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The dress was the wrong choice; way too fancy, especially paired with the necklace and the heels that she had quickly slipped on before heading out with Lorelai. She didn’t know what had come over her; she told her mom it was so she wouldn’t have to change before she met up with Dean, but that wasn’t it.
You want to look nice, just in case , a little voice whispered in the back of her mind. Rory had banished the thought before it could even fully form, skipping down the porch stairs and across the town square, arm in arm with her mom.
“What’s with the wandering eyes?” Lorelai questioned.
“Just taking it all in,” Rory smiled thinly, hoping she bought it. Before her mom could press too hard, Taylor appeared and took the attention off of her. Thank God for small miracles.
She continued scanning the square, her gaze jumping from cotton candy carts, to kids with balloons, to Miss Patty and Babette and Kurt and popcorn and pinwheels and -
Jess.
Sitting on a bench across the street; slightly removed from the cheerful chaos, but still technically part of it. He was reading (how could he not be?), and while Rory couldn’t see the title, the familiar cover art told her he was lost in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” I told him it wasn’t anything like the movie and he groaned in mock horror but he listened and he’s reading it, he’s reading-
“Rory?”
She whirled around to face her slightly-puzzled-looking mother. “Sorry, what?”
“Where’s your head at, babe?” Lorelai smiled, looking across the street to follow Rory’s previous line of vision. Her smile tightened.
“Jess?”
“Oh, yeah, I saw him,” Rory shrugged. “You know, just out of the corner of my eye. Weird that he’s here, huh? I mean, he’s not out there in the thick of things, but he’s still out here. Weird.”
Lorelai studied her carefully. “Rory….”
“Mom….” She repeated, using the same tentative tone.
“Don’t tell me you’re still-”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you skip school and cross state lines to record shop with some other guy that I don’t know about?”
Rory’s stomach twisted into knots. She still felt so guilty about that day, but also happy. It had been a good day, up until the broken down bus and the missed graduation and the emotional confrontation she had had with her mom in the front yard.
“Mom, I really don’t want to talk about this,” she sighed, crossing her arms and looking down.
“Okay,” Lorelai said simply. I can’t believe she let it go that quickly . They started walking slowly through the crowd, neither one speaking. Rory was about to try an about-face subject change when Lorelai spoke.
“He came over to the house a few weeks ago.”
“What?” Rory spluttered. “Why? What did he want?”
“I needed someone to repaint the porch railings.”
“And he knew how to do that?”
“He’s failing some classes but he still has enough brain power to figure out how to transfer paint to wood.”
“I can’t picture it.”
“I can’t either, and I was there.”
“Were you nice to him?”
“I paid him 40 bucks, that’s plenty nice.”
“Mom!”
“Yes, I was nice,” Lorelai rolled her eyes, linking arms with Rory. “He got food, water; I even let him use the bathroom.”
Rory pressed her lips together, trying not to ask the dozens of questions that were ricocheting around her mind. What did you talk about? Were there any pleasant moments shared, or just all-out war, from start to finish? Did Luke guilt you into it, or did you ask Jess? Has he painted before? Did he ask about me?
“He asked about you,” Lorelai said, and Rory’s eyes widened. Did I say that out loud? No, Mom’s just scary perceptive.
“Oh?” She went for studied nonchalance.
“Yeah,” Lorelai matched her breezy tone. “Wanted to know how you liked DC. I told him you were having a good time, working hard, etc, etc.”
“Good,” she nodded. “That’s good. That he asked and you answered.”
“Why is that good?”
“Shows you guys weren’t completely at each other’s throats the entire time I was gone,” Rory laughed, trying to make her mom think this was all just some fun joke and not news that set her heart thumping.
“Hey, I am always a bright and bubbly delight!”
Rory laughed again as Lorelai ranted about how pleasant she was to be around, before cutting a glance back towards Jess.
He was looking up from his book. He was looking at her. He was smiling .
“Rory!”
And then there was Dean, so tall he took up her entire field of vision. He folded her into his arms and it took her a second to hug him back.
By the time she was able to disentangle herself, Jess was gone.
It’s late and she’s tired and upset, but trying to keep it together for her mom. One of the unspoken rules between them has always been to pretend that Christopher doesn’t have the power to hurt them, not really . Not permanently.
Lorelai is waylaid by Kirk, so Rory is alone in the junk food aisle, trying to choose between Zebra Cakes and Cosmic Brownies, when she hears someone say, “I’ve always been partial to Zebra Cakes, myself.”
She knows, even before she looks up.
Jess. Standing at the end of the aisle, brown button down, wild hair, easy smile.
“Hi,” she says, and she hates that she sounds a little breathless.
“Hey,” he grins, taking a few steps toward her to close the gap between them. “You’re back.”
“I’m back.”
“How was DC?”
“Good.”
“Just good?”
“I got to meet Dianne Feinstein, so let’s upgrade it to great.” She smiled, mentally kicking herself for not being able to summon up the famed Gilmore motormouth.
“Glad to hear it.” He was still smiling, like he knew something secret, something special. It made Rory want to kick him in the shins. It made her want to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him, right here in front of the Nilla Wafers and Oreos and Chips Ahoy.
“How was your summer?”
“Fine,” he shrugged. “Worked at the diner, did some odd jobs around town, read a lot. The usual.”
“Anything good?”
“‘House of Leaves’ was particularly creeptastic.”
“Can I-”
“I’ll have it for you tomorrow when you guys come for breakfast.”
Rory didn’t know if those were butterflies or nausea. He knew her so well, sometimes it scared her. She pushed the box of Zebra Cakes into her basket and started walking towards the checkout line, knowing he would follow.
“I heard you did some work on our house,” she said delicately as her items were rung up. “I didn’t know you could paint.”
“Oh, that was just the cover story, I actually pulled a Tom Sawyer and tricked Kirk into doing it.”
“Wouldn’t put it past you.”
“Ouch,” he put a hand over his heart. “Now that hurts, it really does.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it.
“Well,” she said, gathering her bags. “My mom is waiting, so I’d better….”
“Make your escape before she realizes you’ve been fraternizing with the enemy?”
“Bye, Jess,” she rolled her eyes.
“Rory.”
“Yeah?” She turned around, and was weak in the knees all over again at the sight of him.
“I’m glad you’re back,” he said, a smile ( a smile! Not a smirk! ) on his face. He looked….earnest. A new look for Jess Mariano. Not a bad one.
“I’m glad, too,” Rory smiled back, hitching her bag up higher on her hip. “See you tomorrow?”
“See you tomorrow.”
“‘House of Leaves’ gave me a migraine.”
“Yeah, that margin experimentation is only fun for the first 10 pages.”
“You were right, though. Creeptastic.”
“You got any recommendations?”
“‘A Separate Peace.’”
“Wow, you’re already handing it over?”
“I had a feeling you’d want something new to read right away.”
“Want my notes or should I return it in pristine condition?”
“Feel free to enlighten me in the margins.”
“Do my eyes deceive me, or are you actually doing homework?”
“Don’t let it get around, it would ruin my reputation.”
“Want me to check your work?”
“Oh, ye of little faith!”
“Jess.”
“Alright, but if you actually find any mistakes, you owe me a pack of Starbursts.”
“You accidentally added here instead of multiplying.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re almost insufferably perfect?”
“So, that was weird.”
“What?”
“Dean.”
“What about him?”
“Well, he just walked in, saw you sitting here, and practically Kool-Aid-Man-ed himself right back outside.”
“And?”
“Isn’t he usually glued to your side?”
“Usually.”
“What changed?”
“I think breaking up with him had something to do with it.”
“Rory, I-”
“Don’t….don’t say anything, okay? I know, I know what you’re gonna say and - and you don’t need to. It’s okay.”
“Okay.”
There’s something wonderful about Luke’s late at night. No customers, chairs up on tables, the gentle clink of dishes going into tubs to take back and wash. The feeling that you were in on a secret. Maybe that’s why her mother had a habit of swinging by past closing time.
Not lately, though.
Lately, Jess had been taking the closing shift, leaving Luke a little confused by the sudden chunk of free time he had been given to watch baseball in a quiet apartment.
Lately, Rory was the one drinking coffee and eating cold French fries while the diner shuttered for the night.
Lately, they had been spending most evenings together.
“....and you can’t see it now, duh, but for one brief, shining moment, Lane had purple hair.”
“Pictures?”
“Just one; I’ll bring it by tomorrow.”
He smiled, continuing to sort through order slips and checks, making neat piles on the counter between them. The silence between them was so easy, sometimes Rory forgot that they hadn’t been like this forever. Effortless conversations, books flying back and forth over the counter, burgers with Lane over conversations about Wilco’s last single.
It’s why she broke up with Dean.
She had loved him. It had just….faded. He was her first boyfriend, so she didn’t know it could be this easy. She thought that sitting through baseball games and BattleBots and discussions about mufflers was the payoff for sweet kisses and a hand to hold.
And then, there was Jess.
Jess, who was always on the same page (and sometimes even the same paragraph, same sentence, same word ).
Jess, who knew what to say and how to say it.
Jess, who seemed to have used their summer apart as a mellowing period. Oh, sure, there were still pranks and snide comments and Luke going red in the face, but there was also school and B+ papers and (occasionally, very occasionally) a smile at a customer.
Jess, who was doing nothing and yet somehow still seemed unfairly kissable right now.
They hadn’t, you know. Kissed.
Lorelai grilled her on it almost every day. She had been upset when Rory broke things off with Dean, sure that she was about to launch herself at the hurricane that was Jess, but once she saw that there was no imminent danger, she calmed down.
She still eyed Jess suspiciously, but less and less as time went on. She even asked Rory about him, and without that plasticky pleasant tone she reserved for difficult guests at the inn.
Rory sipped her coffee, still studying Jess. She wondered how long she could stare before he noticed.
He looked up and smiled, an eyebrow raised inquisitively.
She looked down quickly, cheeks burning.
“You know,” he drawled. “Most restaurants don’t let the customers stay after closing. Hence, the term ‘closed.’”
“Yeah, but there’s a special ‘except for Gilmores’ clause Mom had Luke put in.”
“Of course,” he snorted, putting down the last scrap of paper and shoving the separate piles into the box Luke used for all documents. “Alright, now it really is closing time. If Luke doesn’t physically see me doing some homework today, that ulcer with my name on it will continue to grow and I don’t need that on my conscious.”
“Walk me home?” She said it so quickly she wondered if he even heard her.
“Well, with Kirk roaming the streets, how could I say no?”
They walk out into the cool night air, Jess’ hands shoved in his pockets and Rory pushing her hair behind her ears. They’re silent as they reach her driveway. Rory wishes he hadn’t put his hands in his pockets; she might’ve been brave enough to grab one and hold on tight.
It takes her a second to realize he’s stopped walking.
“Jess?”
“Um….” he presses his lips together and she can see his hands balled into fists in his pockets.
“Something on your mind?” She steps closer, wondering if maybe….
“Well,” he says shortly, eyes slightly widened, and Rory can suddenly see so much of Luke in him. “I was just thinking.”
“You were.”
“About the beginning of summer.”
“Anything specific?”
“Sookie’s wedding.”
“Ah,” she says, and leaves it at that.
“When we….”
“Yep.”
“So, I’ve been thinking about that,” he looks up from his sneakers. “And I really, r eally want to do it again.”
Rory’s heart leaps. She knew, but she didn’t really know, you know? Because he never said anything at all, and neither did she, but he had always been the one making the overt gestures, the winking asides. She had been the fair maiden being wooed by the errant knight (she just finished “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” she was in a fairy tale mindset).
“You do?”
“I do,” he said, eyes sparkling. “And I thought you should know.”
“That you were thinking about it.”
“Exactly.”
There’s a brief pause, where they look at each other and Rory feels like she might burst out laughing because there’s a feeling bubbling up inside of her and it can hardly be contained, and then she says, “Come here ,” her voice dripping with affection, and he’s kissing her, he’s kissing her, he’s kissing her.
Hands cupping her face, hers tangling in the front of his t-shirt, and she wonders how they kept themselves from doing this for so long.
When they finally break apart, she feels like she can’t breathe; she can’t decide if it’s because they just kissed or because they aren’t still kissing.
“Well,” Jess laughed shakily. “Good to know my endless replays of that one at the wedding were completely justified.”
“You’re such a sap,” she rolled her eyes, moving her hands up to loop them around his neck.
“You’re telling me you didn’t spend all summer thinking about it?”
“There might have been some fantasizing.”
“Oh, fantasizing ?”
“Shut up and kiss me again.”
“With pleasure.”