Disclaimer:I own nothing!Well, the characters I made up I kind of own, but it's not like I can sue myself so I really don't even need to mention it!
A/N:To those of you who reviewed the last chapter, THANK YOU sooo much!!!! I wasn't sure if it was going to come together, because I came up with this story on a whim, which I usually don't do. But having finished this chapter, I'm fairly certain that it will turn out just fine! Also, I have no idea if there really is a CNN office in California or Chicago, if there's not, well you guys have good imaginations, so we can just pretend!Also, I did try to do some research to make it more real, but once I did that I couldn't make up my mind about where to put them. So they're probably going to be doing a little bit of everything even though in reality they'd stick to one specific task. But I very much doubt that anyone was using this story as a guide of how to get in at CNN!! So basically, suspend reality! That's the fun of fiction! I'm probably going to have fun with this chapter, so, without further ado, here it is! Hope you like it!
*
Jess was sporting his trademark smirk. Claire softly and subtly nudged Rory, "Hi." That was all she could muster up. Her mind was racing, what am I feeling right now? Why can't I feel my legs? Why isn't my alarm clock going off? This cannot be real. Can it? I work for Jess? Jess is my boss?
"Hi." He reached out to shake her hand.
She shook it, still slightly dazed. And surprised that he was shaking her hand. Like she didn't know who he was.
"Okay, and let me show your office." Mr.Winston, whom at the time Rory dropped the papers was confused as to why she had that reaction, decided to move on to the next part of the 'welcome to your new location' tour. Jess shot Rory one last glance then followed Mr.Winston.
"What was that?" Claire asked, once the two men walked into the office.
"This is not happening." Rory said more to herself then to Claire or Andy.
"What's not happening? Why'd you go all 'I'm melting I'm melting' at the mere sight of him?" Andy asked.
Rory shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. "Because."
"Well, at least you have a good reason." Claire said.
"There's no way you could've thought the guy was THAT great looking." Andy said to her.
"Andy, why are you so bugged by this?" Claire asked.
"I'm not." he said defensively. "I just saw my friend go all spaghetti legged, butter fingers, and tongue tied, and I'm slightly curious as to why." he said.
"I...or he...we...huh." Rory decided to stop and regroup. "We used to know eachother."
"You did?" Andy asked.
"How?" Claire asked.
Rory wasn't sure of whether to tell them the truth or to say 'oh we just lived in the same town and were friends' how would this news even be explained, "Um, we used to be friends." she said.
"Friends?" Claire smirked.
"Just friends?" Andy asked.
"For awhile." Rory replied.
"Then you were more?" Claire asked.
"Yeah, for a little while. Anyway," she reclaimed the papers that she dropped when she saw Jess,"I have to get this done. And then I have to go see if my new boss wants anything."
"Okay, but at lunch time don't even think of leaving without me." Claire said.
"Well, I should get to my office and actually do some work." Andy said. "Claire, you might want to come too."
"Yes sir." Claire teased."See ya at lunch." she said to Rory.
"Counting on it." Rory said. She decided to start working. About 20 minutes later she was typing on the computer and didn't realize the presense of a person behind her.
"Having a good day?" Jess startled her.
She turned around alarmed. "You scared me. Not nice."
"Sorry." His voice was severely lacking sincerity.
"I'm sure."she slightly rolled her eyes. "So, was scaring me the only reason you graced me with your presense?"
"No, actually I wanted to ask if you could get me three copies of this." he handed her a paper.
Rory clenched her teeth, "Sure." she took the paper.
"Thank you," he paused a second before going on, "Miss Gilmore." And with a smirk he went to his office.
"This is going to be fun." she murmurred to herself, once he was out of sight.
*
At lunch, Claire made it to Rory's desk much faster than usual.
"Whoa, you're early." Rory said.
"I know, I decided to skip flirting with the guys that always stare at me on the way to your office."
"Oh, okay."
"It cut about five minutes off my route." she pointed out.
"Okay, well, I'm ready." Rory stood up.
Claire got her flirty smile and stance as she saw Jess walking down the hall, on his way to lunch.
"Hi." she said.
"Hi," he replied flashing her a charming smile, then he smirked to continue,"Have a nice lunch break, Miss Gilmore."And he vanished once again.
Rory stared at Claire.
"What?" she asked, her flirty smile going back to a normal smile.
Rory scoffed, and stared for another second.
"Give me a break, I didn't flirt at all on the way here." she finally answered the unasked question.
"Whatever." Rory rolled her eyes, "So, is Andy coming?" she asked.
"Yeah, so how are you and Jess hitting it off?"
"If you say the name Jess again within the next five minutes I'm going to throw one of these computers out that window." she pointed to a nearby window.
"That good huh? Well, how's it going with Mr.Mariano, and don't leave out any details?"
"That's the same as saying Jess." Rory objected.
"Nuh uh, you didn't say I couldn't say that, and now your 'you can't say this name' timeslot has passed."
"How do you figure?" Rory asked.
"It just has. Talk."
"No."
"I want to hear more about Mr.M-"
"Don't even think about saying Mariano." Rory warned.
"About the ex-boyfriend turned boss." she said.
"He's going to be quite a pleasure to work with. The end."
"Oh, come on. We're friends, you have to tell me." Claire said.
"Says who?" Rory challenges.
"It's in the unwritten friendship manuel."
"Well, there's also an 'if my ex-boyfriend has come traipsing back in my life in the shape of my boss and if I talk about him I'll go insane' clause that nullifies that rule." Rory said.
"Hey girls." Andy entered their world.
"Andy. A welcome interruption." Rory said.
"What are you guys fighting about?" he asked.
"Jess." Claire answered.
"Already?" Andy rolled his eyes.
"We're not fighting about Jess." Rory said.
"Yes, we were." Claire said. Claire is the assertive one of the two.
"Okay, guys-"
"I don't think it's that unreasonable to not want to talk about him." Rory said.
"Well, I don't see why you won't say anything about him. Why is he this big secret?" Claire asked.
"He's not. The Jess chapter of my life was closed. And now, as some sick, cruel joke, fate has pryed that chapter back open and excuse me if there's some bagage!" Rory went off.
Claire was taken aback, Rory never snapped at her. "Okay. Who's up for lunch?" she asked.
Rory surprised herself in that rant too. "Me." she said.
Andy looked between the two, then let out a small sigh."Yeah, me too."
And with that the three went to lunch, they were completely silent until about five minutes later when Andy finally started a conversation.
*
After lunch, Jess and Andy,whom are equals in the job ladder, were getting ready to go into a meeting.
"Here you go." Claire handed Andy his coffee.
"Thanks." he stood by the door waiting for more of the people to come.
Jess decides that'd be fun, and turned to his little do-everything girl, "Could you get me a cup of coffee?"
"Sure." she really wanted to say 'get your own', but obviously couldn't.
"One creamer-'
"One sugar," she cut him off. "I know."
"Why? Am I predictable?" he asked.
"No, of all the things you are, predictable is not one of them. I just remember." she said, and went to get his coffee. Not everyone's attention span equals to that of a two year old, she thought. She shook her head to herself with a small smile, in the lounge as she fixed his coffee. It's ironic, she thought, then he was pouring MY coffee, now after attending Yale, YALE, while he was off doing whatever he was doing, and now, here I am, fixing HIM coffee. That's irony for you. She took his coffee to him. "Here you go." she handed him his cup, she couldn't bring herself to call him Mr.Mariano yet, so she just didn't address him at all.
"Thank you."
"Sure. Anything else?"
Jess smirked, he was really liking this. "No, thanks."
She wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but Mr.Winston came to get them for the meeting, so she used every drop of self discipline she had and plastered on an incredibly fake smile,"Sure, Mr, Mariano."
There I said it! She thought. He was quite pleased with it too. He just winked at her and went in the room.
Claire came over to Rory," What's up?"
"If I kill him, will you provide my alibi?" she asked.
"No."
"Traitor! Why not?" Rory pouted.
"Because, then I wouldn't see him anymore. He's too cute for me to let you kill. Sorry."
"Oh well."
"Why's he so horrible?"
"Other than the obvious reasons?" Rory asked.
"Sure."
"He winked at me."
Claire stared for a second, "And...?"
"And nothing."
"He just winked at you?"
"Yes, but it was one of those 'ha ha I'm your boss and you're getting me coffee and I'm not getting your coffee haha ha' winks."
"Oh yes, I've heard of those."
"Are you mocking me?" Rory asked.
"Yes."
"Very nice."
"A wink is a wink Ror, he probably wasn't trying to tantalize you. Maybe he likes you."
"Ha! Oh of course! THAT explains why he's treating me like another lifeform that he lives to torture that lives to serve him."
"Has a little boy ever pulled your hair?"
"All babies pull my hair."
"No, I meant when you were little."
"Oh please." Rory rolled her eyes, "Don't give me the boy pulling the girls hair analogy."
"Fine. But at least you know it. Maybe he's just adjusting." she suggested.
"Yeah, do you know the look of pure satisfaction that he had when I called him Mr.Mariano?"
Claire smiled."Okay, cool down kid, let's go before you go take Mr.Mariano's beautiful head off."
Rory pouted,"He loved it."
"I know." Claire just smirked,"I know." And the two walked back to their little corners of the world.
*
A/N:'Kay, I'm gonna stop this chapter because I want to update tonight! Thanks to my reviewers!! I love you all and I'll try to update soon but I want to update one of my other stories first! jhfortier,thank you so much, it's hard to make the future fics original because a lot of people do them so thanks for acknowledging that I strayed away! Thanks for all of your reviews, and I'm glad that everybody liked Claire, Andy and Shelly, I wasn't sure if this was going to come together, but I think it is! Also, in the future I will clear up more of the Rory/Jess animosity and there'll be more R/J action! Please tell me what you guys think! I love you all and I'm glad you like it!! PLEASE REVIEW!!
A/N:To those of you who reviewed the last chapter, THANK YOU sooo much!!!! I wasn't sure if it was going to come together, because I came up with this story on a whim, which I usually don't do. But having finished this chapter, I'm fairly certain that it will turn out just fine! Also, I have no idea if there really is a CNN office in California or Chicago, if there's not, well you guys have good imaginations, so we can just pretend!Also, I did try to do some research to make it more real, but once I did that I couldn't make up my mind about where to put them. So they're probably going to be doing a little bit of everything even though in reality they'd stick to one specific task. But I very much doubt that anyone was using this story as a guide of how to get in at CNN!! So basically, suspend reality! That's the fun of fiction! I'm probably going to have fun with this chapter, so, without further ado, here it is! Hope you like it!
*
Jess was sporting his trademark smirk. Claire softly and subtly nudged Rory, "Hi." That was all she could muster up. Her mind was racing, what am I feeling right now? Why can't I feel my legs? Why isn't my alarm clock going off? This cannot be real. Can it? I work for Jess? Jess is my boss?
"Hi." He reached out to shake her hand.
She shook it, still slightly dazed. And surprised that he was shaking her hand. Like she didn't know who he was.
"Okay, and let me show your office." Mr.Winston, whom at the time Rory dropped the papers was confused as to why she had that reaction, decided to move on to the next part of the 'welcome to your new location' tour. Jess shot Rory one last glance then followed Mr.Winston.
"What was that?" Claire asked, once the two men walked into the office.
"This is not happening." Rory said more to herself then to Claire or Andy.
"What's not happening? Why'd you go all 'I'm melting I'm melting' at the mere sight of him?" Andy asked.
Rory shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. "Because."
"Well, at least you have a good reason." Claire said.
"There's no way you could've thought the guy was THAT great looking." Andy said to her.
"Andy, why are you so bugged by this?" Claire asked.
"I'm not." he said defensively. "I just saw my friend go all spaghetti legged, butter fingers, and tongue tied, and I'm slightly curious as to why." he said.
"I...or he...we...huh." Rory decided to stop and regroup. "We used to know eachother."
"You did?" Andy asked.
"How?" Claire asked.
Rory wasn't sure of whether to tell them the truth or to say 'oh we just lived in the same town and were friends' how would this news even be explained, "Um, we used to be friends." she said.
"Friends?" Claire smirked.
"Just friends?" Andy asked.
"For awhile." Rory replied.
"Then you were more?" Claire asked.
"Yeah, for a little while. Anyway," she reclaimed the papers that she dropped when she saw Jess,"I have to get this done. And then I have to go see if my new boss wants anything."
"Okay, but at lunch time don't even think of leaving without me." Claire said.
"Well, I should get to my office and actually do some work." Andy said. "Claire, you might want to come too."
"Yes sir." Claire teased."See ya at lunch." she said to Rory.
"Counting on it." Rory said. She decided to start working. About 20 minutes later she was typing on the computer and didn't realize the presense of a person behind her.
"Having a good day?" Jess startled her.
She turned around alarmed. "You scared me. Not nice."
"Sorry." His voice was severely lacking sincerity.
"I'm sure."she slightly rolled her eyes. "So, was scaring me the only reason you graced me with your presense?"
"No, actually I wanted to ask if you could get me three copies of this." he handed her a paper.
Rory clenched her teeth, "Sure." she took the paper.
"Thank you," he paused a second before going on, "Miss Gilmore." And with a smirk he went to his office.
"This is going to be fun." she murmurred to herself, once he was out of sight.
*
At lunch, Claire made it to Rory's desk much faster than usual.
"Whoa, you're early." Rory said.
"I know, I decided to skip flirting with the guys that always stare at me on the way to your office."
"Oh, okay."
"It cut about five minutes off my route." she pointed out.
"Okay, well, I'm ready." Rory stood up.
Claire got her flirty smile and stance as she saw Jess walking down the hall, on his way to lunch.
"Hi." she said.
"Hi," he replied flashing her a charming smile, then he smirked to continue,"Have a nice lunch break, Miss Gilmore."And he vanished once again.
Rory stared at Claire.
"What?" she asked, her flirty smile going back to a normal smile.
Rory scoffed, and stared for another second.
"Give me a break, I didn't flirt at all on the way here." she finally answered the unasked question.
"Whatever." Rory rolled her eyes, "So, is Andy coming?" she asked.
"Yeah, so how are you and Jess hitting it off?"
"If you say the name Jess again within the next five minutes I'm going to throw one of these computers out that window." she pointed to a nearby window.
"That good huh? Well, how's it going with Mr.Mariano, and don't leave out any details?"
"That's the same as saying Jess." Rory objected.
"Nuh uh, you didn't say I couldn't say that, and now your 'you can't say this name' timeslot has passed."
"How do you figure?" Rory asked.
"It just has. Talk."
"No."
"I want to hear more about Mr.M-"
"Don't even think about saying Mariano." Rory warned.
"About the ex-boyfriend turned boss." she said.
"He's going to be quite a pleasure to work with. The end."
"Oh, come on. We're friends, you have to tell me." Claire said.
"Says who?" Rory challenges.
"It's in the unwritten friendship manuel."
"Well, there's also an 'if my ex-boyfriend has come traipsing back in my life in the shape of my boss and if I talk about him I'll go insane' clause that nullifies that rule." Rory said.
"Hey girls." Andy entered their world.
"Andy. A welcome interruption." Rory said.
"What are you guys fighting about?" he asked.
"Jess." Claire answered.
"Already?" Andy rolled his eyes.
"We're not fighting about Jess." Rory said.
"Yes, we were." Claire said. Claire is the assertive one of the two.
"Okay, guys-"
"I don't think it's that unreasonable to not want to talk about him." Rory said.
"Well, I don't see why you won't say anything about him. Why is he this big secret?" Claire asked.
"He's not. The Jess chapter of my life was closed. And now, as some sick, cruel joke, fate has pryed that chapter back open and excuse me if there's some bagage!" Rory went off.
Claire was taken aback, Rory never snapped at her. "Okay. Who's up for lunch?" she asked.
Rory surprised herself in that rant too. "Me." she said.
Andy looked between the two, then let out a small sigh."Yeah, me too."
And with that the three went to lunch, they were completely silent until about five minutes later when Andy finally started a conversation.
*
After lunch, Jess and Andy,whom are equals in the job ladder, were getting ready to go into a meeting.
"Here you go." Claire handed Andy his coffee.
"Thanks." he stood by the door waiting for more of the people to come.
Jess decides that'd be fun, and turned to his little do-everything girl, "Could you get me a cup of coffee?"
"Sure." she really wanted to say 'get your own', but obviously couldn't.
"One creamer-'
"One sugar," she cut him off. "I know."
"Why? Am I predictable?" he asked.
"No, of all the things you are, predictable is not one of them. I just remember." she said, and went to get his coffee. Not everyone's attention span equals to that of a two year old, she thought. She shook her head to herself with a small smile, in the lounge as she fixed his coffee. It's ironic, she thought, then he was pouring MY coffee, now after attending Yale, YALE, while he was off doing whatever he was doing, and now, here I am, fixing HIM coffee. That's irony for you. She took his coffee to him. "Here you go." she handed him his cup, she couldn't bring herself to call him Mr.Mariano yet, so she just didn't address him at all.
"Thank you."
"Sure. Anything else?"
Jess smirked, he was really liking this. "No, thanks."
She wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but Mr.Winston came to get them for the meeting, so she used every drop of self discipline she had and plastered on an incredibly fake smile,"Sure, Mr, Mariano."
There I said it! She thought. He was quite pleased with it too. He just winked at her and went in the room.
Claire came over to Rory," What's up?"
"If I kill him, will you provide my alibi?" she asked.
"No."
"Traitor! Why not?" Rory pouted.
"Because, then I wouldn't see him anymore. He's too cute for me to let you kill. Sorry."
"Oh well."
"Why's he so horrible?"
"Other than the obvious reasons?" Rory asked.
"Sure."
"He winked at me."
Claire stared for a second, "And...?"
"And nothing."
"He just winked at you?"
"Yes, but it was one of those 'ha ha I'm your boss and you're getting me coffee and I'm not getting your coffee haha ha' winks."
"Oh yes, I've heard of those."
"Are you mocking me?" Rory asked.
"Yes."
"Very nice."
"A wink is a wink Ror, he probably wasn't trying to tantalize you. Maybe he likes you."
"Ha! Oh of course! THAT explains why he's treating me like another lifeform that he lives to torture that lives to serve him."
"Has a little boy ever pulled your hair?"
"All babies pull my hair."
"No, I meant when you were little."
"Oh please." Rory rolled her eyes, "Don't give me the boy pulling the girls hair analogy."
"Fine. But at least you know it. Maybe he's just adjusting." she suggested.
"Yeah, do you know the look of pure satisfaction that he had when I called him Mr.Mariano?"
Claire smiled."Okay, cool down kid, let's go before you go take Mr.Mariano's beautiful head off."
Rory pouted,"He loved it."
"I know." Claire just smirked,"I know." And the two walked back to their little corners of the world.
*
A/N:'Kay, I'm gonna stop this chapter because I want to update tonight! Thanks to my reviewers!! I love you all and I'll try to update soon but I want to update one of my other stories first! jhfortier,thank you so much, it's hard to make the future fics original because a lot of people do them so thanks for acknowledging that I strayed away! Thanks for all of your reviews, and I'm glad that everybody liked Claire, Andy and Shelly, I wasn't sure if this was going to come together, but I think it is! Also, in the future I will clear up more of the Rory/Jess animosity and there'll be more R/J action! Please tell me what you guys think! I love you all and I'm glad you like it!! PLEASE REVIEW!!