Reunion
The next morning Jess walked down the stairs into the diner just as his uncle was preparing to open it for the day.
"Hey, Uncle Luke," Jess said
Luke jumped about a foot in the air and spun round to face his nephew, who was sitting down on a stool at the bar pulling a book out of the back pocket of his jeans.
"Jess, what are you doing here?"
"I'm down here for your wedding." Jess said not looking up from his book, which was another Hemmingway novel.
"The wedding isn't until the weekend." Luke pointed out, staring at Jess
"Amanda said it would be awkward if we just came down for the weekend so she decided that we should come down for the week instead."
"Who's Amanda?" asked Luke, looking even more confused than he had at the start of the conversation.
"My girlfriend," said Jess slowly, looking up from his book, "I told you about her ages ago."
"Oh yeah, Amanda Grant, the nurse, but that doesn't explain why you were sleeping in my apartment."
"The key was on top of the door and I assumed you would be at Lorelai's house." Jess replied returning to his book
"You couldn't have called to ask me if it was okay."
"I could have, but it was really late when we arrived and like I said I assumed you would be at Lorelai's house and wouldn't want to be disturbed, unless of course you're waiting till after you're married before you-"
"JESS!"
"Jeez, sorry." Said Jess, smirking at his uncle, who was glaring at him, "Anyway, I thought you opened earlier than this."
"Lorelai wanted to go through some more stuff for the wedding."
Jess raised his eyebrows, "So that's what you're calling it."
"Will you shut up?"
Amanda chose that moment to walk down the stairs into the dinner. When she saw Luke she froze for a moment before walking up to him and holding out her hand.
"Hi, you must be Luke, I'm Amanda."
"Yeah, er, nice to meet you." Luke said taking her hand.
"Hey, Luke can I ask you a question?" she asked staring at something over his shoulder
"Sure," he said nervously.
"Why is that guy pressing his face up against the window?"
"Oh, that's just Kirk."
"Huh," Amanda replied doing a remarkably good impression of her boyfriend.
Rory walked out of the front door of her house, her mom had left a while ago to get some stuff from Doose's market and they were going to meet for coffee at Luke's. Then she stopped abruptly. Walking towards her was her ex-boyfriend, Logan Huntzberger. When he reached her he stopped and smiled slightly nervously.
"Hey Ace."
Rory crossed her arms and glared at him. "What are you doing here Logan?" she asked him.
"I wanted to see you."
"You've seen me. Now you can leave."
"I wanted to talk you."
"About what?"
"I made a mistake."
"You've made a lot of mistakes; you're going to have to be a bit more specific."
"Breaking up with you," he said his voice rising with frustration, "I shouldn't have given you that stupid ultimatum and I should have given a long distance a shot."
"Well you didn't and now I've moved on," she said barging past him and continuing on her way to Luke's.
"Please, just give me another chance Rory," he called after her.
"No," she replied turning to face him one last time, "I already given you enough chances and you wasted all of them. It's over Logan."
She left him staring after her.
Amanda was bored. Jess was busy helping his uncle with the diner so they hadn't had much time to talk. She had tried reading one of his books but had been bored before the end of the first page. Finally Jess, who had just finished having an argument with that weird guy called Kirk, walked over to the counter, which was where she was sitting.
"Hey Jess, are there any good shops here?" she asked.
"Nope," he said putting some money in the till.
"Really? Nothing?"
"Nothing"
"Well I'll just go and walk around for a bit."
"Okay."
"See you," she said getting up to walk out of the diner.
"Hey Mandy," he called after her feeling slightly guilty for boring her, "I'll join you later so you can see Taylor's reaction to me being back in town."
"Deal!" she grinned at him
Jess turned to go into the kitchen and Amanda continued to walk out of the diner nearly getting knocked over by a dark haired woman who was yelling for coffee.
Lorelai rushed into the diner ready for her fix of coffee. She spotted Luke cleaning a table. He looked up at her shout for coffee and rolled his eyes at her. While he was getting her coffee she sat down at a stool by the counter. He put down her coffee in front of her and gave her a kiss looking nervous.
"Hey Luke, are you ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, I need to tell you something," he sighed, looking down
"What's up?" she asked taking a sip of her coffee, various scenarios were running through her head, all ending with him telling her that he couldn't marry her.
"Jess is here," he blurted out
"What?" she said, her voice rising, "Your nephew, Jess? The town hoodlum? The boy who broke my daughter's heart in high school? That Jess?"
"Yep, him and his girlfriend."
"His girlfriend?" she asked standing up.
"Yep."
"What is he doing here?"
"He's here for our wedding."
"I need to find Rory," she said grabbing her coffee and running out the door just as Jess returned from the kitchen with a customer's breakfast.
Rory was walking to Luke's Diner, engrossed in her thoughts about Logan, when she spotted her mom running towards her.
"Mom!" Rory called.
"Rory, honey, I need to tell you something." Lorelai said coming to a halt in front of her, looking very stressed.
"What?" Rory asked nervously, her eyes widening.
"Jess is here."
"What?" Rory screamed
"He's in town for the wedding."
"What is this? Have all my ex-boyfriends suddenly decided that they want to get back together with me?"
"It's Jess, and that's what you said about Logan."
"Good point," Lorelai admitted before realizing something her daughter had just said, "Hold on, Logan wanted to get back together with you?"
"Yep, he cornered me outside the house and tried to get me to give him another chance."
"What a jerk."
Rory was just about to reply when she heard a familiar voice call her name. She looked past her mom to see Jess walking towards her hands deep in the pockets of his leather jacket.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked when he reached her and her mom.
"What about?" she asked wide eyed, at the same time as her mom replied with a very tense 'no'.
"Just stuff," he shrugged, ignoring Lorelai.
"Fine," said Rory her eyes still wide.
"But Rory-" Lorelai started, staring at her daughter.
"Mom, its fine, just go," Rory said turning to her mom
"Fine," said Lorelai and, with one last glare at Jess, walked back to the diner, leaving Rory and Jess staring at each other.
"So," Jess started uncomfortably, "Your mom still hates me then."
"Looks like it," replied Rory, smiling slightly, "Listen Jess, about last time-"
"-it's fine, let's just forget about it."
"Ok." Rory agreed, looking down at her at her shoes.
After a moment of silence Jess started to speak again, "Listen, Rory, how about we agree, this time we won't argue or kiss."
Rory nodded, smiling, "Ok, good idea."
Please review whether you like it or not. Next chapter Luke and Lorelai get married and Logan continues to try to get Rory to give him another chance.
