Glimpses

Chapter 12

November 3rd, 2016

Rory sat at her father's office waiting for him. Christopher had popped out for a minute, and it had been his mini-skirt wearing 25-year-old secretary, Ashley, that had let her in on his behalf, making Rory roll her eyes for a minute. Men would always be men...

The room, packed to the brim with antiques and no-doubt pricy knick-knacks Christopher had never in Rory's opinion had particular love for, felt hot and stuffy. Or maybe she was just nervous. Rory tried to focus her attention back to the room rather than on the reason she was there, needing to not lose her nerve. The room spoke of an interior decorator, not of her father, really. Though maybe she just didn't know him well enough these days.

Seeing him hadn't been her top priority for many years, being mobile due to her work, travelling from city to city and country to country for years. She hadn't seen Gigi at all for years, because she'd recently lived in Paris with Sherry for a couple of years.

She heard the door behind her, but even that didn't quite snap her out of her thoughts.

It was the extra large cup of coffee that appeared in front of her that did the trick, jolting her out of her thoughts.

"Coffee here sucks. I had to go three blocks to get this," Christopher said, sounding eager to please. Sometimes Rory felt he was just trying too hard. Maybe he was kind of still making up for things?

"This is the biggest size they had, huh?" Rory asked, a tiny hint of sarcasm. But she knew what he was doing - trying to exceed the Gilmore girl's expectations.

Normally she would've just jumped from joy in sight of some good coffee, this certainly smelled divine, but in the light of the recent news she'd gotten, she knew she was probably going to have to make a few adjustments to her diet, avoiding excess caffeine being one of them.

Rory could pretend that the news she'd gotten over the phone mere hours ago was a big shock, but it was another week before that she had actually taken the first pregnancy test and gotten a positive.

She'd had a few mornings hugging the toilet seat of the on-suite bathroom and observing very closely the anaglypta wallpaper at the Gilmore mansion. She had also had an odd craving for apples before that, so she could say that she'd been pretty convinced of the fact already. And of course there had been that time right after getting back from New Hampshire when she'd made the faithful decidion not to go by the farmacy, taking her chances. She could only plead temporary insanity on that one.

The blood test had just confirmed things, making it official.

There was no question whose it was. There hadn't been anyone else.

"It's good to see you, kiddo," Christopher said, sounding genuine.

"Thanks for squeezing me in," Rory replied, holding firmly on to the take-away cup as if it was giving her strenght.

"Oh. Always time for you," Christopher said and took a seat behind his huge mahogany desk.

"So, new office," Rory commented awkwardly, making small-talk.

"Yes, the cave," Christopher replied, jokingly, implying there was a story there.

"The cave?" Rory asked, assuming that was a story he was eager to share.

"I call it the cave 'cause I caved. I'm working in the family biz," he admitted, sounding surprisingly smug.

It was hard to read whether he was actually happy with the path or not, but it felt so familiar to Rory somehow. So many people she'd known from her youth had ended up one way or another back where they 'belonged' - doing what their parents had planned for them, living the lives they were destined for according to their parents. Colin, her Brooklyn roommate Sandra, Logan, now her dad... It seemed inevitable. From youthful rebellion to settling, to acceptance. Maybe that was what she was kind of doing too, even if it wasn't the plan her mother had had in mind for her?