Glimpses

Chapter 39

December 10th, 2021

The week passed quickly, because Rory continued to have a lot of work to do. The final strech. She also found it to be a relief that Logan had found himself some alternate things to do to keep himself occupied. He knew all about working late, hence he was very understanding about the whole thing, but she still got the hesitation in him - he didn't really understand why she was doing it. And his hesitation made her doubt it too. But he was kind - he didn't complain or make her feel bad about working. 

Among other things Logan had met up with Tristan again and gone to play ping pong, finally discovering something he was rather rusty in, it having been since high school since he'd played it last to kill time. She knew this because she still texted every day with him, and had added a few video calls into their routine as well.

They were definitely present in each-others lives even if not being right there at hand's reach, but they both knew that this was probably what taking things slow was like. Besides, Rory could already now, as she was hanging up her coat at her mother's house, see the minutes move towards the moment she'd have Logan for the entire weekend again. Two hours and thrity two minutes. Not a bad prospect.

She even needed to caution herself a little not to hurry the Friday Night Dinner along, as her mother could always tell, having invented the game, and she didn't want Em to feel like she was wanting to just hand her over to Jess quickly. She just needed hang in there a while longer.

Em was already off, playing with Robin, and her mother had had to make a quick hop over to Babette's to help her out with something or other. So Rory knew that this moment was probably going to be it to get Luke talking, sensing he'd been avoiding her and the sensitive topics for the past few weeks.

"So how's life been, Luke? Haven't seen you in a while," Rory asked, innocently, leaning against the doorway of her childhood bedroom.

"Ah, you know me... same old," Luke sighed, and continued to season the dish.

Rory cast a glance towards the living room, already seeing how Em had helped herself to her cartoons on TV and continued to scratch Robin's neck at the same time, cozily.

"Is that showerhead of yours still working alright?" Luke asked, casually, having changed it sometime in the September. Clearly he was struggling with the small-talk.

"Yeah, it's perfect," Rory replied, feeling thankful, reading Luke very well that he was being avoidant. "I've been actually thinking of selling the place. But definitely not because of the showerhead," Rory added, feeling like she needed to edge towards the sensitive topic somehow.

"Oh wow! Why?" Luke asked, perhaps a little naively.

"I think it's time, you know," Rory said, feeling like she was repeating this phrase in a lot of situations these days. "I just think we might something a little bigger, you know... so Logan could move in with us eventually," she replied, whispering the latter not to drop the bomb on Em like that, and also to let Luke in on the fact. She wasn't planning on outright hiding it from Em, but she hoped that Christmas holiday at Nantucket would be a good chance for Em to experience what living with Logan was like, that it was fun and nothing she needed to worry about, hopefully setting a good steady foundation into saying that that was one of the reasons they'd look for a new place soon.

"Oh..," Luke exhaled again, pretending to focus on stirring the chili, which looked done already.

"I mean... I mean not straight away, but it is what we're moving towards," she assured, wanting to make it crystal clear to Luke.

"Right...," Luke exhaled, but there was just something in the way his jaw tightened up so Rory could tell he wasn't happy about the news.

"I'm sensing you have an opinion that you've been holding in," Rory decided to ask, not liking this tip-toeing.