Chapter 10: "Yeah, hey you want to get out of here for a bit?"
After their trip to Vermont they all got very busy with finals and then Christmas. With the big announcement that happened the previous year, Christmas 2004 was definitely a much more low key event. They still had the usual party at the Gilmore's with all of society in attendance, but Christmas day for Rory and Riley was spent in Stars Hollow with Chris, Sherry, and Gigi staying at the inn so they could all be together Christmas morning. April and Anna joined them in the afternoon for an early dinner after spending the morning in Hartford with Anna's brother and his family.
New Year's found Rory and Riley in New York with Tristan, Stephanie, and the rest of the Life and Death Brigade for a big New Year's Eve party being held at the Plaza. They had a lot of fun and while Rory loved school she wasn't so anxious to go back after all that time off with her friends and family, but the new year also meant Richard and Emily's fortieth anniversary was approaching along with the vow renewal they planned for Valentine's Day weekend.
"Our Grandmother is so stressful," Rory said when she came into the guy's dorm, placing herself on the couch between Tristan and Riley so she could lay her head in Tristan's lap and place her feet on Riley's.
"I'm guess you're talking about Emily," Riley said.
"Duh, of course Emily," Rory said.
"You never know. Francine can have her moments, too," Riley said.
"True, but Emily is the one insisting on like eight million final dress fittings to be sure Mom and I haven't gained or lost a single ounce so the dresses will be perfect," Rory said, "If I hear the words freshman fifteen one more time."
"We're sophomore's," Tristan stated as he began running his fingers through her hair.
"Try telling her that. She insists that with the way Mom and I eat, I'm lucky I haven't gained a freshman fifteen every year of my life," Rory said.
"Well, the wedding is this weekend," Tristan told her, "Just a few more days and this will all be behind you."
"Yeah, I guess. I'm happy for her and Grandpa. It's sweet that they want to do this vow renewal and everything, but all this stress of what's basically a pretend waiting is seriously making me want to suggest that Mom and Luke elope," Rory said.
"And have the town miss out on seeing their queen finally marry her diner man?" Riley asked, "Do you want to be the one to tell Patty and Babette they don't get to attend that wedding?"
"Oh, you're right, that could be bad. Well, Mom's just going to have to plan it herself then," Rory said, "She can find me a dress and just tell me where and when."
"Sure, you can keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better, but you know it's not going to last. You've been looking forward to them getting married probably the longest of anyone," Riley said, "You're going to help plan."
"You're probably right," Rory said, "Okay, I'll just have elope for my own wedding then."
"Fine, as long as I get to be a witness and on another continent when you tell Mom I'm all for it," Riley said.
"Not funny," Rory said, "Okay, as much I don't want to get up, I've got class in twenty minutes so I'll see you guys later."
"Alright, see you, Baby Girl," Riley said, kissing her on the cheek when she sat up.
"Bye, Ry," Rory said before turning to Tristan to kiss him goodbye, "Love you."
"Love you, too, Mar," Tristan said, returning her kiss.
Saturday morning found Rory and Lorelai up much earlier than they wanted to be after the impromptu bachelorette party they threw for Emily the night before. Lucky for them, Stephanie was staying over and after being friends with Logan, Colin, and Finn for so many years she was an excellent last minute party thrower. After getting ready the girls jumped into the limo Emily insisted on and that Lorelai was grateful for so she could drink as much as she wanted, and headed to the diner to pick up Luke, Tristan, and Riley.
As stressed as Rory had been the few days before, she was actually sad to see the beautiful ceremony come to an end. She was glad that Tristan had joined her Dad and the Hayden grandparents in the front row so he was able to easily hand her his handkerchief when she began to tear up as Richard and Emily recited their vows. She was even more glad to have him at her side to lean her head against his shoulder as Richard brought the room to tears when he announced the song he had chosen for his and Emily's first dance and told the story behind it.
"You want to dance, Mar?" Tristan asked, standing up and holding out a hand to her when the DJ announced other couples were welcome to join Richard and Emily on the dance floor.
"I'd be delighted," she told him.
"I hear you ladies had a little party last night," Tristan said as he led her around the dance floor.
"Yep, Grandma came over freaking out about her dress and then when Grandpa called talking about his bachelor party we kind of threw one together," Rory said, "Thank God for Steph."
"Yeah, you hang out with the Stooges long enough you get pretty good and throwing parties, even last minute one's," Tristan said.
"I'm really happy for them," Rory said when she noticed Riley had brought Stephanie out to dance.
"Who, your grandparents?" Tristan asked.
"Them, too, but I was talking about Riley and Stephanie," she said, "Look at them."
"They're in love," Tristan said when he got a look at them, too.
"They are, but neither has said it," Rory told him, "I told Ry back when we were in Vermont I thought he loved her. It was in his eyes. The way he looked at her."
"While I don't pay attention to how my best friend looks at his girlfriend, I do believe you're right. I noticed in the way he talks about her. Like she's the most important person in the world," Tristan said, pulling her closer to him as she placed her head on his shoulder.
"Yeah, hey you want to get out of here for a bit?" Rory asked as they continued to dance as the song changed.
"And go where?" Tristan asked.
"I saw a room we could use when I was getting dressed," she said, "You want to?"
"Are you serious?" he asked.
"What do you think?" Rory asked, grabbing his hand and dragging him off the dance floor, stopping only to grab a bottle of champagne to take with them.
Rory and Tristan managed to get their little tryst in before anyone came looking for them, well almost anyone. He hadn't come looking for them, but a place of his own to take his date for the evening when he saw the two fumbling with their clothes as they walked out of the room.
"Damn, Ace. If I had known you had this side of you I may have actually tried to steal you away from my cousin when I first saw you in Miami," Logan said.
"Funny, Huntzberger, like I'd ever give you a chance," Rory told him.
"And like I'd ever let her go. It took me three years to get her to go out with me," Tristan said, "I'm not giving her up for anything."
"Good answer," Rory said, taking his hand in hers and reaching up to kiss his cheek, "We should get back before anyone else comes up here."
"Yeah, see you Huntz," Tristan said.
"Later DuGrey. Ace, always a pleasure," Logan said.
"And just where have you been?" Lorelai asked, pulling Rory aside when she and Tristan walked back into the ballroom.
"No where," Rory told her.
"Uh, huh, that's exactly what I used to say. Be glad your grandparents didn't notice you missing or worse your Dad and Riley," Lorelai said.
"That's good, I think we'd be heading to a hospital right now if Riley noticed we were missing," Rory said.
"True, but lucky for you, Stephanie is pretty good at distracting him," Lorelai said, "He really loves her doesn't he?"
"Yeah, I don't think he's told her yet though," Rory said.
"That may all be changing," Lorelai said, pointing to her son and his girlfriend as they stood close together on the dance floor, arms around each other whispering softly to each other with smiles on their faces.
"Oh, Mom, he, they…" Rory began.
"I know. It's sweet isn't it," Lorelai said.
"Very," Rory said.
"Okay, I hate to break them up, but Grandma wants a picture before we cut the cake," Lorelai said.
"I'll go, he likes me better," Rory said, quickly walking away before her mother could respond.
"Hey!" Lorelai exclaimed.
"Sorry to interrupt this moment, but Grandma wants a picture," Rory said after tapping Riley on the shoulder as he kissed Stephanie.
"I'll be back," Riley said, kissing Stephanie again before throwing an arm around Rory's shoulder, "Interrupting a moment, huh? What makes you so sure of that?"
"It's a twin thing," she stated, playing with her necklace, "I can tell when you're at your happiest and I don't think I've ever seen you happier, Big Brother. Being in love suits you."
"Thanks, Baby Girl. It feels good, too," Riley said as they walked towards the cake to join their family for a few pictures, "Can I request something that's going to sound completely out of character?"
"Anything," Rory said.
"Will you take Tristan back to your dorm tonight?" Riley asked, "Steph's roommate is crazier than yours and recently single so she's pretty anti-guys at the moment and I'd kind of like to, um."
"Yes, of course I will," Rory said.
"Thank you," he said.
It worked out well for everyone when Rory and Tristan got to her dorm that night and found it was empty. Paris had left a note saying Doyle was sick so she was staying at his dorm while she took care of him. With Monday being Valentine's Day and neither of them having classes until the afternoon Tristan had booked a room for them in the city for Sunday evening along with a day filled with pampering for Rory as he dropped her off at a spa for the day Sunday morning while he got their room ready for the evening.
After dinner at a French restaurant Tristan found called Cafe Un Deux Trois, where he added a charm to her bracelet; this one a little piano that had two meanings. The first Rory knew, for their first kiss, but having not seen the hotel they were staying in she didn't know there was a second meaning.
"Are you going to tell me where we're staying?" Rory asked as they got into a cab to go to the hotel.
"Nope," Tristan said before handing a paper with the name of the hotel on it to the driver, "You'll love it."
"But, you said the charm has something to do with where we're staying and unless we're staying at Radio City Music Hall, I don't see how a piano fits," Rory said.
"You'll just have wait and see," he told her, taking her hand in his and kissing her knuckles.
"I hate waiting," she told him.
"Relax, it's not far," he said.
"Oh, wow! Tristan!" Rory exclaimed as they got out of the cab in front of The Casablanca Hotel, "I had no idea this place existed."
"Me either, but I wanted to go somewhere besides the Plaza so after some research I found this place," Tristan said.
"It's amazing," Rory said as she took a spin in the lobby as they walked into the hotel.
"And guess where we get to go for breakfast," Tristan said.
"Where?" Rory asked.
"Rick's Cafe," he told her, "Right upstairs and they even have a piano player to really enhance the experience."
"The piano," Rory said, "Fingering the new charm on her bracelet. You amazing you know that?"
"I try," Tristan said kissing her before leading her to the elevator to head up to their room, "I love you."
"I love you, too. Happy Valentine's Day, Tris," Rory said.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Rory."
The week after Valentine's Day Rory took Stephanie home with her to Stars Hollow for the weekend when the boys decided to spend the weekend playing poker with a few of the LDB boys. Previously, Stephanie had only been to the house and the diner so Rory gave her a tour, showing her all her favorite spots and the Dragonfly. She also took her to Lane's since she hadn't been to visit her in awhile. The three girls ended up kicking Zach and Brian out for a few hours while they immersed themselves in girl talk. Sticking by her vow to wait until marriage to have sex, Lane happily encouraged the girls to share their stories with her so she could live vicariously through them.
Sunday afternoon the boys surprised Rory and Stephanie by showing up in Stars Hollow. With the boys in town, Rory insisted on seeing movie. So after calling Lane to invite her and Zach as well as stopping by Doose's to invite Dean and Lindsey, the four of them headed to the Black & White & Read Bookstore for their quadruple date.
"This town seriously needs to get an actual movie theater," Tristan said as the eight of them went into the diner after the movie, "Or at least we could go into Hartford next time."
"I agree. A guy can only sit through Pippi Longstocking so many times," Dean said.
"Coffee?" Luke asked as he began to fill Rory's cup, knowing her answer was already a yes.
"Definitely," came the unanimous response.
"I can't help it if Kirk doesn't know how to properly run a projector without destroying the film reels or that the bookstore hasn't invested in a bigger collection," Rory said.
"No, but you could pick something else when the choices are offered," Riley said.
"You're supposed to be on my side," she told him.
"Sorry, gotta break the twin code on this one," Riley said, "I'm Pippi'd out."
"Fine, next time we'll go to the theater in Hartford," Rory said.
"Or we can always do a movie night at the house," Riley said.
"True, but either way. This was fun, us all being together. We definitely need to do it again," Rory said,
"Absolutely," Stephanie agreed, "And us girls should totally take a shopping trip sometime."
"Oh, shopping, I'd like that," Lindsey said.
"And while you have your girly shopping fest talking about us, what are we supposed to be doing?" Tristan asked.
"I don't know, guy stuff, whatever that is," Rory said, "Sports, video games."
"You're cute, you know that," Tristan said leaning over to kiss her cheek.
"I try."
"So what's the plan for spring break?" Logan asked a couple of weeks later as they all sat in the common room of Tristan and Riley's dorm.
"No idea," Riley said, "Any Life and Death Brigade stuff going on?"
"Not officially," Colin said, "A few of us thought about heading out to Vegas or something for the week."
"That could be fun," Tristan said, "What do you think, Ror? Rory?"
"Huh?" she questioned, looking up from the letter she had been reading, "What was the question?"
"Colin said some of the LDB were thinking about going to Vegas for spring break. What do you think?" Tristan asked again.
"I think we're not old enough to gamble so it would be a pretty pointless trip," Rory said.
"There's things to do besides gamble, Baby Girl," Riley said.
"I know that, I'm just not really interested in going to Las Vegas," Rory said before getting up from couch, "I've got a call to make, so if you'll excuse me."
"What was that letter she was reading?" Riley asked after Rory went into Tristan's room.
"I didn't see any of the letter, but I caught the postmark on the envelope. It's from Philly," Tristan said.
"Jess?"
"I imagine so. She doesn't know anyone else there, does she?"
"Not that I know of. I wonder what's up."
"No idea. Last we saw him was Thanksgiving and I know she's talked to him a couple of times, but she hasn't said anything."
"Do you think something's wrong?"
"She'd say if there was or Luke would."
"True, you wanna?"
"Yeah, you get coffee and I'll see what's up," Tristan said before going into his room while Riley and Stephanie went on a coffee run for all of them, "Rory? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, I will, don't worry. I've got to go," Rory said into her phone before turning to Tristan, "Hey, yeah. Everything's fine."
"It didn't seem like it the way you sort of ran off in here. Was that Jess?" Tristan asked.
"How did you?" Rory wondered.
"I saw the Philly postmark. Is everything alright? Usually you tell me when he sends you a new poem or chapter or something," he said.
"Yeah, he's just got this open house coming up or rather Truncheon does," Rory said, "They're starting an e-zine and have some new authors and a few artists displaying work in the store now so they want to show it all off."
"That's cool so was his letter inviting you?" Tristan asked.
"Yeah, sort of. He sent an invitation with the letter. He said we didn't have to come, but he'd like it if we did. The other guys have family and friends in the area that stop by all the time and they ask about his," Rory said, "And they've been begging him to meet me since he dedicated his book to me."
"So you want to go and support him," Tristan said.
"I'd like to, yeah," Rory said.
"Then we'll go. When is it?" Tristan asked.
"Next Saturday," she said, biting her lip as she looked at him.
"Ah, so the real reason you don't want to go to Vegas," Tristan said.
"Not exactly. I also really just have no interest," she said.
"Okay, so we'll spend the weekend in Philly, maybe a couple days of actual spring break so you can spend some time with Jess. Then maybe we'll come back for a day or so and spend the weekend before we go back to school at the Vineyard," Tristan suggested.
"Really? Martha's Vineyard. Where would we stay?"
"Logan's parents have a house. We can stay there."
"Cool. I've never been to the Vineyard. The Gilmore's go all the time, but I've never gone with them."
"Alright. I'll talk to Logan and get the keys. Do you just want it to be you and me or are we including Riley and Steph, too?"
"Doesn't matter. I'm good either way."
"I think Riley would disown you if you want to Truncheon to see all those books without him," Tristan said.
"You're probably right," Rory said, "So it will be the four of us again."
"Looks like. It will be fun and it gives me someone to hang out with while you and Steph shop which I know you'll do," Tristan said.
"True and I'm guessing the Huntzberger place on Martha's Vineyard is probably as big as Janlan's cabin so we'll have our privacy from each other," Rory said.
"It is and I believe they have a pretty nice library, too," Tristan said as he placed his hands on her waist to pull her towards him.
"Well, we will definitely have to visit the library when we go there," Rory whispered against his lips before kissing him.
Over the next week they arranged their plans for spring break. They would leave right after classes on Friday for Philadelphia and stay there until Tuesday. Then after spending a couple of days in Stars Hollow they would go out to the Vineyard Thursday morning and stay until Sunday. Rory was looking forward to seeing Truncheon. Jess had mentioned in his letters and emails to her that if she ever came he had a few places he wanted to show her so she was also looking forward to that. She also couldn't wait to see the look on his face when they showed up at the open house. She thought about telling him she was coming, but decided to surprise him.