Chapter Nine

Rory stood rooted in place. The day had already surprised her with her son not being able to go to school on account of a forgotten permission slip, a very near meeting of her son and his father, two date invitations from her married ex that she hadn't seen in approximately a decade, and now she was faced with yet another ex. She needed a minute to process this latest jolt to her system. Trying to buy herself some time, Rory smiled at Jess, as well as the others at the table, and took one of the two remaining empty seat.

Her relationship with Jess was in a better place than her relationship with Logan. In the years since high school, they'd met several times in casual settings. There was his book launch, his publishing company's grand opening, a chance encounter at an author meet and greet that Rory was covering and Jess was publishing, as well as a few other random run-ins in New York. Jess was still based in Philadelphia, so they didn't see each other very often, but they were definitely friendly.

It was just that seeing Jess in Stars Hallow, a wholly unexpected locale, after the day that she'd had that was overwhelming. Her brain, her emotions, her senses: all of them had been overloaded and ceased their ability to function.

"Rory?" Lorelai asked, her voice concerned. It filtered through Rory's haze and mental shut down and drew the brunette back to the moment. "Are you okay? You look a little spaced out."

Rory took a moment to smile apologetically at Jess and her mom before she answered. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to see you today Jess and it's been quite a tiring day. I think I was in shock there for a minute."

"My arrival was sort of last minute. Luke called me up yesterday and asked if I could come up. Said he had something important he wanted to talk with me, and he sounded a little out-of-sorts, so I drove up last night. Turns out he just wanted to let me know that he and your mom were getting married and he wanted to ask me to be his best man.

"If I'd known you were going to be here, I would have reached out." Jess tried to look sheepish, but his response came out as more of a playful jab.

Rory was the one who ended up feeling sheepish. She'd had so many unexpected moments on that day that she hadn't been very tactful when she'd spoken to Jess. She hadn't meant to imply that he needed to contact her before coming to Stars Hallow; it was just as much his home as hers. She hadn't meant to imply that he wasn't allowed to come and visit. She just hadn't been expecting to see him, and then when she did on a day when so many unforeseen things happened, she hadn't handled it well at all.

"I'm sorry," Rory said collapsing into her seat. "I've just had a really terrible day. It seems the universe decided when I woke up this morning that it would overwhelm me with surprises, a lot of them unwanted, and then seeing you, which is definitely a pleasant surprise, just put me over the edge."

"Maybe we should get some food in you before we talk further," Jess responded, apparently not upset at Rory. She smiled warmly at him; she definitely didn't need someone to judge her moment of weakness and, as she watched Jess try and wave over his uncle, she was reminded that Jess so rarely judged her. The few times she could remember, she had been acting like an idiot, like when she dropped out of Yale. It was one of the things she liked about Jess.

"Rory!" Luke called as he responded to Jess' entreaties and walked over to their table. "I wasn't expecting to see you today!" He smiled warmly at her and Ricky before turning to Lorelai, his smile slipping slightly. "Was I?" he asked her mom, obviously suddenly worried that he'd someone forgotten Rory's middle of the week visit.

"No, Rory's visit was quite the surprise. She had her interview with Logan Huntzberger today and he acted in typical Logan fashion and Rory needed some comfort from her mother." Rory was watching Jess as her mother answered Luke's question. At the mention of Logan, one of the two boyfriends that Rory had that Jess harboured an intense dislike for, the dark haired male stiffened slightly. However, he had no other outward reaction. Rory mused momentarily over the fact that her get-together with Logan, and his less than gentlemanly treatment of her, still made Jess feel tense.

"Well, it's nice to see you, no matter the circumstances that brought us all together. Now, what does everyone want to eat?" Luke took out his order pad and began writing down everyone's requests. The familiarity of it, sitting in Luke's with her mother, began to relax Rory. This was her happy place, where she felt the most like herself, the most comfortable. Even the surprise of Jess began to spread a blissful feeling through her, where there had once been tension and aggravation. Jess belonged here, in Star's Hallow, at Luke's. He quickly became a part of the comfort.

Unable to help herself, Rory smiled up at Jess, a slight blush creeping across her cheeks. She wasn't sure why she reacted that way, but she wasn't upset at it.

Dinner, as always, was delicious. New York was known for its food scene, for the amount of options, both unique and traditional, that one could eat. However, no matter where Rory went to eat in the city, she never seemed to find a burger quite as good as Luke's. if she was gone too long from Stars Hallow, she found herself craving them, and she could only satisfy it by hoping on a train and heading down to the diner.

"Well," Luke said, breaking Rory from her food-induced revere. He pushed back his chair and began collecting the plates and cups. It seemed, Rory mused, that Luke was never not a restaurateur; he was always making sure they had full drinks and that their table was cleaned almost as soon as they were done. Even though they were family, whenever Luke was at the diner, he was diner owner and not Lorelai's fiancé.

"I'll help," Lorelai said, jumping up and gathering the remaining dishes. Rory gave her mom a skeptical look; Lorelai was not domestic. So, seeing her voluntarily help clean up was a very strange sight.

"I don't know when the last time I saw you clean up dishes was," Rory said, continuing to stare skeptically at her mom.

"If I help, it gets done quicker," Lorelai responded. She lifted her eyebrows in a suggestive manor that Rory quickly interpreted to mean Lorelai wanted some 'alone time' with Luke. Feeling thankful that she had been taken in at the last moment by her mother, Rory decided to provide her with even more alone time.

"Shall we head home?" Rory asked her son. In response, Ricky pouted a little.

"I don't want to go to bed yet. I'm not tired," he responded. Rory hadn't meant that he should go to bed, they still had a train ride back to the city before Ricky would have to go to bed.

"You don't have to. We still need-" Rory began to explain before her son cut her off.

"I want to go see a movie! You always promise to take me to a movie here and we never go! I want to go to one now," he stated, his tone bordering on whiny, but not quite crossing that line. Rory sighed. She turned to try and find her mom, hoping she had some sage wisdom about how to handle a stubborn ten-year-old. However, she was only met with Jess, smiling ruefully at her young son.

It had been a nice surprise after all, seeing Jess. They'd had a more than pleasant conversation during dinner, reminiscing about their teenaged days and some of the trouble they'd gotten in to. And Jess had even listened, enraptured (though he was most likely faking), as Ricky regaled him with the plot of the novel he had just finished. Rory felt her heart melt as she watched him paying her young son so much attention and she found that she didn't want to leave Jess in that moment.

If she went through with her plan, to get Ricky onto the train that night, it would mean saying goodbye to Jess right then and there. However, if she caved and took Ricky to the Read and White Movie Theater, she could stretch out her time by a few hours. There was always the first train in the morning, that would be filled with all the commuting businessmen, that would get her and Ricky back to the city in time to get him to school. Her son would be overtired and not in the best of moods when she dropped him, but that was for his teacher to deal with.

"I guess we could go see a movie, but that would mean an early train tomorrow. Are you going to be able to get up extra early tomorrow so we can make it back into the city before school starts?" Rory asked, putting the real decision on her son. That, she thought to herself, was a parenting win. This way, when her son complained about it being early tomorrow, she could just put it back on him.

"I can sleep on the train," Ricky said diplomatically. He then stood, eager to go see his movie.

"Alright then," Rory responded. She too stood, and then turned to Jess. She was going to invite him to join them, but she couldn't quite figure out the words to ask him to tag along with her and her son as they went to a movie.

"I should probably be going," Jess spoke. He then turned to the kitchen, ready to yell out his goodbye to his Uncle Luke. Rory felt crestfallen. She'd missed her opportunity to expand her time with Jess.

"You should come too," a small voice spoke, stunning both the adults. Rory and Jess, almost in unison, turned to look at Ricky. He was standing by the door, handing off the handle as he waited for the slow moving adults to get a move on.

"Oh-uh, I don't know…" Jess said.

At the same time, maybe a little too emphatically, Rory said, "You should!"

Both Rory and Jess looked down at the ground sheepishly. Ricky rolled his eyes at his mother's strange, and delaying, behaviour.

"Well, if it's two against one," Jess responded, though he didn't sound upset at the prospect of having to go to the movie. Rory smiled a Jess. She then felt a tugging at her sleeve and turned to see her rather exasperated son trying to pull her out the door.

"Now that that's settled, can we go please!" Ricky asked, his tone several octaves higher than normal as he began to whine. Rory shot her son a look that told him to stop his behaviour, which he did and proceeded to look sheepish.

"Okay, let's go see what movie is playing!" Jess spoke, trying to break the mounting tension between mother and son.

Rory wasn't sure what movie was playing. It was some early Hollywood, black and white rom com. The acting was a little strained and the dialogue was definitely not natural. However, Ricky was absolutely enthralled, and Rory counted that as a success.

Ricky was sitting, his legs swinging, on the couch in between Rory and Jess. Rory had sat on that very couch many a time before, a few even with Ricky, and quite a few with Jess. And yet, this time seemed different. It wasn't the movie; Rory was barely paying attention to it, but even if she had been watching the movie, she definitely wouldn't be feeling this strange romantic tension because of it.

The air around her seemed electric. It seemed to spark and fizzle every time she moved. She also felt a pull off to her right, and she knew it wasn't coming from Ricky. Could there, Rory wondered, sneaking covert glances at Jess, still be feelings on her part? Were there feelings on his? She sat back and tried to focus on the movie, ignoring her thoughts about Jess and all the things she wanted to do with him.