Persuasion

Cold Coffee

In all the times we have said goodbye to each other, you would think we would be better at it. He promised me that he would be right back, and I told him that I would be waiting. In some ways this goodbye felt different, but when I was left alone with my thoughts and nerves it somehow felt all the same. I decided to crash for the night at my grandparent's, I justified it with not wanting to drive back to Stars Hollow but in reality I didn't have the mental capacity to deal with my mom, which would sound bad, if it wasn't true. So I texted her after I knew that she was probably asleep, letting her know I would be back tomorrow and I curled up in Logan's shirt breathing in the scent of him to help me drift off to sleep and ward off the thoughts of emptiness and loneliness that I was struggling to keep at bay. I went straight to the Gazette in the morning, thankful for the few boxes that were still stashed in the closet in my room at grandma's house that I could find something clean to wear. There aren't other words to describe how I made my back into town except slinked. I parked my car on a side street, I didn't stop at Luke's, I barely looked up from my stride when I walked briskly into the building. I was hiding and I wasn't proud of it, but I was hiding nonetheless. I ignored her calls, five of them while answering two each from Logan and Paris, and one long awaited one from Denise at Conde Nast. I ignored the messages that she sent me in quick succession in various time intervals which increased in frequency as the day wore on but I wrote a letter to Taylor, my resignation from the Gazette along with suggestions to how to keep it's legacy alive. I disregarded her emails, four of them with similar messages to the texts though I printed the email from Conde Nast containing my contract. With all the i's dotted and t's crossed I decided to face the music so to speak. I made my way to the Dragonfly at a time that I knew was after the check in rush but before dinner that my mom usually was in her office working on paperwork. I stopped for coffee and donuts from Luke's, a peace offering that I'm sure wasn't strictly necessary but never hurt.

"Hey" I said handing her the coffee and bag of baked goods.

"Hey yourself, are you trying to bribe me?" she said looking up at me from the computer in front of her.

"Maybe" I said with a small smile.

"You told me you would keep me posted" she scolded.

"I know, I'm sorry" I admitted.

"You ignored my phone calls" she said in a sing-songy voice.

"I wasn't ignoring per se" I said sitting down in the chair across from her desk.

"You weren't answering" she accused.

"I was figuring things out" I justified.

"Without me" she mumbled.

"Mom" I warned.

"So did you?" she asked continuing a little more tentatively. "Did you figure things out?"

"Yeah I think we did" I answered with a small smile.

"We?" she asked with sarcasm in her voice.

"Here" I said handing her the contract.

"What's this?"

"Look at it" I urged.

"You're at Conde Nast" she formulated the words as she read the contract.

"I got a job mom, they loved the article."

"Oh Rory- that's amazing" she said breathlessly.

"I'm moving to New York" I added.

She nodded silently, I could see the sadness in her eyes even though they never left the paper she was holding in her hand.

"Logan and I are moving to New York" she looked up at me and opened her mouth to speak but I put my hand up before continuing "I know that you may have opinions on that and it may seem sudden but we're happy, I'm happy and we want to try to make this work for us and for the baby."