The Simpler Life

Chapter 1

"I really don't feel like asking him, Mom!" Rory complained, feeling both embarrassed and reluctant to do what her mother had optimistically suggested as her bright idea this morning.

Being back home had made her feel like a child, and she was well aware that complaining like this also made her sound like one. But in the company of her mother, she rarely felt the need to filter out much of what flowed out of her mouth, as did her mother.

They were making their way across the snow-covered town square, just passing the gazebo, their destination being as predictable as the fact that the sun rose from the East. Lorelai's third cup of coffee and Rory's first waited for them at Luke's, plus it was Danish day. Like clockwork - every Wednesday.

"Don't be such a chicken, Rory," Lorelai shot back. She was nearly about to cluck like a chicken to rub it in, but instead ran her fingers through the back of her loose and wavy hair, having not fully finished blow drying it this morning. Even for her, some jokes had become less funny with time.

"It was bad enough I had to ask him for the job! I had to beg him for it!" Rory exclaimed, tucking her hands around her waist to protect herself from the morning chill and wrap her coat tighter around herself.

"Yeah, a job that barely pays," Lorelai added with sarcasm, rolling her eyes. It was barely a real job in her eyes. Even though she understood what Rory saw in it. Considering Rory's circumstances, Lorelai had offered Rory a job at the Inn instead now that she was opening the new Annex come summer. But since Rory was even more insecure of her business savviness than her journalistic momentum, she'd bowed out, claiming to not want to work for her mother and feel like she was receiving charity.

"But it's a job that's in my field. It's something I actually know something about. Besides - the Gazette is historic, there's value in preserving something like that," Rory replied. For the same reason she'd never really considered the teaching career Headmaster Charlston had offered her, or turned down a number of other opportunities over time that she'd felt too proud to accept.

"Besides, it's not like he's eager to give out handouts," Rory added, returning to their topic at hand.

Lorelai knew that her arguments, explaining to her daughter how life was about second, third and umpteenth chances, being the perfect example of that herself, that didn't necessarily include one's original plan for a profession had already gone through out of Rory's other ear the first time she'd said them. Hence, she didn't bother this early in the day to bring it up again. Rory wasn't ready to hear her, and she was glad Rory had her writing project. Whether it actually became a book, whether it would actually get published, didn't matter to her as long as it gave her daughter who had looked so lost for a while now some sense of purpose.

"What's the harm in asking? Luke just went on and on the other day how Taylor owns like half the town. Apparently, he's been buying up properties for years now. Besides, even if he doesn't have anything to offer, he's bound to know if there's anything vacant anywhere else," Lorelai insisted.

"Or I could ask Ms. Patty?" Rory suggested, and made a skillful maneuver to step over an icy puddle at the edge of the road that she'd once slipped on years ago, while making a similar journey.

"She's on that cruise, remember?" Lorelai reminded her, and stepped past the ice herself. Things really had been turning around in Stars Hollow - people were retiring their businesses and newcomers were filling their places. There was the secret bar to liven up their nights, in the otherwise dead nightlife. There was the 30-something gang, which was making Rory feel annoyingly regular in comparison to everyone who'd left this place once with a lot less ambition than she had.

"Ah, right. But you know what he's like," Rory continued, referring to Taylor.

"Yes, I do know what it's like," Lorelai chimed in return, mocking Rory a little. She knew what dealing with Taylor was like, she also knew what it was like to be on the verge of a new beginning like her daughter was. That was even more clear to her than to Rory at this point probably.