Chapter 2

"What is the matter with you?"

Luke seemed irritated by the fact he even had to ask that question. Jess noticed he seemed irritated a not small part of the time regardless, and figured his own presence in his uncle's life was likely the cause. Rory had said as much once, and though Jess had tried a little harder since then, it never seemed to make a huge difference.

"Nothing's the matter with me," he said, eyes never leaving his book.

"Really?" his uncle checked. "Because you seem to be smiling a lot today and that is enough to make me more than a little nervous."

Jess looked up then, mostly out of surprise. He hadn't realised he was smiling, though if Luke said he was he must have been, he supposed. It made sense when he thought about it. Though his book wasn't at all funny, he hadn't been paying rapt attention to it this whole time. His mind kept on wandering to the fun he'd had last night, and not just when he was telling Forester where to shove his threatening looks either. It was cool hanging out with Rory and Paris, and strangely, it had been similarly fun spending time with just Paris today. He really hadn't expected that.

"I'm not allowed to be happy?" he asked Luke then. "You'd prefer I was miserable, is that it?"

Luke opened his mouth to answer then closed it again fast. A long tired sigh escaped his lips as he ran a hand over his face. This was ridiculous. Pulling up a chair, he sat down near where Jess was perched on his bed.

"Jess, I don't want you to be miserable," he said definitely. "I don't... I know I'm not always great at being a parental figure or whatever the hell it is I'm supposed to be, but I'm trying, okay?"

"Did I say you weren't?" Jess countered, wondering immediately why he had.

Luke was trying to be nice to him, trying to help him out, and he knew it. The devastation that was soon to be the other half of the apartment was testament to the fact Luke planned for Jess to stay and make a life here, at least for the foreseeable future. He was trying. He seemed to have missed the part where Jess was trying too.

"I give up," muttered Luke then as he got up to walk away.

Jess figured he could throw the guy a bone. It wouldn't kill him. Besides, Luke could be of use to him yet in the grand scheme of things.

"If you really wanna know, I was smiling because I have a date."

"A date?"

"That's what I said."

Luke was smiling too when he turned to look at his nephew again.

"With who?" he asked, thinking immediately of Rory.

After all, Lorelai had said just the other day that she thought there was something between Jess and her daughter, and they did always seem pretty close when Luke saw them together. Of course, there was that Dean kid to consider, but maybe he was out of the picture.

"You remember Paris, right?" said Jess, trying not to smirk when he saw Luke's eyes widen too far. He half expected his pupils to roll out onto the floor like a cartoon.

"Paris? As in Rory's friend, Paris? The one who accused me of running a cat house up here?"

"Yup, that's her." Jess laughed recalling the incident.

"I thought she was actually going to take a swing at me that day!"

"What can I say, Uncle Luke? I like a woman who's passionate about things."

Jess didn't say anymore, just got up and walked away. He only went as far as the bathroom, but right now he was just keen to make an exit before the questioning began. He and Paris had worked out a lot of potential issues in their plan over the hours she was at the diner, but Jess didn't feel like talking to Luke about his love-life, even if it was all fake right now.

As for Paris, Jess could honestly say he was kind of looking forward to their first pseudo-date that had been cleverly arranged for next Friday night. It meant Rory couldn't interfere in any way, since she always had to go to her grandparents for dinner at the end of the week, but she might just stumble upon her two friends at the end of the night and that could be interesting.

Besides, Paris was strangely good company when they were on the right topic. They could argue books for hours without stopping, Jess was sure on that, and though he questioned some of her literary tastes, it was cool to meet a girl that even had literary tastes. So far she was only the second he had come across since moving here, and Jess planned to embrace that in any way he could.

"Hey, babe," Lorelai greeted her daughter with a wide smile. "How was International Dean Day?"

"It was fine," said Rory absently. "I just had the weirdest conversation with Paris."

"With Paris? Didn't we send her back home this morning, all full of a sugar and carb hangover?"

"We did." Rory nodded her agreement, coming to join her mom on the couch. "And I honestly didn't think about her again at all until me and Dean were walking back through town. We passed the diner and Paris came right out of the front door, smiling at me like her face was going to split in two."

"Did you ask her what had her so giddy?"

"Apparently, it's Jess."

"Jess? As in Luke's nephew Jess? The monosyllabic, gutter-cleaning, alone-night crasher that we know and try not to loathe?"

Rory smiled at that. It was almost impossible not to find such an accurate and yet ridiculous description funny. Still, she was serious again in a second as her mind went back to a few minutes ago outsides of Luke's.

"You remember when I told you how Paris covered for me and told Dean that she had a crush on Jess?"

Lorelai visibly shuddered, proving that she did, though Rory wasn't sure if it was the idea of Paris in love or Jess and Paris in particular that had her so squicked. She chose not to ask.

"Well, after that... You see, Paris thinks that Jess likes me, and I told her that was crazy, but that even if he did, I am totally committed to Dean."

"Which is true," Lorelai said, somewhere between a statement and a question.

"Which is very true," Rory confirmed, before continuing, "but then Paris was saying that she could understand if I did like Jess - which I don't, at least not in more than a friend-ish way - because he's cute and even though he has questionable literary tastes, at least he has literary tastes."

"Paris Geller, the ultimate flatterer," said Lorelai, rolling her eyes. "So, basically, Paris wasn't lying when she said she was crushing on Jess?"

"Maybe not," Rory considered. "It seems like they made some kind of connection here last night, because Paris said she came to hang out at the diner with Jess, and that they were going to go out sometime soon."

"He asked her out?"

"I guess so, or she asked him? I was kind of too shocked by the idea of the two of them together that I didn't think to ask."

Rory couldn't quite figure out what the strange feeling in the pit of her stomach really was. She supposed it was born of confusion and the awkwardness of two people she considered in a friend-ish way potentially hooking up. She didn't care, of course. She was dating Dean, so it really didn't matter to her if Jess dated Paris or anyone else for that matter. Similarly, Paris was kind of a friend, and Rory wanted her to be happy. If dating Jess was what pleased her, she should do that. All these things duly considered, Rory really wasn't sure why she felt so weird right now.

"Okay, well, I guess we should be happy for them, right?" said Lorelai after a long pause. "I mean, Jess is kind of a hoodlum, and Paris is part-robot, part-dictator-in-training, but they do say there's somebody out there for everybody. Maybe it's one of those freaky opposites attract things. Could work, I guess," she said, shrugging her shoulders and finally looking at Rory again. "You think so, hon?"

"Um, yeah, I guess it could," she agreed, though she didn't seem entirely convinced.

Honestly, Rory was feeling too strange to think clearly, and she didn't like that at all.

For the first time in too long, Paris Geller returned to her empty house with a smile on her face. Not that her home was ever entirely devoid of people, they had a staff, but her parents were almost always elsewhere, be that together or apart, and Paris often got lonely, even if she didn't like to admit that to anyone else. Today that didn't matter, because today had gone very, very well. It wasn't so great that she had no-one to talk to about it, but she would live, maybe write some of what she was feeling down in her journal, that sometimes helped.

It was strange to think that dating could make her so happy. Usually every thrill Paris got in her life was via academics and goals achieved. She supposed she could count getting her first real date with a man as reaching a milestone, but then this was no more real than her pseudo-date with Tristan last year that had come only as a result of Rory's interference. Gilmore had meant well, but Paris had felt so foolish when she realised the truth. Now at least she knew what she was doing. Paris was well-aware that her date with Jess for Friday night was no more real than her night out with Tristan, but it was her choice this time around.

"It's a means to an end," she muttered to herself, climbing the stairs to her room. "There are plenty of advantages to the arrangement."

She had told Jess the same thing, and he hadn't taken much convincing. Paris would be more pleased about that if she wasn't sure all his interest lie in Rory. The fake dating would lead to Miss Gilmore's jealousy and doubtless throw her into Jess' arms before long, but in the meantime, Paris could tell Madeline and Louise, and anyone else who ever made her feel bad for being eternally single, that she now had a boyfriend. Not a cousin paid to take her to a dance or some geeky no-hoper that she threatened with violence and destruction. Jess Mariano was actually cute. Some might say hot, but Paris wasn't really the type to use such a word, at least not out loud. He knew literature and movies, and when Paris talked he listened without rolling his eyes or thinking she was a freak. At the same time, he had the cajones to question her opinions and tell her she was cracked when he really didn't agree. As much as she should hate that, Paris actually admired it, she liked it. She liked Jess, perhaps a little more than was healthy when her dating him was purely for show and not at all founded in mutual attraction.

"Why would he be attracted to you?" she asked her reflection in the mirror. "When Rory is stood right there, why would he even look at you?"

Turning her face away, Paris threw herself down on her bed and opened up her journal to write it all out until she felt better. She was smiling before long, thinking of Friday, her first date with Jess. Sure, it wouldn't be a real date, but it would be time spent alone with him, and maybe that was good enough for now.