Tea Parties in Boston

44 - Acceptances and Rejections

November 25th, 2022

Rory woke to a pair of small hands, soft and warm, on her chest, Em having snuck into her bed. The girl was sleeping against her side, her brown hair messy and her face looking like that of an angel. Em really was fast asleep, when her face looked that relaxed.

But as she lingered a little while longer - first thinking a little about whether Logan was up already, recalling how he used to love to go for a run or to the gym back in the day whenever they'd spent time in Martha's Vineyard. She also wondered whether that little bakery they used to love was still there. She couldn't wait to join him on the other island later that day.

From that, however, her mind drifted to more troubling things. When and in what format was she about to hear her mother's opinion and how much she was going to let herself be affected by it. She also knew her grandmother certainly had something to say. She felt like she should just make sure they got some alone time with both of them and let them say her piece, do the grown up thing and face them and it was in that hope she snuck out of bed, pulled on the guest robe that hang at the back of the door and made her way downstairs.

The scent of coffee in the air was promising, but she knew it couldn't be Lorelai, since these days she stayed across the street in the separate house with Luke.

She found Emily nursing a cup of coffee and glancing out the gridded doors that opened up to the back porch. She had the perfect view of the stormy ocean - the weather made her a little worried whether the plane would be flying as normal. But it was still early. The ocean had that vastness about it that made one feel small. Rory liked it every once in a while, but she wasn't convinced she could actually live somewhere like this full time. Feeling that small and that alone made her feel insecure. That was part of the problem, wasn't it - she defined herself through the people around her.

"Morning, grandma," Rory chimed, and took a large mug from one of the hooks on the wall. There was no fancy coffee machine at this place for espressos or anything like that, just a good old-fashioned drip-machine, and she poured herself a cup, deciding to drink it black for old-time's sake.

"Good morning, Rory," Emily chimed, turning towards her.

The first sip filled her insides with warmth and heightened her senses.

"Emma is still asleep?" Emily asked, being one of the few people who used her full name.

"Yeah, in my bed..," Rory commented.

"She's a sweet little thing...She's grown so much," Emily began, thoguhtfully. "She deserves to have both parents," Emily added, causing Rory to take a deep breath, unsure what was coming.

Her grandma might've been a fan of Logan the first time around, but she was fairly certain with the added circumstance she was not as impressionable.

"I agree," Rory replied, resting her hip against the kitchen island.

"You know I never quite understood why you didn't marry him the first time around...," Emily said, placing her cup down on the counter.

Rory took a deep breath, expecting something other than what came. But her grandmother wasn't accusatory, she wasn't even notably disappointed - she just sounded sad.

"I know the explanation your mother gave and you left so soon after we hardly had time to grasp it. I know it wasn't easy for you. And I'm not aiming to dig up the past, but I'm just so sad that instead of being with the man you so obviously loved all this time, you two just went through everything you did... It's just such a pity," Emily exhaled.

Rory wasn't too eager to relive those times, those feelings more specifically, but in this moment, when she truly wanted at her family members to have her back on something like this - she almost felt like her grandmother, besides her father and sister, was her best bet.