Tea Parties in Boston

9 - Like a Walk in the Park

September 24th, 2022, Arlington, MA

The entire drive over to Arlington, Rory having picked up Logan from his hotel this afternoon, the two adults had been very aware of some lingering awkwardness.

Logan was strangely quiet, and Em's presence in the backseat didn't really allow Rory to inquire about several things she'd been wondering about - unsure where the landmines lied.

What was worse, was that Em hadn't said a word about their revelation so Rory was severly second guessing her judgement. Was Em really fine with things? So mostly throughout the drive, Rory was sort of in the tour guide mode - trying to combine talking about the local sights, things Em had done and gone to in various places on the way, hoping to shed some light to Logan about all the things that had been, but Em seemed not too easily engaged except for when they passed the toy store. But hey, what do you expect from a 5-year-old?

"So this is it," Rory declared as she parked her car, a white hybrid RAV4 which looked fairly new.

Logan was trying to deduce her financial situation a little, not that it was directly his business, but he was curious. Clearly she wasn't paying for housing, unless she was symbolically contributing, the townhouse clearly belonging to her father and being in one of the finest neigbourhoods in Boston. Logan had also checked Glassdoor for Harvard's salaries and what Rory had noted to being 'decent pay' actually wasn't a lot over 55k, which made him even more curious why she'd stuck with something that didn't exactly give her independence. He believed her to be capable of more, but he certainly didn't want to rub that in or make her feel bad for it - he was just curious and a little concerned, his instinct being to care for her somehow, that even despite knowing she'd always been very reluctant towards things like that. And then there was the car, something flashy enough to look like splurging - a little at least. He also wondered who was paying for the nanny, for school and so forth. Em wasn't in public school, was she?

"You should tell me what kind of car seats I should look into getting...," Logan commented after Rory had opened the car door for Em and the girl had hopped off towards the playground, surprising her with his concreted interest.

Rory truly hadn't thought that far along, that after some time she was indeed going to have to trust him to go off with Em on his own. She would - the thought just felt foreign. And it made her feel a little vulnerable.

"Well, she's five so there's not that much to really consider anymore. Some highback boosters will do fine. Maybe one with the regular seat belt not with the harness, she thinks only babies use those... And she can throw pretty bad tantrums sometimes if she doesn't like something. Also with a chari like that she knows how to unbuckle and buckle it her in herself," Rory suggested, after a moment's thought. Naturally she always double-checked, but the girl was definitely very independent.

Logan felt an urge to ask if that was safe, but he held his tongue. He was in no position to start second guessing her.

"Yeah, I guess I better start shopping for a car first," Logan exhaled, realizing that he was himself still driving a rental.

"So this is what you're really doing. You're moving here for her?" Rory asked, the entire thought still sounding unbelievable.

"Yeah," Logan shrugged. It was a little unbelievable for him too. He'd never in his life had a distinct draw towards wanting to live in Boston. He knew he'd still travel quite a bit probably, he wasn't fixed to just one place but this move certainly was going to involve a lot of reorientating when it came to his job as well. Some things he'd continue doing from a distance, but if his time did open up, he knew that he might be tempted to try to start some small side business. He had ideas, he never before had just had the time to even entertain them.