Thank you for all your wonderful reviews – they actually do make me feel better!

As for life, I guess you just have to learn to roll with the punches, right?

Right now, I'm guessing you don't want to hear me babbling, you want to know what happened with the kiss? Well, here it is!

Recap from last chapter:

Rory opened her mouth slightly and their lips were so close she could feel him doing the same.

His arm circled her waist and he pulled her closer as she leaned in to close the tiny little gap between their mouths.

"I have wonderful news!"

As if hit by lightning Rory jumped back from Jess when the front door suddenly flung open and Matt stormed into the kitchen seconds later with a big smile on his lips.

Rory's heart pounded in her chest. She had almost kissed Jess. Their lips had touched for an inch of a second before Matt's voice had frightened her and made her jump away.

She had almost cheated on her fiancé by kissing her husband. The situation was already messed up and she had been terrifyingly close to messing it up even more.

She resisted the urge to lift her hand up and feel her lips with her fingertips.

It was a good thing Matt had showed up when he did. God knows what could have happened if he hadn't.

Or was it? She couldn't help but feel just the slightest little bit of disappointment over the interrupted kiss.

With her head bent down, seemingly staring at the floor, Rory watched from the corner of her eye as Jess took several deep breaths to regain his composure before meeting Matt's eyes with a forced smile on his lips.

"What?" He asked, his voice probably sounding harsher than he meant to, because he cleared his throat and asked again, this time in a more friendly voice. "What news?"

Matt, seemingly ignorant to the tension in the room, waved a bunch of papers in front of Jess' face. "Our loan application went through!"

The forced smile on Jess' lips turned into a sincere one and he chuckled happily while tearing the papers away from Matt's hand. "It did?" He looked down at the papers and mumbled to himself as he read through them.

"It did." Matt confirmed with a proud smile as he walked towards one of the cupboards and took down three champagne glasses, which he started filling from a bottle he'd brought with him when he came storming through the door.

Not quite knowing what to do with herself, Rory watched Jess while he read the papers. Both he and Matt seemed to have forgotten her presence in the kitchen as neither of them made an effort to explain anything to her. She tried to peek at the papers over Jess' shoulder. Loan application? A loan for what?

Matt turned around and shoved a glass of champagne into Rory's hand. "Celebrating time" He explained when met with Rory's confused face.

"Does Chris know?" Jess looked up from the papers when Matt handed him a glass as well.

"Of course he does, I was in the store when I got the call. He's joining us for celebration when his shift's over. I snuck out early to tell you the news" Matt picked up his glass and smiled wide as he waited for Jess to finish looking through the papers.

Rory looked at her glass and spun it around in her hands a few times before she looked up at the guys again. "May I ask what we're celebrating?"

"You don't know?" Matt's eyebrows shot up in surprise when Rory replied with a shake of her head and he nudged Jess' shoulder. "You didn't tell her?"

"It's none of her business" He answered without taking his eyes of the papers. "Besides, you're the one that's been spending time with her"

Matt dismissed him by rolling his eyes and turned to Rory. "Our loan application just went through and we're adding a publishing house to the coffee/book store!"

"You are?" She chirped, immediately caught up in the excitement. "That's amazing!"

"I know!" Matt's face gleamed with happiness, Jess didn't take his eyes off of the papers. "To Truncheon books, coffee and publishing!" He announced and raised his glass.

The cheer forced Jess to put the papers down, and he raised his glass along with Rory and Matt.

"To Truncheon" He repeated and even though he didn't really smile, Rory could very well see the happiness in his eyes.

"So, here's what I'm thinking…" Matt started as he sat down on a chair at the kitchen table, soon followed by Jess and within seconds they were engaged in conversation about where to begin with their new business. Rory smiled at the image of them sitting there and backed out of the kitchen.

Rory looked around the living room, while her mind processed the information she just heard. Their lived had taken different directions. They had made something of themselves – together. She had made something of herself on her own, and in a way she envied them.

She shook that thought away as she headed towards the hallway and slowly slid her coat on, thinking that it was probably for the better that she left and let them celebrate this amazing news on their own. Without her.

A thought crossed her mind and she ventured back into the living room, grabbed the post-it that Matt had left her this morning, turned it around and started writing on the back of it.

It was better that she didn't bother Jess with the divorce papers now. He deserved to celebrate tonight. He could look at them tomorrow or on Monday, when they were done celebrating and then send them to her. He knew it was urgent and he didn't need her around to remind him of that.

She nodded as if trying to convince herself that her sudden want to leave had nothing to do with the almost-kiss and everything to do with wanting the guys to celebrate without feeling they had to include her.

Of course that was the case. The almost kiss was nothing. It was a moment of temporary insanity if anything. Yes. Insanity. That was it.

She left the note with her address on it at the coffee-table and headed towards the kitchen.

"So…" Rory said calling their attention towards her where she was standing in the door frame with her purse in her hand.

The discussion between the guys died out and they both turned to face her. "I left my address on the coffee-table…She continued, turned to Jess. "…if you could just send the divorce papers to me when–"

"You're not celebrating with us?" Matt interrupted her with a clearly disappointed tone in his voice.

Rory shook her head. "I–"

"She has more important places to be" Jess answered in her place. "Cocktail parties and charity events, maybe a portrait waiting to be painted…." His eyes were cold and hard when they met hers.

She knew he was challenging her, or trying to make her feel bad for moving on with her life. Either way, she felt a strong need to prove him wrong.

She did care about them, all three of them. It was for their sake that she had felt it was better she left them alone. Not because she didn't care or because she had more important things to do.

Only because she had moved on with her life and met new friends it didn't mean she forgot about her old friends. She tried to make her eyes look as cold and hard as Jess', and judging by the questioning look on his face she most probably succeeded.

"Actually…" She said as she started to take her coat off. "…I wouldn't want to miss this celebration for the world"

Jess rolled his eyes when Rory walked up to them and hung her coat over a chair before she joined them at the table.

Rory flushed the toilet and then sat down at the closed lid, burying her face in her hands. What was she doing? Hanging out with Jess and Matt like this. Having fun.

Was it wrong to have fun with your soon-to-be ex-husband while you were engaged to someone else? It probably was. Ex-husband and fun were two things that usually didn't go well together.

But having fun wasn't the same as wanting to be with him, she reasoned with herself. Only because she was hanging out with some of her old friends it didn't mean she wanted that life back. She had left that life and she was happy now. With Logan. She was happy with Logan.

Besides, if her and Jess were able to laugh and have fun together all while getting divorced, wasn't that a sign that they were both pleased with the turn of events? She nodded to herself. Yes, it was.

She only wished she had had a chance to tell Logan about all of this before he left. Lying to him about her whereabouts over the phone earlier had placed an enormous amount of guilt upon her shoulders.

Lying to your fiancé wasn't a great start to a marriage. Heck – being married to someone else wasn't a great start to a marriage either, but they would make it work. Of course they would.

Pulling her hands away from her face, Rory sighed.

Yeah, she felt guilty.

But the largest amount of guilt didn't spring from her lying to Logan or having fun with Jess and Matt. It didn't even spring from the almost-kiss with Jess.

No, most of the guilt came from the fact that she couldn't deny that somewhere deep inside she wished Matt hadn't interrupted them when he did.

She pondered for a few moments, while subconsciously sinking her teeth into her lower lip, before she reached for her phone in the front pocket of her jeans.

I miss you, she quickly typed in a text, scrolled down to find Logan's name and hit send.

She did, she thought and nodded to herself. She did miss Logan. She loved Logan and she was going to marry him and follow him across the country and start a new life with him.

She just needed to take care of some unfinished business in her old life first. That was all that she was doing here. Taking care of unfinished businesses.

"Hey! We're leaving in ten minutes, Chris is waiting at the pub!" Matt shouted through the closed door.

Rory stirred and got up from her seat on the toilet and headed towards the sink. "I'm almost done!"

She quickly washed her hands in the sink and then stopped to take a look at herself in the mirror; not all that bad considering she hadn't planned on staying for more than a few hours when she planned this trip. She ran her hands over her clothes to straighten them out.

A deep breath of air escaped Rory's lips as she stared at her reflection. 'You have your future ahead of you' she thought as she watched herself and then she pursed her lips together in discontent.

What a stupid thing to say. Whatever your future held, you always had it in front of you – that was the essence of the future.

Whatever the future held…

She slowly ran a hand over her flat stomach.

Whatever the future held.

"The drinks have arrived" Matt announced as he put a plate full of drinks down at the table.

With a skeptical look on his face, Jess poked the glittery straw sticking out of his drink. "What's up with the glitter?"

"Well…" Matt shrugged his shoulders in an excusing manner as he slumped down on the seat next to Rory. "…I asked her to make the drinks look celebratory" He quirked his eyebrows as he watched the drinks, glitter and stars and even glittery stars sticking out of it. "She might have gotten a little overexcited about the idea"

"A little" Chris stated as he took one of the drinks and placed it in front of him. He hesitated for a second, then took another drink off the plate and pushed it towards Rory with a smile on his face. She returned the smile.

"What did she think we were celebrating?" Rory asked as she examined her drink, completely oblivious to her use of the word 'we'. "New Years?"

"Probably" Matt nodded with a serious look on his face as he observed his drink. Seconds later he shrugged the serious look away and replaced it with a wide grin. "To Truncheon" He raised his glass and all while chuckling his three friends mimicked him.

"If you're going to keep up this cheering-rate I'm gonna be dead-drunk before midnight" Chris stated, but cheered along nonetheless.

"Hey!" Matt argued when done cheering and putting his glass back on the table. "If there was ever a time to cheer until you're dead-drunk – this would be it!"

"I'm just saying…" Chris took a sip on his drink. "…'cause it's most likely you that will have to carry my dead-drunk ass home"

"Yeah, right" Matt countered. "As long as I've known you, there's always been a pretty little girl that's offered to take that chore out of my hands"

"So that's what it's like?" Chris' voice was amused as the guys kept bantering the way they always did. "I get a little too drunk and suddenly you're shipping me off to the highest bidder?"

"Nah" Matt shrugged and smirked. "First bidder would probably be a more accurate description"

Rory looked down at her drink and giggled to herself while listening to them. She reached for the straw and took a sip of her drink when she suddenly felt very aware of the fact that someone was watching her.

She looked up and met Jess' eyes across the table. His face was expressionless as their eyes met for a few seconds before he looked away.

Rory sipped at her drink while watching Chris and Jess engage in a heated discussion regarding the actual rules to dart. At the moment, Chris was accusing Jess of cheating and Jess on the other hand was trying to explain his take on the rules.

"Hey." Matt said and nudged her arm, making her turn her attention across the table towards him. "When you go back to Hartford or New Haven or wherever, to your fancy life with your fancy fiancé, don't forget about us, okay?" He smiled. "Drop by every once in a while."

There was a hard lump forming in Rory's chest as she struggled to meet his eyes. "We…" She stopped to take a deep breath and her eyes dropped to the floor. She pinched them hard together to stop the stinging feeling of…tears? No, that couldn't be. "…we're moving to San Francisco" It took a great deal of effort to keep her voice steady and force her eyes off of the floor and back towards Matt.

"Oh" He breathed out and broke the eye contact.

"I'm sorry." She offered and to her surprise she really felt sorry. "Logan's work is there and–"

"Don't sweat it." Matt shrugged his shoulders and finished of his beer. "You want another one?" He nodded in the direction of the bar as he stood up from his seat.

"No" She shook her head. "Thanks anyway"