Balancing Act

149

"So essentially you now have access to your properties?" Rory reflected, having just listened to Celeste tell about Emily's phone call earlier that day. Rory was at the nearby playground with Finny, having some one-on-one time with him for a change. It was already pretty dark outside, but the snowy playground was well lit and Finny really didn't seem to mind, and as Finny was playing with one of his friends he saw there quite often, Rory felt quite comfortable giving Celeste some of her attention at the same time, speaking into her earphone mic.

"I guess, but I don't really know until I actually try the keys...," Celeste hesitated, still not quite knowing what to think of this gesture.

"You really have some deep trust issues there, don't you?" Rory said without embellishments, sensing it from her tone.

"Yeah," she inhaled as a response. Rory knew just the highlights of it and she wasn't planning on going into it.

"Well, in theory you could even ask Emily to go check them out. It's not like you'd be moving there or anything like that any time soon, would it? But this way maybe you could hire some realtor and rent them out - I mean, that hardly requires you to go there yourself," Rory discussed.

"I don't want to ask Emily, she's done so much already. Besides the apartment is a 5th floor walk-up, I'm not going to ask her to do that just to check it. I don't know, maybe I could send Jess or Logan?" she pondered out loud. Logan really would've been the most convenient option, Logan was just a few hours away, but she knew that he really didn't have such time to spare and she wasn't going to ask him. Sending Jess was a whole other story - she simply didn't want to be alone in the house right now, unsure of herself whether she'd be able to keep her food down and whether she'd be up to caring for Evie at the same time, besides, it was not like they were swimming in money right now.

"You could," Rory said, not sounding too enthusiastic about the prospect of involving Logan. She just wanted everything else resolved before she began distracting him with any other plans, and she was pretty sure Celeste understood that.

"Logan is busy, I know - I don't want to bug him either. And I know you've got stuff to talk about," Celeste said, reading Rory well.

"Yeah," Rory sighed.

"Any word from him?" she asked, hating to see two of her best friends besides Jess struggle like this. Rory had told her that Logan had promised to put his explanations and emotions on paper, or screen, but she hadn't really heard back from him about it.

"He should be getting my package today or tomorrow morning. I don't know - I just feel so silly for having sent it. What if he just thinks it's desperate?" Rory pondered, having also told her about the care package idea she'd gotten.

"He won't," Celeste assured. "Just hang in there, a little while longer - he'll be back soon," she added, trying to sound optimistic. She was worried about them too, but her worrying really wouldn't make things easier for them. "Or if you can't wait - just got to him, for the weekend or something. You've weaned Emma now, right? They'd be okay for a few days without you," Celeste suggested.

Rory struggled to really argue with that. She wasn't tied to New York anymore, the freedom having not quite registered with her just yet. Sure, it would be painful to be away from the kids, even a day seemed like too much, but it wasn't completely unthinkable. She could ask Lorelai to come help out if Cathy couldn't, liking the idea of having someone from the family at the house besides the nannies. Having just the nannies there felt to her too much like abandoning the kids somehow.

However, on that thought she recalled the way Sherry had left for Paris when G had been little, leaving G to be raised more by the nanny than her dad. Surely she'd had other struggles, untreated PPD most likely. But then it hit her.