A/N: Another oneshot guys! Once again lemme know what you think!
Title: Meetings of a Different Sort
Rating: K+
Summary: He laughs. "I know you always know I'm in here." Even though he tried to avoid it he couldn't help it: a lot of Jess' character rubbed off on him. She always told him that.
Disclaimer: What do I own? Nothing.
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Special thanks to Joseph Santiago for telling me about the 3 1/2 years instead of 4 1/2.
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"No, I actually have a meeting with them later on today." Alexis tells Lauren over the phone and waits for her response. This was the first time they'd talked in over a week now.
"That's great."
She waits for the sign to change to 'walk' before crossing the street. "I guess."
"Don't sound so enthused." Lauren laughs.
"No, it's…" Alexis sighs. "It's not that. I guess I just have to get used to the idea."
"It's a good opportunity, you should go for it."
"Maybe."
"We can't all sit around pining after the show; we have to move on at some point."
She doesn't respond. She hesitates in front of Hal's Café before pushing the door open and entering. She looks around and walks up to the counter and mouths 'chai tea' to the waitress who asks for her order. "I'll think about it."
"Well, this is a surprise."
"Good. That's all I ask." Lauren continues. Alexis turns surprised to see Milo standing on the side of her. Lauren notices the silence. "'Lexis? You still there?"
"Ah…yea. I'm here." She tells her. "Uh…" The waitress comes back with her order and sees the hand on the side of her extending. "I have to go. I'll talk to you later." She quickly shakes her head at the waitress signaling to her not to take the money.
"Are you sure? You sound a little…out of it." Lauren tells her.
"I'm fine; I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
"Okay."
Alexis quickly closes the phone and turns to him. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to pay for your order." He tries giving the woman the money again.
"Well, don't." She takes out the money and hands it to the waitress.
"Ya know, most people would just say thanks."
She ignores his statement. "What are you doing here anyway?"
He laughs. "I know you always know I'm in here." Even though he tried to avoid it he couldn't help it: a lot of Jess' character rubbed off on him. She always told him that.
"Not alone." She shakes her head. The place was taboo for her—well until now anyway. "Where is she anyway?"
He clenches his jaw and sighs. "We broke up."
She laughs. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" Beat. "What, did she go on another binge?"
"If you must know she was a little immature."
"She was nineteen!"
His jaw clenches. "Why are we even discussing this? You broke up with me."
Alexis rolls her eyes indiscreetly. "Do not do this." She grabs the bag off the counter and heads to the door.
"You started this." He quickly follows after her.
She nods. "Now I'm ending it."
It's his turn to roll his eyes. "This sounds vaguely familiar, I wonder why that is?"
"How old are you?" She spins around. He takes the bag out of her hands and heads in the opposite direction. "Hey! That's—what are you…" She sighs and quickly follows. "What are you doing?" He doesn't respond. "Where are you going? Can I at least have my tea back?"
He turns abruptly and she smiles triumphantly. "Have dinner with me."
Her smile fades. "What? No."
"Why not?"
She looks around briefly wondering how to explain. "You're only asking me because of what happened with…her." She doesn't say Hayden's name and she doesn't have to. She never has. "Other wise we wouldn't even be having this conversation." She stops noticing the smile creeping on his face. "You're smiling. I'm saying no and you're smiling." She shakes her head and looks down. "I don't wanna be your rebound." Was it even possible to be a rebound if you were already with that person before?
"Okay." He nods slowly and holds out the bag to her. She hesitates before taking it and he backs away and walks off.
--
"That wasn't like him." Alexis recounts to Lauren two days later. "He doesn't give up that easily."
Lauren ponders, wondering how to respond. "You didn't want him to give up?"
"I didn't say that." She quickly responds.
"You sound disappointed."
"I…" She pauses. "I was just surprised, that's all."
Lauren looks around the café and then down at her coffee before meeting Alexis' gaze. "Look, I know you. I have for seven years now and…" Beat. "All I'm saying is that I was there when you two started dating and even then I could tell that…it wasn't just some crush…"
"He wasn't interested in a long term thing." She cuts her off.
"You were together for three and a half years."
Alexis sighs loudly. "He wasn't interested in a long term thing with me for four years." She rephrases.
Lauren laughs and looks out the window. They drink their drinks in silence before it's broken again. "You broke up with him."
"Because he stopped being interested in me!"
"Okay." Lauren nods.
She continues anyway. "I didn't want to stay with someone who clearly didn't want to be with me anymore."
"I said okay."
"You don't believe me."
"You don't believe you." She doesn't expand.
"I wasn't—I'm not disappointed."
Lauren nods again, thinking over her words. She still felt like a mother figure towards her even though that obviously wasn't the case. She didn't want to step over some kind of invisible boundaries. "That doesn't mean that you're not happy they broke up. Or that you don't want to be with him."
"They just broke up. He asked me to dinner. I don't want to be his rebound." She says each without pause—before she lost her nerve. She still felt like she was talking to her mother sometimes, despite the close relationship their characters did have. She would never tell her mother this.
"Then…wait a couple days, a few weeks even. See if you still want to go—if he still wants to go, then…go for it."
"What if—?"
"The worse that could happen is that you start biting each others heads off in the middle of dinner, right?" She smiles.
Alexis laughs.
--
She waited for two weeks.
And then she called.
They agreed to meet for coffee—to "start off with something smaller".
She was currently in the dilemma of having to choose an outfit that was the perfect balance between trying too hard and not trying at all, which was why she had called Lauren who could help her with something like this and Rachel, one of her best friends who knew everything there was to about clothes.
Lauren had shot down a white summer dress that she had suggested saying that it was way "too formal-y", which Alexis had pointed out was very Lorelai-esque. The second option was a pair of black jeans with a purple tee with the words 'Sarcasm is one of the services I offer' to which both Rachel and Lauren had said was too immature.
"Do you still have that black skirt you bought the last time we went shopping that you've never worn?"
"The plaid one?" She rifles through the closet. "Yea."
"Pair that with your red turtle neck short sleeve sweater."
"Are you sure?"
Rachel pulls the phone away from her ear and looks at it before speaking. "You're questioning me?"
"Sorry, stupid of me." Pause. "Thanks."
"Now I feel like I didn't do anything." Lauren says.
"You did. You…shot down all the bad ideas."
Rachel nods, adding, "Without which we wouldn't have gotten to the good stuff." Beat. "Ooh, Brent is on the other end. I will call you later."
"Fill me in." Alexis waits for the click before continuing. "Really, thanks."
Lauren shrugs. "All I did was reject ideas."
"You know what for, for…giving me advice."
"Don't thank me yet, you have yet to see how it goes." She warns.
Alexis nods.
--
Alexis walks into the café and looks around.
Hayden is walking away from the counter with a box in her hand. Milo is sitting at the counter behind her.
She is unsure of how to greet her—or even if to greet her at all. Hayden makes the decision for her.
"I was just leaving."
She shakes her head. "Yea, no—it's okay." She moves over to the counter as soon as she exits the café. "Hi."
"That was strictly platonic." Milo starts. She nods. "Less than that even, I wanted to give her the rest of her stuff back."
"I said nothing, I saw the box."
"You didn't have to, your expression said everything."
Alexis smiles. "You're psychic now, too?"
He looks around unsurely. "Can we start over? You haven't even sat down yet and I feel like this is going to end badly."
"Okay." She exits the café and walks around the corner. For a second he thinks she used it as an escape route until she walks back inside. "Hi."
He stands and moves in front of her to greet her. "Hi." He turns and signals to the booth by the window. When they sit he slides a menu across the table and opens the other. "You look good. Rachel or Lauren?" His glance flickers over the top of the menu at her and back.
She scowls. "I'm perfectly capable of picking out my own clothes.'
"Never said you weren't." He closes the menu and pushes it to the side. "So?"
Alexis sighs. "Rachel."
A waitress walks over to their table and waits for their order. Milo starts. "Yea, I'll have a large coffee and the eggs benedict…" Alexis starts to order, but he continues. "…and she'll have a large tea along with the special." The waitress nods and walks away to put in their order.
"How'd you know that's what I wanted?"
Milo shrugs and looks at the counter. "I don't want to sound like a total loser who spews off a bunch of cheesy lines."
She shakes her head. "You won't."
"Whenever we came here—or anywhere for that matter, you always order the special," He shrugs, downplaying it. "No matter what it was, you said you always wanted to try 'something new'. Plus you hate coffee."
"Oh. You remembered that." It's not a question, just a statement.
"I remember everything you've ever said to me." She looks at him skeptically. "Well, almost everything."
She nods and hides her smile by closing her menu.
This was going to work.
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A/N: Thanks for reading guys! Now leave me a comment please and thanks.;