8 years in the life

Chapter 43 - 2013 Christmas holidays

Rory used to love Christmas with her mother and had never missed one, not even during the campaign trail, not even senior year when she visited Logan in London, and her mother waited for her so that they could do all their Gilmore traditions. This year they would continue their streak but she couldn't help thinking that Robert should have been there. She would have loved spending it with him, seen him with a Christmas sweater, put green and red M&M in his cereal even if he didn't eat cereal, baking cookies and as he was able to actually cook they wouldn't have had to buy them at Weston's and pretend. But instead, this one would feel a little bitter, not as bad as the one when her mother was mad at her for falling asleep after the Chilton winter formal though. After Robert's talk with her mother, Rory felt better, nevertheless she felt that her mom wasn't completely ready yet. Therefore, this time, she focused all her attention on her mother who had reminded her that she had felt neglected as, since her September visit, Rory only come back once for Thanksgiving. She had to do that if she didn't want to hear her mother complain about how her relationship with her boyfriend was winning over hers with her mother. Besides she loved her mom and to be honest she also had missed their bonding time and her unique sense of humor, she only had to get rid of her over-protectiveness.

Since the fateful summer of her freshman year, Rory had started to understand that the mix between mother and bestie wasn't going to work. Lorelai couldn't pretend to be her friend while being so judgmental. Since Rory left for the campaign trail, she slowly drifted to consider her mom mainly as a parent, but it seemed that this change was only one-sided. Nevertheless, the young Gilmore promised herself that it would be the last time that she would indulge her mother and that after this holiday, she would spend all of them with her boyfriend.

She was comforted in her decision when she heard Luke batting for Robert against Lorelai's insinuation that the young man couldn't be fully trusted because of his origins, it reminded her the fight she had with her mom after the car accident with Jess, and that the only person who got the situation right was Luke. Even if it was more than ten years ago, her mother was still as protective of her. The only stumbling block left now was the society family issue. She knew now that it was only because of her mother's unresolved issues with high-society and she was confident if she was able to quell her anger she would change her mind.

Robert was nothing like the random society guy, neither was his family. When she went shopping with his mother and sisters she had a very good time as if she always had been part of the family. They went to a shop owned by Nathalie's friend who had gathered for them a selection of dresses, the "Miss Céline" for the Semple women with much more fun because they were drinking margaritas. It went actually quite fast for Lydia, Aubrey, and Nathalie as it seemed that Ashley knew exactly what they liked. For Rory, she just based her selection on how Nathalie and Aubrey had described her. After about 20 minutes, the five women agreed on a Galvan red halter silk dress tied at the neck and based on Robert's reaction that evening, he more than approved of that choice.

Spending quality time with Robert's family convinced her that she had to show her mom that the Semples won't harm her in any way or at least that they didn't have the intention to. Her plan was to go along with her mother's need for their bestie relationship and show her how similar Robert was to them. He too had been raised in the pop culture, no one can banter with her like he did, even better than Logan and moreover, he was also more protective than Dean but in a more adult and discrete way. Jess and Logan had pushed her out of her comfort zone, but sometimes it was hard for her. Robert did it in a more subtle way that suited her better. It gave her time to think of it first and do it at her pace. She felt safe with him, he was always there if she needed him, but he also knew to leave her all the space she required.

Warren was a three-hour drive from Stars Hollow so Robert picked up Rory at ten. He was coming from Newport where the Semples had spent Christmas with Lydia's sister and her family. They only had three days before Rory had to get back to work to prepare a book launch for the first week of January. Anyway, Robert had to take advantage of the winter break to work on his book. Sylvia had been enthusiastic about the outline that he gave her so he had now to provide her some pages before the spring session started.