Jess finally got a new assistant for the office, and began looking for a new junior editor as well, hoping to ease his task load at the latest by the new year. They still had one launch party that year, and Celeste was already taking care of that, but with a pretty steady event pattern already in place, he was fairly certain the assistant could probably take over those once Celeste had Evie.

"Good morning!" Bilal, the new assistant, greeted him. The guy was young and skinny, in his early twenties, basically straight out of college, but with impressive internships at Penguin and IBM. The way he dressed was a bit much for Truncheon, but Jess figured that surely he'd soon pick up on the relaxed atmosphere himself, and he wouldn't have to tell him to dress down.

"Morning," Jess replied, as he walked past Bilal's desk.

"These arrived this morning," Bilal said as he handed him two envelopes.

He nodded a thank you in response, Bilal adding, "coffee is fresh," beginning to seem like a little bit like an overachiever to Jess. He was never much of a fan of that type of corporate ass-kissing, wondering how he could change that dynamic.

The first envelope contained some contracts he had been waiting for. The second from the HPG headquarters, and by the look of that envelope he could already guess that inside were the invites for the Christmas gala. The events of the spring gala were still clearly in his mind, and it didn't make him particularly excited to have to go, but this was one of the things the job came with. He made a mental note to speak to Logan when he came to dinner on Thursday, to consider perhaps they could slip in through the back like they did last time - not caring much for the red carpet himself. Or maybe he would simply go alone, if Celeste didn't feel like it?

Opening the envelope he realized the gala was indeed just two and a half weeks away, and he took a photo of the invite and sent it over to Celeste straight away, knowing that she would appreciate the heads up as soon as possible, having forgotten to tell her about the save-the-date announcement he'd gotten in October. She would need to think it through and if she did decide to come, the eventwear was a whole other question for her - their guest room walk-in-wardrobe being full of her dresses, none of which would fit her right now.

As Jess strolled home from the station that evening, his car being at the shop for a few days waiting for some part - one of the downsides of having an older car - he kept thinking about how he just wanted to get the proposing over with. He hated that he thought that - scolding himself as he did. He was fairly certain she wouldn't want him to just get it over with. Ever since Jess started carrying the ring with him, all he would see was wedding advertisements and wedding announcements, even a few billboard proposals, adding to his pressure. It was not the wedding he longed for, it was the 'being married to her' part. Needing to move himself a little more, he'd gotten off one stop earlier from the train, to think. And the walk proved fruitful: He decided to try to perhaps run her a bath that evening, placing a few candles around, add some nice aroma therapy bath salts they had and then when she was nicely settled, he could sneak in and give her the ring. At least in the bathtub she would be relaxed, hopefully not thinking about any of her worries and certainly not easily running off to anywhere. That almost sounded like a plan.

"Hey," he greeted from the doorway, hanging up his dark-blue woolen winter coat.

"Just a sec," Celeste called from upstairs. He could see the narrow stairs were becoming trickier for her to navigate, especially when it came to getting up or down from the third floor.

She'd spent the day getting the final things for the downstairs bedroom, so Luke and Lorelai could stay over on Thanksgiving. The furniture was being delived the following day, thankfully with assembly and all she would have to do was get some new bedlinen and some small decor items which she planned on getting herself from Bed, Bath and Beyond. She still needed to plan the Thanksgiving menu and confirm with Luke whether April would be joining them or not. Either way - cooking for 9-10 people seemed like a daunting task. She'd never actually cooked for a crowd that big, but thankfully Jess had promised to help as long as she got the groceries.

Jess walked over to the kitchen, opened the fridge to see what he could have or make for dinner. Noting a few containers of ramen soup, he chose those.

"You hungry?" he asked out loud, hearing Celeste walk down the last flight of stairs.

"Yeah," she replied. She was always hungry these days.

He'd just poured the broth into a bowl and placed it into the microwave to heat, when he turned to see her.

"What do you think?" she asked cautiously.

"You cut your hair?" Jess reflected, looking over her renewed appearance. Her hair was now cut into a short bob, the cut slightly shorter in the back, with some added wave.

"And dyed it a little," Celeste added, having dyed it a light-auburn tone.

"Huh," he reacted. It wasn't that she didn't look great in any haircut and color, he just hadn't expected it, and he'd really liked the simple and natural look that she had had before. "It looks good," he added, his tone perhaps a little less excited than she would've appreciated.

"You don't like it," Celeste noted, worriedly, feeling a little embarrassed.

"I do, I like you any way you like yourself," Jess replied, pushing the hair behind her ears, tracing her cheek with his finger.

"I just figured that I don't want to hide when we go to the gala, this way it'll be like a whole new me," she explained hesitantly. Maybe the added weight, fuller breasts, her round belly, shorter and different colored hair and maybe by choosing a slightly out of character dress, would do the trick?

"Yeah, but isn't hiding behind a new haircut also sort of hiding?" he asked, doubtfully. Did she really need to go putting herself in plain sight if it could be avoided? He didn't want her stressing about any of these things in her condition.

"You know what I mean, I just need some distance from that look that the Sun used to publish pictures about," Celeste explained. She kind of missed these events, not the frequency in which she had had to attend these in the past, but once or twice a year, it was kind of nice to get all dressed up.

"I almost thought I could go alone, if you didn't want to," he added.

"You don't want me to go with you?" Celeste replied, her over emotional brain reading way more into it than was meant. She even knew that Jess probably hadn't meant anything bad by that, but with the disappointment from his earlier reaction, she could already sense tears forming in her throat. "Is it that I'm not presentable like this?" she huffed, her lip trembling a little already.

"Hey - that's not what I said, or what I meant. You are the most gorgeous woman I have ever met, Este. I was just surprised that's all, I'm sorry," Jess said. This was certainly not what he had wanted to happen. And he too knew her hormones were probably making this worse than it was.

She couldn't help to stop her sobs, partially because, truth be told, she didn't like her hair as much as she had liked her natural one either. It had been a hasty decision, someone at her hairdressers having cancelled last minute and she'd just made the decision without thinking it through. She sank down onto the dining room chair, hiding her face into her palms.

"Please don't cry, I love you," he assured, sitting down next to her, wrapping his arm around her and kissing her forehead.

"Why can't I just shake the fear you know?" she sobbed, adding another layer of worries that had been going through her mind the entire day. She hated she was such a mess.

"You're safe, you have your agreements. You've got me, you've got the Huntzbergers on your side. I'm sure we could even just sneak in the back if you wanted to attend but stay out of sight. Or if you want we can walk in with our heads held high - I'm with you either way," Jess assured.

"I know, but I just can't shake the feeling, you know," she fretted, wiping away her tears.

He considered for a moment, whether there was anything he could do or say to lift her worries. There was just more assuring, more holding and still no guarantees that some newspaper wouldn't recognize her.

"Marry me," he said, his tone resonating louder than he'd meant. The words had just been waiting to be said. And he no longer cared when or how. Now they were out. This hadn't been the way he wanted to do that, but right now, more than anything he needed to show her how much he loved her and how little he cared about what her hair color was, as long as it was her, and to offer her any extra layer of protection he could - his name being one of them. He needed to prove to her that he would stay by her side no matter the consequences if someone did recognize her.

The microwave chimed in the background.

"What?" Celeste asked, unsure if she'd heard right, her sobs subsiding, sniffling her nose a little.

"Will you marry me," Jess repeated, taking her hands in his, kissing them, his eyes looking straight at hers.

Celeste was at a loss of words, the question having made her forget all that she'd been on about.

"You're serious?" she asked again.

"Are you really making me ask again?" he laughed with a crooked smile.

Her hot and slightly salty lips landed on his before she got any words out, whispering "Of course," just as the kiss broke for a brief moment.

"'Of course' as in you want me to ask you again?" he replied jokingly, raising to his feet with her, wanting to hold her closer.

"No, silly. Yes, of course I'll marry you," she scolded, hugging him as closely as she could.

Jess fished out the ring from his pocket, handing it to her.

"You've been really thinking about this, haven't you?" Celeste asked. She'd almost thought it had been spontaneous of him, but no - he'd planned this - well not THIS but the proposing.

He smiled in response, kissing her once more.