Chapter 11: The Price of Joy

                                    

                                          
She knocked on the brownstone's door and looked up and down the pretty tree lined street. She wondered what the trees would look like in a few more weeks when winter had finally released its grip on New England and spring emerged. She supposed she had to give Logan credit for finding the attractive little neighborhood within the city. It looked as though it would be an appealing place to live, but it definitely wasn't the type of place she would have envisioned for Rory. She was still looking across the street when she heard the door open at her back. 
                          
"Lorelai?" Logan said with no small shock. Of all the people he would have expected to find on his doorstep, Rory's mother would likely have been the last. 
                          
She turned and looked him in the eye. "Logan," she greeted. "Could I come in?" 
                          
"Yeah, of course," he told her and stepped back, pulling the door open wider in welcome. 
                          
"Rory's not here, if you're looking for her." He continued after she'd come in and he closed the door against the cold. "She was going to spend the week in Hartford writing but she's planning on coming back for the weekend." 
                          
"I know. I talked to her." Lorelai responded evenly. 
                          
"Okay then." Logan said, even more confused by her appearance. "Can I take your coat? I've got some semi-fresh coffee in the kitchen." 
                          
Lorelai took off her overcoat and handed it to him. She watched as he hung it on a coat tree nearby. She looked around the expansive space and noted that though there were indeed a couple couches and a coffee table in the room, it was still essentially empty. 
                          
"Come on back," Logan suggested after a moment and led her toward the back of the house. "There are a couple stools at the island in here or we did manage to find a nice table and chairs for the little breakfast room at the back." 
                          
He went straight to the coffee pot on the counter and grabbing a big mug from the display stand beside it, poured Lorelai a cup of her favoured beverage. He slid it across the island to her and came around to retake the seat he'd abandoned at her knock. He closed his laptop lid and slid it slightly away. Picking up his own coffee and taking a sip, he finally focused again on the woman before him. 
                          
"Did Rory know you were coming into the city today?" He asked, but it was mostly just to be polite. He'd spoken to Rory a couple hours earlier in the day and she hadn't made any mention of it, even though she had vaguely mentioned talking to Lorelai about something. 
                          
"I hadn't mentioned it to her," Lorelai told him. "The decision to come today was somewhat spontaneous." 
                          
"I see." Logan murmured but had nothing further to say. 
                          
They sat in an increasingly tense silence until finally Lorelai set her mug down with a clunk against the stone countertop. "Look, I'm not really sure what you said, or did, or offered her, to convince her to move here with you, but I think that both of you are making a big mistake. I know she's making a mistake. She's not an Upper West Side kind of girl, Logan. She visits Central Park; she doesn't live a block away. Brooklyn, Queens, even the Bronx for God's sake, those are the kind of places that scream 'Rory.' The 'burbs or smaller towns, they yell even louder. Manhattan is where she's supposed to work, it's where she goes for a girls' weekend in the city. It is not where she lives." 
                          
"Lorelai, I didn't do anything to coerce Rory into moving here. I told her I'd like her to. I asked her if she would. She made the final decision all on her own." Logan said in defense of himself, and of Rory. 
                          
"Right." She replied disbelievingly. "I'm sure she just decided the whole Stepford Wife life seemed like just the thing for her. Just like 'Vegas' was all her decision too? Or years of sneaking around behind my back and lying to me about what she was doing? I'm absolutely positive there was nothing you did to suggest that course of action."