A/N: Pardon my Paris. She may be a little out of character. My bad.

"Connor's Books."

"Jess, listen-"

"Jimmy, why are you calling me at work?" Jess asked, as he rang out a customer. "How the hell do you know where I work?"

"Lily told me. Listen, I wanted to apologize-"

Jess hung up and nodded to his customer. "Thank you."

The phone rang again.

"Connor's Books."

Jimmy sighed. "Jess, if you'd just listen I'm trying to fix thi-"

Again, Jess hung up. He picked up a stack of books to shelve, just as the phone rang again. He picked it up. "Jimmy, I swear to god, if you don't stop calling-"

"Jimmy? Wow. I never thought you'd mistake me for your father."

He sighed and set his stack down. "Hey, Rory."

"Hey," she replied. "Parental issues?"

"Always. You?"

"Procrastination."

"Ah," Jess nodded, sitting in his chair behind the counter.

"Why does Jimmy keep calling?" Rory asked.

Jess shrugged. "I don't know."

"Maybe he's trying to apologize for forgetting your birthday?"

Jess shrugged again. "Whatever."

"You should talk to him."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Hey, I don't see you jumping at the chance to talk to your father."

"That's different."

"How?"

"Next subject."

"What subject?"

"Any subject."

He smirked. "Any subject?"

"Jess!"

"What? I didn't say anything."

She laughed a little. "I should get back to my paper."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"I don't wanna go."

"So don't."

"But I have to write this paper."

"So write the paper."

"But I don't wanna go."

"So don't go."

"You're not making this any easier."

"Yeah, but I could be making it a lot harder."

She gave this a little thought. "You're not wrong."

"I know."

"How's work?"

"Work. Fine. Connor is sitting in the back, talking to himself and reading Heinlein."

Rory laughed a little. "How old is that guy?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Jess replied quietly. "I should shelve."

"I should work."

Neither hung up or made any attempt to say goodbye.

"Not this again," Rory laughed. "What's wrong with us?"

She could hear him smirk. "Hey, what are you doing for dinner tonight?"

*****

"Step away from the stove."

"I can cook."

"You lie. Step away."

Paris turned and glared at Jess. "You can't make me."

"This is my apartment," Jess snapped. "My apartment equals you stepping away from my stove. Now."

Rory sighed as she walked into the kitchen. "Paris, Jess is going to cook."

"He'll probably poison me," Paris replied.

Jess shook his head as he rummaged through his refrigerator. "Only if you ask me nicely."

Rory sighed and sat at the small kitchen table. Maybe inviting Paris to dinner at Jess's wasn't the best idea in the world, but the girl had no one else to eat with. Janet and Tanna had gone out for dinner together, and Rory felt guilty about leaving Paris alone.

"What are we having?" Paris asked.

"Pasta."

"Pasta with what?" Paris asked.

"Sauce," Jess replied, filling a pot with water.

"What kind of sauce?"

"Sauce that's made from the blood of virgins," Jess replied mechanically as he adjusted the stove.

Paris glanced at Rory. "This may not be the safest place for you, Rory."

"Rory, tell Paris that if she doesn't stop talking, I'm going to scoop out her insides and add them to the sauce."

"Paris, Jess says-"

Paris glared at Jess's back. "Rory, tell Jess that if he does, I'll come back as a zombie and-"

"Enough!" Rory cried. "My god! Either say nice things to each other or don't say anything at all!"

Both stopped talking.

*****

"So, Rory. The end of your semester is swiftly approaching," Richard said as he lifted a fork-full of food. "How does it feel?"

Rory nodded. "Not bad. I can't wait for summer."

Richard smiled. "Oh? Do you and Jess have plans?"

"Nothing definite," Rory replied. "I'm going to try and convince him to go up to New York and visit his relatives more. They're really nice, and I think he misses them."

"Well, that's a fine idea," Richard smiled.

"Are you sure the city is the safest place?" Emily asked. "Especially where they live?"

"I'm sure it's a nice enough neighborhood, Mom," Lorelei interjected. "She was fine the last time she went."

Rory nodded. "It's right around Little Italy."

"Oh," Emily said shortly. "That's... quaint."

"It's pretty neat," Rory went on, talking to Richard more than anyone. "Gloria showed me around a little. I started looking up some of the history online, and it's interesting stuff."

"Who is Gloria?" Emily whispered to Lorelei.

"Jess's cousin," Lorelei whispered back. "I met her briefly. She's a sweet kid."

Emily snorted softly. "Just as sweet as Jess, I assume."

"Nah," Lorelei smirked. "Nobody is as sweet as Jess."

Emily glared.

"So, Rory, how did Jess like the book I lent him?" Richard asked.

"Oh, uh, he'd read it already, Grandpa," Rory replied. "But he said thank you."

"Really?" Richard seemed shocked by this. "That's a bit of an obscure text."

"Well, Jess does like his obscurity," Rory smiled. "Maybe sometime I can bring him and he can pick something too obscure even for him."

Richard nodded. "Alright. That would be fine."

Rory smiled. At least one family member didn't have any vocal doubts about Jess.

*****

"Mom, do you remember the last time you tried to throw Rory a party?" Lorelei asked, following her mother around the large house in Hartford the next day. "You wound up inviting people she hated."

"Well, now I have you here to help me make up the guest list," Emily replied, rushing around the house. "You will help me, won't you?"

"Mom, I don't know if Rory wants an end-of-the-year bash."

"It's a surprise, Lorelei," Emily replied. "And you're going to help me plan it."

"Mom, I don't know," Lorelei said, putting her hands up. "I've got the inn to worry about."

"You can take a little time off, this won't take long."

"Mom-"

"All you have to do is make up the guest list, Lorelei," Emily snapped. "That's all I'm asking."

Lorelei sighed. "Yeah, okay. Fine."

*****

"Have you talked to Jimmy yet?"

"I unplugged the phone."

Rory sighed and sat up on the bridge and put her book down. "What if your mom tries to call you again?"

Jess shrugged, and didn't follow suit, just kept his spot, lying there on the bridge, reading his book.

"Do you miss them?"

"Should I?"

Rory shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I take my relationship with my mom for granted sometimes."

He gave another shrug.

"My, you're just so talkative today," Rory teased with a smile.

He sighed and gave yet another shrug.

"What are you going to do this summer?" she asked.

"Work," he replied.

"I was thinking that we could go visit your grandmother again," Rory suggested, lying back down next to him. "Maybe you could show me around the city more?"

He nodded. "Sounds good. We'll pick a couple of days."

She nodded. "Okay. Sounds good. I was thinking of getting a job this summer, too."

He turned his head to her and smirked with a raised eyebrow. "You?"

She nodded. "I could use the cash."

"Yeah," he nodded back. "What do you wanna do?"

"Steal your bookstore job right out from under your nose."

His smirk widened a little. "You could always take over my shift at Luke's. Free coffee. And Lane."

"Hmmm... tempting, but then you'd have no other reason to come back to town other than see me." She looked at him. "Hey, speaking of Lane, is it true that my grandmother is planning an end-of-the year party for me?"

Jess blinked. She wasn't supposed to know about that. He'd been under strict orders from Lorelei to keep his mouth shut about, else she do horrible things to him that would result in his becoming quite sterile. Best play it safe. She gave another shrug. "I don't know. What does that have to do with Lane?"

"I dragged it out of her," Rory went on. "She says that everybody's in on it. Mom, Grandma and Grandpa... she said even you know."

He shrugged again.

"You know."

"You don't know that," he told her. "For all you know this is the first I've heard of it."

"But you know."

"I admit nothing."

She gasped and sat up again. "You do! You've been keeping it from me."

"Hey, you want coffee?" he asked. "We could head to the diner."

"You've known and you didn't tell me."

"I want cheese fries." He sat up and got to his feet. "Come on."

She got up and jumped onto his back. "You dirty rotten jerk!" she cried, laughing. "How long have you known?!"

He laughed shortly and did his best to carry her down to the diner. "I think the special is some kind of weird soup. Caesar's been experimenting. It's scary. I think he has delusions of Emeril."

"Admit it! You knew!"

He just smirked and kept walking.