SPOILERS - None.
SUMMARY - Same as the other chapters
DISCLAIMER - The WB, Amy Sherman-Palladino, et al owns it all.
A/N: Thank you to CSK8-20 and Smile for your great reviews - they keep me going! To JessNRory2003: yup, the ring means a proposal is coming! Sorry for the long, long chapter - but I love to keep people in suspense!
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Chapter Ten (Still Thursday)
Luke rushed into the diner holding out the little slip of paper, completely out of breath. I grabbed it, ran upstairs to get my wallet and a couple cds for the drive and was out the door. Luke flashed me a smile and a wave as I ran to my car. I drove the 2½ hours to New Haven deep in thought with the music blasting. I drove around the town a little before stumbling upon the store that Luke had written down for me. I found a place to park and wandered through the store, first drawn to the collection of antique books that lined the walls. I could just picture Rory dragging Lorelai into the store once she saw the books from the window, and Rory would run to the books while Lorelai would instinctively head for the jewelry. It made me smile.
I looked over the spines and a particular old book caught my eye. "From This Day Forward" - it was a collection of poems reflecting on a person's wedding day. This was perfect. I went over to the jewelry counter and an old gentleman came over to help me. For such a small place, they had a large selection of engagement rings. I found a gorgeous art deco style ring with a large diamond and two beautiful blue sapphires on either side. They were as blue as her eyes and I knew that it would be perfect. I had the book wrapped, but kept the ring in its box as is. I paid for the book and the ring and made my way back to Stars Hollow, excited about my acquisition.
I got back to the diner around 6 and quickly scanned the place.
"Nope, they were here but went back to the house. Rory said to pick her up at 7. So, did you get it?" he said excited.
"Yup, come with me to the storage room and I'll show you," I said, looking around. It would only take one person in Stars Hollow to see that ring and the whole town would know about it.
"Wow! That's really nice!" Luke gushed. "The sapphires are as blue as her eyes!"
"Yeah, that's why I liked it," I smirked, feeling pretty happy with myself.
"It's going to be hard to keep the secret for another day, you know, Lorelai has a sixth sense about this kind of stuff. Before I proposed, she decided she needed to 'clean' [air quotes] the apartment upstairs, but all I found was that she rummaged through my dresser and all my cabinets looking for the ring!" Luke laughed at the memory.
"So where'd you hide it?" I just had to know. I was sure it would be a classic Luke maneuver.
"I put it in the lettuce crisper in the fridge," he laughed. "I knew she wouldn't go anywhere near it!" We both laughed.
"Well, I'm going to get ready for our date, and find a good hiding spot," I winked to Luke as I headed out of the storeroom and up the apartment stairs. I looked around and decided to shove the book and ring down into the bottom of my computer bag. No one would ever look there for it. I showered quickly and changed into my suit with one of my new shirts and ties. I was fortunate enough to be able to avoid Miss Patty who rushed towards me as I came out from the curtain. Luke intercepted her with a piece of 'complimentary' cheesecake. I gave Luke a grateful look and bolted out the door.
I pulled into the familiar driveway and climbed the stairs, barely having the opportunity to ring the bell before the door flew open. "Jess!" Rory said excitedly, throwing her arms around me and kissing me. I almost took a step back from the shock of it, but instead stepped into the kiss and wrapped my arms around her.
"Hey Rory," I said after we broke the kiss.
"I missed you," she said quietly.
"But you saw me a couple of hours ago," I said sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, it felt like a long time ago," she replied.
"Well, I missed you too. You're pretty habit forming," I smirked. I kissed her again. "So, you ready to go?"
"Yeah, just let me grab my purse," she darted inside and came right back out. "Bye mom, I'll see you.um.later!" she yelled upstairs before she came back out on the porch. I smiled. She sounded unsure about that later, I wonder if she plans on staying in the apartment with me tonight.
"Have fun!" Lorelai shouted back from the upstairs bedroom.
We walked out to the car and pulled out of the driveway. "So, where do you want to go?" I asked.
"Rudolfo's in Woodbury?" she suggested.
"As you wish," I answered with a smirk, then turned to see her smile back at me.
"You remember," she blushed.
"Of course I remember, I remember lots of things," I smiled and looked back to the road. She flipped through the CD's that were sitting in the console and put one in. We enjoyed a comfortable silence. It was so nice to have that again. So many women I've gone out with have felt the need to fill every single minute of space with their yammering about something. But not Rory. She was like me, comfortable with silence. That always surprised me, since her mother was the exact opposite, but then again, maybe that was why she was like that in the first place - her mother probably never let her get a word in edgewise. Huh.
We got to the restaurant and were seated immediately, which was a good thing, since that place usually gets busy on Thursday nights.
"Can I order a bottle of wine for us?" I asked. Rory raised an eyebrow. "What? Hey, you know, I've become a lot more cultured in the last five years. Well, okay, in the last year at least. Having to travel around so much, go to fancy hotels, attend fancy events, it starts to rub off on you eventually," I explained, looking over the wine list.
She smiled. "Sure, please order. I like chardonnay," she put her hand on mine. I looked up from the list and our eyes searched each other for a moment. I suddenly wished that I had the ring and the book with me. This would have been the perfect moment to ask her. Damn!
The waiter cleared his throat, breaking the spell. "Oh, sorry, we'll have the Didier Dagueneu Pur Sang Pouilly Fume, I stammered, still caught up in Rory's eyes.
"VERY good sir, I'll bring it immediately," the waiter took the wine list out of my hands and left.
"So, what did you do today?" Rory asked.
I held my breath. "Not much, did some work, some reading, went for a drive, just hung out," I felt terrible lying to her, well, the drive wasn't, but it was for a good reason.
"Oh, it sounds like you had a much more relaxing day than I did! All the running around, and they didn't get the right color flowers, and my mom just spazzed out at one point - thank GOD Luke sent me on this road trip with a thermos of his coffee! It was the only way to talk her off the ledge!" We both laughed.
The waiter brought the wine and I tasted it, then he poured the glasses for us both. "Are we celebrating an occasion tonight?" he asked politely. I look at her and she smiled. Damn! Another perfect moment to ask her. It would have been great to say, 'yeah, I'm asking her to marry me tonight' - that would have been so good!
"We've been apart for five years and we're now together again, so I guess you could say that we're celebrating tonight," I said, not taking my eyes off of her.
"Well, very good. I'll give you some time with your menus," he said and quietly left.
"So what do we drink to?" Rory asked.
"World peace? To your mom and Luke's happy marriage? To...um, us?" I said, gazing into her eyes with affection.
"To all three," she said defiantly, holding her glass to mine.
"To all of our wishes and dreams," I said back, clinking her glass and taking another sip.
"Oh my god, this is great!" Rory exclaimed. Yeah, I know. Someday I'll tell her how many European babes I was able to bed with that wine. Or should she ever know about that? Suddenly I had a major guilt trip. I don't know why. She knows that I haven't been 'without', so why do I feel weird about this? Why do I feel such a need to give her my 'confession' about the women I've been with? I certainly don't want to hear about the guys she's been with, that would just about kill me. She's looking at me again with that face. "What are you thinking about?" she asks, so innocently it makes me smile.
"Just my dreams," I said, hoping that she would be happy with that answer. Oh geez, who am I talking to, she won't be happy with that answer!
"What are your dreams?" she asked, turning into reporter mode.
"Well, Christianne..." I laughed. "I think I'll tell you about all of my dreams tomorrow. Don't ask, it's something I'm writing and I still need to work on," I said. She grinned.
"Okay, dreams are revealed tomorrow. When?"
"At the rehearsal dinner. I promise. I'll have it done by then," I smirked at her.
The waiter came back and took our order. We both ordered the pasta primavera, with the bruschetta appetizer. We were so in sync it was scary.
"Okay, so you're dodging the last question big time, dodger. So tell me, I'm the one who always wanted to travel the world, and you're the one who did it. Where have you been? What is you favorite place?"
That's the toughest question to give to her. "I don't know. I like a lot of places. London is great, Berlin kicks ass, Japan is amazing, Australia is wild, I don't know, it seems like everyplace I go always brings me back to Stars Hollow. And how lame is that? My boss thinks it makes my writing more unique, since I'm not giving it a 'New York' attitude. But I don't know, it's always a matter of comparing your most happy place versus what you're looking at," I tried to explain.
"Have you been to Fez? Because I still haven't been there. I mean, my mom and I did go to Europe after I graduated from Chilton, but I never made it to Fez. Have you been there?" she asked.
I laughed. "Actually, that's the only assignment I have ever turned down at the Times. I just couldn't go. I guess I thought I'd be haunted with memories of you being there. I thought that you would have gone there already, you always talked about it," I said, surprised that she hadn't been there.
"Wow. You turned down Fez because of me. I'm sorry..." she said sadly.
"Oh stop! I'm allowed to turn down one at least, geez, I'm like a trained dog at the Times. I go wherever Bill tells me to go, whenever, whatever, I drop what I'm doing and just go, I'm his dream writer!" I laughed at how pathetic I sounded to myself.
The bruschetta arrived and we busied ourselves with it.
"So how is Lane? What is she doing?" I asked between bites.
"She's really good. Got through that horrid seventh day Adventist college and she's now working in Boston as a music teacher."
"Wow, that sounds great! How about Dave? Did that work out?"
"Yeah, they're still good. They're even living together. But of course, Mama Kim doesn't know that. It's pretty funny to hear what she has to go through when her parents visit her. Fortunately for her, they don't go to Boston that much, so it's good." She paused for a minute and I opened my mouth to ask another question and she interrupted me and answered it. "The band broke up, but they started a new one, and do that on the weekends." I laughed.
"Hey, you're not supposed to answer a question until I actually ask it," I said with a smile. Damn! There's another moment that I could have asked her! How weird is this night going to get?
Our entrees arrived and we dug into them. "The food is so great here," Rory said between mouthfuls.
"Yeah, it always was good. It rivals some of the places I've eaten in Italy, actually," I said and really didn't like that I felt like I was bragging.
Suddenly my cell phone rang. "Sorry," I said pulling it out. "Jess Mariano."
"Jess! It's Luke. Can you talk? Don't let Rory know it's me," he said in a hushed tone.
"Uh, yeah, hang on a sec," I put my hand over the phone. "I'm sorry, I have to take this, it's my publisher, I'll be right back," I said quickly and left the table, heading outside the restaurant.
"What's up?" I asked.
"It's Lorelai. She's onto me. What should I do?" he said in a panicked voice.
"What did you tell her?" I asked, my voice tinged with anger.
"Nothing! I swear! But she asked me where you were today, and I told her I didn't know, that you were just hanging out, and then she started badgering me, saying that I was making 'the face' that I make when I know something that she doesn't know, and that I'm keeping a secret from her, and that husbands shouldn't keep things from their wives, and." he ranted.
"Luke, chill! First of all, you aren't her husband yet. Second of all, just change the subject! Tell her that I was up in the apartment all day and I was probably watching TV. She'll shut up about it eventually," I tried to say calmly. But then again, this was Lorelai. She doesn't shut up about anything. "Luke, just don't tell her, please."
"Okay, I'll try to change the subject, okay, I can do that," he rambled.
"Nothing like some good loving to shut a woman up, right Luke?" I laughed. He snorted in reply.
"Bye."
"See ya. And don't tell her!" I said and hung up the phone.
"Something wrong?" Rory asked as I sat down.
"Nah. They're just bugging me about my next book."
"Ah, you mean the one you haven't even started?" she smiled at me.
"Actually, I did start it, I started writing it right before you came to see me on the bridge on Tuesday," I stated.
"Really? Can I read it?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"No way! I never let anyone read a work in progress," I said, but I knew she'd get it out of me. She made a pouty face. "Oh, all right, maybe a few pages," I conceded. She clapped her hands in excitement.
"Let's go back to your apartment and read!" she said with enthusiasm.
"Don't you want dessert? Coffee?" I asked.
"We can get it at Luke's! Please?" she asked.
"Sure," I answered, signaling the waiter for the check.
END OF CHAPTER TEN
.to be continued
A/N: Thank you to CSK8-20 and Smile for your great reviews - they keep me going! To JessNRory2003: yup, the ring means a proposal is coming! Sorry for the long, long chapter - but I love to keep people in suspense!
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Chapter Ten (Still Thursday)
Luke rushed into the diner holding out the little slip of paper, completely out of breath. I grabbed it, ran upstairs to get my wallet and a couple cds for the drive and was out the door. Luke flashed me a smile and a wave as I ran to my car. I drove the 2½ hours to New Haven deep in thought with the music blasting. I drove around the town a little before stumbling upon the store that Luke had written down for me. I found a place to park and wandered through the store, first drawn to the collection of antique books that lined the walls. I could just picture Rory dragging Lorelai into the store once she saw the books from the window, and Rory would run to the books while Lorelai would instinctively head for the jewelry. It made me smile.
I looked over the spines and a particular old book caught my eye. "From This Day Forward" - it was a collection of poems reflecting on a person's wedding day. This was perfect. I went over to the jewelry counter and an old gentleman came over to help me. For such a small place, they had a large selection of engagement rings. I found a gorgeous art deco style ring with a large diamond and two beautiful blue sapphires on either side. They were as blue as her eyes and I knew that it would be perfect. I had the book wrapped, but kept the ring in its box as is. I paid for the book and the ring and made my way back to Stars Hollow, excited about my acquisition.
I got back to the diner around 6 and quickly scanned the place.
"Nope, they were here but went back to the house. Rory said to pick her up at 7. So, did you get it?" he said excited.
"Yup, come with me to the storage room and I'll show you," I said, looking around. It would only take one person in Stars Hollow to see that ring and the whole town would know about it.
"Wow! That's really nice!" Luke gushed. "The sapphires are as blue as her eyes!"
"Yeah, that's why I liked it," I smirked, feeling pretty happy with myself.
"It's going to be hard to keep the secret for another day, you know, Lorelai has a sixth sense about this kind of stuff. Before I proposed, she decided she needed to 'clean' [air quotes] the apartment upstairs, but all I found was that she rummaged through my dresser and all my cabinets looking for the ring!" Luke laughed at the memory.
"So where'd you hide it?" I just had to know. I was sure it would be a classic Luke maneuver.
"I put it in the lettuce crisper in the fridge," he laughed. "I knew she wouldn't go anywhere near it!" We both laughed.
"Well, I'm going to get ready for our date, and find a good hiding spot," I winked to Luke as I headed out of the storeroom and up the apartment stairs. I looked around and decided to shove the book and ring down into the bottom of my computer bag. No one would ever look there for it. I showered quickly and changed into my suit with one of my new shirts and ties. I was fortunate enough to be able to avoid Miss Patty who rushed towards me as I came out from the curtain. Luke intercepted her with a piece of 'complimentary' cheesecake. I gave Luke a grateful look and bolted out the door.
I pulled into the familiar driveway and climbed the stairs, barely having the opportunity to ring the bell before the door flew open. "Jess!" Rory said excitedly, throwing her arms around me and kissing me. I almost took a step back from the shock of it, but instead stepped into the kiss and wrapped my arms around her.
"Hey Rory," I said after we broke the kiss.
"I missed you," she said quietly.
"But you saw me a couple of hours ago," I said sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, it felt like a long time ago," she replied.
"Well, I missed you too. You're pretty habit forming," I smirked. I kissed her again. "So, you ready to go?"
"Yeah, just let me grab my purse," she darted inside and came right back out. "Bye mom, I'll see you.um.later!" she yelled upstairs before she came back out on the porch. I smiled. She sounded unsure about that later, I wonder if she plans on staying in the apartment with me tonight.
"Have fun!" Lorelai shouted back from the upstairs bedroom.
We walked out to the car and pulled out of the driveway. "So, where do you want to go?" I asked.
"Rudolfo's in Woodbury?" she suggested.
"As you wish," I answered with a smirk, then turned to see her smile back at me.
"You remember," she blushed.
"Of course I remember, I remember lots of things," I smiled and looked back to the road. She flipped through the CD's that were sitting in the console and put one in. We enjoyed a comfortable silence. It was so nice to have that again. So many women I've gone out with have felt the need to fill every single minute of space with their yammering about something. But not Rory. She was like me, comfortable with silence. That always surprised me, since her mother was the exact opposite, but then again, maybe that was why she was like that in the first place - her mother probably never let her get a word in edgewise. Huh.
We got to the restaurant and were seated immediately, which was a good thing, since that place usually gets busy on Thursday nights.
"Can I order a bottle of wine for us?" I asked. Rory raised an eyebrow. "What? Hey, you know, I've become a lot more cultured in the last five years. Well, okay, in the last year at least. Having to travel around so much, go to fancy hotels, attend fancy events, it starts to rub off on you eventually," I explained, looking over the wine list.
She smiled. "Sure, please order. I like chardonnay," she put her hand on mine. I looked up from the list and our eyes searched each other for a moment. I suddenly wished that I had the ring and the book with me. This would have been the perfect moment to ask her. Damn!
The waiter cleared his throat, breaking the spell. "Oh, sorry, we'll have the Didier Dagueneu Pur Sang Pouilly Fume, I stammered, still caught up in Rory's eyes.
"VERY good sir, I'll bring it immediately," the waiter took the wine list out of my hands and left.
"So, what did you do today?" Rory asked.
I held my breath. "Not much, did some work, some reading, went for a drive, just hung out," I felt terrible lying to her, well, the drive wasn't, but it was for a good reason.
"Oh, it sounds like you had a much more relaxing day than I did! All the running around, and they didn't get the right color flowers, and my mom just spazzed out at one point - thank GOD Luke sent me on this road trip with a thermos of his coffee! It was the only way to talk her off the ledge!" We both laughed.
The waiter brought the wine and I tasted it, then he poured the glasses for us both. "Are we celebrating an occasion tonight?" he asked politely. I look at her and she smiled. Damn! Another perfect moment to ask her. It would have been great to say, 'yeah, I'm asking her to marry me tonight' - that would have been so good!
"We've been apart for five years and we're now together again, so I guess you could say that we're celebrating tonight," I said, not taking my eyes off of her.
"Well, very good. I'll give you some time with your menus," he said and quietly left.
"So what do we drink to?" Rory asked.
"World peace? To your mom and Luke's happy marriage? To...um, us?" I said, gazing into her eyes with affection.
"To all three," she said defiantly, holding her glass to mine.
"To all of our wishes and dreams," I said back, clinking her glass and taking another sip.
"Oh my god, this is great!" Rory exclaimed. Yeah, I know. Someday I'll tell her how many European babes I was able to bed with that wine. Or should she ever know about that? Suddenly I had a major guilt trip. I don't know why. She knows that I haven't been 'without', so why do I feel weird about this? Why do I feel such a need to give her my 'confession' about the women I've been with? I certainly don't want to hear about the guys she's been with, that would just about kill me. She's looking at me again with that face. "What are you thinking about?" she asks, so innocently it makes me smile.
"Just my dreams," I said, hoping that she would be happy with that answer. Oh geez, who am I talking to, she won't be happy with that answer!
"What are your dreams?" she asked, turning into reporter mode.
"Well, Christianne..." I laughed. "I think I'll tell you about all of my dreams tomorrow. Don't ask, it's something I'm writing and I still need to work on," I said. She grinned.
"Okay, dreams are revealed tomorrow. When?"
"At the rehearsal dinner. I promise. I'll have it done by then," I smirked at her.
The waiter came back and took our order. We both ordered the pasta primavera, with the bruschetta appetizer. We were so in sync it was scary.
"Okay, so you're dodging the last question big time, dodger. So tell me, I'm the one who always wanted to travel the world, and you're the one who did it. Where have you been? What is you favorite place?"
That's the toughest question to give to her. "I don't know. I like a lot of places. London is great, Berlin kicks ass, Japan is amazing, Australia is wild, I don't know, it seems like everyplace I go always brings me back to Stars Hollow. And how lame is that? My boss thinks it makes my writing more unique, since I'm not giving it a 'New York' attitude. But I don't know, it's always a matter of comparing your most happy place versus what you're looking at," I tried to explain.
"Have you been to Fez? Because I still haven't been there. I mean, my mom and I did go to Europe after I graduated from Chilton, but I never made it to Fez. Have you been there?" she asked.
I laughed. "Actually, that's the only assignment I have ever turned down at the Times. I just couldn't go. I guess I thought I'd be haunted with memories of you being there. I thought that you would have gone there already, you always talked about it," I said, surprised that she hadn't been there.
"Wow. You turned down Fez because of me. I'm sorry..." she said sadly.
"Oh stop! I'm allowed to turn down one at least, geez, I'm like a trained dog at the Times. I go wherever Bill tells me to go, whenever, whatever, I drop what I'm doing and just go, I'm his dream writer!" I laughed at how pathetic I sounded to myself.
The bruschetta arrived and we busied ourselves with it.
"So how is Lane? What is she doing?" I asked between bites.
"She's really good. Got through that horrid seventh day Adventist college and she's now working in Boston as a music teacher."
"Wow, that sounds great! How about Dave? Did that work out?"
"Yeah, they're still good. They're even living together. But of course, Mama Kim doesn't know that. It's pretty funny to hear what she has to go through when her parents visit her. Fortunately for her, they don't go to Boston that much, so it's good." She paused for a minute and I opened my mouth to ask another question and she interrupted me and answered it. "The band broke up, but they started a new one, and do that on the weekends." I laughed.
"Hey, you're not supposed to answer a question until I actually ask it," I said with a smile. Damn! There's another moment that I could have asked her! How weird is this night going to get?
Our entrees arrived and we dug into them. "The food is so great here," Rory said between mouthfuls.
"Yeah, it always was good. It rivals some of the places I've eaten in Italy, actually," I said and really didn't like that I felt like I was bragging.
Suddenly my cell phone rang. "Sorry," I said pulling it out. "Jess Mariano."
"Jess! It's Luke. Can you talk? Don't let Rory know it's me," he said in a hushed tone.
"Uh, yeah, hang on a sec," I put my hand over the phone. "I'm sorry, I have to take this, it's my publisher, I'll be right back," I said quickly and left the table, heading outside the restaurant.
"What's up?" I asked.
"It's Lorelai. She's onto me. What should I do?" he said in a panicked voice.
"What did you tell her?" I asked, my voice tinged with anger.
"Nothing! I swear! But she asked me where you were today, and I told her I didn't know, that you were just hanging out, and then she started badgering me, saying that I was making 'the face' that I make when I know something that she doesn't know, and that I'm keeping a secret from her, and that husbands shouldn't keep things from their wives, and." he ranted.
"Luke, chill! First of all, you aren't her husband yet. Second of all, just change the subject! Tell her that I was up in the apartment all day and I was probably watching TV. She'll shut up about it eventually," I tried to say calmly. But then again, this was Lorelai. She doesn't shut up about anything. "Luke, just don't tell her, please."
"Okay, I'll try to change the subject, okay, I can do that," he rambled.
"Nothing like some good loving to shut a woman up, right Luke?" I laughed. He snorted in reply.
"Bye."
"See ya. And don't tell her!" I said and hung up the phone.
"Something wrong?" Rory asked as I sat down.
"Nah. They're just bugging me about my next book."
"Ah, you mean the one you haven't even started?" she smiled at me.
"Actually, I did start it, I started writing it right before you came to see me on the bridge on Tuesday," I stated.
"Really? Can I read it?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"No way! I never let anyone read a work in progress," I said, but I knew she'd get it out of me. She made a pouty face. "Oh, all right, maybe a few pages," I conceded. She clapped her hands in excitement.
"Let's go back to your apartment and read!" she said with enthusiasm.
"Don't you want dessert? Coffee?" I asked.
"We can get it at Luke's! Please?" she asked.
"Sure," I answered, signaling the waiter for the check.
END OF CHAPTER TEN
.to be continued