Disclaimer: Rory's job takes her to North Carolina, and her first assignment is to interview one injured soldier. She walks into that army base expecting to get her first story, but that's not all she gets, right? This is a Trory! :)
I'd like to thank Courtney for her help in editing this chapter!
The barbecue was a success. Tristan had been sure that Jake would fit right in with the guys and he was right. Rory was happy to have Lorelai and Juliet's company, because sometimes the boys seemed to forget that she was around.
She thought it would be awkward for Ryan to be there after her last conversation with him, but he was all right. She smiled a little bit when she saw him talking to Julie, Justin's sister. Judging from the looks they were giving each other, Rory thought that Ryan's crush would soon be a thing of the past.
She watched the boys talking and laughing and found herself really happy that she had the courage to ask Tristan to move in. She couldn't be happier. Rory then noticed that the two girls had stopped talking and were looking at her and grinning.
"Aw. Isn't it cute how in love she is? She all 'oh, I like him, I love him, I want to marry him' isn't she?" Lorelai asked Juliet.
"She definitely is. But then again, you should have seen the way Tristan was looking at her at Jake's party. I swear I don't know who's more sickening." Juliet said, continuing to tease her.
"Hardy har har." Rory answered. But she knew that they were right. She and Tristan were sickening in-love, but she was okay with that.
Lorelai batted her eyelashes and said. "My little girl is all grown up, now. Living with a boy. What would Emily say about that"
Although Lorelai was teasing Rory, she was incredibly happy for her daughter. This was the first time in a long time that she could see how happy her daughter was. A long time indeed. Lorelai could see that Rory managed to make a life for herself here, with Tristan, and his friends. She was doing great at her job, she had really nice friends, who made sure she was having fun, and she had a great relationship with Tristan. As a mother, it was everything she hoped for her daughter to achieve. She smiled, happy with her assessment of Rory's life, and returned to the teasing.
The boys weren't far behind with the teasing. Tristan saw Justin whisper something to Jake with a conspiratory look on his face. Tristan narrowed his eyes at the two, but let it go. It looked like the guys weren't done making fun of him just yet.
Jake just nodded in response to the comment and smirked at Justin. Tristan knew it wouldn't be too bad, he just needed to figure out what was Justin's game this time.
"So, Tristan, tell us, when can we expect the wedding invitations?" Jake asked.
Ha. So that's game, Tristan thought, and was already throwing daggers at Justin with his eyes. Justin knew that, if he asked that question directly, Tristan would just tell him to go to hell. So he was using Jake. Well, that's not going to happen.
"Bite me, Jake." He said, not giving in.
"I'll give him two months, tops." Dylan said. He had already picked up on the game.
Tristan just shook his head in disbelief. "We just moved in together. We're not thinking about marriage. Hell, we've only been together for a couple of months." He said, in that 'drop it' tone of voice, which usually did the trick. Well, at least in the field it did. Tristan didn't care about the teasing, he just didn't want Rory to hear it and freak out.
"I say the end of the year." Justin responded with a smirk on his face. " Rory doesn't strike me as someone who'd put together a marriage in just two months."
Tristan knew the tone wouldn't work with Justin. The guy didn't know when to stop. He was not at all afraid of Tristan. And apparently, neither was Jake. Honestly, Tristan was beginning to think that maybe introducing Jake to the guys was not a great idea after all.
"Nah, you guys just don't know her that well. All she'd need is the three days that it takes to get the marriage license and Lorelai by her side." Jake said. "I'll give them three months, though. This one is stubborn." He motioned to Tristan with his head.
"Man, you have no idea." Justin answered, looking in Tristan's direction.
"Okay, I'm out of here." Tristan said, having enough of it. He wasn't going to propose to Rory so soon. They talked about it, and she made it clear that she wasn't ready yet.
He knew that Rory was going to marry him eventually, he just needed to be patient, and Tristan wasn't worried about being patient. After all, he had waited more than 15 years for her, he could wait a little longer. Tristan just didn't understand why the hell the guys couldn't seem to shut up about it. It wasn't like he didn't want to propose to her. The timing just wasn't right yet.
At the sight of Tristan walking away, the guys just laughed. "One down, one to go." Justin said to Jake. "I can't wait to see those two married. They belong together."
"That they do, they really do." Jake said, smiling in Rory's direction.
"Can I ask you a question, Jake?" Dylan said. He was trying to work something out in his head, and couldn't get past one thing.
"Sure, fire away, Dylan." Jake said. He was really having fun with them. He hoped he would be able to visit more often.
"Uhn... Didn't you use to date her?" He asked, referring to Rory.
"Yeah. I did. A couple of years, on and off." He said. He knew what Dylan was getting at. He had heard it all, especially from Logan's friends. And Lorelai. He was more than used to it.
"I don't get it. How can you be so okay with her and Tristan, then? Aren't you even a little bit jealous?"
Jake sighed, and decided to tell them the whole story. Thank God that Tristan wasn't hearing this one. As much as Tristan seemed to like him, no guy wants to hear about someone else being in love with his girlfriend. Even if it was all in the past.
"Okay. Well, I met her almost six years ago. God, I feel old. So, anyway. She had just arrived in DC, fresh off of the Obama campaign trail. I had been at the paper for a couple of months already and we were paired together. I fell in love almost immediately. I asked her out once, but she gave me this roundabout answer that boiled down to the fact that she was still trying to get over someone."
"That would be Logan, right? The guy from Yale she used to date?" Justin asked
"Yes. But they didn't just date. They were together for three years, even living together some of that time. Logan asked her to marry him at her graduation. He was moving to California, and wanted her to go with him. She said no, they parted ways, and she ended up working for the Obama campaign for almost two years before going to Washington." He tried to explain without too much detail.
"And after two years she wasn't over him?" Dylan asked.
"Yes and no. Yes, she was over him, but she wasn't over being hurt. She was afraid of getting her heart broken again. It took me almost a year to figure it out, and a couple of months more to get her to go out with me. It was almost a whole year before she would admit we were together." He told them, truthfully.
"But when I finally got it, it wasn't what I was expecting. All I wanted to do was make her happy, and I couldn't do it, no matter how hard I tried. But at that point, she was the best friend I had. Sure, I was still in love with her, but I didn't want to lose her friendship either. So I settled for what I could get. We were never serious, every time that it got too close to being something real, she would pull back, and we would break up. We did that for almost four years." He continued.
"Wow. I don't know if I could do that." Dylan said. Justin just nodded. He knew a little bit about that story, the bits and pieces that he heard from Tristan. But to hear it from Jake, he could see now how good of a friend this guy could be.
"Well, my grandfather always told me you have to play with the cards you've been dealt... So anyway, we were still together when she told me about this job offer in North Carolina, so I broke up with her and told her to go. No regrets, no looking back. It was her dream, to be an international correspondent, and I sure as hell wasn't going to stand in the way. We agreed to stay friends, and I moved on. I love her, I do, but she's more like a sister, now. I found someone else who makes me really happy, and so did she. She has Tristan." He finished.
"I had no idea." Dylan said, and the other guys just nodded.
"Well, she's worth it. And if she was willing to put her heart on the line again, for Tristan, then I would like him, just for that. She deserves to be happy. And I could see after a couple of seconds just how much he loves her." Jake said. "I told Tristan that already."
"Well, for a guy who waited almost fifteen years to get the girl, he's really lucky... You should have seen his face when he entered Ryan's room, after that interview, and she just launched herself at him and hugged him. It was priceless." Justin said.
"Well, I'm still giving him two months..." Dylan said.