He looked up from the words he was typing to see her face staring at him. It had been over a year but, he still hasn't given up on her. He keeps her pictures sitting on his desk to remind him why he works so hard to make something of himself. The girl with the long brown hair and bright blue eyes. The one that wore the t-shirt that read "Rory loves Jess" standing in front of a welcome to California sign. She was the one that he had to find. The one who gave up everything to go looking for him. Last he heard she was somewhere on the west coast making clothes or something like that. The thought of her being in California made him want to pack up and run back there himself. Yet as he looked out the window of his New York apartment he knew that he had to make something of himself. He had to work to deserve her love. He could hear her voice saying "Goodnight Dodger" as he looked back at his work. Somehow he lost her memory as he typed away.
"God you look horrible." He heard the voice of his friend and roommate Matt coming from behind him.
"It's called deadlines." He mumbled as he continued too type.
"Really, I thought it was called Rory." Matt said with a laugh as he picked up another one of the pictures of Rory that Jess had sitting on his desk. This one was of them at Luke's on their first and only Thanksgiving. Jess just glared up at Matt as he took the picture back. "Now save you work, change clothes and grab a coat I am taking you out for a night on the town." Matt said as he looked at Jess. Normally Jess would put up a fight, but he knew he needed a break before he started slamming his head into the keyboard.
"This better not be a repeat of the gay bar incident." Jess said as the two left the apartment.
"How was I supposed to know that a place called the Masque was going to be a gay bar full of trannies?" Matt asked with a laugh as they walked down a crowed New York street.
"Their headliner was named Trixie Pixie." Jess replied as he glared over at his friend.
She looked at his picture as the music started. His dark hair, signature smirk, those deep brown eyes, that worn out clash shirt … it's just enough to keep her going even when things get tough. Even when everyone around her tells her she needs to give up on finding her rebel Romeo, she can't bring herself to give up hope on finding him. He still holds her heart. So, she just looks around the recording booth and opens her mouth only for the words she wrote about him to come out perfectly on key. She wondered what he would think about her now. She wondered if he would be proud of her for getting this far or disappointed that she gave up everything she thought she wanted. It was funny to her how far she had come in just over a year. She was a bright eyed girl sitting on her mother's porch dreaming about Ivy League schools and traveling the world. Now she was this strong woman standing with the word in front of her in the biggest city in the country. She couldn't help, but to smile as she passed the album cover from her debut success as she walked out of the booth.
"You rocked that my dear." She heard someone say as she packed up her bag. She turned around to see her friend Lucy. Lucy was the one who introduced her to this possibility. Lucy was a guitarist in a cover band back in California. She was the one who gave Rory her start. "Okay that's it we are going out to celebrate." Lucy said as she smiled at Rory.
"I just want to go home and sleep till the end of the week." Rory said as she looked up at the clock it was almost ten they had been at this since four in the morning.
"You didn't get the memo; you never sleep in New York." Lucy said with a laugh as she drug Rory out the door by her arm.
"You are so lucky I don't have the energy to fight you right now." Rory said as she looked at her best friend as they walked out into the cold New York air.
Jess just looked around the dump of a bar that Mat brought him to. "This is the best you could do really?" He asked Mat as he looked around at the tables to see mostly suits. Men trying to wash down the pain of their jobs and avoiding going home to their wives.
"I am starting to think there is no place in the whole city that I can take you to without having you make some smart ass comment." Mat said before he took a sip of his beer.
"You're starting to finally understand me." Jess said with a laugh as he signaled for the bartender to come over. "I will take another." He said as he looked at the older man.
"I knew we came here for a reason." Matt said with a laugh as he looked down the bar at a woman who just came in. Jess looked her way. But, it wasn't her that caught his attention. Nope it was the woman with her. He knew those big blue eyes by heart. He just smiled as Matt gave him a weird look. "Hey it's picture girl!" Matt practically yelled as Jess got up.
"You sure have come a long way from Doose's." He said as he took a seat right next to her. She just turned to see him.
"Jess." She breathed as a smile came over her face. "You always have been good at surprising a girl." She said as the bartender brought Jess his beer.
"This punk bothering you Lore?" He asked Rory.
"Not at all Bennie, Dodger here is an old friend." She said with a smile.
"You have no clue how much I have missed hearing you call me that." Jess said as he reached out and pushed a piece of her hair out of her face.
"I don't think we should talk about this here." She said as she looked at him.
"Then let's go somewhere." He said as he looked at her. "Anywhere."
"I know a place we can get something to eat." Rory said as she got up. "Bennie Luce is going to pay for his." She said as she pointed at Jess. The older man just nodded. Jess's mind felt numb as he walked out of the bar with his Rory by his side. He had spent so much time thinking about what he would say when he saw her again, but all of that junk escaped him as he walked down the street.
Rory tried so hard to process the thoughts that where running through her mind as she walked into her favorite restaurant. It was the best place she had found yet. "Maggie Lynn's." Jess read the sign as they walked in. "You sure do have a type don't you." She just smiled at him as she led him to the booth in the back.
"I went after you." She said after they were seated. "The day after graduation I packed up my things and drove off to California." She just looked down at the table after she said it.
"I know." He said softly causing her to look up. She just looked up at him puzzled for a second. "Luke told me when I went back looking for you."
"You went back?" She asked him as she looked at him. He just nodded at first.
"Rory…leaving you was the dumbest thing I ever did. I just convinced myself that I wasn't good enough for you. You were going to Yale and then you were going to rule the world… I couldn't even manage to graduate high school." He just looked up as she started to laugh.
"You really think I thought you weren't good enough for me?" She asked him. "Are you nuts?"
"I must be." He replied.
"Jess all that stuff about not graduating and all that other crap didn't mean a thing to me. I would have followed you to Mars. I still would." She said as she looked at him. "Jess I still love you." She said as she looked down.
"Please tell me this isn't the part where you say 'but I met someone else'." Jess said as he looked at her.
"There is no one else for me." She said as she looked at him. "You haven't met someone else have you?" She asked as she looked at him.
"No one could ever compare to you." He said softly before a waiter walked up to the table.
"Can I get you anything?" He asked.
"We will take two cups of coffee and a big plate of those rocky road brownies you all are so famous for." Rory said with a smile.
"You Gilmore have not changed on bit." Jess said with a laugh.
"Oh I wouldn't hold your breath on that." She said with a laugh as she looked at him.