Title: Interviews, Memories, and Everything Else
Author: Alysinomo (alysinomo@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG-13
Archived: 9/25/2002
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: I forgot this is the first chapter, sorry! I'm not trying to steal anything. Gilmore Girls and the characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the lovely people at the WB.
Summary: Rory has grown up and is now a successful, 28-year-old journalist for the New York Times. She gets the surprise of her life (and one of her biggest career hurdles!) when she is assigned to interview a brilliant new author, Jess Mariano. What will come of Rory and Jess? Will old memories and feelings resurface?
* * *
"So, you're a journalist," he observed, pulling out the other chair and sitting down.
"You're a writer."
"Surprised?"
"No."
"You didn't expect me to work in the diner forever, did you?"
"No!" exclaimed Rory, "It's just that-"
"Relax. I'm kidding."
"Oh, ok."
At that moment, a waitress returned with Rory's coffee, allowing her first embarrassment to be defused under the distraction.
"You're still drinking coffee?"
"Like a fiend."
"Some things never change."
Rory blushed, thinking of the many ways she could interpret that comment, "Umm…shouldn't we be starting the interview? We only have an hour."
"Do you have somewhere to go?"
"No. Do you?"
"Yes." He replied simply.
"Well then we better get started."
"What happened between us?"
"What?!" Rory exclaimed, nearly falling off her chair. She began flipping rapidly through her notes, "I don't remember asking that question."
"You didn't," replied Jess with a cool smirk, "I did."
"Nothing happened between us."
"Why not?"
"Because it never would have worked, now let's start the interview."
"Yes m'am."
Rory flicked on her tape recorder, preparing to start her professional interview with Jess, free of all personal complications and matters. Yet his question had definitely thrown her. What had happened between them? What kind of a question was that? It made her uncomfortable, both his behaviour and his question. Jess was never known to be like that, he was always so mysterious and secretive. He was being so forthright!
While Rory was rummaging around in her bag, setting up for their interview, Jess silently cursed himself;
Great job. What were you thinking? You haven't seen her for 11 years and you throw out a comment like that? What were you trying to do, get her running in the other direction? If you keep it up, that's exactly what's going to happen. Smooth move, Mariano. Real smooth. Now get your crap together. But it never would have worked? Does she really think that?
"Ok!" exclaimed Rory, "I'm ready!" She pushed Jess' comment to the back of her mind and tried to act as normal as possible.
"Shoot."
Rory pushed the record button, waited 5 seconds and then began to speak.
"Hi Jess."
"Hi Rory."
"I wanted to get a chance to talk to you about your new book today, and get a chance to know the real author behind this amazing book."
Jess smirked. "Wow. That's a lot of praise. What did you want to know?"
"First of all, why did you choose to write this book?"
"I was inspired by a couple I saw on a street corner. They were fighting and eventually made up, right there, hugging and kissing and apologizing. I stood watched them from start to finish and was inspired to write a book about human behaviour, why people do the things they do."
"And why do you think people do the things they do?"
"I think people in general do things to get themselves ahead in life, whether they realize it or not. I also think people do things for subconscious reasons that might not surface right away, if at all."
Rory blushed. His comment made her think of the infamous kiss at Sookie's wedding. She hadn't known then why she had done it, but she was pretty sure now why she had kissed him, because she was in love. Jess noticed her get uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything. He pretended he hadn't noticed. Rory cleared her throat and clomped her way through the rest of the interview.
* * *
Several cups of coffee and 45 minutes later, Jess' cell phone went off.
"Sorry, can you give me two seconds?"
"Sure."
Rory watched Jess go out of the restaurant and into the street to take his call. As soon as he was out of sight, she crept off to the bathroom to call Lorelei.
"Hi."
"Hey mom!"
"Hey Christiane. How's the interview?"
"It's going pretty well. Aside from the few embarrassing references to our teenage relationship and all of its complexities, it's alright."
"Do you think you're gonna be able to write your article?"
"Yup. He's got a lot of good stuff to say. He's changed mom, a lot more mature than he used to be."
"Wow. The devil child grew up."
"I don't think the devil child's completely gone, I think it's in hiding."
"Or maybe it's trying to impress you."
"Sure. Anyway, I have to get back to the table, he's probably back."
"From where? Hell?"
"Bye mom."
"Bye Christiane."
Rory hung up her phone, and stuffed it back into her purse. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror before heading back out to the table. Jess was already back, sitting in his chair and patiently waiting for her.
"Where'd you go?"
"Mars. No, the bathroom."
He smiled.
"Ok. Well I hate to go, but it's ten to 1. I have to get back to the agency; Anne-Marie wants to talk to me."
"Oh god! You're right, sorry! They told me that our interview could only be an hour long but I got carried away…"
Jess continued to smile at her.
"Look. How about we continue this interview, say, Saturday night at 8:30? Back here?" he asked as her placed $30 on the table for the bill.
Rory immediately noticed the money.
"Oh, don't worry about paying. I've got the company card. And…is that a date?"
"Do you want it to be a date?"
"I don't know."
"Ok, well I'll see you then Rory Gilmore," he replied with a smirk, not bothering to pick up his money as he left.
Rory stood at the table, staring back and forth between him and the money, completely dumbfounded.
* * *
After the interview, Rory found herself wondering about Jess. What if it had been a mistake? What if she had left Dean for him, so many years ago? Would things be different now? Would she be living with him, married to him, or having his kids?
"Scary." Rory said aloud, trying to be logical and shake the warm feeling that was creeping through her body. Marrying Jess would be a nice concept….god, what was she doing?! Here she was, after one little interview, fantasizing about them ten years down the road. It was sick. Only flaky girls did stuff like that.
Jess couldn't shake Rory either. She occupied 95% of his thoughts all day long, making it hard for him to concentrate and what was at hand, promoting his book. He too wondered what would have happened had they dated one another, would his (and her) futures have been different? How would it have affected Luke and Lorelei's relationship? He knew that they both had this unrequited thing going for one another, each one too proud to admit it. Would it have been stamped out the minute he told Luke he slept with her? Speaking of sleeping with her, Jess couldn't suppress the smile that crept to his lips at the thought.
She wondered about their "date" on Saturday. Would it be as formal? Would things return to the way they used to be? Would she finally be able to get a handle on her mouth and on her emotions, stop blushing at everything he said? What would happen after that? Would they never speak to one another again? Would he ask her out again? Wait…did he even ask her out? It was just an interview.
* * *
On Friday afternoon Rory decided to call her mother again, she needed to dish on Jess some more, she wondered if she was becoming obsessive.
"Hi."
"Wow! We decided to answer the telephone like a normal person today!"
"Only because Luke denied me coffee until my manners improved."
"It all comes back to the caffeine."
"Of course it does!"
"Our blood is 95% coffee."
"Possibly even more. How come you never called me after your date with Jess yesterday?"
"It was not a date, mom!"
"Ohh…but you wanted it to be."
"No!"
"You want to kiss him…you want to love him...you want to hug him…"
"Ok. Maybe a little."
"So? What happened? I want a run down. What he said, what he was wearing, how many times you blushed and acted girly."
"Well, it started off a little strange, mostly from me. We got over it pretty quickly though, it was weird. It was almost like we'd not seen each other for a year, not eleven. We ended up spending the whole hour doing the interview, it didn't get too personal. Then we ran out of time. He asked me if I wanted to meet him on Saturday at 8:30, back at 21 Club."
"And you said yes."
"I need the rest of my interview!"
"But that's not all you need."
"Mom, was that a comment with underlying meanings, because god I hope not."
"Yep. You read right. I was simply pointing out that you want something more with him, and it probably includes sex."
"When did you become so crude?!"
"Hey. We're both grown Gilmores here."
"Whatever. I have to go; Heath and I have a date."
"Ohh…where ya going?"
"A Knight's Tale and Four Feathers."
"Romantic."
"He thought so."
"Night babe. Love you."
"Goodnight dear mother."
* * *
A/N: There you have it! Chapter 3! Not such an evil cut off this time. My benevolence got the best of me. Thank you so much for your support! 51 reviews for 2 chapters is pretty damn good! LOL. I love you all. Thank you for reading.