this was buying her the time to figure out what she wanted.
"So, I can press 'send' on that e-mail I've drafted together?" Logan confirmed, needing her to be 100% sure.
Of course, Logan had the e-mail written up already – Rory could just see how excited he was.
"Uh-huh," Rory nodded, feeling the pressure of decision-making. But at the same time, she just wanted the decision to be already made. E-mails sent, contracts tied up, plane tickets bought, boxes packed. She wanted to have something to tell her family and friends. She wanted to have a direction, even if that mostly included getting there and then seeing what was what.
"Okay, then," Logan exhaled from relief and excitement. He rose from the bed. "Thank you for doing this. Again," he said and bent down to give her a kiss of gratitude. "I'll put the coffee on. Tacos will be here in 10," he added, knowing his wife well.
For the first time in what felt like weeks Rory smiled in relation to the prospect of her future. She had hope. A direction – even if the direction was to follow her husband and the general destination of West. It was more than she'd had.
Rory dragged herself up, made it to the bathroom and after got ready for her day like she always did. The thing she did after brushing her teeth, but usually in the evenings, was take her contraceptive pill. But considering she hadn't been home until late at night, she'd clearly already forgotten to take it. The handful of times this had happened before, she usually had just taken it at the earliest opportunity which would've been now. But as she stared at the half-eaten pack of pills, she honestly didn't see the point anymore. Logan hadn't objected, in fact, had even welcomed the thought of knocking her up during their lovemaking last night. It wasn't the first time. The thought of some of the things she'd whispered in his ear, playing with his kink, almost made her blush, thinking back. But it was hot too… she couldn't deny it.
She knew generally that the process of coming off the pill might be a little messy, irregular periods and what not - but it was not like delaying this any longer would change any of that. The sooner she did that, the sooner it could happen.
"Here goes," Rory said to herself, tossing the pills into the bin next to the vanity, already hearing the knock that announced the arrival of her tacos. Her stomach growled with appreciation, and she walked out of the bathroom with a sunny smile on her face. There was nervousness in her gut too, but mostly it was excitement.
Rory returned from her last class of her undergraduate studies the next day, eager to start studying for a final. She was now a lot more motivated to do well on her finals and just finish this thing. Sure, returning to Yale to graduate had been the right call. A Yale diploma was worth a lot more than a British one if she planned to continue her career in the US - whenever that would be.
"Hey," Logan kissed her in greeting, as Rory bent over his shoulder, after putting her book bag down.
"You hear back from them yet?" she asked, knowing Logan was already discussing contract details by late morning with the guys in Silicon Valley.
"Mh-mh," Logan replied in brief, having something else to show her. Things were going well on his job front it was. "You see this yet?" he asked instead, and pulled up the browser window he had open.
"Oh my god! It's up already?!" Rory exclaimed, not believing her eyes.
"Hugo put me in the cc," Logan replied.
Rory looked over the front page of Hugo's online magazine where a big banner highlighted the story 'The Starbucks economics - Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino" written by Rory Huntzberger.
"Oh, wow," Rory chimed, having not expected this. And not this soon.
"Things work pretty quickly in the online business," Logan replied.
"But I mean, I expected it to need some editing or maybe he'd just read it and give me some feedback," Rory said.
"I knew you could do it, Rory," Logan said, kissing her knuckles. Logan had read it over before she'd sent it, and with the editing experience the two of them had, it hadn't required anything else.
Rory didn't know what else to say. But one thing was for sure, she'd needed that small victory.
A couple of days passed and things fell into place. Their plan was taking form, and Rory already managed to get one of her finals out of the way. There were just a few more to go, knowing a few of her courses she'd already completed by doing the assignments on time.
The moment of truth was Friday Night Dinner. They both knew they had to come out with the news. They were both strangely apprehensive at the dinner, however, both fearing the opinion of their elders, and considering Logan's parents weren't really in the picture anymore the Gilmore's opinion was all that there was.
"I really do feel better. Some wallowing was necessary, of course, but Logan has been a big help. I mean, it's like you said sometimes you just have to let your feelings out," Rory explained as her mother had inquired about her feelings about losing the fellowship, about fifteen minutes into the drinks part of the evening.
"Yeah, sometimes you do," Lorelai agreed.
"But it's all good now," Rory chimed, glancing at Logan to just come out with it.
"Well, I actually have some news. Good news. I've been offered a position with an emerging internet company," Logan said with an exhale.
"That's wonderful news!" Emily exclaimed, going to fresh her drink.
"Wow, that's great," Lorelai said, sipping her Manhattan.
"Yeah," Logan agreed. "It's pretty similar to what I've been doing, and they're actually willing to make me a full partner. I'll be getting in on the ground floor," Logan added.
"That's exciting," Richard commented.
"It is," Rory said, feeling a little giddy herself.
"It's going to be a lot of long hours and an incredible amount of work, building the company but I really feel this venture has a bright future," Logan explained.
Sure, Rory knew that Logan had a strong work ethic - he really put himself into whatever he did. But she hadn't quite realized that it included an incredible amount of work and long work hours, not when she'd been thinking about the baby. She'd hoped those London-type days would be over now. Maybe that had been just naïve of her? Maybe throwing out those pills had indeed been a bit premature?
"These are serious people," Logan added.
"And you're a serious businessman yourself," Emily said.
"You don't have to convince us," Richard chuckled.
"Thank you. I appreciate that. That means a lot to me," Logan said.
"Oh, you're welcome," Emily chimed.
"So, the thing is… well, as you can imagine, I'm, we're pretty excited about all this," Logan began, his hesitance being a little unlike him, and even Richard glanced at Rory questioningly, being not used to seeing Logan hesitate.
"But it does mean a move to San Francisco," Logan said, looking a little guilty. It wasn't the first time he was taking Rory away from her family, and the last time hadn't gone that great.
"Palo Alto, actually," Rory added.
"Oh, wow," Lorelai exclaimed, clearly shocked of this development.
"Yeah," Logan replied.
"That's big," Lorelai added.
"Well, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity regardless of the location," Richard chimed, trying to be supportive. He got this was a big deal.
"It's funny that Rory didn't mention it the other day," Lorelai added, having called Rory indeed just recently. Rory looked down guiltily, having not wanted to hear her opinion on the topic before they told everyone.
"We just wanted to tell everyone at once," Rory explained.
"It's definitely a fascinating destination. I loved the cable cars, looking at them, not riding them, of course, and the views. Remember, Richard, when we stayed in that Beacon Grand hotel there. It was magnificent," Emily commented, reminiscing about one of their holidays.
"And, Rory - what about you? What about school? Work?" Lorelai asked.
"I… um… I'm just… for now I'll..," Rory began, hating this part.
"Rory got herself published in this up-and-coming online magazine, actually. I'll send you a link later. I'd say there's promise for more there too…," Logan said, wanting to help her.
"And that's pretty independent location wise," Rory said, having gotten Hugo's message about being welcome to submit more if she had time after her finals.
"Well, that's good," Richard said.
"It's a good start," Logan replied assuringly.
Rory could tell her mother wasn't happy about the news, and also, she could see her grandmother wordlessly reprimanding her mother already. She could only imagine what it was about.
"Straight out of college, that's all one really needs," Richard added.
Rory hadn't realized how much she'd needed to hear him say that. Now she just hoped that they'd be as understanding if she ended up pregnant before she had any big breaks.