The Simpler Life

12

Chapter 12

While it had been a positive thing to see another single mom, doing well in her life, and clearly also having a dating life as a bonus, at the same time seeing Jess and Elodie looking all cutesy together had also left her missing that kind of companionship.

The truth was, for the past few years, even if she'd only seen Logan sporadically, he'd still been that companionship for her. Sure, there had been others - she had dated around a little. And while some people in her life had hinted, Babette especially, how she needed to date now rather than later, whilst going into a little too much detail of what having children did to a woman's body. Babette clearly wasn't talking from experience, and the suggestion was well meant, of course, but it was yet another comment on top of comments from her mother and grandmother, making her feel like her love life was the biggest disappointment for everyone around.

Rory was snuggled up in bed, typing away on another chapter in her book, her train of thought having led her to reflect on all the ways her mother had believed she'd disappointed her own parents. It was not a book about her mother, but she'd still grown up with this big shadow in the background. Guilt and need to not disappoint anyone had always been in the background.

"You'll never guess who I stumbled upon," Paris commented, having been off and on giving Rory an overview of her dating accomplishments, or even just guys she'd seen on the app. Guys they'd once known, guys she'd once known, guys with funny haircuts, guys with fake profiles... pretty much anything Paris considered relevant to share.

"Glenn Babble?" Rory suggested, knowing Paris wasn't much for 'I don't knows'. She might as well make a guess of one of the people she truly knew very little about since college.

"No. But close," Paris replied.

"Someone else from Yale?" Rory asked, beginning to grow through the long list of people they'd known in college.

"Think Florida," Paris hinted.

Before Rory had a chance to fully think about all her connections to Florida, which were way beyond the joint trip her and Paris had taken during spring break once, mostly leading her to think about the campaign trail, Paris had snapped a screenshot and sent her the man in question.

Rory couldn't quite recall his name, but thankfully, the corner of the browser reminded her of the name. Sean.

"Well, I be damned...," Rory muttered at the sight of a much older, but still handsome man.

"I mean, he loses points from teenage-boy comments, but that was ages ago. And you have to admit, he does have a certain je ne sais quoi," Paris commented and posted another picture.

Apparently, among other things the man had actually earned a living as a model at one point, including an underwear photoshoot.

"He can't be entirely clueless. Masters at Tufts," Paris added.

"Didn't realize he was quite your type," Rory commented.

"But he was yours," Paris replied.

"Hey, who's the one actively dating here? Not me!" Rory replied, innocently.

"Your choice," Paris said, underlining 'choice' to emphasize it.

"Who's going to want to date a pregnant woman?" Rory shot back.

"I wouldn't start with that. There are all sorts of freaks out there. But I am sure there are some who wouldn't think it was that big of a deal. At our age, half the people had exes and kids all over the place anyways," Paris replied, making a valid point.

"I don't think he's exactly the fatherly type," Rory added skeptically.

"Who said you need that!" Paris replied.