Chapter Text
Prologue:
It was shortly past 1am when Rory’s phone rang. She sighed, who would call her at this ungodly time of night? When she glanced at her phone, she saw her mom’s contact on the screen. Of course. No one else would call at this time. She saved the article she had currently been writing on and answered the call.
“Yes?”, she sighed.
“Hey honey, what’s with the heavy sighs, you alright?” Her mom’s voice sounded way to cheerful for this late hour. Sometimes she wondered how Lorelei managed to be so chipper in the middle of the night.
“Mom, it’s past one. Normal people are in bed at this time.”
“Sure, but thankfully you are not normal oh daughter mine. I know you, you were probably still working on one of your articles, am I right?”
“Hm, yeah… But tell now tell me what’s up. You wouldn’t call at this late time if you had no reason for it.”
“Ha! I knew it. My little Ms. Perfect, always hard working.” Lorelei laughed but then continued with a more serious tone:
“But actually, you are right, there is a reason I’m calling. But hey, it’s a good one. I… well, I’m getting married!”
“NO!”, Rory cried cheerfully. “Oh my god, I can’t believe it. So, Luke finally went down one knee?”
Her mother laughed. “Yeah. Well, he didn’t really kneel, muttered something about having bad knees and it being a dumb tradition, but yeah, he did finally propose.”
“I just can’t believe it, you’re getting married.” Rory was overjoyed. For so long she had hoped that her mom and Luke would finally get it together and get married, but she had started to lose faith it would ever happen. “When? Tell me all of the plans”, she insisted.
“Well, we do not have a date set yet, but we want it to happen soon. With all the chaos last time, we really don’t want to wait for a long time this time around. Not taking any chances this time, I tell you” They both chuckled. “But guess who will be my maid of honour?”
Rory laughed, “Well, it better be me.”
“What? You? Oh damn, I had already planned on asking my mother” Lorelei snorted. “No, but really, of course it’s gonna be you Sweetheart. But I fear, there’s a catch.”
“A catch?”, Rory asked, confused. She could not imagine there being anything that could be considered a catch when it came to Luke’s and Lorelei’s long overdue wedding.
“Yeah well….with the whole maid of honour thing…Luke is adamant that he wants Jess to be his best man, so that means he will also be at the wedding. I mean, if he does it or turns up at all, obviously, he’s never been very reliable. You never know with Jess. But I thought you should know it’s a possibility.”
“Oh, he’ll be there, and he’ll be Luke’s best man. He’s not the same guy he was when he was 17, he changed a lot and Luke means a lot to him,” Rory explained and then after a short pause continued “But it’s okay, I don’t have any issues seeing him.” In her head she added ‘If he wants to see me…well that’s a whole other question’. Rory would not be surprised if Jess did not want to see her again after the last time they had met.
“You sure?” Lorelei asked.
“Yes, it really is not an issue at all. Don’t worry about it. You now have to only concentrate on the wedding planning”.
“That’s great. And believe me, I will. But not tonight anymore. I just couldn’t wait to tell you, but now I’ll let you continue your work so you will get some sleep soon. Good night honey.
“Good night. And mom? I’m really, really happy for you”.
And she really was. After all the back and forth her mom and Luke had had over the years it was time, they’d finally get married and leave all the old baggage behind. And Jess? Well, she wasn’t opposed to seeing him again. It’s been almost two years since the last time. Though she did worry on how he would react. Was he still angry at her or had he forgiven her by now? She really wished, they could finally leave all their baggage behind as well and start acting normal around each other. Maybe just be good friends.
Jess was still important to her, sometimes she felt like know one knew her as deeply as he did. There was no one, she’d rather discuss literature and music with, no one she enjoyed just sitting together in silence while reading. No one who could see through her like he could. No one…
Jess had always been different, and she missed him. Sometimes she thought about just calling him, but after what happened at their last meet-up she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. They had both made mistakes over the course of their relationship and their friendship and now she was scared to destroy the last bit she had left.
The more she thought about it, the less she knew how she should act when she met Jess again. But that was something she still had time to figure out, for now, she still had an article to finish, and it was really getting late.