Chapter Text
The New York branch of Truncheon was bigger than the Philly one. It was more edgy, high ceilings and metal work criss-crossing the walls. Even full of people, warm on the free bar and excitement of a new ‘it’ place, the room echoes as though it is empty, ringing voices bouncing between bookshelves and skimming over drafty stone floors. It seemed to match Jess, a little colder than the original’s cosy vibe, a little unaffected. If a building could shrug and shove its hands in its pockets, this one would.
Rory made the mistake of mentioning this out loud to Luke, who shot her what Lorelai called his ‘what have I married into?’ look.
“Thanks for coming.” A voice came from behind the party of three.
The Gilmores (technically Lorelai had taken on Luke’s last name, but he was a Gilmore more than she was a Danes) turned to find the man of the hour himself, approaching them with an abashed smile, hands firmly pressed into the pockets of his jeans and shoulders hovering by his ears.
Rory returned Luke’s look with her own patented ‘the Gilmores make sense and you know it’ expression. He rolled his eyes.
“Jess. This place is…” Luke trailed off, a hand aimlessly wafting towards the general mill of people gathered.
“Wow.” Lorelai put in. Probably not the word he was going for, but an accurate one nonetheless.
“Very wow.” Rory agreed fervently.
Jess’s eyes flickered over each of them in turn, lingering for a moment longer on Rory, before his shoulders dropped and he managed a more genuine smile. He’d seen her over the last couple of years since the night he internally called The Philly Incident. It would have been hard to avoid her, seeing as Luke and Lorelai were on the verge of marriage, making them not quite family but circling close to it. A Christmas dinner, a quick phone call on birthdays, an email or two when he found one of her articles was the extent of their contact. They held each other tightly, but at arms length, neither wanting to be the one to coax closer or cut off communication entirely. Most of their meetings were a touch on the awkward side; neither of them mentioned Philadelphia, but it definitely played on both of their minds.
There was a moment of awkward silence. “I’m glad you guys could make it.” He finally supplied.
“Yes!” Lorelai snatched the opportunity to fill in the gap. “Well, we needed to go apartment hunting for Rory so it all worked together quite well.”
“You’re moving to New York?” Jess redirected his gaze back to the younger Gilmore, who offered him a small, almost shy smile as confirmation. “How come?”
Rory opened her mouth, but her mother broke in first.
“She got a paid internship-“
“It’s peanuts really-“
“-at the New York Times!”
“I’m going to be a glorified mail room clerk.”
“She starts at the end of the month-“
“Really, I’ll just be making coffee for everyone-“
“- and we’re looking for something more Monica and Rachel than Broad City-“
“It’s not a big deal.”
“-but we’ll take, say a Marnie Michaels kinda feel if we have to.”
“Have you finished?”
“Man, I forgot you two could go like that.” Jess exhaled, eyebrows almost at his hairline.
“I wish I could.” Luke muttered.
“Y’know, if you need a place to crash for a while, my roommate just got married and moved out. There’s a spare room at my place.” Jess looked like he couldn’t believe the words were coming out of his mouth. It was true, the second bedroom in his apartment had been empty for a few weeks now. He’d actually been considering converting it into an office, a space for him to switch off and write without the distraction of his other work at Truncheon or the TV or, worst of all, his bed. However, it seemed he never could stick to his plans when those blue Gilmore eyes looked his way. He ploughed on. “You could put some money towards bills and stuff so you can save up to get your own place. It’s right by the subway so you’d be able to get to work easily enough.”
Rory gaped at him. The last thing she had been expecting from sharing her news was an offer of a place to stay. A congratulations, a hug perhaps, would seem like the more logical choices in this situation. She knew they weren't exactly strangers, but friends was also a little too strong a term to throw around. It had been years since anything romantic had been hinted at by either of them; he couldn't possibly still be interested in her that way. She certainly wasn't.
Lorelai eyed him suspiciously. “What about rent?”
“I -ah.” Jess winced, embarrassed. “I don’t pay rent. I own the apartment.”
“You bought an apartment?” Luke asked for confirmation.
Jess shrugged. “I had the money. I needed somewhere permanent that was close to here so... It’s in a nice building. Clean and stuff.” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, not sure whether he was trying to sell the idea with his lacklustre description. On the one hand, having Rory Gilmore in his apartment meant he would be seeing her all the time, living under the same roof as her, forced to have daily conversations and have her be a fixture in his life for however long it took for her to find her own place. On the other hand – all of the above. “Look, it’s just an offer, you don’t have to-“
“I’d love to.” Rory blurted out, eyes widening. All three of them turned to look at her in surprise. She wavered under their gazes but took the plunge regardless. “I mean… if you’re sure?”
“Yeah, Jess. Are you sure?” Lorelai squinted at him.
He squirmed under the gaze of his ex-girlfriend’s mother. At twenty-four, he thought he wasn’t scared of anything (except maybe commitment, a wry part of his brain chipped in) but just as Rory’s baby blues turned his spine to goo, Lorelai’s reassembled it in order to send a shiver all the way down.
“Just let me get this opening night over and done with so I can go get drunk without embarrassing myself in front of important investors and I’ll give you a call about it in the morning?” He paused. “Make that mid-to-late afternoon. You can come have a look around, if you like.”
“Yeah! Yeah, that’s… cool. Cool.” Rory nodded dumbly.
The corner of Jess’ mouth quirked up a fraction. “Cool.” He mirrored. “I better…” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the crowd behind him, walking backwards a few steps before disappearing into the people who were celebrating him.
He grabbed a cold beer from the bar and downed half of it, letting the brain freeze numb the part of his mind that was overthinking everything he’d just said. Had he really offered Rory Gilmore, the first (and so far, only) girl he’d ever loved his spare room for the foreseeable future? The woman whose life he had skipped in and out of in his merry spiral of self-preservation, only for her to return the favour just as he was righting himself?
Jess closed his eyes and let his head drop forward, berating himself for the last ten minutes. He couldn't have just said hi and bye to Luke and the Gilmores then skedaddled to the rest of his guests. He swallowed back the rest of his beer. Too late to do anything now. Besides, he was over Rory. Their last kiss had been years ago, their actual relationship even longer. It wouldn't be the most welcome reminder of his past misfortunes to see her every day, but it wasn't like he was going to be pining after her like a lost puppy. A couple of weeks doing a favour to a friend, to a member of his extended family wasn't going to kill him. Much.
Meanwhile, Lorelai turned to Rory, grasping her upper arms. “Sweets, are you sure about this?”
“Yeah. I mean, it makes sense right?” Rory mentally ran through the pro-con list she’d been developing in her head. She wished she had a pen to write it down properly, because it was all getting jumbled together in her brain. ‘Living with Jess’ seemed to be dancing between both columns, refusing to settle down into a category. “I won’t be alone, you guys will know my roommate, he’s someone who knows the area and how to use the subway, we can carpool to Stars Hollow to visit you guys, plus look at all the free books I’ll be able to get which will save me money-“
“Honey, I can hear your brain whirring.” Lorelai interrupted with a fond stroke of her daughter’s hair. “Look, you’re an adult. You can live with whoever you want. But are you sure you want that to be your ex-boyfriend?”
Rory smiled, though not without a hint of annoyance. “That’s ancient history, mom.” She sighed, gripping her elbows protectively in front of her as she often did when trying to distance her emotions and her logic from each other. “Besides, would you let me live in any of the apartments we looked at today?”
Lorelai’s mind skimmed through the images of shoebox rooms and lime scale crusted showers it had accumulated during the afternoon. “Well, no…”
“I think it’s a great idea.” Luke piped up. “Like she said, if she’s going to move to the city on her own, it makes sense for her to live with someone. What’s the difference between this and living with Paris at Yale? A friend to share the experience with.”
“The difference,” Lorelai began primly. “Is that Paris never stuck her tongue down my daughter’s throat.”
“Actually, she did once.” Rory supplied, only half paying attention as she continued to sort through her mental list. “Luke is right.” She said finally. “And it seems logical financially, as well as getting me introduced to the city by someone I trust. And if anything happens, he’s someone you’re both in contact with and can depend on to help out. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt.” Lorelai regarded her before shrugging. “Okay, Oscar. But it’s yours and Felix’s funeral.”
“Oh please. I’m totally the Felix here.”