I was supposed to be working on the next chapter of 'An End has a Start' but this came out instead. It's AU, and I've no idea where it's headed. Oh well. Enjoy. :)
Chapter one : Meeting
She felt faint.
She checked her watch and leaned forward to count how many people were in the que in front of her. Five. And the girl taking the orders was new. And slow. Really slow.
She eyed the display cabinet in front of her knowing she'd by pass her usual blueberry for a chocolate muffin. She needed the sugar.
He smirked in amusement as she counted the line ahead of her again. And when she checked her watch again. She was clearly late for something and watching her squirm was entertaining.
He watched as she pressed her hand to her forehead, and noticed her stumble slightly backwards. She steadied herself, placing her hand on the display cabinet, leaving a smudged palm print on the clean glass.
Then she fell. Backwards and fast. Almost too fast, but he caught her. Just.
Chaos ensued. The barista looked panicked, and someone clichédly called out for a doctor. But he simply picked her up easily into his arms and carried her to a couch at the back of the shop.
She heard voices around her. They were distant. Muffled.
Slowly she opened her eyes, focusing on another pair. Dark hazel, scattered with flecks of green and gold.
She tried to sit up, but felt dizzy and fell back to her horizontal position.
"Welcome back to The Land Of The Living." The man with the eyes told her. "You know your name?"
"Rory." She placed her hand on her forehead. "Rory Gilmore."
"You know the year, Rory Gilmore?"
"2010." She replies without hesitation.
"Okay, so no major brain damage. Well done." He smiled at her, offering her his hand, and pulled her into a sitting position.
"Thanks." She smiled. "What happened?"
"You fainted. I caught you."
She closed her eyes tightly, trying not to think of all the people who saw her collapse. "That's so embarrassing."
He chuckled and handed her a glass of water. She gulped it down and sat the empty glass on the table. "Thanks."
She swung her legs of the couch and lifted her bag of the floor before standing. "Thank you again. It would have been a lot worse if I had fallen and cracked my head."
"Yeah, no problem. Where you going?"
"Work."
He reached out and took hold of her wrist. "You're still pale. You should sit and eat something."
Rory shook her head and nervously played with the strap of her bag. " I can't. But thanks again Jess."
She turned to leave but was stopped mid-step by his voice. "Wait."
She screwed her face up, realising her mistake, and then releasing a loud sigh she turned to face him again. "Yeah?" She asked, in what she prayed was a nonchalant tone.
He squinted. "How'd you know my name?"
"Well, you told me your name."
"No, I didn't."
"I'm a mind reader?"
He kept his gaze on her, and she knew she was busted. "We went to the same high school." She sat back down on the couch.
He sat on the armchair beside her. "You went to Chilton?"
"Yeah." She paused. "You graduated two years ahead of me."
"Oh." He nodded and her phone started to ring.
She glanced down at her Blackberry and noted the caller ID. "It's work. I have to go."
"Gimme." He reached out and took her cell, hitting the answer button. "Hello?"
Rory reached forward and tried to take her cell back, but he moved out of her reach and held up his hand to silence her. "Yeah, Rory fainted this morning and hit her head. I'm bringing her to the ER to make sure she has no concussion. Me? I'm a friend. Yeah, I will. Bye." He held her phone back to her, cradled in his open palm.
"What did you just do?"
"Got you the day off work." He smirked. "Mags said she hopes you feel better. But it didn't sound sincere. Boss?"
Rory shook her head, smiling. "No. But she's older, so assumes she's my boss. Serve her right having to do some extra work today."
Jess chuckled and stood up. "Coffee?"
"It's fine." She shook her head. "You probably have work."
"I don't technically start 'til ten. So you take cream or sugar?"
"No. Black. Thank you."
He headed to the counter, now devoid of it's que and ordered. He glanced over at the brunette, knowing her knew her face, but being able to place it. It wasn't Chilton. He knew that much. He knew he wouldn't be able to pick out most of his own class after nearly ten years, and she was two years below him. She was twisting her hair though nervous fingers when he returned with a tray.
"Oh." She looked up at him when he sat a muffin beside her coffee.
"I saw you eyeing it up before you KOed." He explained sitting back down, taking the teabag from his own mug.
She bit down on her lip. "Thanks."
"Nervous?" He questioned.
"Yeah." She quietly admitted.
He laughed and quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"
She shrugged and tucked her hair behind her ear. "You're Jess Mariano."
"And you're Rory Gilmore."
"Yeah, but I'm betting you don't even remember me from school. You were a senior when I was a lowly sophomore. But I always wanted to go talk to you."
He remained silent, but raised both his eyebrows, encouraging her to go on.
"You always had a book on you. And I read. A lot. And I just always wanted to talk to you about, well, everything." She smiled as she remembered something her friend had once said. "Although your literary taste leaves a little to be desired at least you have literary taste."
Jess suddenly snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Now I know where I know you from."
"What?"
"You were friends with Paris. I saw your picture in her dorm."
"Paris? Dorm?"
"Paris Gellar, right? She always complained about my taste in literature being somewhat lacking."
Rory blinked. "I'm sorry, when where you friends with Paris?"
"Oh. Harvard. We were on the paper together. We became friends. Sort of."
"You were sort of friends with Paris?"
"Yeah." He nodded, giving her a half smile. "She's intense, but extremely loyal. I saw your graduation picture in her dorm."
Rory grinned. "You were in her dorm? So you dated Paris Gellar?"
"No! I was helping her study for a philosophy final."
"Oh, we've all been there." Rory nodded. "Not philosophy, but biology, chemistry, history and pretty much every other class we took at Chilton."
"Sounds like Gellar." Jess drained the last of his tea and then twisted his wrist to look at his watch. "I should head. Work."
"Right." Rory stood and glanced out the window. "When did it start raining?"
"What?" Jess turned to face the street outside. "I'm gonna get soaked." He sighed.
"Well," Rory picked up her bag and coat, "I live right across the street." She pointed to the apartment building facing them. "I could loan you an umbrella. Or at least steal you my roommate's?"
"You sure?"
"Anything for my White Knight." She winked and ran across the street, her bag over her head, deflecting the raindrops.
Jess followed her up the five stone steps and into the building. She was already in the elevator waiting for him, and when he got in beside her, she reached in front of him and hit the fifth floor button.
"I'll be right back." Rory threw her bag under the table by the door, and her keys into a blue ceramic bowl that sat on the table. She crossed the living room and went into one of the rooms. Jess looked around the spacious living room, the rows of DVDs under the TV, the giant cushions on the couch and the pile of fashion magazines on the coffee table. The door to his right opened and a mass of blonde curls exited.
"Rory?" The hair looked up and pinched her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "You're not Rory." She pointed at Jess.
"Nope." Jess confirmed, a small smiled playing on his lips.
"I do have an umbrella. But it's pink!" Rory reentered the living room, holding the pink item above her head. "Katie." She smiled at the blonde.
"Who is he?" Katie pointed at Jess, talking like he wasn't present. "Did I bring him home? Because if I brought him home, and still slept with the guy in my bed, then I deserve this headache."
"You didn't bring him home."
Katie sank down onto the couch, her head back and her hands covering her face. "Thank God."
Rory rolled her eyes and walked back to Jess. "Sorry about that. Here." She handed him the umbrella.
"Thanks." He turned it in his hands, making a face at its bright colour.
Rory laughed at his aversion to the pink hue. "It'll keep you dry."
"I'll return it later."
"Unnecessary."
"I want to." He pressed, placing his hand on her elbow. "Besides, I wanna have that conversation with you."
She was confused. "Conversation?"
"From high school. About your taste in literature."
"Oh." She nodded slowly, glancing behind her at her roommate. "Right, sure. You should give me a call."
"I need your number."
She blushed slightly and then turned to grab a writing pad from her phone table. She scribbled down her number and then handed him the torn paper.
He ran his thumb across the digits, before pocketing the scrap. "Thanks." He reached behind him and pulled oped her front door. "I'll call you, Rory Gilmore. And no more fainting."
She held up her hand and gave him the scout salute. "I promise."
"Enjoy your snow day." He winked and closed the door behind him.
Rory turned and faced her roommate and best friend . They had met their junior year at Yale, Katie an art major, Rory majoring in literature and communication. While they were polar opposites, they balanced each other out. Rory created a sense of calm for Katie, while Katie added an element of fun to Rory's, slowly bringing her out of her shell.
They lived together their senior year, and had moved to New York together after graduation, Rory getting her dream job in publishing and Katie working two jobs, in a small art gallery and a local bar, while working in her own art. They had both worked their way up in their respective jobs, Katie managing the art gallery and one of their most successful artists, while Rory was now a talented editor and well respected among her colleagues.
"So, who was tall, dark and not your boyfriend?" Katie asked, not lifting her head as Rory sat beside her.
Another big difference in the friends. Their attitudes on love. Rory picked men that were kind and sweet and as Katie put it, dull. They were steady and she didn't fall in love easily. Katie, at the the age of twenty six had found the love of her life. Several times. She fell quickly in and out of love. Both thought the others ideas on love were fool hardy, and a sure fire way to a broken heart.
"We went to the same high school." Rory told her friend, leaving out how they didn't actually talk in high school, or that she had the world's biggest crush on him when she was sixteen.
"Cool. Just run into him?"
"Fainted." Rory blushed. "He caught me."
Katie laughed. "That would be a cute way to meet, if you didn't already know each other."
"Yeah." Rory glanced back at her friend's bedroom. "There's still a guy in your room?"
Katie nodded once and let her head fall on Rory's shoulder, groaning. "Yeah, and he's the total definition of 'Coyote Ugly'. Get rid of him for me?"
"Kate!" Rory whined and let out a loud sigh. "This is the last time."
"Oh thank you!" Katie kissed her friend on the cheek and the stood up. "I'll hide in your room. Then you can come tell me why exactly you're playing hooky today!"
"See, when you leave the house before me, I assume you'll get to work before me."
Jess handed the red head perched on his desk a to go cup and paper bag. "Here. Call it an appeasement."
She opened the bag and grinned. "Oh, raspberry and white chocolate? Thanks!" She jumped of the desk and took a sip of her coffee before sitting at her own desk. "So why were you late?"
"I was saving a girl." Jess turned his computer on.
"That's vague."
"It's the truth Bee."
She raised one eyebrow in suspicion. "You saved a girl?"
"She fainted. I caught her."
She snorted. "You hardly saved her. Here I was thinking you ran into a burning building. So I'm guessing she was pretty."
"Why?"
"You have that smile."
He knitted his eyebrows. "What smile?"
"The one you have after you've had sex." She shrugged. "And unless you had a very quiet girl in your room last night, that smile is from the pretty girl you saved and gave you that ridiculous pink umbrella."
"Shut up and drink your coffee."
A wide grin crossed Bee's face. "You like her."
This was big. Jess Mariano didn't like anyone. In the ten years that she had known him, Bee had set him up on hundreds of dates. And not one had taken. He had a grand total of two steady girlfriends, the first lasting sophomore and junior year in college, and then the second lasting just over a year and half, four years ago. Any other girl in his life had not lasted any longer than three months, Jess breaking up with them because he knew that they weren't 'it'.
Bee could never get him to define what 'it' was, but she knew some girl had it, so she started her endless cycle of blind dates. But no one was ever right, but she refused to give up. She had just run out of people for Jess to date. He told it was so she didn't have to concentrate on her own disastrous love live, and she should look for herself, but she reminded him, she only picked men that were bad for her, and she wasn't actively seeking a man anymore. It was all down to fate now.
"Shut up." He growled.
"You really like her." She laughed. "Name?"
He sighed. She was like a dog with a bone, and she would not leave this alone. "Rory."
"You seeing her again?"
"Got to give her the umbrella back, right?"
"And that's it?" She broke of a piece of her muffin and popped it in her mouth.
"Yep." He didn't tell her that Rory Gilmore had completely charmed him. Her bright blue eyes, her easy laugh and her smile had caught his attention and he knew he had to get to know her better.
"Okay." Bee nodded as her phone rang. "Truncheon. Bee speaking. Oh hi mom. Yes, I know my name is Belinda, but I hate it, so I'm Bee."
Jess rolled his eyes, she had the same fight with her mom at least once a week. He opened the manuscript that had been left on his desk the day before. So far it was good. It might even be the next book Truncheon published. Making it the fifteenth book they had published in the fours years the small press had been opened.
He flicked the corner of the page his was reading and the print swam in front of his eyes. He couldn't stop thinking about her.
This was not good. Twenty minutes with her and she consumed all his thoughts.
Rory Gilmore. He knew, she had 'it'.
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