Tea Parties in Boston

25 - Agreements and arrangement

October 18th, 2022

"Did you finish that reference list?" Giselle asked, having spent the morning along with Rory doing finishing touches on a manuscript that was due from one of the professors working in their department that afternoon.

That was what research assistants did - they helped with filling in the gaps between the actual content part of the manuscript, that came from those with PhD-s, making it fit the formatting standards and if need be looked up references and fact checked everything. Sure, there were other tasks - some more creative than others, but overall it was a good thing Rory actually genuinely liked most of the tasks involved while not really having to feel so much pressure. All she could ever do at her job was her best, and that best was more than enough to do the job well.

"Just finishing up," Rory commented, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. She was eager to finish too, she had a lunch to get to.

No more than a minute later she was in deed done and sighed from relief, closing the document in front of her.

"Done!" Rory exhaled. "Now what time is it?" she inquired, having not paid any attention to the tiny clock at the corner of her screen until now. But as she now saw, she was already running a little late.

"What, you have another lunch date?" Giselle, who herself was getting married pretty soon to Victor, one of Rory's friends, teased.

Rory had mentioned the couple of times she'd been meeting someone for lunch ever now and again, not particularily saying it was Logan.

Rory rolled her eyes at her. "It's not a date," Rory replied, and tidied her desk up just a little, liking it neat, and continued to shove her wallet and phone into her coat pocket, not bothering to take her purse.

Giselle eyed her meaningfully, clearly not quite buying it.

"I'm just meeting Logan," Rory replied, knowing Giselle would know that name from the birthday. "I promised him I'd tell him about Em growing up, so it wouldn't be so weird to talk about these things in front of her," Rory replied, having briefly told her friend how weird it was having the father of her child show up back in their lives after the birthday while she'd asked for details. She wasn't as close with Giselle as she was with Angie, not by a long shot, but one did talk at work, just keeping things light most of the time. The more people knew about Logan, the more anxious she grew though - feeling like some very important people were still in the dark.

"Uh-uh," Giselle teased in disbelief.

"Giselle..," Rory chimed, shaking her head. Despite the fact having crossed her mind - that these meetings did indeed feel a little like dating him - she didn't want to go there.

"Whatever you need to tell yourself," Giselle replied cheekily. "Oh, and while you're at your non-date or whatever, try to figure out if I can put you down with a plus one for the wedding," she reminded her teasingly.

"Right, sorry about that," Rory replied, knowing she'd been postponing responding to that RSVP for weeks now. It was not a huge wedding, but still one was supposed to bring a date.

"Hey... I am happy to put you down for that extra spot. Bring your baby daddy or don't...," Giselle chaffed.

"Fine, put me down for that plus one," Rory replied, surprising Giselle a little.

"Really?!" she exclaimed.

"But it's not for him...," Rory chimed. "I'll just bring my sister or... someone else, I don't know yet," she added, pulling on her jacket, keeping her mind away from even considering the possibility.

"Fine... not half as much fun, but up to you. It's your life...," Giselle replied, holding up her hands.

Rory frowned at her for a second but made it out of the office swiftly, knowing Logan was probably already waiting. She doubted he remembered quite this well her tendency to run a little late unless it was work-related.