Chapter 10
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the Gilmore Girls but I do have the rights to Sundae, Circe, Brianna, and London (who will be in this chapter, I think)
Author's Note: I'm really enjoying all of the responses to my story. I love hearing whatever you all think about it because you all can only help me become a stronger writer. So PLEASE hit that button at the bottom of the page to write a response thingy. You'll make my entire day, maybe even week SOO much better.
Recap: Paris watches as Tristan and Rory spend time together at the Gilmore house.
******************************************************************************************************************
The dinner party –laid back event at the Gilmore house progressed until Bri and Sundae were drooping from sleepiness. As Rory and Tristan had made plans for the next day so Lorelei kicked everyone out because she was sleeping for two, no three now and needed three times as much sleep as normal.
Tristan had to drag Sundae home because she was so attached to Bri. Lorelei tried to buy the dog on the spot but Luke wouldn't hear of it, neither would Tristan. "Come on Sundae, I don't feel loved now because you have just dumped me for a little girl. Way to hurt a guy's ego, dog." Tristan commented to his puppy who was trying her best to sit down while walking, so she wouldn't have to move farther and farther away from Brianna.
********************************************************************************************************************
The next morning came bright and early for Tristan because Paris stopped by at the butt crack of dawn to talk to him about his story. Tristan, who had just come back from running, was not too pleased to have Paris interrupt his morning routine.
Paris came up to the door of Tristan's house and just walked inside. She knew his morning schedule so well because he was such a creature of habit. He would always do the same thing at the same time EVERY morning and it drove her, a person who lived by timing and schedules, insane. She heard him singing in the shower which definitely struck a chord with her. She had never heard him sing in the shower before. He never had done it when they were married or even while they were dating. Maybe Stars Hollow is good for him. I don't think NYC ever made him this relaxed before. I know I never made him this happy or de-stressed. Then again maybe it isn't the town but a certain person in the town. What am I thinking? Even just spending an evening with Lorelei has got me scheming and jumping to romantic conclusions. Tristan anyway never would fall this fast, I mean they spent at the most like two or three hours actually together yesterday. They both were working at Luke's so they couldn't really hang out so yeah. I am getting myself all into a tiff about nothing. I am reading waay too into this singing in the shower. I guess I just want him to be happy. I know it's too soon for me to be all this hopeful and lovey-dovey about Jess but I am. It just took me longer than most to acquire my girly side about romance.
Paris snapped out of her reverie to give Sundae and Circe some breakfast because Tristan always fed them after his shower which immediately followed his running. One would think that he would get bored of his routine that he has had since college but no he still does it, day in, day out. You can set a clock to him he is so precise. She heard the shower stop just as she finished measuring and pouring the animals' food. Paris walked up the stairs, wasting none of the precious time she would have with him before he had to leave with Rory and before she and Jess were planning on heading back to the city. She again didn't bother on knocking on his bedroom door, just walked in with her eyes averted to the floor, even though there was nothing that she hadn't seen before.
"Are you quite done yet?" Paris asked as she interrupts Tristan's actions of putting on boxers. He stopped in mid pull and just looked at Paris, mystified that she would be here this early and he would be practically naked. It was awkward for him, to say the very least.
"Paris did you by chance miss the fact that I am naked and trying to get ready. Usually such things guarantee privacy but I guess you missed that memo. So get out!" Tristan fumed. Honestly, women are making me a little bit crazy around here. I just need some me time. First Sundae wakes me up a full half of an hour before I normally get up because she needs to go outside. Then that Miss Patty character sees me from her dance studio and proceeds to follow me on my jog in her car. She was getting too close and almost hit me! I swear these are omens telling me to get the hell outta Dodge and now this! My ex-wife just happens to walk in on me getting dressed and has the gall to act all huffy, like I am late for an appointment with her. This is just crazy.
"Hello? Earth to Tristan? I think I lost you buddy? Where did you go?" Paris waved a hand in front of his huffy face to catch his attention. No luck. He was in his Tristan world and no one on the outside could get him out. So Paris grabbed his towel and decided to swat him with it. And let's just say that she can whip a towel at someone better than a pro football player in the locker room after the AFC was just won can. Smack! She gets him right on the money maker (his very fine butt) and that snaps him out of his revere like no other.
"…You just come in here, tell me to hurry up and brutalize me? In my own home? Where's the logic in that? Get out, get out, get OUT!" Tristan yelled, hastily adjusting his boxers so that he could chase Paris out of the room and lock the door.
A mere 10 minutes later, a cool Tristan breezes out of his room and down the stairs to meet a chilly Paris sitting on the couch with two mugs of coffee on the table. "Gosh Tris, I never knew you could be so moody and shy. I thought you enjoyed showing your body off to the general public. Anyway enough about that, before you get into another mood, I want to talk to you about your story again. You and I both know that I can't be here every step of the way but I want to make sure that you know how important Rory is to me. I don't want you to slander her name or this town's name in any way. This piece of yours is supposed to be pro-women so be objective, be true, and be good to Rory. I know the three objectives that I just laid out could be conflicting but you are a good enough investigator and writer to make sure that they don't."
"Paris it's too early in the morning to discuss the politics of the piece that I haven't even begun to start researching, let alone writing. And besides, I want to get ready to have Rory show me the town so just stop chomping at the bit for awhile. I can handle this. You know that I am your best writer, you don't need to baby me. The others need much more help than me, don't show favorites. I am really going to be fine on this."
"I just worry about my two best friends getting into something that neither one of them wants to know or even face. And I am not going to clarify what I just said. You will not come to me as your source for Rory information, I will clarify, but that is that. I am not going to be in the middle on this one ok?"
"It's ok, Paris. You are not going to get stuck in the middle here. I am good enough at my job so that I find my own sources and don't have to come crawling back to you to help me out. Trust me."
Paris was getting ready to leave and was at the door when he uttered the words 'trust me.' They said their goodbyes and as she walked out the door she muttered, "I did trust you and you broke my heart once Tris. I don't want to trust you so that you break hers too." But she was out of Tristan's range of hearing so he didn't hear her last comments.
Paris slowly walked down the porch steps and onto the front walk. She knew that Tristan had never really been her true love, but he had been her first love, her first of many things, and that teenage, young, scared, naïve girl inside of her still hurt a tiny bit over him. But her more mature self knew that he and she were never meant to be.
***
Tristan met up with Rory at Luke's where they had a leisurely breakfast. Since Rory was not fully able to function without a good amount of food in her body as well as coffee, the conversation was very limited. After breakfast however, on their way to Lorelei's Inn, she became more animate gesturing to houses and shops with fun anecdotes and hand motions.
"…and this is my mom's inn. She finally bought one after I graduated from Chilton. She and Sookie went in it together and they have definitely prospered. Sookie let Mom and me have free reign on the decorating of the rooms so we had a field day. After having a really bad experience at a bed and breakfast, Mom and I decided not to decorate any of the rooms in flower or cat motifs." Tristan gave her a 'please explain look' but Rory would not comply. "Trust me, not only do I not want to relive that, you just don't want to know."
Rory took Tristan around to the non-occupied rooms and he just loved each story that she told about them and each different style that they created in the rooms.
"…and with this room Mom and I wanted to do the whole 'I am a rockstar and I just trashed this room' but we figured that it wouldn't fly so well with the people who want to come to Stars Hollow to the festivals and what not. So instead we decided on a Madonna theme, well Madonna with Sean Penn, all the happy girly-ness that she emanated in "Material Girl." So we did get the rockstar-ness but not in the same category. My mom had a bidding war with this lady from Tennessee on Ebay over the lit up vanity mirror we have in the bathroom. Did you ever see that Will and Grace episode when Jack got that beeper thing that was tuned in to the bidding war he was having on Ebay over something to do with *Nsync or some other pop thing? Well Mom got one of those so that she would get the mirror. It went off during on of our Friday night dinners with my grandparents and my grandmother would not let my mom leave the table to check her 'I'm a drug dealer' beeper. Just having my grandmother start lament over her daughter the drug dealer and my mom egging her on was the funniest thing. That was one of the more fun dinners. It went in the book."
"The book? Does that mean it reached maybe top ten of the dinners of all time?"
"Good boy, you are learning. Now how bout we, woah. Is that the real time? Have we really spent all morning here? That doesn't leave us much time to see the rest of the town. I still need to introduce you to lots of people who have only seen your picture. And before you ask, yes, I think it was Miss Patty that took your picture, and I think she said it was when you were running yesterday. I would recommend wearing a shirt next time because you almost gave her a heart attack. She has set her sites on having you be her next husband."
"She followed me in her car this morning when I went running. She almost ran me OVER!" At this comment Rory's eyes widen incredibly and she can barely breathe she is laughing so hard. Luckily there is a bed in the room because she drapes herself over it – she has no energy to stand up straight, she can picture Tristan running with Patty driving close behind him and paying too much attention that she speeds up and almost kills the man.
When Rory stopped laughing she was able to get up and lead Tristan down to the kitchen. "I don't think I have laughed that hard since, well, yesterday. Good job, I don't think many can say that they make me laugh as hard as my mom or Lane. But anyway I am quite hungry and Sookie has made us a basket for lunch. I hope you brought your appetite because she could be a short order cook for the army. That woman, who I love dearly, always makes so much food. But it's so good that you are willing to try to eat it all and be so full that you can't move. SOOKIE!" Rory yells into the kitchen.
A loud bang followed by a crash can be heard through out the ground floor of the inn, followed again by the, "It's alright, I'm ok," of Sookie in the back of the kitchen.
Author's Ramblings : I know I left the story on a random end but what will Sookie do when she meets Tristan? She has already talked to Lorelei and she knows that Rory is engaged. Will she just assume that the way the pair is looking at one another that they are the engaged couple? Hmmm tune in next time, AND REVIEW! I will get the next chapter out next Sunday and I will be updating on Sundays from now on.