A/N: The sheer volume of positive feedback for this fic bowls me over. You guys are all so kind. I really hope you continue to enjoy this story as it continues on :)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 3
It took a surprising amount of time for Rory to get all her stuff unpacked and put away. There wasn't exactly a whole lot of space in her rented room, and just the one shelf in the bathroom and one cupboard in the kitchen to fill, but Rory was crazy-obsessive about her organising so it took a while to get it all just right. Unfortunately, it didn't quite take long enough.
When she was done tidying everything away, the guys were both still out at work, and so Rory was left alone with her own company. Sitting in her room seemed a little sad, even if she was reading a book. Rory wandered out into the living room and hovered a moment before sitting down heavily on the couch. As her mom had told her, this was her apartment now too. She was allowed to sit and to watch TV or anything she wanted here. With that in mind, she picked up the remote and switched on the television, flipping through channels until she found something she liked.
Half way through 60 Minutes she got annoyed by the subject matter and tried again to find something entertaining. Within ten minutes she heard the apartment door open and flew up off the couch like she had received an electric shock.
"Hey," said Jess with a look. "You okay?"
"Um, yeah, sure." Rory nodded, pushing a hand back through her hair. "I just... I'm fine," she said, sitting down again fast.
She was already turning pink before she managed to hide herself from view and Jess decided not to make a big deal about her being so jumpy. This was kind of a big deal for her, he supposed, living in the city for the first time, living with strangers on a permanent basis. Jess kept his smirk to himself and came over to the couch.
"All unpacked and happy?"
"Pretty much," she told him, glancing up over the back of the couch to where he stood. "The apartment is great, but it turns out America's Funniest Home Videos? Not so funny anymore."
"Apparently not," Jess agreed as he looked to the screen. "I'm guessing you didn't eat yet?"
"Not really."
The fact was it hadn't occurred to her to be hungry. It would be strange for a Gilmore to go more than an hour or two without needing to eat, but apart from a few snacks that were packed in with the rest of her things, Rory didn't really have any food in the apartment yet and wouldn't touch anything belonging to Jess or Logan. She could have ordered in, but Rory had no idea which places nearby were the good ones, so she had just kind of waited until one of the guys came home.
"Here," said Jess, tossing a large paper bag onto the couch beside her. "Knock yourself out. I'm going to go wash off the diner smell."
He disappeared into the bathroom a moment later and Rory turned her attention to the great-smelling bag beside her. Burgers, fries, possibly doughnuts existed in there. Digging in as she had been advised, Rory found she was way more hungry than she even thought, though she was wary of taking too much. There was nothing to say that Jess meant for her to eat everything here. He probably wanted some for himself.
Ten minutes and the better part of a burger and fries later, the bathroom door opened and Jess stepped out, hair dripping everywhere, a towel around his waist. Rory's eyes went wide as anything, her mouth falling open to expose chewed up beef and potato. She closed it fast when some crumbs rolled out.
Jess disappeared into his bedroom, apparently not even noticing what he had caused.
Rory swallowed very hard and sucked in a breath. She knew Jess was good-looking, so was Logan. She just really hadn't thought about seeing either of them half-naked on her first day here. Not that Jess meant anything by it, she was sure. He was probably used to just wandering freely in his apartment without having to think about an audience. Rory put her eyes back on the TV and tried to think of anything else.
Jess emerged from his room a few minutes later and dropped down on the couch by Rory with only the bag of food separating them. She turned to look at him and struggled to smile around one too many fries in her mouth.
"I'm guessing you were hungry?"
She fought to swallow her food, hand over her mouth to hide the inelegant display.
"Sorry," she apologised. "I wasn't sure how much of this was mine..." she admitted, gesturing to the bag.
"It's cool," Jess assured her. "I mostly had you in mind when I brought it home. I ate some at the diner anyway. Leftovers are free," he told her, whispering like it was a secret.
Rory honestly wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, so just concentrated on the food she was already in the middle of.
"So, you settled in okay?" asked Jess, clearly keen on making conversation, if only to avoid an awkward silence.
"Yes, thank you." Rory nodded. "Put all my stuff in its place. Um, so you work in a diner?"
"Sometimes," he told her. "I also take shifts at Walmart. Don't laugh," he urged her.
"I wouldn't," she promised.
"I know, I don't seem like the corporation type, but us starving artists have to eat, right?"
"Right." Rory nodded once, then looked thoughtful. "When you say artist...?"
"Author, actually," he explained, looking more awkward than even he had earlier when Lorelai was threatening him with worse-than-death consequences. "Er, I wrote a short novel. It's not much but this indepedant publishing house in Philly decided it was worth the paper and ink. Author promoted so I'm my own sales guy. It's not exactly the best seller every author dreams of but it's not nothing."
"You wrote a book?" Rory checked, eyes widening by the second. "An actual book that's been published?"
Jess nodded, a little overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. Though he was aware he had shifted at least two boxes of books into the apartment for Rory today, it hadn't really occurred to him she was all that into literature. She was about to start a job with a newspaper tomorrow, those books were as likely to be non-fiction as anything else, or she could be into Harry Potter, Twilight or Nancy Drew. He hadn't asked yet, he didn't know, but she sure seemed excited at the idea of any published novel right now.
"It's nothing you would've heard of," he said of his own work. "Like I said, I have to get bookshops to take it myself and there's not a lot of time between the diner and Walmart, plus working on any new stuff that comes to mind."
"Still, that's amazing. I'm living with an actual published author!" Rory enthused. "I'm kind of a book nut. I couldn't bring everything with me to New York, a car only holds so much and my room is smaller here than at home, but I have quite the library back in Stars Hollow."
"What are you into?" asked Jess curiously, kind of amazed by this beautiful woman whose already-amazing blue eyes got three shades brighter when she talked about books.
"Sometimes I think it's easier to list what I don't like," she admitted. "Let's see, I have all the Russian classics, a whole lot of Dickens, Austen, complete works of Shakespeare, obviously. I get caught up in poetry sometimes, Dickinson is a favourite. I also like what you might call the less obvious stuff. Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, Ginsberg's Howl, the Mencken Chrestomathy..."
Jess got up so suddenly, Rory really thought she was boring him or maybe that he thought she was some kind of freak he needed to escape from, stat. She realised her mistake when he looked back at her and said, "C'mon."
Rory was just a little wary when she realised she was following Jess to his bedroom, but the moment he opened the door so she could get a proper look inside, she realised why she was here.
"Wow!" she gasped at the sight that met her eyes.
Rory saw nothing of the mess on one side of the room, the unmade bed, the abandoned clothes, and such. All she could focus on was the books, the veritable library that existed on the near side of Jess' room. He had shelves from floor to ceiling, row on row of books in every shape, style, and colour, more piled up on the floor that had no home in the system that seemed to exist on the shelves themselves.
"This is... This is amazing!" she told him, hands ghosting over the spines of Salinger, Vonnegut, and Hemingway.
"Believe me, there'd be more if I had the cash or the space," said Jess, leaning by the door with is arms folded over his chest. "I was just thinking, if you left a lot of your collection behind, you can dip into mine. If you want."
Rory nodded just to prove she heard him, but even her good manners couldn't make her thank him yet as her eyes continued to move over the vast array of novels. This rivalled her own collection at home, no doubt about that, and she was being granted free access. It was incredible.
"You'd trust me with your books?" she said at last, looking positively agog as she met his eyes. "You only met me a couple of days ago."
"We're room-mates," he said with a shrug. "You live right across the living room, I don't think I have to worry about getting them back."
Rory shook her head to come out of a book-induced daze and suddenly reached into her back pocket. She held out a wad of bills to Jess.
"Speaking of room-mates. First month's rent," she explained. "I do give this to you, right? Or does Logan-"
"I'll take it," said Jess, retrieving the money from her hand. "Logan is... He's not a bad guy, but for a person who grew up around a lot of this stuff, he doesn't always handle it well," he explained, shoving Rory's rent into his pocket.
"I guess if you have a lot of it you don't have to worry about spending it," she considered. "Must be hard for him."
"He deals." Jess smirked. "His internet company has never entirely got off the ground, but Huntzberger gets points for guts and determination. In the meantime, he has a barista job at one of the fancier coffee joints, and he waits tables to keep up the cash flow for rent and his... extra-curriculars."
Rory was about to ask what he meant by that when the apartment door opened with some force. Two voices could be heard, both laughing more than talking. One seemed to be Logan, the other was distinctly female.
"Talk of the devil," Jess muttered as he exited the room
Rory followed quickly, not entirely surprised to find Logan with a woman hanging off his arm.
"Hey, guys!" he greeted them with a salute-type wave. "I see you've been making our new room-mate feel welcome, Jess," he said with a look.
"He was showing me his books," said Rory pointedly, wondering if Logan was implying what he seemed to be implying - she hoped not.
The girl to Logan's left leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. If Rory had to bet, she would put all her money on it being something dirty. Also, if the leggy blonde was more than a college freshman it might just be a miracle.
"Well, Jess, you found yourself a fellow bookworm. That's excellent." Logan smiled widely. "So, in the words of The Bard himself, goodnight, parting is such sweet sorrow," he said dramatically, opening the door to his room and ushering his 'friend' inside.
He followed and closed the door, apparently locking it. Rory wasn't sure why he felt the need to. There was no way in hell she wanted to see what was happening in there.
"She seemed... nice," said Rory stiffly.
"Yeah, definitely the highly intelligent type." Jess smirked, unable to help it.
"I don't think it's her IQ she's showing him."
On that note, Rory went back to the couch and turned the volume on the TV up a couple of notches. Girlish giggling was already emanating from Logan's room and she didn't need to hear any more. The cushions shifted as Jess joined her once again.
"Does he do that a lot? Bring girls home?" she asked, eyes focused only on the television screen.
"Some. Not a lot," said Jess, glancing between the TV and the side of her head since it was all he could see of her from here. "Does it bother you?"
"No, of course not. I mean, he's an adult and this is his home, he can do whatever he wants in it. None of my business."
Jess wasn't sure what to make of her tone, but forgot to think about it when the noise from Logan's room grew a little louder. Picking the remote out of Rory's hand, he cranked the volume higher.
"So, you start your new job tomorrow, right?"
"I do, at the Times. Kind of a big deal."
"I'm sure you'll do great," Jess assured her. "Place like that doesn't employee just anybody. You must be a hell of a reporter."
"I hope I am," Rory admitted, looking as nervous as she felt, she was sure on that. "Guess we'll find out tomorrow."
She shared a smile with Jess and then settled in to watch TV a while. It was drowning out the noise from Logan's room now, and it felt oddly comfortable to be sat here with Jess, just hanging out in her own place. Rory smiled thinking on that and of the collection of books in the next room.
"By the way," she said, turning to look at Jess a moment, "thank you, for saying I can make use of your personal library," she explained with a smile.
"No problem," he assured her. "I can trust you to knock before entering, right?"
"Of course!" Rory exclaimed, just a little affronted that he would think otherwise, then she realised Jess was smirking again. "You really like to mess with me, don't you?"
"Hey, I'm giving you free access to all the books you can handle, I gotta get something out of it."
Rory opened her mouth to retort but closed it again without ever saying a word. Somehow it seemed safer to put her eyes back on the TV and let her mind follow suit, before something got said that shoudn't. They were room-mates who had only known each other a couple of days. No need to complicate things, at least, not yet anyway.
To Be Continued...
