"That's the last one," Shelby said proudly as she turned to Jess beaming. "Mark this down: October 22, 2005, the saga begins."
"I can't believe we actually sold them all," Jess said incredulously.
"Of course we sold them all. I told you; we should have gotten at least another 20 copies printed," she scolded goodnaturedly. "Who wouldn't want to own a first edition of the soon to be New York Bestseller, Jess Mariano's breakout hit novel?"
"Ha ha. Yeah, 50 copies down, just 4450 to go."
She hits him playfully. "That's really not that far off. Honestly, I think we could have even added in some signed headshots to the mix. I saw more than one girl fawning over you as they passed by the booth."
"Okay, now you're just being weird." He turned to smile at her. "Besides, I didn't even notice. Too busy watching the pretty cashier screaming at people - a little bit too loudly might I say - to come buy the book."
"You think I'm pretty?" Shelby feigned surprise while turning to lean towards him. "I think this might constitute workplace harassment. If I didn't know better, I would say…"
"Um, hi…" a timid voice interrupted as a woman slowly walked up to the booth where Jess and Shelby stood.
"Rory. What are you doing here?" Jess asked, surprised.
"Luke mentioned to my mom that you were doing this book fair thing and, I don't know, I just thought I'd drop by and check it out. You know, support the arts and all that," she replied hesitantly, looking between Jess and Shelby.
Jess cleared his throat. "Uh, Shel, this is Rory." Jess said introducing the two women.
"Hey Rory, it's nice to officially meet you," Shelby said with an awkward wave. "I actually saw you a while back at the poetry night back at our house."
"Oh yeah! I loved that event. I didn't see you there, but it's nice to meet more of Jess' roommates." Rory said cheerfully, if not meeting Shelby's slight awkwardness to the situation.
After a slight pause and a few more awkward smiles, Rory turned to Jess, "I see the booth was a hit. Am I too late to grab a copy?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. We actually just sold the last one," Shelby said apologetically.
"Actually…" Jess interrupted while bending down to sort through his bag behind the stand. He rose, extending his arm out toward her, book in hand, "I saved a couple personal copies just in case. On the house, of course."
Looking between a surprised Shelby and a sheepish Jess, Rory took the book from Jess and thanked him. "I'm glad I wasn't too late. I would have kicked myself in the butt if I missed getting a copy of your book. Still, let me at least pay for it."
"No, no. Not necessary." Jess declined.
"Well, thanks. I'm looking forward to reading it. If you wrote it, I'm sure it's really great," Rory said gratefully. "So, anyway, since I was in town, I was hoping maybe we could catch up. Maybe grab some food or something?"
"Oh, uh," Jess paused, turning to Shelby. "Actually Shel and I were about to close shop and head to a reservation we have…"
"Oh okay, maybe another time." Rory said disappointedly.
"Actually, Jess, we can probably squeeze one more person in," Shelby offered. "The owner is my brother after all, and he kind of owes me for 21 years worth of favors."
"Really?" Rory asked. "I don't want to impose if you guys already had plans."
"Yeah, of course. I wouldn't want a friend of Jess' who came all the way out here to support his book leave without at least dinner," Shelby said with a forced smile.
"Okay…well let's head over," Jess said, hand on Shelby's back. "Rory, where are you parked? You can follow us over."
Rory, staring pointedly at Jess' hand on Shelby's back, said, "I'm just parked over on that street. I can wait for you guys and follow you from there.
"Sounds like a plan. See you in a few." Jess said parting ways with Rory to head to the restaurant.
Arriving at the restaurant, Shelby is greeted by her older brother, Brian, smiling at the door.
"And how is my favorite sister tonight? I see you've brought a lovely new friend to try out my world famous cooking," Brian said, greeting Shelby before turning to Rory, grabbing her hand and pulling it to his lips.
"Stop being a creep, Brian." Shelby warned. "Sorry, Rory. This is my 'wants so badly to be suave, but fails horribly at it' brother."
"Fine, Shelby, way to expose me," He groaned. "Follow me - I'll need to upgrade you guys to a slightly bigger table for all of your guests."
After the trio finishes their meals, Jess notices a woman approaching the bar nearby.
"Holy shit. That's Carly Simon," he whispered to Shelby. "Like, Simon & Schuster, Richard Simon's daughter, Carly Simon. I heard she shows up to festivals in Philly sometimes, but I didn't see her when we were there."
"That's gotta be why she's in town. You have to go talk to her, Jess!" Shelby encouraged, pushing on his arm excitedly.
"I don't know…what if she doesn't want to be bothered? I can't risk pissing her off," Jess said hesitantly.
"No way. This is a sign! The break we've been waiting for. Hurry up and go now, before I go jumping in as the excited girlfriend begging her to take a look at my amazingly talented boyfriend's new book," she threatened.
"Ugh, fine. Alright, I'll just keep it casual. Order a drink," He started to walk away before turning back to the table, "What's a drink that says serious author? Like an Old Fashioned?"
"It doesn't matter! Hurry, go before she leaves," She shooed him off, and he turned around before heading towards the bar.
"So…I, uh, didn't realize you guys were together," Rory said once Jess was out of earshot.
"Hmm? Oh, um, yeah about six months now," Shelby said with an awkward smile.
"Well, congratulations. I'm glad Jess found someone," Rory said, lips pursed in a tight smile. "He's a good guy."
"The best."
"Thanks also for inviting me along. Honestly, I was kind of worried about seeing Jess after how things ended last time," Rory said wistfully.
"What do you mean?"
"The last time I saw Jess we got into an…argument. I thought he might still be upset, but I'm glad he's moved on."
"Moved on?"
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter now, but I kind of blew him off for this guy I was seeing at the time," Rory explained. "I was in a weird place. The guy I was with wasn't the…nicest, I guess you could say. He had some infidelity problems," she paused, stirring the straw in her drink. "Jess and I, well, we used to date for a little while in high school. I kind of used him to make the guy I was with jealous, which I know was horrible of me. I didn't mean to hurt him. I care for him a lot, so I'm glad he's happy now."
"When did you say this was again? When you last saw Jess?"
"It was actually at that poetry night you said you saw me at. The one back in April?" Rory estimated.
"Yeah, I remember that night. He was pretty upset," Shelby said, recalling the events of that night. "Water under the bridge, I guess."
"Of course. And I don't mean to stir up anything. Really, I'm glad you invited me out. I hope I'm not being frank, but you seem like the kind of person I could be friends with."
"Thanks, Rory." Shelby said as her eyes caught Jess' on his way back to their table.
"Wow, that was incredible," Jess beamed. "Guess who got Carly Simon's personal email and a request to send over a PDF of my transcript to read later?"
"That's amazing, babe! Congratulations," Shelby smiled up at him.
Jess could feel a change in the atmosphere at the table and noticed that Shelby's otherwise warm smile didn't make it up to her eyes like before.
"Well, does anyone feel like dessert?" Jess asked as he sat down.
"Actually, I should probably head out," Rory said, grabbing her purse and coat before leaving some cash on the table. "It was great getting to see you again, Jess, and I'll definitely let you know once I read the book."
"I expect nothing less than extremely thorough notes."
"But of course," she replied, standing up. "It was nice to meet you, Shelby, and hope you guys have a good rest of your evening."
"Thanks, Rory. Same to you," Shelby said, waving to her as she left.
"Hey, babe," Jess said as he turned towards Shelby. "You good? Something seemed a little off after I came back from talking to Carly."
"Yeah, I'm fine," Shelby said unconvincingly. "Let me just let my brother know we're heading out, and we can leave."
After a quiet drive back to their house, Jess parked the car on the street before the two silently walked through the front door.
"So…we've got the place to ourselves. Do you want to stay up, watch a movie or something?" Jess asked.
"Actually, I'm feeling a little tired after all the excitement today. I'm going to wash up and head up to bed."
"Hey…" Jess grabbed her arm from behind. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I just need to wash off the day. I'll see you in a bit," she said, pecking him emotionlessly on the lips before heading upstairs.
About an hour later, Shelby finally emerged from the bathroom attached to the bedroom Jess and her shared. Wrapping herself in a robe, she walked silently past Jess as he sat on the bed reading.
Opening the door to the balcony outside, she quickly put on her slippers and walked through the sliding glass door. Following her, Jess stepped outside and approached her to the side, hands hanging off the ledge of the balcony.
"Talk to me, please," Jess said quietly, "I know something's wrong."
Without turning to face him, she asked softly, "Do you remember the night we got together?"
"Yeah, of course," he replied, "It was one of the best nights of my life. Top ten at least for sure," He joked cautiously, testing the waters. "Why?"
"When you came back to the house that night, you were really upset. At the time, I asked you if something happened, but you wouldn't say what. Why were you so upset?"
"Where is this coming from? Did something happen?"
"At the restaurant, when you left, Rory thanked me for inviting her. She said that she was relieved because she thought you would still be upset. That the last time you saw her, you two got in an argument about her using you to get back at a guy she was trying to make jealous," Shelby explained with exasperation. "And when I asked when that was, she said it was the night of the poetry event at our place. The night you came in upset, I talked you down, and we ended up sleeping together for the first time."
"Okay. I did see Rory earlier that night. But why does it matter? Nothing happened between us."
"Because if things had ended differently between you two, we wouldn't even be together right now, would we?" she cried. "The only reason we got together is because you were so upset about Rory using you that you, what? Slept with me to get back at her?"
"No, of course not! I talked to her, and yeah, I was upset, but I love you. So many things happened between us to build up to that night - you know it wasn't out of nowhere or reactionary." Jess pleaded. "If I didn't love you and didn't want to be with you, why would we still be together six months later? Why would I be spending every waking moment I have with you?" He grabbed her chin to turn her face to him. Looking her in the eyes, he said softly, but with conviction, "Look at me, Shel. Look at me, and tell me that I'm lying."
She took a deep breath and said shakily, "I love you, but when I look at you, I can't stop everything inside of me from screaming that I'm just your backup plan."
"You're wrong. I chose you."
"I don't want to be a second choice. I can't be. Especially to someone who is my first and only choice." Taking a deep breath and standing a little taller, she replied, "I need to take a little time to myself. Put a little space between me and this situation."
"Please don't do this."
"I'm going to stay at Rebecca's for a few days and clear my head. You should do the same and think about what it really is that you want. Now that Rory is back, and you've cleared the air, I don't suspect you'll be staying here too much longer," she replied bitterly.
"You're acting crazy right now, Shel. I don't want her. I only want you," Jess repeated. "I want you and me in this house with our stupid roommates who bang pots and pans at 2am and the stray cats that come begging outside our sliding door, even though God knows how they got onto the balcony in the first place. I want to stay up writing with you all night drinking coffee until we're too wired to sleep, and we go get tacos at Jimmy's truck even though he always forgets that you don't want onions, and I end up having to trade with you. I want to hear the 100th haiku you wrote about how much you love me even though you used up all the good rhymes and analogies and have to start talking about how my feet are proportionate and that's a good sign of good genes. I want the life we've built together here in this house. I want you."
With her hand over her mouth, in an attempt to stop her tears from turning into sobs, she replied, "I'll see you in a few days, okay?" and walked into the house, down the stairs and into her car as he watched her drive down the street and turn around the corner, out of sight.