Chapter 36: All you have to do

Saturday after Thanksgiving

Emily Gilmore had a shopping fit. It would have been insane to raid the stores on Black Friday, where tons of people stumbled over each other to buy whatever came in reach, so she had waited for the day after.

Napkins, porcelain apples, three new coats for herself, even though she despised fur coats, but they had been soft, and she wanted something soft. She had bought five new suits for Richard, even though he was barely talking to her, and matching cuff links. Her maid would have five new uniforms, her kitchen would have an entire set of new pots and pans, her bedroom would have new sheets, as would the guestroom to which Richard had chosen to move.

At least, this time he did not move out of the house…

Sighing, she bought two more hats and a cardigan, before deciding that she needed some belts to go with her new shoes, briefly thinking back to that time when she wanted to buy that Gulfstream because Richard had deemed her life's achievements more or less ridiculous and unimportant.

It had hurt, and it still did, because she knew that he was right to some point. Her life consisted of planning functions, hosting fundraisers, and attending tea parties.

However, before, this had always been good enough for him, or, more precisely, it was what everybody, including her husband, expected from her. She had a college degree in History, but never put it to a use after she was married. She was the perfect society wife, doing perfect society things, having a perfect society life with a perfect society child.

Hah, yah, sure! Everything was just so perfect.

Her husband was not talking to her, she had, once more, driven her daughter away, she had deeply hurt her granddaughter when lashing out at her, and Richard had tried once to show her ultrasound pictures of her new grandchildren, which had resulted in a crying fit and the plea to not do this to her again. She had missed out almost all of the pregnancy, she did not want to be reminded that she hurt Lorelai and Luke and everybody and did not know why she was hurting them in the first place.

When she left the last shop, she could see that she was close to the fast food booths where she, Lorelai and Rory had spent one of their nicer meals together and, in a spur of the moment, decided to repeat her experience with a burger.

She ended up also buying chili fries and a salad, and somehow found the phone number of the coffee guy on one of her napkins, which actually made her smile a little. Heading for a table that was a bit hidden in a corner next to a pillar, she sat down and started eating her burger, surprised that she actually enjoyed the taste. The chili fries made her cough at first, because they were spicy, so she took a big gulp of her coffee, when she could hear two people rush to the table on the other side of the pillar. Her eyes grew wide and she tried to hide even more in her corner when she heard a familiar voice.

"You think we gave him the slip?" Rory was giggling like crazy while holding onto Jess for dear life at the same time because she had just stumbled and was almost falling over her own feet.

Jess was still sorting his limbs and her bags, but managed to sit her down on a chair without looking too clumsy.

"I think so. That's what I get for having such a hot girlfriend. Model scouts stalking you throughout the entire mall!" He fell down onto the other chair and let all the bags fall to the floor. "Why again did I volunteer to drive you, April and her friends to the mall?"

Rory peeked around the pillar, but swiftly pulled her head back.

"You never volunteered. You more or less jumped out of the window of my bedroom when you saw TJ and Liz entering through the front door and then wrestled my car keys out of my hand, telling me I'll drive, no matter where, please let it be Mexico!" she told him in her deep Jess-voice, making him chuckle.

"And you know what, I guess that guy was not after me", she then stated, getting a weird look.

"Huh?"

"He started following us when you were buying that coat and the scarf. Uh, uh, maybe he's from Calvin Klein, make sure we get one of the posters where they only show you from chest to thighs in boxer briefs in black and white. We'll put it up in the living room and I can tell everybody that those are my man's abs!"

Jess snorted. Her man, again, huh?

"Why would you do that?"

"Because otherwise Mom will never believe me what you are hiding under these long-sleeved shirts and pullovers."

"Your mother already saw me naked, Rory, no need to show her again", he responded, his face entirely serious. Rory frowned.

"When did that happen?"

"I'm more or less living with her since the docs put her on bed rest two weeks ago. She walked in on me in the bathroom."

"I cannot tell you how much I wish the remodeling of Luke's and mom's house to be finished… Crashing in my old room is okay, but I want the Crap Shack to be our house, finally. I miss the solitude of the apartment over the Diner, seriously."

Jess grabbed her chin, kissing her softly.

"It's only a few more days, Tom says they're almost finished. And I promise I'll come up with something more romantic when we're finally alone in our house than the Let's skip the how you've been and taking you up against the entrance door from that one time I came back from Philly in the middle of the night."

Rory blushed furiously, which made him kiss her again. Leaning her forehead against his she said: "I wasn't complaining, was I? What I didn't need was the pregnancy scare afterwards. I still don't get how you stayed that calm."

Jess shrugged, caressing her cheek.

"I actually wouldn't have minded. Both of us are great with Doula, you were the first one she smiled at. And since I convinced Matt and Chris to let me take over most of the editing, and they run the book store and the recruitment of new writers, I can work from where ever I want…"

"I'm still happy that you decided to not sell your part of the Truncheon."

"Believe me, Chris and Matt were happy, too."

"So… you want kids."

"According to your mother knocking you up is a prerequisite to marrying you. She told me to ask Luke, he'd let me know how it works."

"You wanna marry me?"

"Eventually, yes."

"But I don't wanna be fat when we're getting married", Rory told him in mock hysteria

"Well, obviously it's a family tradition, who are we to break it?" he grinned.

"Do I have to tell you what happened the last time someone told us to screw tradition?"

"Well, I actually screwed… ow!" Rory swatted his arm before he finished the sentence.

"For that you are going to feed me. And you will try on that suit from that store before. Maybe the guy from Calvin Klein is still around."

Jess sighed in surrender before even putting up a fight. And actually, shopping was not that bad, especially after April and her two friends had taken off for some more girly shops… he just had to keep up the guys don't like shopping attire to humor her.

"Chili fries and a burger?"

"And coffee. And some nachos with cheese. Maybe also something from the Chinese department, everything but duck… oh, and some ice cream."

Getting up from his chair he pecked her lips.

"If I didn't know your eating habits I'd say we already fulfilled the family tradition."

"I still want to get married first."

Emily was shocked from the conversation she had just witnessed.

She and Richard… they very rarely had conversations like these, jumping from one topic to the next, while being totally at ease with each other during delicate topics. The main reason was Richard not being able to follow her mental leaps, though.

That boy apparently didn't have these problems. She reached for another fry when she heard her granddaughter's voice again.

"He wants to marry me and he wants kids!"

There was a short pause, then Rory said into her cellphone: "No, Mom, this is not the wrong way round!"

She listened to her mother again.

"But he wants to marry me."

Yah, so? Emily imagined her daughter's answer.

"And he wants kids!"

And where's the problem? Emily thought.

"There is no problem. I just thought that with his traumatic childhood and Liz's five failed marriages it would be a bit harder to convince him that he'd be good in that."

Rory again listened for a while and then giggled. Emily was still thinking about the traumatic childhood comment.

"No, Mom, I'm not going to trade him for Luke. You're stuck with him… and actually, I have to say that the apple-nephew did not fall far from the uncle-tree, if you know what I mean, so you're not off that bad…"

Once more there was silence, and then an embarrassed chuckle.

"Well, not only you can walk in on people in the bathroom", Rory grinned and Emily couldn't help but silently laugh.

Once more, Rory listened to her mother, then started a rant about somebody named Liz, cooed over somebody named Ernest which turned out to be a cat, and told her mother goodbye when Jess reappeared with her food.

"They didn't have Chili fries anymore, I got you some with salt and vinegar."

"For whom is the rabbit food?" Rory questioned and motioned for the salad as he sat down next to her.

"Oh, I wasn't aware that I was not allowed to eat anything."

"You are really turning into a health nut like Luke."

"Well, somebody has to outweigh the amount of junk food you and your mother are consuming."

Both were eating for a while in silence, until Jess spoke up again.

"How the heck can you be already finished when I'm only halfway through my salad?!"

"It's a special power. Can we at least get engaged before you knock me up?"

Jess shook his head and laughed.

"I guess there's nothing in this weird family tradition that your mother started that speaks against it. Thinking about it, Luke and Lorelai were engaged, too, when they sired Sid and Nancy."

"Great, I saw this Jeweler right next to the book store where I still have to put The Subsect to the recommendation shelf."

"So, we're doing this now?"

"Yap."

Jess laughed again.

"Before or after you put my book on the recommendation shelf?"

"Of course before. Then I can brag in the bookstore about my hot fiancée who wrote one of the best short novels ever and soon is going to be a Calvin Klein underwear model. And you can stop looking at me like I lost my mind, you knew what you were getting yourself into."

Emily was still taken aback. This was just no way to propose, actually, nobody even proposed, they more or less just decided to be engaged now.

Normally she would have snapped by now, yelling at someone, shouting at someone else, trying to fix things, to make them the way they were supposed to be.

The weird thing was, the more she thought she was despising her granddaughter's boyfriend, the more she marveled about the happiness their conversation radiated. As if it had been decided a long time ago that they were meant for each other, even if they had to overcome some obstacles before.

A shadow fell over her as she was musing, and she looked up. He was still lean and only a tad taller than Rory, wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a light blue pullover under a black and apparently new coat. She remembered him clean shaven, however, now a nicely cultivated beard gave his face a more mature look.

"I told Rory I forgot my scarf and sent her to the jeweler already."

She only made an inarticulate "Oh."

"I saw you when I came back from fetching food. Please forget most of the conversation you heard before. And you probably also should forget most of what you heard afterwards."

Emily still only looked at Jess. She did not know what to say. Normally, she was a pro in small talk, just, what did you say in a situation like this? She certainly would not talk to him about the weather, or politics.

Jess stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat. He knew Lorelai would kick his ass if she knew he was meddling with that. Most probably Rory also would.

"All you have to do is show up and apologize. And try not to criticize their every decision afterwards. I don't care what you think about me, but both your daughter and granddaughter do. I'd start with Rory, if I were you, she's easier to convince. We're staying at her flat in New Haven for the next few days."

He was already turning around when she found her voice again.

"How is Lorelai? You said something about bed rest…"

"She is fine. The kids are heavy and are straining her back, she had some spasms, so they put her on bed rest."

"And you are staying with her?"

"I am working from home, and we get along quite well. If you want the entire story, talk to Lorelai and Rory. Both of them miss you."

She wanted to know more, she wanted to ask a lot of things, but he had turned around now, exiting the restaurant area.

Getting up from her place she left her barely touched food behind and headed for the exit as well.

She had to think. To plan. Basically, she had to eat humble pie.

But first, she had to go to the book store.