A/N: I was comparing the amount of reviews I get to the amount everyone else gets, and let me tell you! That did not help my self-esteem! Ha ha Anyways… Thanks to those of you who do review. (I rhymed A LOT in that sentence.) And to those of you who don't… Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it… You know what would be go though? If you told me you enjoyed it, or what parts you didn't enjoy… Yeah… It would help… just a thought.
Previously: She kissed him again, and he kissed her back, forcefully. They broke apart again when they heard the bells on the diner door jingle. They looked to see who was at the door…
"Hey."
"Jess?"
Just Can't Help It
Chapter 36
Lorelai stood there, speechless. Her mouth was open so wide, you could probably fit a bus in it. Luke was standing there, breathing heavily, with his arms folded across his chest.
"Yep… That's what they call me." Lorelai was finally able to close her mouth. She sat on the stool behind her. Jess walked in and sat in a chair at a table.
"What are you doing here?"
"I uh… I'm not exactly sure."
"What? So you were just standing in your room one minute and then, all of a sudden, you're walking into Luke's?"
"Lorelai…"
"It's okay, Luke… That kind of is what happened. I was sitting in my apartment eating a T.V. dinner, and I guess Stars Hollow got to me a little because the next thing you know, I'm here hoping to have a family dinner with you on Thanksgiving."
"Oh…"
"That's nice, Jess. What came over you?"
"Lorelai…"
"It's okay, Luke, really."
"Okay." Luke sat on the stool beside Lorelai.
"I'm not exactly sure. I guess I just wanted to be with family on Thanksgiving, and since I wasn't sure where Liz was, I came here instead… And I kinda wanted to thank Luke for everything."
"Oh… Jess, you already did that. Remember? Before you left?"
"Yeah, but… I have your money." Jess showed him the envelope.
"Jess, no I-"
"Luke, please take it. I told you I wanted to pay you back." Jess tried to give it to Luke again, but Luke pushed his hand away.
"You don't have to do this. I was just helping out family."
"And now I'm paying you back, Luke. It's really not a problem. I have a job in New York. I'm doing pretty well."
He held out the envelope for a third time. "Are you sure?" Jess nodded. Luke took the envelope. "Thank you."
"No. Thank you… for everything."
"Ah… It was no problem."
"Luke, I am positive that I was a problem."
"Well… yeah…"
Lorelai stood up. "I'm going to go home. You guys probably have some stuff to catch up on." She kissed Luke on the cheek and walked to the door.
"I'm sorry for interrupting you guys."
"It's okay… You look good, Jess."
"Thanks." She nodded and left the diner. "So… you and Lorelai?"
Luke was watching her walk across the street and out of his sight. "Yeah… Me and Lorelai."
"You're going good?"
"Yeah. She's great."
"Good."
"Yep… So… how about you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You have any girlfriends since you left Stars Hollow?"
"Oh, no. I've mainly been working on school and finding a job."
"Oh. Okay… Are you still working for Wal-Mart?"
Jess smiled. "No. I actually have two jobs. I work at a book store during the day and at night, I work at a record store."
"Oh. Good."
"Yeah." They sat in the diner for an hour or two talking about life since Liz's wedding. Luke told Jess about what's been happening with Lorelai, Christopher, and her mother. Jess seemed surprised. Rory always said good things about her father.
As soon as Lorelai got home, she pulled out her cell and called Rory. "Hello?"
"Hey, Ror."
"Oh, mom, thank God! You just saved me from having to eat more tofurkey!"
"Oh. Well, I guess I should let you go then."
"No! …What's up? Why did you call?"
"Well… I have some news for you."
"Which would be?"
"Jess is back?"
"What?" She almost shouted into the phone.
"Yeah. Luke and I were uh… having tea and coffee in the diner, and Jess just comes in out of now where!"
"Wow!"
"Yeah. He said he just want to be with family since it's Thanksgiving."
"Oh. Well, that makes since…"
"Yeah. I just thought I'd call you and let you know before you bump into him at the diner or something."
"Okay. Thanks… How long is he staying?"
"Um… I'm not sure exactly."
"Oh."
"Yeah. I left after I found out why he was here. I wanted to give him and Luke some alone time… did that sound dirty to you?"
Rory laughed. "Gross, mom!"
"Sorry… So uh… what are you going to do?"
"Probably nothing… He's the one who still loves me."
"Right…"
"What?"
"You don't have any feelings for him? Not even a little bit?"
"Nope. I am totally over him."
"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"
"Mom! I don't!"
"Okay, Hon. Whatever you say…"
"Thank you."
"Uh huh."
"So… how is he?"
"Uh huh." Lorelai smiled knowingly.
"What? I'm just curious!"
"He looks fine… I didn't really talk to him much, but I can get the scoop from Luke later."
"Okay."
"I'm going to let you get back to Lane and your tofurkey… Why don't you guys just tell her you already had dinner?"
"We did… She said something about it being Hell's food and shoved two heaping piles of tofurkey and tofu muffins in our faces."
"Oh… Let me talk to her. I can yell at her for forcing my kid to eat something she doesn't want to."
"Ah… It's okay. We're almost done with it. That foreign exchange student is still there, so we've been putting it on her plate when she's not looking."
"Mean! …That's my girl."
Rory laughed. "Okay, well, I'm going to go save Lane. Hopefully we can get back to Lane's apartment before Mrs. Kim makes us eat dessert."
"Okay. Love you!"
"You too! Thanks for calling about Jess."
"No problem. Night, Babe." Lorelai hung up the phone and went to bed in a good mood. Her encounter with Emily was almost forgotten. Ring Ring! The phone rang right as she was drifting off. "Gah!" She picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Lorelai? This is your father."
"Oh. Hi, dad."
"Emily just told me what she did."
"Oh really? What made her do that?"
"I think one-too-many martinis… and half a bottle of wine."
"Wow! That's more than what she drank at her bachelorette party."
"Yeah. She didn't tell me exactly what happened, but she seemed really upset by it all."
"I see."
"Well? What happened?"
"She came to the inn-"
"The inn?"
"Yes. The Dragonfly. Rory and I had dinner there with a bunch of friends."
"Oh. Right. Okay, go on."
"She came to the inn and tried to make us go with her to your party. I told her we were not obligated to go and that I didn't want to see her. She got mad and said I am stubborn, and that's why I can't keep a guy around… Then, I kind of told her that all of her friends weren't really her friends."
"Oh, Lorelai."
"Yeah… So then I told her to leave, and she said she wasn't leaving unless Rory and me came with her, so I threatened to call security and picked up the phone, and she left."
"Jeez… You wouldn't really have called security on your mother, would you?"
"If I had to, yes. I knew I could just scare her though, so I didn't bother."
"Okay, well, thank you for filling me in, Lorelai. I'm going to go to bed."
"Dad?"
He sighed. "Yes, Lorelai?"
"What's going on between you and mom?"
"Honestly, Lorelai? I'm not even sure anymore."
"Oh. Okay… Well call me when you figure it out, okay?"
"Okay, Lorelai. Goodnight."
"Night." She sighed deeply as she hung up the phone. She crawled under her blankets and fell asleep within seconds of closing her eyes.
A/N: I know, it's not great, but I'll figure it out by tomorrow… hopefully. It's like when I had those two or three crappy chapters and then I finally got somewhere and the next couple turned out pretty well. Besides, I'm all written out today. I just finished helping a friend write something… FINALLY! I had to do a worksheet for history with 80 questions on it… I think I write more in history and driver's ed. than I do in English… weird… Review PLEASE! I know I say that every time, but that should give you a hint. I need your reviews. They give me momentum!
P.S. to JJFluffStuffForeva, since I didn't write enough to you already, yes I am crazy. Thank you for noticing! Oh! And I don't plan on stopping the story any time soon… It would be a very strange place to end it.