Another Look

Chapter 11

"So here we have a newly remodeled mid-century modern, 4-bedroom with 2.5 bathrooms. There are three bedrooms upstairs and one down here. The garage has two spaces but since it is mid-century it is more like 1.5 spaces in today's terms. The asking price is a bit much according to my preliminary estimate, but I am sure it can be negotiated. It comes partially furnished, everything you see is included. The backyard is on the small side, but suitable for a small playground," Logan's realtor said, having acquainted herself with Rory's wishlist.

"Thank you Thea, I think we'll just look around a bit and we'll ask if we have any questions," he replied.

Rory and Logan wandered through the light and airy living room with a vaulted ceiling into the bright sunroom and from there back to the kitchen.

"Isn't this a bit much?" she asked Logan. "It's not much smaller than the Hartford house. Sure the living room is less grand and there's no pool-house, but four bedrooms seems like overdoing it a bit," she added.

"I guess Thea just has her standards set high. She asked me twice if that was really the budget you were working with, being used to slightly different numbers. But don't mind her, even if she's a little snobbish, she knows what she is doing." he said. "But I think the place looks pretty good actually," he added.

"Sure, but four bedrooms? What am I going to do with four bedrooms and a sunroom?" she asked.

"Well you might want a study if you are working from home, so that's already three bedrooms. One extra for Lorelai or Emily to come over, whoknows," he said, feeling it was way too soon to discuss their own hypothetical children.

They continued upstairs where the master bedroom took up half the space of the entire upper floor continuing out as a balcony overlooking the backyard. To Logan's eyes this was all very sensible and modest. It was sort of refreshing to picture himself living in a place that was just simple and had no excess luxuries like marble floors or greek columns. Rory, who despite having now lived for more than a year at the Hartford house, still considered it excessive comparing almost anything she'd look at to Lorelai's place, the home she grew up in - where the living room barely fit more than a couch set and the kitchen doubled as a dining room. Cramped felt cozier, not necessarily having to be filled with people or stuff, in order to feel homey. And she knew there would be days when she'd be alone in her house - Leah at Finn's and as she grew older probably more and more out with her friends, boyfriends and eventually she'd move out. Logan, while a welcome living companion in her new house, she knew too well that he'd continue to have an apartment in the city and a few other real estate holdings around the country and some in Europe, and would continue to work like he always worked - slightly addictively and travel regularly.

"I like the view," she added, referring to the small glimpse of the Atlantic visible from one of the smaller bedrooms.

"Not half bad, is it?" he said with a sigh. What he also noticed was the high fence surrounding the property, it was bordered with a high Northern White-Cedar hedge, which would conceal the yard and house well from unnecessary eyes. While he had had it fairly easy with the press so far as Mitchum had taken care of the worst fallout surrounding his divorce, he knew too well that the pictures Honor had sent him, could be just the light ripple on the water. There was a reason, after all, why his parent's Hartford house had video surveillance and guard dogs. Whether he liked it or not, his wealth and reputation made him a public figure. He hoped it wouldn't come to it, but he wanted to make sure Rory maintained her privacy.

They looked at a few more places in between, among them a cookie-cutter house belonging to a gated new community and an apartment on the 4th floor without an elevator, which Rory didn't even begin to climb. One of the apartments was located nearby campus which reminded him quite a lot of his own college apartment by style, except this time it held two bedrooms and a nook for a desk in the living room. He was fairly certain that this was what Rory had been looking for. Low maintenance, functional and simple. But somehow he wanted more for her, he wanted her to move on from the college mind-set and shift towards something the two of them could share, where to be a family.