Disclaimer: I own this laptop and a pile of college loans.

His heart started racing as he realized what he had just thought. This was supposed to get her out of his system, not make him settle down. He groaned as Rory's lips took him in, his worries subsiding for now.

OOOOO

"He kissed me goodbye, but it wasn't a great kiss. It was a light, see you around kiss." Rory was on the phone with her mother. "It freaked me out a little. I mean, I thought we were more than that but apparently he just wanted the sex."

"Oh kid." Lorelei said, concerned for her daughter.

"And it's not like that's a problem, because if that's all it was, then that's all it was and we'll just move on." She sighed. "But it didn't feel like that's all it was, you know? It felt like…" Rory stopped.

"It felt like what?"

"Like...more." She realized it herself. "And I know that sounds crazy, but it was slow and passionate, like we had all the time in the world. I don't know, maybe he's just that good. He is Tristan DuGray after all."

"Named Spawn of Satan for a reason." Lorelei chimed in. Rory laughed.

"Ok, I'm done overanalyzing and freaking out about it. I'm just going to go home and relax." Lorelei laughed.

"Since when?" Rory rolled her eyes.

"I'm hanging up now." She said as she closed her phone.

OOOOO

Tristan was completely freaked out by what had transpired the night before. He had never felt a connection like that with anyone. And yes, the sex was great but it was more than that. He felt like he had known her his entire life, like sleeping with her was something they had done a million times before. And waking up with her on his chest, he sighed, it was one of the nicest feelings he had ever had.

"AH!" He yelled to no one, the frustrated noise echoing off his apartment walls. What the hell was happening to him?! When Rory had said she was leaving, he had given her a light kiss, a safe kiss. She was obviously confused by the gesture, but Tristan didn't want to go any further until he figured what he wanted. Well that's blatantly obvious, he thought. You want Rory Gilmore. He fell onto the couch, tired of pacing back and forth. There was one thing he knew for sure, the whole closure idea had just flown out the window.

OOOOO

"Jess?" Rory yelled as she walked into their apartment. No one answered. She took off her coat and kicked off her shoes. Why do I do this to myself? She wondered as she walked down the hall to her bedroom. She knew better than to get involved with Tristan DuGray. She knew better, both because of her experiences with him at Chilton, and Logan at Yale. She was supposed to learn her lesson and move on from people like him. Rich, blonde, playboys who love her because she's different but then can't handle something new after all, so they go back to their previous ways like nothing ever happened. She needed to talk to Jess, where the hell was he any way? She walked into his bedroom and looked around. He wasn't in there, or the office they shared. She whipped out her cell phone and began texting him when she heard the door open.

"Hey, I was just…" She stopped mid-sentence. "What happened?"

"I got into a fight with Dean." He said, sarcastically. When he wasn't in the mood to talk, he wouldn't cooperate, no matter how hard Rory tried.

"You have a black eye!"

"I don't want to talk about it Ror." He said, angrily throwing his jacket down on the couch.

"It wasn't the swan again was it?" She giggled.

"No…Wait, how did you even find out about that?"

"Luke told me." She said as she put a bag of ice together. He sat down at the kitchen table.

"I can do it." He said as he snatched the bag from her.

"I know you can." She paused. "So you really aren't going to tell me what happened?"

"Not right now anyway."

"Fine, then I have a different question for you regarding your species." Jess looked at her, trying to remember the fact that he was angry right now and not interested in her problems, but he couldn't help it, he wanted to know what she was talking about.

"Fine." He answered right back.

"So I went over to Tristan's last night."

"God, Ror, I don't need to hear this."

"No, it's nothing like that. It was fantastic. But this morning, he gave me like a peck on the lips and sent me on my way. Now, what could possibly make him do a complete one eighty spin on me in less than a few hours?" He thought about it.

"Did you mention something about commitment?" Rory looked at him like he was crazy. "Right, commitment-phobe." He remembered. "So you weren't coming on too strong? There wasn't anything you said?" She shook her head and sighed.

"And without going into details…the first night was, you know, hot one night stand sex, which is fine, we all know that we were there for the sex. But last night was completely different. It was…"

"Not one night stand sex." Jess helped.

"Right! So why the one night stand morning?"

"Maybe he thought that you were coming for one night stand sex but then got freaked out when it became something more than that?" Her cell rang and she looked down.

"Tristan." She showed Jess her phone. "Hello?"

"Hi."

"How are you?" She asked, making small talk until she figured out the reason for the call.

"Can you meet me for lunch?" He said, completely out of the blue.

"Okay." Rory said, not knowing where to go from there.

"Where would you like to go?" He asked. "Anywhere, my treat."

"Um, I really don't care. I'll go anywhere. You pick." She gave Jess the 'What the Hell is up with this guy' face.

"How about I pick you up in an hour and we go from there?"

"Sure. See you in an hour." She said, hanging up. "What could he possibly have to say that he couldn't say this morning?"

"Either you two are going to stop having sex or he is gonna be your new boyfriend." Rory nodded. "What do you want?"

"At this point, I honestly don't know."

OOOOO

"I was surprised you called me." She said, sitting down to lunch later that afternoon.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I figured that you probably wouldn't be calling anymore after I left this morning." He looked at her.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because, I got a vibe this morning."

"A vibe?" He chuckled at her.

"Yeah, a vibe." She smiled, mostly out of nerves. There was a long pause. "So why did you call me?" She asked.

"Because apparently I was giving out a vibe this morning." She rolled her eyes. "No, I know that things ended…weird and I wanted to just make things right."

"So this isn't a 'I never want to see you again' conversation." He shook his head.

"Of course not, I would be crazy to say that to you." She glanced at him. "I'm serious. You're smart, funny, stunningly beautiful every time I see you." He paused, realizing that he was rambling like an idiot. "You're going to make me keep talking aren't you?" She smiled.

"Why interrupt that lovely stream of compliments?"

"My point, and I promise you that I have one, is that I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression this morning. I would like to keep seeing you, that is, if you are interested."

"Yeah." She said. "I would like that a lot."

"Really?" She laughed and nodded. "Good."

"So what happened this morning? If you don't mind me asking." Tristan paused as their food came.

"Thank you." He told the waitress. She smiled and blushed and Rory had to refrain from rolling her eyes. Once they were alone again, Tristan collected his thoughts. "I guess last night just… surprised me. I've never connected with someone like that ever, let alone without actually getting to know her first. That first night, I thought that maybe you and I were just…getting closure?" He hunted for the right words. She nodded in agreement. "But since the moment I met you, you've always thrown me for a loop. I never know what you are going to do or say and I certainly don't know how to react in return." Rory remembered their first kiss.

"You called me odd." She smiled.

"What?"

"The first time you kissed me, you called me odd."

"I also just called you beautiful, so that should make up for it." He smiled, clearly embarrassed by his youth.

"I liked it. Coming from you it was a compliment. It meant that I didn't fit in at Chilton, and that's certainly something that I wanted."

"You learned how to fit in though, didn't you." He smiled at her confused face. "Yale, Huntzberger. I've been doing some research on you and I was quite surprised, yet again, by what I found."

"You've been researching me? What did you Google Rory Gilmore and see what came up?" She smiled at his effort to get to know her better.

"I've got better sources than Google."

"Sources that shall remain nameless I suppose." He laughed and nodded. "So how much do you know about me, you're starting to freak me out."

"Pretty much the basics of your college years. I expected to see editor of the Daily news but I wasn't expecting to see the LDB on your resume."

"That would be how I met Logan. I was doing a story on it and he got me inside, but of course, once on the inside, I was required to stay inside."

"You know, everyone thought Logan and I were twins back in high school."

"I could see the resemblance."

"So what happened?"

"It was pretty much a downward spiral into society that my poor mother had been trying to avoid my entire life. We got into a huge fight because Mitchum told me I didn't have what it takes to be a reporter so I dropped out of Yale. I also stole a yacht."

"I read that." He interrupted, his mouth full of bread.

"And then I went to live with my grandparents. I joined the DAR, I lived out of their guesthouse and I pretty much was going insane. Logan was out of town one weekend and Jess stopped by. I hadn't seen him in about two years and the last time I saw him he was still in love with me so I was surprised to see him. But he showed me his book that he wrote. I was so proud of him I almost cried. Here he was, this kid who failed out of high school because he didn't bother attending, writing and publishing a book. And me, with the Ivy League school and all the options in the world, was simply sitting around doing nothing. I wasn't even going to school!"

"Wake-up call?" Tristan asked, completely enthralled in the story.

"Yeah. Well, it's coming. Jess credited me with getting his life together but I honestly think he just needed to grow up. We were just about to go out to dinner and Logan came home early."

"Uh-oh"

"We all went out to eat but Logan was clearly pissed off and took it out on Jess. He was completely rude, and Jess got up and left. I followed him out and he let me have it. He just screamed at me, on the terrace of a public restaurant. What the hell was I doing with my life, stuff like that." Tristan nodded. "I realized that he was completely right. I broke down into tears and left with him. Logan later apologized but I knew that he was trouble. I moved back in with Paris and I went back to school and I graduated on time."

"Which is why you are amazing. It took me seventeen years to escape, you did it in a few months."

"Yeah, but I wasn't born into it. I knew it was wrong the entire time, but I was just too scared to do anything about it."

"I still cannot believe you stole a yacht."

"I borrowed the yacht without asking. We were going to return it! You broke into a safe!" He started laughing.

"Touché. I guess we are more alike than I originally thought Mary."

"All that and you still call me Mary."

"Old habits die hard, plus, you will always be Mary to me." She smiled.

"I think there's something strangely comforting in that."

"Ah-ha! Eight years later and she finally admits it!" An uncontainable grin was spreading across his face as he looked to the other tables around them. Rory didn't respond; she just threw her napkin at him and kept eating.