NOBODY SAID
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Hookay," Rory said to herself as she sped down the street in her car, nearly running over one grandma, six children and a dog. "Just calm down, and everything's going to be fine. Right. I'll just go and tell Jess, he'll be crushed, and will proceed to eat my head with a spatula."
She cleared her throat at the image. "No big deal."
The wind roared against her ear as she drove, making her nearly deaf. With a small glance at the radio, she turned it up.
"I'm being a good person here. I'm the good girl. I'm so good, I'm Jennifer Aniston. Right. And Jess is… Jess is… oh my God, I can't tell Jess. I can't tell him. This'll crush him, and he'll be mad. And then he's going to frown that sexy frown of his where his forehead goes… AUGH!"
She grabbed the phone which lay on the passenger seat. Speed-dial.
"Hello?"
"MOM!"
She heard Luke yawn, "Hang on."
After some shuffling and some moaning. "Lorelai, it's Rory. Yeah. No, she just screamed at my ear. She said, 'Mom.' Uh-huh. She sounds panicked."
With a loud frustrated groan, "MOOOOOOOM!"
"What, Rory? Are you okay?"
"NO!"
"What's wrong?" She could tell that her mother had sat straight up now, all attention to her.
"I NEED TO ASK YOU SOMETHING. ABOUT JESS."
"Honey, turn off the caps lock, will you? Can you seriously and calmly explain to me what's going on? Hey, Luke, do you think you could call Jess? Rory needs him pretty bad."
"Mom, I do not 'need' Jess at all," her daughter scoffed.
Rory could actually hear her mother roll her eyes. "Rory, you can be un-denial-ly with me. I know you like him still."
"I do not!"
"Do you really want to get into this now?"
"Well…"
"Because, Rory, I'm telling you now, I've got plenty of ammunition."
"Mom, Sasha's having—"
There was a beep at the end of the receiver, "Hang on, Mom, I have another call. I'll be right back."
"Okily-dokily."
Rory rolled her eyes. There was a pause as the call was transferred to one person to the other. Rory closed her eyes hoping it wasn't her boss ready to fire her for disappearing.
"H-hello?" Jess asked into the receiver.
Rory's heart stopped. She moved her mouth but nothing came out. She groped the steering wheel for something to say.
"Rory? Are you alright? Luke told me to call you. He says it's important."
Tight-lipped and her heart racing, Rory snapped her cellphone closed.
"Oh, God."
She smacked her head against the steering wheel and drove on. She had to do this in person.
***
"Hello? Rory? Hello?" Jess yelled into the receiver. With a confused look, he set it back down. He scratched his head. Did Rory just hang up on him?
With a determined frown, he picked up the phone and redialed. Something was wrong. He knew it.
The other line rang and rang, yet Rory wasn't answering. He called three more times, yet was also ignored all three tries.
Jess finally put it down with a sigh. Rory would tell him what was wrong when the time was right.
Question was, when will it be the right time?
He walked towards his desk and picked up his latest copy of Time Magazine. He flipped through the pages, looking for any sign of Rory's new work. He was just about to read an article on anthrax and its cure when he heard someone knock on the door.
Rory?
Jess walked over and opened the door. And frowned.
"Brad, what?"
Bradley cleared his throat and wordlessly shoved an open copy of Cosmopolitan into his hands. He tried to suppress a laugh as Jess sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Top Ten Macho Men—Cosmo counts down the ten sexiest men in America!" And right at the opposite page was a picture of Jess Mariano, staring smokily into the camera. The caption: "Mysterious, brooding, the epitome of Sex, Jess Mariano gives us one of his drives-us-wild stares."
"I was glaring at them."
"Glad to have that cleared up, Sir," Bradley shakily said, at the brink of hysteria. "They've really been improving in the Photoshop area. It actually looks like a PlayGirl centerfold."
"Ugh, for the love of all things sane…"
"'Epitome of Sex,'" Bradley gave him a thumbs-up sign and left the magazine with his boss. As he went further down the hall, Jess heard him snort.
With a glare at his employee's back, he closed the door. He stared at the picture with annoyance as he loosened his tie and undid the top two buttons on his shirt. He flipped to other pages as he rolled up his sleeves. Hey, since he already had the magazine, might as well read it, right?
***
Jess awoke to a rapid succession of knocking at his door. Furrowing his eyebrows, he sat up and glanced at his watch. He had fallen asleep for an hour.
The knocking went on as he gathered his senses. "Hang on!"
As the person on the other side of the door heard his voice, the knocking increased in intensity and volume. Soon, it gave way to pounding.
"Dammit, Brad," Jess mumbled as he got off the bed.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Jess quickly yanked the door open, "What the hell do you want?"
Rory, always a bit late in reacting, didn't notice the door open until it was too late. She swung her arm back and hit Jess right on the forehead.
"OW! Jesus Christ!"
As he clutched his injury, Jess spoke, his voice thick with sleep, "Rory? Is that you?"
There was no answer. He looked up and saw that it was, indeed, the deranged Rory Gilmore, but this time, looking at him funny. She stared the open space where his shirt came unbuttoned. She looked like she was ready to eat him alive.
"You okay?" He snapped his fingers in front of her face.
Rory put her hands to either sides of her face with mortification. In a small voice, she replied, "Yes."
Jess rubbed his face and looked at her, still a bit sleepy, even after the initial attack he was faced with. "I tried calling you, but you weren't answering. I got worried."
"Jess, where's Sasha?" Rory asked quickly, stepping inside his room without waiting for any invitation.
"She went to see the wedding planner. The person, not the movie."
"Terrible waste of film."
"Seriously. J-Lo. Typical romantic comedy. That's just a double-whammy."
"I wholeheartedly concur, my friend."
Rory looked around, impressed at the place. Her gaze fell upon the open issue of Cosmopolitan on his bed. She picked it up, "'Six Ways For You Man To Enjoy Himself'. Why, Jess, I never knew."
A slight blush from Jess was all she received, as he grabbed the magazine.
"You know, ah, they found a cure for anthrax."
"Oh, yes, lovely. Vern wrote an article about that. He has an office right next to mine, you know."
"Last book you read."
"Grapes Of Wrath."
"I bet Oprah's just dying of excitement, now that she has a new member on her little book club."
"Oh, Lord, how many members are there left?"
"Last time I checked, there were three."
Jess smiled lazily at Rory. He had missed talking to someone like this. He put his hand to his hip as Rory faintly smiled back. She missed it, too.
Suddenly she jumped, in spite of herself, and shook her head vehemently. This made Jess wonder what in the world was going on in that crazy head of Rory Gilmore.
"Rory, are you okay?"
She started pacing. "Jess, I have to tell you something important."
He sat on the edge of his bed and braced his arms on his knees. He watched her nervously fidget and walk back and forth in front of him.
"What's it about?"
"It's about…" she looked up and into his eyes. She stopped pacing. Jess was thankful, because the flow of her skirt was making him dizzy. It was red with black lines all over it. Who would wear something like that? He felt like he was in a mental testing center and was being hypnotized. With a skirt.
Right.
Jess raised his eyebrows in expectation, "About?"
Rory seemed to falter at his expression. He was looking at her expectantly. "It's about Sasha," she said softly.
This made him stand, "What's wrong? Is she okay?"
Rory was silent. This wasn't good. Oh, God.
He closed in on Rory and grabbed her shoulders, "Rory, what's wrong with Sasha?"
Instead of answering, Rory burst into tears. Jess froze. "Is she hurt? Rory! For God's sake, tell me!"
"She's having an affair, Jess!"
She screamed it so loud, and so quickly, Jess had to take a step back. "No."
"Jess…"
"No, she's not! She loves me, Rory. Why the hell can't you see that?!"
Rory looked at him with a slight hint of confusion, "What?"
He yanked on his hair in frustration. "The first time, I let it slide. You didn't know. We even got into a fight about it, but that was alright. I knew you had to adjust to the fact that, for once, you weren't the one being pined for. I knew that you needed time to get used to being in the back seat."
His words knocked the wind out of her. With trembling lips, she asked, "What? Let what slide?"
"You attempts of stopping this wedding, Rory. I know what you're doing. I'm not stupid!"
She laughed bitterly. "I am not trying to stop this wedding!"
"Oh, please!" It was his turn to laugh. The venom in it made Rory shiver, "I thought that wearing that… dress was understandable—"
"Oh, we're back to this? I'm sorry if I upstaged your little Miss, Jess, but—"
He wouldn't let her finish. He put a hand up and ran right over her words, "You weren't ready. I suppose that's my fault for not telling you sooner, or at all, that I was getting married, so I apologise. But this, Rory? Jesus, don't you have any dignity left in you? You, in all your flaming… striped glory, had to drive all the way here, just to throw my fiancé's name to the floor and kick it to the ground, just to satisfy that little devil on your shoulder? Or does he hang out on both your shoulders?"
Jess stared at her fiercely, "Listen to me, Gilmore: Sasha Gregory loves me, and she would never do anything to hurt me. She doesn't go around town having," he put his fingers up to make air quotations, "'coffee' with people and then kissing them in a 'heat of the moment' thing."
Rory silent in this whole thing glared at Jess and wiped her tear with the back of her hand. But Jess's last words were the final blow. The last uppercut and jab before the opponent fell to the floor, toothless and bleeding.
"That's not her style. It's yours."
He saw tears well up in Rory's eyes, her face flaming red. Slowly, she stepped closer to him, until her face was inches from his. "You say that she loves you, but do you love her?"
Jess's eyes hardened.
"Get out."
"One last thing, Jess," Rory said quietly. She smiled at him painfully, and kissed the side of his lips. Her tongue flicked the inside of his mouth for a moment. Unlike last time, Jess stood stoic.
"I feel so sorry for you," she whispered. Then suddenly, he felt her palm come into contact with his cheek. It came slow, and the crisp sound of her slap resonated all around the quiet hotel room.
With both of their cheeks burning from pain, one physically, one emotionally hurt, Rory walked away.