Chapter 185

Late that evening, Rory called Jess.

"You close?" Jess answered, his voice groggy.

"Yep. Just dropped off Hannah and Jane at their places. On my way home now."

"I'll be up."

"It's two in the morning! Go back to sleep."

"Not a chance."

"…I love you. We'll both sleep once I'm there."

"And be miserable tomorrow."

"Sounds about right."

Ten minutes later, Rory opened the door to the apartment. She found Jess waiting, with a pot of coffee and two cups.

"…at 2:30 in the morning?"

"I figured you'd want some, as ill-advised as it may be."

"…you were right. Thanks," Rory said gratefully, taking a cup and filling it nearly to the brim. She leaned over to kiss Jess. Pulling away, she grinned. "Wow, you sure know how to welcome a lady home."

"…figure it's a good insurance policy for keeping you around."

"Well, you'll never get rid of me providing coffee at 2:30 in the morning."

"…maybe I haven't thought this through well enough."

Rory laughed. Jess smiled. She took another sip of coffee, sighing with delight.

"I needed this," Rory groaned, looking at Jess gratefully. He smiled, raising his eyebrows.

"I figured. Speaking of which, what happened to leaving early and getting home at a reasonable time? Pretty sure that was the plan last I heard."

"You heard before we found out Hannah and Jane indulged in mid-afternoon cocktails at some bar they found on the East Side. Apparently they make them stronger in New York. So everybody grabbed some food and another round of coffee before we took off."

"Sounds like fun," Jess laughed, "Where were the rest of you during cocktail hour?"

"Paris and Lane and I were in Brooklyn."

"Wow. Paris does not strike me as the Brooklyn type. Neither do you, for that matter," Jess teased. Rory laughed.

"Yeah, it was…interesting. We went so Lane could look at records and stuff. By the way, I brought you something."

"What is it?"

"You get it tomorrow. Definitely to build suspense, and not at all because I'm too lazy to unpack."

"Definitely not," Jess grinned. "But really…Paris in Brooklyn?"

"…I was surprised. She was really easygoing the whole trip. Seemed to get along with everyone really well for the most part. And she seemed really…at home, I guess. It felt like she'd lived there for a long time. I don't really know how to explain it."

"Did she show you anywhere you hadn't seen?"

"A bunch of places. I didn't take full advantage when I lived in New York, for career crisis-related reasons," Rory sighed, "But she did also show us her work."

"You mean the college?"

"Barnard," Rory nodded, "She absolutely loves it."

"And…what did you think?"

"What makes you think I have a thought?"

"Your face."

"Ugh, again?" Rory said disbelievingly. Jess arched his eyebrow.

"Again?"

"…I didn't love it. Lane pulled me aside and told me my face was totally giving it away."

"…yeah, that's pretty much the look. Why didn't you like it?"

"I mean, it was fine. Paris seemed to love it. That's what matters."

"…so what didn't you like?"

"…I guess I just liked Yale more."

Jess laughed. "Well, you can't compare everything to Yale."

"I guess not," Rory admitted, "I just…I thought I knew so much about Paris. And she always seemed so…grandiose, you know? And Barnard felt really small."

"Isn't it the best women's college in the country?"

"It's Columbia's baby sister."

"…I'm no Ivy League expert, but I have a feeling Paris would find that condescending."

"Well, she's not here anymore," Rory said petulantly. Jess raised his eyebrows, and gave Rory a look. Rory sighed. "Alright, sorry. It's just…Paris has always been my…foil, you know? She wanted Harvard, I wanted Harvard. We both ended up at Yale. Editors of the Daily News. She was my best competition. And she always aimed so high. This just doesn't feel like the Paris I know."

"How?"

"It's so much smaller. It's niche. She's not trying to be the best anymore. She's even acting different."

"Different how?"

"People like her."

"And that's bad because…"

"Because she wasn't like that before."

"You're really not giving me much to go on here, Rory," Jess said. Rory sighed.

"I'm sorry. It's late, and I'm cranky. The entire trip went great. I just…feel like I'm starting to not know who Paris is anymore."

"…well, that's the first thing you've said that I really get. I can see how that would be unsettling," Jess said sympathetically. Rory nodded. "Look, why don't we go to bed now? Tomorrow we're open but things are slow, and I happen to know you have a slow day at work too. We'll grab dinner tomorrow night, and you can tell me all about it then. Okay?"

"…that sounds great. Thanks, Jess."

"Anytime."

The following afternoon, Rory was at her desk gathering her things to leave work. Her day had gone relatively smoothly, her team on top of all of their assignments, a successful check in with the editor-in-chief, and some decent work on a feature she was trying to put together for next week. All that said, she was very ready to join Jess for dinner. They were going to meet at a Thai place downtown, not far from her office. Yes, it was his turn to pick. She comforted herself with the fact that they made a great massaman curry.

She'd heard from every one of the other women she'd spent the weekend with today. Jane and Hannah had both sent thank you texts for organizing the trip, Hannah's being more effusive and filled with requests to do another one sometime soon. Rory had said she'd love to, and Hannah had invited her out for drinks after work later this week. Rory was extremely happy to see that even though she'd planned the weekend mostly for Lane's benefit, it was also working out well for her.

Rory had received a voicemail from Lane around noon, thanking her profusely for putting the weekend together, mentioning how nice it was to have the break from everything, and reminding her to touch base once she and Jess were in town for wedding festivities. Rory was glad to hear that it had brought Lane a little bit of joy in the midst of such a stressful time, and reminded herself to check in with Lane later that week just to see how things were going.

And of course, there was Paris. Paris, being Paris, had sent Rory flowers. Matt had called to let Rory know, since they'd been delivered to Truncheon and someone had to sign for them. Jess had been out meeting with an author. Matt had sounded deeply amused on the phone, and when Rory had asked him what kind they were, he'd said, "Pretty ones?" Rory had rolled her eyes and laughed to herself, and called Paris shortly after to thank her and tell her how unnecessary it was, especially given that she basically hosted them all. Paris had shrugged that off, saying she'd really enjoyed having a fun weekend before the baby came, and mentioned that she looked forward to seeing Rory at the wedding, as well as the other girls, hopefully. Rory confirmed that they were all planning to be there, and Paris had seemed pleased. She'd also let Rory know that she and Jess were figuring out the logistics of the work they were going to do together, and that she'd let Rory know when she'd be in town for that. Rory had listened, rather absently, thinking to herself that it would likely be quite a while, given that Paris should very soon be giving birth, which would likely impede any travel plans. All in all, a long but good day. Rory headed out to meet Jess at the restaurant a few blocks away.

Jess smiled as he saw Rory walk in, her eyes lighting up when she saw him. She came over to the table and kissed him.

"How'd you beat me here?"

"Zero traffic," he answered, "We should do dinner at senior hours more often."

"Well, at least it'll help us catch up on sleep," Rory said, opening her menu, "I was exhausted all day."

"So how much coffee are we talking?"

"…you really don't want to know."

"…I believe that. Let's get some food in you then."

The waiter came over, and they ordered some food, a bottle of wine and a couple of sodas, for caffeination purposes.

"…so, how was your day?"

"Productive. And also generally good. I heard from everyone that they loved the trip."

"That's great! And yeah, I saw the flowers."

"You did?"

"Matt put them in the middle of the office since I wasn't there to let him up. I'll show you when we get back. They're great."

"…god, I feel awful for being so mean about her last night."

"You weren't…mean, necessarily. I just didn't really know what you were getting at. Want to try again?"

Rory nodded. "I just…it's great that she's calming down, if that's what it is. Or settling down. Or whatever. I don't know what to call it. But just…chilling out, I guess. It's just not the Paris I know. And her intensity is one of the things that made us friends. I'm worried that if she changes too much, we won't have anything in common anymore."

"…Rory, where do you work?"

"…what's your point?"

"My point is, you and Paris have both changed your definitions of success. Just because you aren't cavorting at the times and she's not operating on a senator, or being Vice Chancellor of Yale or something, doesn't mean that you don't both care about success. You do. You just define it differently now."

"…I guess I hadn't thought about how my side of things has changed."

"And did that change your friendship with her?"

"…not really. I mean, it might have actually made it better. We were kind of distant for a while before that happened."

Jess nodded, filing that new piece of information away to ask about later, at another time. "Well, in that case, don't you think that's possible here? That this is just Paris figuring out what's right for her, and it might actually bring you closer?"

"…I hate when you're right."

"No, you hate when you're wrong," Jess teased, earning a joking glare from Rory.

"Mean."

"Well, send me some flowers, and maybe I'll be nice."

"…how totally bizarre and over the top. She really is still Paris, isn't she?"

"Yep. You should see how tall they are."

"Tall? Oh boy…"