"Tristan?" Rory called into the house when she returned home from work. "Are you here?"
"Yeah." He called from the hallway before meeting her in the living room. "How was work?"
"Fantastic. They liked my story so much that they want to make it into some sort of weekly column." She said, excited. "Like a miniseries of articles on homecoming soldiers."
"That is fantastic." He agreed, happy for her. "Congratulations."
"Thank you, although technically I couldn't have done it without you guys." She said as she started walking towards the kitchen. "Hey, do you have the numbers for Josh and Drew? I should call them and let them know."
"Yeah." He said, grabbing a pencil and scribbling down their phone numbers for her. "I just got off the phone with Josh actually."
"And how is Josh?" She said.
"He's his same old self. You should call him. He would love to hear from you." Tristan said. "I've got to finish up some paperwork this afternoon so I can head back to Hartford this weekend but when I get back we should celebrate." When she didn't say anything, he looked up at her to make sure she was still standing there. "You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I just didn't realize you were actually heading home this weekend." She said, clearly surprised by his admission.
"We had agreed to a week, remember?" He said, trying to be nonchalant about the whole ordeal.
"Yeah, but I guess it just went faster than I anticipated." She processed what he was telling her. "Do you have somewhere to go?" She asked.
"I'm going to be staying with my parents, or in my parent's house rather, since they are never actually there." He corrected himself. "There are a couple of great apartments that I've been looking at online that I want to take a look at. I'm pretty certain that I'll be moving into a new place sometime in the next couple of weeks."
"So you want to stay in Hartford?"
"For now. Just until I get my feet on the ground. I figured that I can look for a job, go from there."
"It makes sense." She said. "When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow." He said. She exhaled.
"Tris, this isn't because of the other day is it? Because I meant it when I said that you could stay as long as you needed…"
"No." He said, interrupting her. "Of course not. That was…it was great." He admitted. "But I've got to start my life. I can't keep living in your fake office." He smiled.
"I guess not." She said. "I'm going to miss having you." She said with a small smile. "But when you get back we'll celebrate my column and the fact that you are starting your new life." She said, unable to fight the feeling that she was being left behind.
"Good. I should be back in an hour." He said as he picked up his keys.
OOOOO
Rory called Drew first, but he wasn't answering, so she tried Josh next. He picked up right away.
"Hello?"
"Hey Josh, it's Rory."
"Rory! How are you?"
"I'm great. Look I'm just calling to let you know that your article was so well-received that the paper is starting a column based on the same concept."
"Really? Congratulations! That's great. And it wasn't my article; it was yours, so you deserve all the credit." Rory smiled.
"Hey, Tristan said that he just got off the phone with you, did you know that he was leaving tomorrow for Hartford?" There was a long pause.
"No, he failed to mention it."
"Yeah, to me too. I think I would have come home to an empty house and a note." She sighed. "This might sound, well, out of line, but do you think that he's ready to be on his own?" Josh didn't want to get into this with Rory, but since she was asking, he had to give her some answer.
"I think that Tristan is extremely independent and he always has been. He's going to do what he thinks is best."
"Josh, I'm a reporter, you're not fooling anyone." She told him.
"I know you do. But as his best friend, that's all I can tell you. I would love to help you, but there is a strict guy code that forbids me from telling you anything. It's tighter than a confidentiality agreement. All I can say is, you need to talk to him."
"I understand." She said. "Thanks Josh."
"You're welcome. Congrats on your article." He said. "Oh and Rory?"
"Yes?"
"If it means anything, Drew and I totally approve." She smiled.
"It does. Thanks." She said as she hung up the phone.
OOOOO
When Tristan got back, he found that Rory had ordered take out, cracked open a bottle of wine, and was sitting in the dining room, drinking the first glass alone. On first glance, she looked like she had been stood up by a date.
"Hey." She said, pouring him a glass of wine. "Come, sit down." Tristan could tell that she was upset by something, but she didn't know what it was quite yet. And from the way she spoke, maybe it hadn't been the first glass of wine poured. "To you, and your new life." She said as she toasted him.
"To your article." He said. They both took a sip, hers a little larger than his, and he started eating his pasta.
"So, before you leave, we need to talk." She said.
"Okay." He said, knowing what she was referring to.
"We kissed." She said, as if that were enough to start a conversation.
"Yes. We did."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know. You seemed to want to ignore the fact that it happened, so I didn't mention it."
"What are you talking about?"
"In the car, on the way home? There was silence for two hours." He said.
"You didn't say anything either."
"What did I have to say? You kissed me."
"You weren't exactly pushing me away." She said.
"No, I wasn't." He said with a smile.
"These past few weeks, the shameless flirting, the banter, the way you used to 'accidentally' brush your fingers across my skin when I sat next to your hospital bed, these were all signs that you felt the same way you did back in high school. And so, I thought that an actual kiss was a good sign. Now, you're leaving, without even telling me about it first. What were you going to do, leave a note?"
"No, I just assumed that when we talked about me staying a week, you figured I would be leaving in a week." He said, not feeling in the wrong at all. There was a long pause.
"I'm sorry. I just, I keep wondering, is this all that our relationship is ever going to be? Flirting for a while, a kiss and then we go our separate ways never knowing if we'll ever see each other again?" Tristan realized why this was affecting her so much. It was high school all over again, and he was leaving, again.
"I don't want that." He said, reaching out and grabbing her hand. "I want to be able to kiss you again. I want to be able to take you out on a date and give you a normal relationship. But I don't know if I can give you that yet. I've got nothing to offer you. I'm homeless, I've got no job and I've got a plate full of Me that I've got to focus on."
"I know that." She said quietly.
"You don't want a relationship like that. You deserve someone who can give you the world, who has a life and a plan."
"But I don't want that person. I want you." She said, taking him by surprise. A determined look crossed over her features as she stood up, leaned over the corner of the table that was separating them and kissed him. Tristan didn't know how to react to the brazen kiss, but his instincts took over and he pulled her closer to him, pulling her around the table and sitting her down on his lap. As she straddled him in his chair, his hands went out to her hips, desperate to feel all of her. He pulled away for a second to catch his breath.
"What are we doing?" He asked her, unsure of what this was.
"Giving in to ten years of questions." She said with a smirk as she kissed him fiercely again. He smiled at her impish answer and went back to work. Rory couldn't believe how well he could kiss. It was like he was lighting fires all over her body. His mouth went down to her neck, behind her ear, driving her wild. Her skin seemed to beg for any form of friction, even if it was just a simple touch. As if on cue, Tristan reached out and ran his hands up her back, pulling her shirt up and off. "We can't, do this, here." She said, her heavy breathing interrupting the sentence. Tristan couldn't understand what she was saying. His head was fogged with hormones and the taste of her. She kissed him once more and got off of him.
"Bedroom." She said as she stood up slowly. He watched as she turned her back to him and took off her bra, throwing it on the floor. "You coming?" She asked. He exhaled slowly, trying to catch his breath and for a fleeting moment he wondered what this meant for them, but he was too far gone now. He caught up to her quickly and slid his hands around her body, pulling her tight against him once again. She helped him remove his clothes and ran her hands down the sides of his torso, sliding them into the side of his boxers. She kissed his chest all the way down to his belly button as she slid down his body slowly, sliding the boxers off as she went. Tristan gulped and closed his eyes as he felt her warm breath on the patch of skin between his belly button and his hips.
"Your turn." She whispered huskily in his ear and he opened his eyes. He put his hands on her hips, just above the waistband of her panties. He followed her lead, dropping her underwear to her ankles and kissing her stomach, he could feel her muscles twitching under his lips and he grinned, kissing his way back up to her neck. Her hand ran across the rough skin of his back and for the first time, she remembered that he had been injured only a few weeks ago. His hands firmly on the small of her back, he guided her down to the bed.
"Tris, wait." She said, suddenly losing her confidence. "You just got out of the hospital." He chuckled at her information, as if he could forget. "Should we be doing this?"
"I'm fine. Plus, I've been waiting for this moment since I was sixteen. Do you really think some scrapes and bruises are going to stop me from enjoying it?" She thought about it. "No." He answered for her. He silenced her doubts with a series of kisses that made her vibrate like a string. He went back to exploring, driving her mad with want. On the off chance that this never happened again, he was taking his time, memorizing every inch of her body.
"Tristan." She was growing impatient.
"Rory." He mocked her. She gave him a glare and in return for her fiery spirit, he reached down and slid a finger into her.
"Oh God." She muttered, relishing in his slow and torturous ministrations. "More." She begged, realizing that she was putty in his hands. He shook his head and entered her instead. This had to be what heaven was, she thought with her last sensible thought. After that she couldn't even spell her own name if you asked her to. Tristan wasn't faring any better. As he lost himself in her, his mind went numb for the first time in years, leaving any complications or worries far behind.
OOOOO
Tristan and Rory rested their heads on their individual pillows and stared at each other, neither one wanting to break the silence. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek and Rory closed her eyes, reminding him of their kiss earlier in the week.
"How do you do that?" She muttered.
"Hmm?" He asked, never taking his eyes off of her.
"Get me to feel more intimacy in a fingerprint's touch than I ever did in having some of the best sex of my life." He smiled.
"Clearly, you haven't had the best sex of your life…yet." He added as he leaned in and slowly brushed his lips against hers. Rory gathered her senses and opened her mouth, deepening the kiss. Getting swept up in each other, Rory felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She pulled away.
"Are you leaving?" She asked, having to know.
"I have to." He said. "I can't stay here forever."
"Yes, you can." She said. "You can stay here, you can look for a job. What do you have in Hartford that you don't have here?" He thought about that statement. "Plus, Boston has so much more to offer."
"Oh really? Like what?" He asked, wanting to simply listen to her voice.
"Besides more of what just occurred?" He smiled and gave her that one.
"Yes, ravishing women aside."
"Sports teams." She said, trying to convince him to stay.
"Really?" He said. "I had no idea."
"Yeah, guys like sports right?" He chuckled. "We've got the Red Sox and… some other teams." She clearly knew nothing about sports. "We're one of the oldest cities in the country. We have tons of history, and, and, beans!" She added with a laugh.
"How long have you lived here?" He asked, loving her more and more as he watched her attempt to win him over.
"What I'm trying to say, is that you have no strings tying you down right now. You could start a life anywhere. Just consider it. If it helps, I would definitely not be against you moving out of the guest room and into here." He smiled.
"You want me to move in before we've ever even been on a date?" He asked.
"Just until you find an apartment." She said. "I could help you look."
"You really want me to stay, don't you?" He said. She nodded.
"I feel like we've been working up to this moment for ten years, and I want to finally give it a chance. I'm tired of not knowing." Tristan sighed.
"Me too." He said. She held her breath and gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen. "Okay, I'll start looking in Boston."
"Really?" She cried, clapping her hands together. He nodded and she launched herself into his arms. "You will not regret this decision. I promise." She smiled.
