On the Same Page
In the wake of Jess' trip to Yale, a lot needs to be sorted out. As Rory and Jess try to figure out their futures, they have to wrangle the people they care about in the present. Sequel to Books on a Shelf.
Seven chapters in all.
Complete word count: 22,632
She breezed through her classes after having breakfast with Paris who had said, "If you don't get married for a couple of years, will I still be invited?"
"Paris, you, Lane and my mom are my bridesmaids. Mom is my maid of honor, you can give a speech if you like." Paris hugged her like crazy. Rory had smiled, all day in fact. She was going to marry Jess. After class, she gathered her four and a half pages of list and said, "Pray to Yahweh, I'm telling Mom, in about an hour."
"Good luck," said Paris.
"She'll be okay with it, right?"
"In the end," agreed Paris. "If you break it to her all at once she can be pissed all at once: you're moving away, you're moving in with Jess, you're marrying Jess."
"Oh, God," said Rory. She drove home, feeling both really happy and scared. She went directly to the inn and was greeted with hugs.
"So, are you a woman now?" asked her mother, teasingly.
Rory took a deep breath and said, "I'm getting married." Then she blinked, "I meant to tell you in stages. I didn't mean to blurt." She had surprised herself with the statement.
Her mother blinked at her. Rory watched as she schooled her face. Ever since their huge rift when Rory had dropped out of school and when she'd finally gone back, her mom tried to respect her decisions more. It wasn't that her mom liked, or approved, of every decision she made, her mom just knew that Rory was going to make her own choices. So instead of getting angry, her mom said, "Like, this weekend in Vegas or at some vague point in the future?"
Rory pulled out her list and held it out, "I made one, he made one. His came out as sixty-four cons and one hundred and forty-eight pros. Mine's fifty-two to one hundred and thirty-eight. I'm happy, Mom, read it. I'm happy. I meant to tell you in stages. It's a vague point in the future. He asked my ring size last night."
"You told him you have obnoxiously small fingers?"
"My fingers are not obnoxiously small."
"Then why don't your rings fit me?" asked her mom.
"You have sausage fingers," said Rory with a shrug. Her mother gave her a mock horrified look. Her mom didn't seem happy about the news. But, Rory thought that once they talked, once her mom had actually read the list, had listened, she would be smiling. She and Rory had talked so much about Jess and her mom seemed genuinely pleased he was back in her life. Her mom hadn't taken the list yet. "Let's go home?" asked Rory. "You can read the list, we can order from Al's?"
"Sure, Rory, let's go," she put her arm through Rory's and they left the inn and she said, "I want to hear everything." Rory told her all about the library, and taking him to the dining room where they read as they ate, and about his fan, and about having mac and cheese with Paris and Doyle, and about being put in charge of stirring. She talked about eating ice cream cones in bed and how good it had felt to be in his arms again. Her mom listened to her and at home she said, "Al's is doing Greek this week."
"Sounds good to me," agreed Rory. "I can't come home this weekend. I have too much studying for finals, so don't order way too much."
"Just the regular amount of too much?" clarified her mom.
"Exactly," Rory agreed. Her mom called while Rory got them both sodas and took out mallomars to tide them over until the food came. She continued to tell her mom all about their day together, painting a vivid image for her and then providing her with a much blurrier watercolor of their night. She talked about her plan to move to Philadelphia and why it made sense for her career and just for herself. Her mom was smiling and she said, "What?"
"It's been a long time since you were so obviously happy about your life," said Lorelai, "not about a guy or anything, it's just that figuring this one part out has made you a little less fractious."
"I still need a job," said Rory, biting into a mallomar.
"Yeah, but you don't need to spend money on batteries for your vibrator," she said.
"Mom!" said Rory, shocked at the bluntness.
"I can read between the lines," she said.
"We've always been good together, physically," said Rory, looking away in embarrassment but not willing to back down; she was grown up and she was talking as an adult. "The physical was really where we always clicked completely. First nights are never great, never, but — honestly, we were amazing together. Paris was unhappy because I've never been a screamer before."
"Ewwwww," said her mother slowly. "That's way too far."
"You were the one talking about vibrators," said Rory.
"Yes, but mine was funny, yours was heartfelt. It was gross on two levels: gooey and overshare."
Rory shoved the rest of her mallomar into her mouth. She told her mom about the discussion about rings and pros and cons. And then she said, "Read the list, Mom. When you do, you'll see that I had to tell him my ring size." Her mom started reading and Rory got up and poured them both glasses of red wine.
The doorbell rang after fifteen minutes and Rory answered it. Not looking up from the paper, and without moving off the couch, her mom said, "Don't you dare pay, sweets, my wallet is on the side. You cannot pay for dinner at your mother's house." Not arguing, Rory paid from her mom's wallet. She brought the food into the living room. Then she got plates, forks and the wine, she saw her mom was on the final page and she didn't say anything. She opened the bags and started to spread out the food. Her mom looked up, "Did he make fun of how tiny your fingers are?" Then she grinned, "You're getting married," she half screamed it.
"I'm getting married," replied Rory.
"You're getting married," her mother repeated. "Mrs. Well-I've-never-been-sure-how-to-pronounce-Jess'-last-name."
"What's so hard about Mariano?"
"You're going to be spelling that for the rest of your life," said her mom. Rory laughed. "Am I going to have any grand children who will have to spell it?"
"Not in the next ten years, we want to both be able to enjoy our kids, and we're adopting."
"Wow," her mom blinked, "I expected you to say that you hadn't discussed it."
"No, we've discussed it," said Rory.
"You're getting married," said her mom.
"The question becomes," said Rory, "are you going to be the mother of the bride, the wedding planner and the maid of honor or do you want to ditch one or more of those roles?"
"I want to be all three please," said her mom.
"Okay," agreed Rory with a smile.
"Spanakopita is the only acceptable way to eat spinach," said her mom.
"Agreed," said Rory.
"Can I make your dress or do you want to buy it?"
"You can make it," promised Rory. "I have some ideas."
"Oh good," said her mom, grinning. "I thought you were going to get snooty and want a designer."
"You're my designer," said Rory. "Are you sure you want to be the maid of honor? Luke is going to be Jess' best man."
Her mom was quiet for a minute, "It'll be fine. I'll get Paris and Lane's measurements closer to the time."
"Thanks, Mom," said Rory.
They ate a lot of Greek food, talking about Jess, the food, the inn and were happy and laughing. She talked about his opinion on Dean and her mom started to disagree and Rory said, "He made me feel smaller than I am. He made me feel like I owed him something for his kindness. And the way he talked about Lindsay?" She thought about it for a second, "He made me think I was the only option and that we had a future. I am not small, I owe no one for treating me with basic curtesy and he was married." Her mother closed her mouth and, for the first time, didn't outright blame Rory. "I am not small," she repeated and her mom shook her head, agreeing wordlessly. Then she hugged Rory and she felt like she was being forgiven for something that had never really been her fault. "For all our false starts, for all the ways we hurt each other. Even with his leaving and my telling him to keep secrets; even with his coming to Yale and asking me to run away and my almost cheating on Logan and the way he said, 'I don't deserve this,' like I'd stabbed him instead of kissed him… I'm marrying my soulmate, Mom. It took us a while to get here but-" She took a breath and shook her head, "'Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.' We needed it all to happen, we were always going to here but we needed to grow up and learn."
"You're quoting Helen Keller?"
Rory shrugged, "Yeah, I don't know: I'm still hungry." They had finished all the food Rory said, "I really want pie but you can't keep secrets and Jess might not have told Luke."
"Do you really think he'll want Luke to be the best man?"
"He considers Luke to be his only real family," said Rory. "In fact, we'll have to figure out what to do about the ceremony, he isn't going to want Liz there. Then again, he hasn't asked me to marry him yet, so…"
"Why wouldn't he want his mother there? I know she's loud but she is his mother."
Rory breathed out slowly, in telling her mother what Jess had said about Dean, she had told her how Jess' mom used to date abusive guys. Rory considered it and she said, "She drank so much she sometimes forgot his name. She did so many drugs she sometimes forgot he existed. Her boyfriend at the time didn't like having a teenager around so she kicked him out here to Luke. And Luke expanded his apartment, threw Jess a Christmas, tried to keep him in school. Luke is going to be his best man; Liz isn't going to be invited."
"Huh," said her mom. Then she said, "I think I can manage to not tell Luke as long as we get our pie to go."
They walked arm in arm, Rory talking about her study schedule and how she was going to tell her grandparents about the question Jess was going to ask her. In the diner Rory leaned over the counter and said, "Hey, Luke, how are you?"
"Rory," he beamed at her. "You're home."
"Yeah, I've got finals coming up, so I won't be home much."
"That's great, that you're home, that's great," repeated Luke.
"Oh thank God, you know," said her mom, over dramatically slumping onto the counter as though relief had literally melted tension insider of her.
Rory laughed, looking at her mom and then turned to Luke, "We were going to get pie to go so that Mom didn't announce it by accident."
Luke came around the counter and raised her off the floor in a hug. He always hugged at weird angles, he did it so rarely. But Rory always appreciated getting hugs from Luke. "Rory," he breathed, "I am so excited." She smiled into his shoulder. He put her back on the ground and said, "You're getting married."
Everyone in the diner was staring and then cheering and Rory was blushing. "We just wanted chocolate pie," she said.
"It's on the house," said Luke. "My niece-in-law does not pay."
"Jess and I are not officially engaged, yet," said Rory.
"No, but I'm officially engaged as the best man, so don't screw it up for me," he said, still beaming as he cut two extra-large slices of pie and topped them with Reddi-wip. "I made fun of your pros and cons lists for so long. And then at seven this morning, I'm getting a call from Jess saying, 'I made a pros and cons list and talked to Rory: we're getting engaged.' I can't make fun of the lists anymore."
"That's a lot of pie and whipped cream, you never let me have this much pie and whipped cream," said Rory looking at her plate.
"I'm in a pretty great mood," he said, holding out forks as he reached for coffee mugs. He poured them each a cup of coffee and then he kissed Rory's forehead, "I'm already starting to write the toast."
"We don't have a date yet, Luke."
"You and Jess can be as behind as you like," he replied. People started asking all sorts of questions that Rory answered between mouthfuls of pie.
When she was done with her pie, and had drained her coffee mug, she said, "I have to tell Lane. I cannot let one of my bridesmaids hear this secondhand. Thank you for the pie, Luke, and for putting so much effort into the speech." She leaned over the counter for another hug. "I'll be MIA for a while, finals, but I will see you for breakfast tomorrow before I head back to New Haven."
"I'll be waiting, with pancakes."
"Night," she said and to her mom she said, "I'm going to be at Lane's for a while, but with the babies, not too late."
"Kiss the babies for me," her mom said as Rory fully stood.
"Bye, Mrs. Mariano," Luke called as she got to the door.
"It's a while off," she called back, smiling at the people in the diner.