Lorelai pulled her jeep into her driveway, bopping around her seat to the music playing in the car. It was beautiful day, she had an amazing date with her boyfriend, and she didn't have to be at work for another 2 hours so she could bug her daughter and treat her to breakfast.
Immediately her bright beam dropped to a confused frown, as her driveway was blocked with a car she didn't recognize. Who was here?
She wracked her brain for a few minutes once she turned off the car, trying to place where she might have seen this car or who it could belong to. It looked too old to be Paris' and it definitely wasn't Lane…or Dean.
The only option was Jess.
Before the guy had…defiled her daughter….was that the right word to say? She didn't know. But before then she had looked forward to meeting and getting to know Jess a little. He was part of Luke's family and that was important to him. From the stories Luke had told her, his life sounded similar to hers in some ways. He'd been stifled in his own childhood with something missing the first chance he got, he left to figure out what he wanted and needed out of life. He struggled and worked and now he had reached some of his dreams. He was a published author. She would give him that credit at least, Luke had marveled that someone in his family was smart enough to do something so amazing.
He was just so much older and experienced than Rory. Luke hadn't just told Lorelai the good things, he'd mentioned that there was a period of time Jess got into a lot of trouble and was almost going to be sent to Stars Hollow to "straighten out". Unfortunately Liz herself was so out of it that she kept forgetting to lay down the law and actually send him. She knew her daughter, knew how careful and cautious she was about her life. It served her well up until this point…she just didn't want to see her take a chance on this guy and regret it for the rest of her life.
She got out of the car and slowly made her way to the door preparing herself for what she was going to find when she walked in. She opened the door and quietly made her way towards the kitchen, listening in for any sudden noises she wanted to avoid. She turned the corner and stopped at the sight that met her.
Jess was sitting at her table in just a pair of jeans, sipping a cup of coffee, and lazily flipping through a magazine. She tiptoed to get a better look at him without alerting him of her presence. He seemed very at home in her kitchen, with one leg tucked under him and his head leaned on his bent hand.
"Hi Ms. Gilmore," he said without looking up.
Lorelai stumbled in surprise and caught herself against the doorway. "Oh hey Jess what a surprise to see you here…in my kitchen…shirtless," she stuttered.
Jess looked down at his shirtless chest and his cheeks turned pink. "Sorry about that…do you want me to grab a shirt, does this make you uncomfortable?"
It only made Lorelai uncomfortable because now she at least sort of got what made her daughter throw away her usual patterns for some time with this guy.
"No no," she waved him off. "This is just an unusual sight to see in the Crapshack, not a lot of guys around here."
"The Crapshack?"
"It's what we call this house. It was a pretty apt description when we first moved in."
"Interesting name."
"We're an interesting family, but I'm sure Rory has told you that."
Jess nods. "She's told me a lot of things."
Lorelai raises an eyebrow and walks closer into the kitchen, dropping her bag on the floor and taking a seat across the table from Jess. She takes a look around the kitchen and takes a sniff.
"Did someone clean? This kitchen looks weirdly clean."
Jess sputtered into his coffee and coughed to clear his throat. "Rory got hungry in the middle of the night…we…cooked."
Lorelai stared at Jess and grimaced when her brain caught up to his double meanings. "Seriously? Is that what you came all the way up here to do?"
He at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "No, no that's not what I came here to do at all."
"Then why are you here?" Lorelai asked, her voice starting to become harsh.
"Rory called me last night and she was crying. She told me about what happened with Dean and his wife and I couldn't let her be up here all alone when I knew how bad she felt about everything. So I came up here to make sure she was ok," he explained calmly.
Lorelai's face softened at his reasoning. "She called you crying?"
"She kept saying she was a bad person. When I offered to come up she told me not to but…when you're in a relationship you make sure the other person knows for sure she's not a bad person, even if she tells you coming to see her isn't necessary."
"That...that is true."
"Ok…well that's why I'm here."
The two of them sat across from each other and examined each other with scrutinizing eyes, not knowing how to continue their conversation. They both knew this was their chance to make an effort for the sake of the girl still sleeping in the bedroom. They'd both been lectured about this, knowing there was still some animosity on one side and unwillingness to make small talk on the other.
Surprisingly it was Jess who cracked first.
"Look…first of all I'm not good at this. I don't meet parents and I'm also not great at small talk. So usually I would be sneaking out the window to avoid having this moment with you but for Rory I'm going to sit here and try. Your daughter is really special and I'm not in her life to take her away from you or any of her dreams. She's told me she wants to Christiane Amanpour someday and as long as she'll have me, I told her she will be and I'll always support her in that. And I want you to know that, because you're her best friend and as happy as she's been in Philadelphia with me I don't think it's complete without her knowing that she can talk to you. She may like me but she loves you. You're her best friend. You're her mom."
Lorelai bit her lip to force back the tear coming up from her eyes. She refused to put down her guard and cry in front of this guy no matter how heartfelt and sincere his words were. He definitely was a writer.
"You seem to be doing ok with the small talk thing," Lorelai joked. They both cracked a smile.
"She seems to really like you Jess. Thank you for not kicking her out on her ass when she first came to you at least."
"It was easy, I was happy to see her," Jess replied easily.
"You were?"
"Yeah…she's…very cool Lorelai. You raised a very cool daughter," he compliments.
"Ok you're just sucking up now, stop."
Jess raises his hands up in defense.
"You can make up for being so sappy by getting me a cup of coffee," Lorelai orders.
Jess smirked and nodded in agreement, getting up and pouring Lorelai a cup from the coffee maker.
"Hey Jess," she called.
He looked up at her in acknowledgment.
"Next time you want to make a good impression on your girlfriend's mother, don't have sex all over her kitchen the night before," she said with a sickly sweet smile.
Jess looked away with a red face.
Getting a tour of Stars Hollow felt a lot different in the daytime.
The last time Jess was here, he got a tour but he certainly didn't pay attention to his surroundings. It was dark and he was more concentrated on finding a place to be alone with Rory than to see what her town was about. He was kind paying for that now, walking hand in hand along the streets of Stars Hollow with Rory enthusiastically pointing out different sites with a story to go along with it.
"So this is Weston's which has the 2nd best coffee in Stars Hollow, next to Luke's of course. It has amazing pastries, we'll have to have dessert there tonight maybe depending on when you go home. And during Christmas they have candy cane coffee and yes it sounds disgusting but it literally tastes like Christmas."
Jess listens to Rory patiently and musters up a smile when her bright grin is directed towards him. Rory's eyes narrow though when she zeroes in and immediately recognizes how uncomfortable Jess is.
"Am I talking too much? Oh no I'm talking too much," Rory worries.
"No it's not that it's just…everyone is staring," Jess notices shifting his eyes around.
Rory looks around and notices the various townspeople stopping to look from where they are at Rory and the new man in her life. She bites her lip in embarrassment. She's so used to the freedom they have in Philadelphia that she forgets how scrutinized her life is in Stars Hollow. She can't completely hate it, these people helped raise her and have shaped her life. She just wished they weren't so interested in every small thing that happened, especially in her love life.
"Just…don't worry about them. If you ignore them they'll go away."
"I think after the way you kissed me outside of Luke's earlier, they think we're the most interesting people in this town."
Rory blushed at this remark. "I didn't think about it!"
They continued to walk silently and Rory led him back to the bridge she'd shown him the night of Liz's wedding. It became quieter once they arrived there, away from the shifting eyes of nosy townspeople. Rory sat down on the bridge and Jess followed her movements. They stared into the water, Jess rubbing his thumb over her knuckles, and Rory leaning her head on his shoulder.
"I used to come here all the time during high school," Rory reminisced. "It's basically the most private place in Stars Hollow so whenever everything got to be too much this was a really cool place to come and read or just think by myself. Especially after fights with my mom or Dean…especially after I broke up with Dean."
Jess nodded. "I can see the appeal for this place."
"Glad we could find a place that you'll actually like in this town," Rory smirks. She can tell that he's impressed.
"It's not Washington Square or Schuykill River Park but it'll do."
Rory smiles happily and kisses Jess on the cheek. "I'm really glad you're here," she says against it.
Jess smirks. "I couldn't tell since last night, I'm glad you're telling me."
"Oh that round in the kitchen didn't indicate anything to you?"
"No I'm mistaken, it was in the shower that sold it."
Rory smiles dreamily, "I think the shower was your best work honestly."
Jess laughs. "God, what are we going to do in August?"
"What do you mean?"
Jess's face becomes more somber. "Think about it, we were away from each other for only a few days and I'm gonna be honest, it wasn't fun. I had trouble sleeping because I was so used to you being there with me."
"I did too," Rory said glumly.
"But you're going to have to leave in August and go back to school. So this whole thing between us….the being in same city thing has an end date."
"You're right. I haven't wanted to think about it. Being in Philadelphia by ourselves has been a dream."
"So what are we going to do? You not going back to Yale isn't an option."
"That's true. So we need a plan."
"I figured you would say that."
"When we get back to my house we need to write down a plan. Especially because it's almost like we're addicted to each other. I haven't slept well all week until you came here. I've never been like that! I was never addicted to Dean! So what will happen when I come back here full time? Will I go into withdrawals or something, I can't afford that! Maybe we need to wean off each-"
"Rory!" Jess interrupts. "Take a breath, we're not addicted to each other! We both have lives in our separate homes, even as it is we're both pretty busy at Truncheon. And you're just fine having girl time with Ama without me and I have the guys!"
Rory pauses thoughtfully. "That's…that's true. But maybe we should make an effort to spend nights away from each other. I can sleep over at Ama's sometimes?"
Jess grimaced. "Are you serious?"
"Yes! What about the old apartment over Truncheon, Chris and Matt don't live there anymore right? I can stay there sometimes."
Jess sighed. "If you think that will be helpful."
"I think it will," Rory says determined. "I think we'll be better off come August if we know we can stand to have time away from each other."
"Well you think more about it and we'll talk about it when you get back to Philly."
Rory conceded and kissed Jess's cheek again in reassurance. "We'll be ok right?"
Jess nodded in response. Rory snuggled into Jess's embrace and he wrapped his arm around her.
"Hey Rory?"
She looked up into his face curiously. "What's up?"
"Since we're having an honest conversation and all…we need to talk about last night."
Rory sat up alarmed. "What was wrong with last night?"
"Nothing was…wrong necessarily it's just…when I first got there and we had sex you didn't let me put on a condom."
"Oh."
"We've never talked about birth control before."
"I…I am on birth control, I've been on it since I was 17," Rory says defensively.
"Ok but I didn't know that. And it's not your fault we had sex without a condom last night but if we're going to do that we have to be super careful you know?"
Rory pulled away from Jess and crossed her arms over her chest protectively. "You were mad that I did that?"
"No I'm not mad…it just surprised me."
"Oh because I'm so innocent and inexperienced?"
Jess rolled his eyes. "Where did I say that Rory?"
"I thought you would have appreciated that. That I wanted to be so close to you?"
"It's not that I don't appreciate it, it's that if we appreciate it too much and we're not careful you'll get pregnant!"
Rory is shocked. "Oh really?"
"Yes really…say you get sick or you take antibiotics or something. It's not 100% effective Rory, it's why we need the condom."
"This is a ridiculous conversation."
"No it's not and you know it isn't."
Rory rolls her eyes and gets up. "I'm not going to get pregnant just because of the one time we had sex without a condom on. Maybe I need to go back to my house and take all those birth control pills I'll forget to take." She storms off without a look back, leaving Jess in a state of puzzlement.
The main problem with Jess's argument with Rory is that it happened here in Stars Hollow.
They were always bound to have an argument. Jess supposed that things were too smooth sailing over the time they'd been together and they were due for a fight of sorts. He just wishes it didn't happen in a town where he really only knows 3 people.
Going back to the Gilmore house was out of the question since Rory seemed to be pretty mad. It seemed best to just let her have some time to cool off. The only other place he knew to go to was Luke's. He had just eaten breakfast there with Lorelai and Rory earlier, but he supposed he could go back again and wait it out without any suspicions. He was going to have to drive back to Philadelphia tonight anyway since he had to be at Truncheon for some meetings in the morning.
He walked back through the unfamiliar path until he found the town square again. He was glad the town was so small that it was hard to get lost in terms of finding your way around to the major stores. All you ever had to do is make sure the Gazebo was still in sight. Jess avoided the confused looks of the townspeople who had just seen him with Rory earlier. Everyone was scrutinizing and smart enough to figure out that him walking around without Rory was probably not a good thing. He kept his head down and hurried his steps.
When he walked through the door of the diner and bell chimed, he was grateful to see that he was finding refuge during a lull. Only the strange man named Kirk who seemed to ask a lot of weird questions both times he was here happened to be sitting at a table in the corner by himself. Luke was nowhere to be seen, but there was an asian girl standing looking bored behind the counter.
This must be Lane.
Rory had talked a lot about her best friend and the ways she valued their time together in Stars Hollow growing up. He knew vividly about the conflicts concerning Lane and Mrs. Kim growing up and how they were slowly making amends. Rory had also informed Jess about Lane's musical aspirations and tastes, and this fact alone was enough to say he could carry a conversation with the girl.
Lane noticed him standing there and quirked an eyebrow at the presence of someone she didn't know at such a quiet time of the day in the diner.
"Can I help you? Are you new in town?" Lane questioned. Jess walked over to the counter and took a seat at one of the stools.
"You could say that," Jess answered vaguely. "Just some coffee for now would be good."
Lane gave him a nod and filled his order, pouring him a cup of coffee in a big cup and placing it in front of him. Jess smiled to himself, recognizing this was the size Lorelai and Rory lived on this morning. When Luke brought them regular sized cups, they both looked at him as if he'd grown two heads. However the thought of Rory made his smile dim, remembering the argument they were in. Unfortunately it was times like these that Jess recognized that Rory was younger and less experienced than he was. Maybe he pushed her too much sexually, far from what she was ready for if she couldn't have these conversations with him. But it didn't change that he liked her a lot.
"Anything else I can get you?" Lane cut through his thoughts with another question.
"No," Jess answered morosely. "Just the coffee is fine."
Lane put the coffee pot back and continued to look curiously at Jess. There was something about him…
"You look familiar for some reason," Lane observed.
Jess raised his eyebrow. "Huh."
"Do you have family here?"
"Yes...not very close but they're family."
Lane continued to think for a minute. "Is this going to be a guessing game? I'm not really into guessing games."
"Aw come on, what else do you have to do around here?"
"I'd really rather scrub this counter than play a guessing game with you. What's your name?"
Jess paused, knowing for sure that once he gave up his name the jig was up and Lane would know exactly who he was. But so far he liked Lane...he'd bite.
"Jess," he answers with a smirk. Lane's eyes widen at this revelation.
"Oh my god!" she exclaims pointing at him. "You're Jess."
"Sure am."
"You're Rory's Jess!"
"I don't know if she would claim me if you asked her right now but yeah I guess I am."
Lane ignores this piece of information. "She could not shut up about you when we hung out the other day and now I kind of get why."
"Thank you?"
"It's definitely a compliment. What are you doing here?"
Jess shrugged. "I heard Al's Pancake World was having international cuisine grab bag night and I couldn't resist."
"Oh, don't be disappointed, he always picks the international cuisines he's really bad at making so it's a lose/lose situation all around."
Jess rolled his eyes. "All that for nothing, I was hoping for some greek."
Lane giggled. "But seriously, did you come to see Rory?"
"I did, she had a weird confrontation with that ex and his wife and she was pretty down about it. Wanted to make sure she was ok."
Lane put her hand over her heart. "Oh that's so romantic! And wait I heard about the Lindsay thing, that got around town but Dean too?"
Jess grimaced. "Maybe you should talk to Rory about that, it sounds more like girl talk."
"Oh...where is Rory?"
Jess paused. "I'm...I'm not sure."
"Why wouldn't you know where she is, you're visiting her?"
"Well...she's not very happy with me right now," he stated vaguely.
"So you're in a fight?"
"If that's what they call it…"
"What did you do!?" Lane exclaimed, getting defensive of her best friend.
Jess put his hands up in alarm. "I didn't do anything, I just tried to have a talk with her about something and she got mad."
"Rory doesn't mad about things," Lane scoffed.
"I can tell that already but she's mad at me and I'm not sure what to do."
Lane relaxed her stance seeing the conflicted look on Jess's face. "Well...why did she get mad?"
Jess hesitated. Rory probably wouldn't appreciate him telling her best friend all about their issues with protection. How could he frame this?
"I don't know how much I should tell you...I think she thinks I throw my older age in her face?"
"Well do you?"
"No! If I thought her being younger than me was a problem I wouldn't be seeing her. That doesn't matter to me."
"So then why would she be mad?"
"I don't know...you're her best friend!"
Lane smirked and thought to herself for a few minutes. Jess sipped his coffee nervously, hoping that Lane would have some insight.
"Rory is a bit of a know it all sometimes," Lane notes. "She really thrives off of being the best and knowing a lot of things. She's really quiet about it though, more so than her friend from school Paris. But she's not used to being the one that doesn't know something...she never had to do that with Dean. So maybe it's something about you being older, about knowing more about something than she does that makes her uncomfortable?"
"That...could be part of it."
"What do you think you'll do now?"
"Well I don't know. Should I even show up to her house? Would she want to see me?"
"She can be pretty stubborn when she's mad at someone," Lane agrees.
Jess sighs in defeat. "I want to just go and talk to her later but...that doesn't sound like a good idea."
"It's not," Lane confirms. "Leaving without saying anything to her will definitely make her more mad."
"Seems like the easy way out."
"It is. Rory told me you've had only one other girlfriend right? So relationships aren't your thing."
"You are correct."
"So this making up thing isn't coming easily to you huh?" Lane realizes. Jess simply nods.
"Well at least you're still here and you're trying to figure out why she's mad," Lane encourages. "Look she seems to really like you. I'm sure if you apologize and you bring her some coffee from Lukes along with one of these donuts you can bribe her into forgiving you."
Jess looked over at the case of donuts with interest. "Glazed or Jelly?"
"I would take both. And an extra if Lorelai is there," Lane winked.
"Well then, I'll take two coffees to go and 2 glazed and 1 jelly donut," Jess decided. Lane got to work packing up Jess's order and once she was done she handed it to him with a smile.
"It's on the house," she insisted. "Unless you make her more mad then I'll just come find you and make you pay."
Jess smiled gratefully. "I appreciate that...and your insight. Rory has told me a lot about you and I think it lives up to the hype."
"Same here," Lane grinned. "I'm sure you guys will work it out. And next time you come to visit we have to discuss the punk rock scene in Philadelphia, I'm super curious. Rory told me about the bar you guys went to that had that punk 80's night it sounds amazing."
"You should come visit before the summer is over, check it out yourself. Lots of cool shows all the time in small venues. Rory would love that."
Lane vehemently agreed. "I think I will! I'll talk to her about it."
Jess gave her a nod and a small smile and took one last sip of his coffee. He waved his hand and gave his thanks and walked out the door into the mid afternoon sun of Stars Hollow. Hopefully Lane was right and donuts would smooth over these edges.
Rory wasn't sure what was wrong with her.
Usually when she and Dean had a fight she could easily pinpoint how and why it started. Even if it was something that was her fault, she was able to realize that pretty quickly into the argument based on Dean's level of frustration. But Jess...Jess was so cool and collected most of the time that they didn't need to fight. The only other time she'd been frustrated with him about how much contact he kept with her during the day he was able to realize pretty quickly and fix the situation.
But Rory knew this one was kind of on her. She just didn't know why she was so mad.
Not using a condom the night before was such a spur of the moment decision. She always felt out of control when she was with Jess, her inhibitions completely put to the wayside. For how shy she was as a person she felt like she could be bare with Jess in a way she wasn't with most people...so why not be bare with him physically? She was responsible and she took her birth control everyday without fail since she started having sex with Dean. She just never felt the need to do this with Dean. Not like with Jess.
So to hear him almost reprimand her for doing that was insulting and embarrassing. Their age difference didn't matter to her most of the time, but he lorded his experience over her as if she was a dumb kid that didn't know any better.
She huffed all the way back to her house once she left him, not caring if he followed her or not. When she got back to the house she slammed the door and let out a frustrated sigh, moving into the living room only to become startled by the presence of her mother.
"Mom!" Rory jumped. "Aren't you supposed to be at the inn?"
"Nah," Lorelai waved off. "Michel and I decided he could handle things there for the day so I came back." Lorelai looked and noticed that Rory was by herself. "Where's the boy toy? Did he go back to Philly already?"
Rory frowned. "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I left him at the bridge, I don't know what he's doing!"
"Ok I'm confused why did you leave him at the bridge?"
"We got into an argument ok?" Rory exploded. She came to sit down next to her mom with a sad look on her face.
"I don't know what's wrong with me. It's just...him being older usually isn't a problem but it's like he was telling me that I was stupid and this is how it has to be from now on."
"Ok I'm missing something, what were you being stupid about?"
Rory blushed, knowing that if she wanted to vent to her mother she was going to have to tell her the whole truth. "Well you see...when we were alone here last night...we…"
"You had sex," Lorelai finishes easily.
"How did you know?"
"Uh kid...you had sex in our kitchen. Our kitchen is never that clean and Jess's guilty face when he saw me this morning gave it away."
"Ugh. I don't want to talk about this with you."
"Why do you think I'm going to judge you?" Lorelai challenged.
"Yup."
"Well how about if I promise not to?"
Rory waits a beat. "If you do, we go to Al's tonight."
"Ah not tonight!"
"Final offer m'am."
"Ok ok fine. Now what's going on."
Rory took a deep breath. "So...we did...stuff last night and well one of the times-"
"One of the times?" Lorelai asked incredulously. "How many times were there? Oh god wait don't tell me."
"Mom!"
"Whatever it's not judging! I'm just surprised!"
Rory rolled her eyes. "Anyway one of the times I asked him not to use...protection. Insisted you could say? I don't know it all happened very fast."
Lorelai took a deep breathe and tried to school her features to remain neutral. Her thoughts were racing with all sorts of thoughts, one of which calculating how long it would take for that emergency contraception pill she'd heard about to officially become available. They could take one that's in early development right?
"Oh," Lorelai managed.
"And look, it seems irresponsible but you know I've been taking pills for awhile now so I didn't think it was a big deal. But today he did and he made me feel really stupid about it. As if I don't know the risks, who does he think I am!?" Rory huffed.
Lorelai stared straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with her daughter so that she wouldn't say everything that was in her head.
"That sounds...really frustrating," Lorelai tried to empathize.
"It is! I more than anyone does not want to get pregnant, imagine how bad that would be. I would have to drop out of Yale, grandma and grandpa would probably have heart attacks, and you would be so disappointed. Right?" Rory looked to Lorelai pleadingly. The more she talked, the more unsure she became of the situation. Because Jess was right...getting pregnant would be bad.
"Well...I…"
"Wait, mom...please play the mom card...I think I need the mom card." Rory decided.
"Are you sure?"
"Please? But not too harsh?"
"Ok...well...I hate to say it but Jess is right. I know things can get overwhelming and it probably feels...good...but it wouldn't feel good if you got pregnant right?"
Rory shook her head.
"Look kid, this is the reality of being in a relationship with an adult who has experience. He was trying to protect the both of you. If you're going to do something like that you need to have backup. Otherwise you need to keep those rubbers handy at all times...and the pills. Do you get that?"
"I think so," Rory mumbled.
"Good. So what are you going to do about Jess?"
"I should probably find him and apologize. God I'm so stupid, why did I freak out so much?" Rory lamented.
Lorelai sighed. "To be fair, there's high expectations around here when it comes to pregnancy. At least you wouldn't be 16 and pregnant if it happened!"
"Oh god don't say that! I'm not going to get pregnant. I promise."
Lorelai smiled sadly. "That's really sweet of you to say but you can't promise me that kid. Just be careful."
"I can promise you that and I will. I'll be extra careful from now on," Rory insisted.
Lorelai swallowed down whatever extra judgments she had, trying to respect Rory's wishes. Rory smiles gratefully and gives Lorelai a big hug.
"That was a pretty good mix of the mom and best friend card I have to say," Rory compliments.
"Thanks kid, I guess we're both learning."
They separate and Rory stands up and brushes off her jeans. "I'm going to look for Jess and apologize. Hopefully he wasn't so freaked out by me that he ran back to Philadelphia."
Lorelai waves Rory off and she walks quickly to the door to look for Jess. Rory opens the door and stops in her tracks since Jess is blocking the doorway. He's balancing a tray of coffee cups, a bag from Luke's on one hand and trying to knock on the door with the other hand.
"Hey?"
"Hey!"
"You...have a lot of stuff there in your hand."
"Just some more coffee...and donuts for you and your mom. Figured you needed a re-up."
"Did someone say donuts!?" they heard Lorelai yell. "Did you bring jelly?"
"Yup," Jess yells back.
"Oooo," Lorelai coos. "Rory I think I like him now!"
Both Rory and Jess laugh and Rory allows Jess in so that he can give Lorelai the donuts and coffee. Rory stays by the entryway of the living and giggles watching Lorelai tease Jess about how great he is.
"Oh Jess you're so dreamy," Lorelai coos in an exaggerated voice taking a jelly donut out of the bag and eating it. Jess looks to Rory in alarm and she gestures for him to follow her outside. Jess waves to Lorelai and follows Rory out to the front stoop. They sit on the steps and look at each other expectantly.
"I'm sorry," they say at the same time. A smiles grows on both their faces.
"I'm a crazy person," Rory tells him. "I'm really sorry. You were right. I was being totally irresponsible and we need to think about being protected. You're so right."
"Rory stop, you're not an idiot," Jess puts his hand on Rory's knee to calm her. "I don't want to make you feel like you're stupid just because you're younger than me. That's not how I really see you. I mean...you know more about this relationship stuff than I do. You're teaching me a lot."
Rory beams. "I am?"
"You know you are," Jess scoffs. "I don't know anything about this shit so you need to tell me when I'm doing it wrong."
"And you know the physical stuff isn't my forte...and I trust you not to take advantage of that."
Jess leaned over and placed a short, sweet kiss on Rory's lips. "I won't," he whispered against it. Rory leaned over to give him a big hug.
"Well we got through our first fight. And you brought donuts to apologize! So you're totally getting the hang of this."
"You can thank Lane for that actually."
"You met Lane!?"
"I did. She's pretty cool, I told her she should visit us in Philly while you're still there."
"Oh that would be so fun! I totally want her to meet the guys and Ama. And to see the Magic Gardens and a show at the Troc. She would love the TLA!"
"Slow down Gilmore, we'll get there," Jess reassures with a laugh. Rory blushes.
"So look I hate to cut this make up short, but I have to get on the road soon. I have meetings tomorrow," Jess said regretfully.
Rory's face fell. "Oh god I was such an idiot that I missed the rest of the day with you!"
"Hey it's fine, you'll be back on Sunday right? And this fits with your weaning off plan right?"
"I guess," Rory mutters. "I just don't want you to go."
Jess lifts Rory's face and kisses her cheek before giving her another sweet kiss that brings the grin back to her face.
"Sunday I'll show you what make up sex is all about," Jess winks. "Don't be late."
"Oh I won't. We have so much to do! And I have so much to catch up on at Truncheon, I owe Matt like three articles for being gone all week! And then we're going to the beach next weekend and eating all the pizza, hot dogs, and salt water taffy we can find! I definitely won't be late."
"Good...because the rest of this summer would kind of suck without you."
Rory pats Jess's cheek affectionately. "Yeah yeah...I'd miss you too."