The Simpler Life

13

Chapter 13

"Oh-oh-oh! Grab me a few of those Pringles!" Lorelai exclaimed, as she and Rory strolled down the chips and nuts aisle at the new supermarket they'd built just outside of town.

Rory went for the small green ones, knowing well what her mother liked. Even marrying Luke hadn't changed some of her eating habits, and always having something with no actual nutritional value in her purse was a must.

They'd divided the cart up in two parts - the back for Lorelai, who was shopping for two, and a smaller section at the front for Rory whose meals these days involved alternatives that were a little healthier than her mother was used to witnessing. But she'd had some time to adjust to this already. But mostly this was still Rory - trying to spend as little time as she could actually cooking, hence it was jar salads and smoothies that she was trying to consume more of, thinking of the wellbeing of her little bean. On second thought, Rory was beginning to consider how she should probably stop calling her a bean, she must've been the size of a pear already.

"Oh! Two for the price of one on roasted nuts!" Rory exclaimed, grabbing two, and dividing the two up between themselves.

"Hey, you know what?" Lorelai asked in a sweet tone.

"What?" Rory asked.

"I was thinking we might make a dent in, you know, shopping for the baby. There's this new place that just opened around the corner from here," Lorelai chimed.

"I don't know..." Rory complained, feeling like her back was already beginning to ache a little from walking around the supermarket.

"Come on, you're almost halfway there. Don't you want to start buying cute little onesies and widdle socks," Lorelai encouraged, speaking her very best baby-talk.

"Don't remind me!" Rory groaned, dreading the actual birth part of this. She wasn't a huge fan of 'buying' things either, not liking the void she felt it'd leave in her bank account. She wasn't broke, she was even less broke than she was six months ago, but to someone like her, who liked having a cushion, one that she'd earned herself I might add, hers was a little too skinny to her liking.

"Come on... It'll be fun!" Lorelai urged.

"Fine!" Rory relented. She had to admit there was some serious cuteness factor involved.

As the continued to go through the supermarket, filling the cart with convenience items, half of it impulse purchases really, seconds before reaching the register Rory's phone chimed quietly.

It was the urgency with which Rory searched her crossbody purse for her phone that caught her mother's attention, however, not so much the chime itself. She would've asked about it, but Lorelai was busy paying for their purchases. Rory was going to pay her back later, not because she needed to but the whole point of coming here was to take advantage of the wholesale deals.

But the phone just kept chiming. And Rory, smiling to herself, kept typing replies. Lorelai just had to ask.

"Who's texting you?" Lorelai inquired, unapologetically glancing over Rory's shoulder. "Ah... Tucker? Who's Tucker?" she asked.

"Mom!" Rory complained about the invasion of privacy.

"What kind of name is Tucker anyways? Tucker the trucker?" Lorelai pondered out loud. Sure, there was always going to be childishness in her, but from her point of view all this was, was an observation.

"It's just a name. Some people might say Lorelai is a pretty weird name just the same," Rory commented, pushing her nose slightly up in the air.

"Is Tucker... um... cute?" Lorelai asked, hinting at what she'd already seen in Rory's face. The giddiness if nothing else. A mother could tell.

"He's a friend," Rory said, skipping the too obvious 'just' addition. They'd now been texting for about a week - not so much going into getting to know each other's histories but just taking note of social media activity and quite a lot of discussion of Isabel Allende and her work. For an economics professor the guy was surprisingly well read in more than just things from his field.

"Uh-huh," Lorelai nodded along, smilingly.

"And, yes... he's been hinting at us... maybe... going out," Rory relented, knowing there was no hiding this from her mother. Not that she was really trying to in the first place, but it was just early days.

"Wow!" Lorelai chimed adorably, feeling giddy for her daughter's sake.

"But I've been avoiding it... He doesn't...," Rory replied, not quite spelling out the fact.

"Oh, he doesn't know that you're pregnant!?" Lorelai reflected. "Well, I think it's kind of obvious by now, isn't it? Where did you two meet anyway? It's kind of hard to miss!" she commented.

"Well, we haven't actually seen each other since my senior year at Yale. We've just been talking online," Rory replied. Her last picture on her profile was years old.

"Online dating? Really!?" Lorelai stated. It was not condescending; it was just not her daughter style as far as she knew. Rory had always been very much about actual talking - you know, eye contact, body language - the works, to see what worked and what did not. Not that she was ever as fluid in it as Lorelai herself had been.

"It's not online dating," Rory argued.

"Keep telling yourself that," Lorelai chimed and chuckled.

"Well... Can we just agree on that green is not the new pink?" Rory said, as they arrived in front of the store that sold baby clothes, seeing a hideous frog outfit advertised in newborn size.

"You're the one calling it 'Bean'. Beans are green," Lorelai reminded her.

"Well, maybe not just pink," Rory gave in a little, seeing one light green outfit that was actually kind of adorable. It was so much easier avoiding the earlier subject.

"If you like him... you've got to tell him," Lorelai said, it being evident she meant before they met in person.

"I know," Rory sighed, fearing this would end things very quickly.

Thankfully, at least for the next half an hour or so, Rory pushed the thought aside by indulging in all things cute, for the first time really trying to picture what her daughter would look like. Would she look like a tiny copy of herself?

It was a few days later, when Tucker had for about the fourth time brought up the question of grabbing a meal together. So far, Rory had had many perfect excuses - not feeling too well, work or some family engagement which had all made perfect sense.

"I don't care if we have to book the date weeks in advance, but I'm dying to see you in person," Tucker texted her.

I'm want to see you too - Rory felt like typing. It wasn't like she was completely infatuated with the guy; it was far too early for that. But she did enjoy the flirting, and it was a hope for something more than just friendship, which was more than she'd had in a while.

"This Friday's free," Rory said, but with a deep sigh she added - "But, before you get your hopes up, I think I need to tell you something. I've been wondering how to tell you, actually...," Rory began, and then forced Tucker to watch those dreadful three dots form and disappear a good number of times, trying to put her news in the best possible way.

"The thing is that... that I'm pregnant. I'm about 5 months along. And no, the dad is not in the picture. I'm doing this myself. And this is not the reason why I contacted you. I don't want you to think that I'm trying to replace something or fill some void... it's not that. Please believe me. And I totally get if that would make you want to reconsider going out. I hope it doesn't but I get it. It's not what you signed up for," Rory rambled, typing very quickly.

Rory got a very similar response in return. Typing. Pausing. Typing again. Pausing again. Rory was almost sure he'd ghost her as a result of this.

"I hope Italian food is okay with you? There's this great place called Fiore, I've been meaning to try," Tucker replied, giving his response. Even if a somewhat hesitant one.