Glimpses

Chapter 35

November 26th, 2021

After the initial euphoria of their private engagement leveled down, erasing tears and sudden bursts of emotion, the two of them decided to spend the evening celebrating in their own way, being determined to do what they'd come here to do not just lounge between the sheets of their hotel bed.

They spent the part of the evening visiting the ICA, where they enjoyed the Eva LeWitt installations and paintings by Eben Haines and Dell Marie Hamilton. Art museums had been definitely things Rory had missed going to over the years. Naturally she had but not very often. Other than Paris, who was never really able to go to these things with suggesting she could do one or the other painting and how overpriced these things were, she didn't really have anyone who actually enjoyed these places other than Logan. Same went for Logan really, at least before his marriage. And there was only so many times one felt like going alone.

While Rory had brought clothes that could work for either - a formal evening or something casual, they'd unanimously gone with the latter, after Logan had explained his strange love-hate relationship with suits these days. He felt like wearing a business suit was putting on his former self, despite consciously realizing a suit didn't make him. But Rory certainly wasn't going to be the one to force him into one unless he felt like it. Logan had gone with a simple dark button-up and dark gray trousers, oozing classy even without trying - still having a thing for certain quality luxury brands. Rory wore a fairly relaxed colorful V-neck tunic dress, worrying a little about it being on the shorter side, usually knee length dresses being her go-to outfits these days. But the worry was naturally unnecessary, her legs looking gorgeous as ever with her thigh-high Lowland Stuart Weitzman's and Logan had told her so, definitely enjoying the view. In her age, she was more often choosing comfort over the heel, but with her long legs, it really made no difference.

"Did you do this a lot with Odette?" Rory asked, hesitantly, as they emerged from the museum, the two of them aiming to find some nice place for dinner, having thrown their initial plan of the fancier place in Back Bay, Rory had booked, to the side, just not feeling like a formal five course meal. They'd done that enough years ago.

"What? Museums?" Logan asked, the topic not quite being his first choice as a discussion topic.

"Yeah," Rory replied.

"Not really," Logan replied. "Why?" he added.

"I just feel like she must've been a big part of your life these past years, and I just want to study you. Understand everything, find out in what parts you've changed... of course if it's uncomfortable, you don't have to. I just think it'd do us good if we didn't need to avoid certain topics just because of the stings attached to them," Rory explained more thoroughly than Logan had expected.

But after all the asking Rory had done that evening already -  that still made him feel all warm and giddy inside, he didn't really find much strength in himself to argue that. Maybe she was right? He certainly didn't have anything to really hide.

"She was more of a party girl, I guess, concerts over museums, for sure. She got bored pretty easily," Logan explained. He continued to explain how he'd missed going to book stores with Rory too, how discovering these tiny books stores in London had for a while become his lonesome thing to do too, but it had stung more than he'd expected and hence he too had stopped. He talked about the different sports he'd tried, including rowing and jujutsu.

"Jess was impossible to drag much anywhere - he was happy just staying home and read or write. Sure, a few concerts and such we did, but he had like this whole world in his head that I never really was allowed to see, not until he finished putting it in writing at least," Rory added, hoping it was okay for this to go both ways.