An Author's Post Ball Dropping Ramblings- Hello all! It's 2005 here in Pennsylvania! Wahoo! (I haven't been drinking, I'm just very hyper.) I was at work all day, and that old N SYNC song, Kiss Me at Midnight kept playing over and over. So naturally, it got the creative juices flowing, and I came up with this!
Dedication- I don't usually dedicate my writing to anyone, but I'll make an exception for this. To my beta, Sara, (Shouhei) for all the amazing advice, helpful hints, and friendship that she has given me over these past few months. This is for you, consider it a belated Christmas present.
Disclaimer- I don't own Gilmore Girls. Also, I don't own Holiday on Ice, by David Sedaris, well, actually, I do, but not really. Does that make any sense? It's rather late here, and I have to get to bed before I get completely irrational. Actually, I think that I've already reached that point, but hey, what can you do?
Now, on with the story!
Kiss Me at Midnight
"I'll be there, I swear." Tristan promised, trying to assure his girlfriend that he wouldn't leave her by herself at her grandparent's annual New Year's Eve bash.
"You promise?" Rory asked, not wanting to be left alone when the ball dropped. "After all, you abandoned me on Christmas, claiming that you 'had' to go to your grandfather's."
"Ror, I've hardly spend any time with my grandfather since he moved to Georgia last year." Tristan sighed, patting the small box in his pocket that he had gotten from Janlen earlier that day. "And besides, we had something to discuss, and it's not exactly something that I wanted to talk about over the phone."
"Yes, I know all about this mysterious conversation that you two needed to have. I've been hearing about it for almost two weeks now!" Rory sighed into the phone, watching as other couples spun and twirled their way across the dance floor, wishing that Tristan was there, and that he was leading her effortlessly among them.
But he wasn't.
In fact, he wasn't even in the same state. He was currently in Boston, attempting to find a rental car, an utter impossibility on New Year's Eve, to battle the traffic from Massachusetts to Connecticut.
"I know that you're still mad about Christmas and everything, but I swear, your present will more than make up for it." Tristan promised her, smirking to himself.
"It better be good Dugrey, if I have no one to kiss at midnight, I'm going to need something very grand and suitably sparkly to compensate for my misery." Rory grumbled, narrowing her eyes at the man and woman a few feet away from her, laughing and living it up.
"Just trust me, Ror. Have I ever disappointed you before?"
"Well, no." Rory admitted. "But there's a first time for everything."
"I can guarantee that this is not that time."
"How?" Rory asked, her interest piqued at his confidence that she would love his gift. How could he possibly know something like that?
"I just do." He chuckled into the phone. "I have to go, but I'll see you in a couple of hours, okay?"
"Mmhmm." Rory was still not convinced that he would appear before midnight. It was almost nine thirty, and it would take him at least two hours to get to Hartford. Once traffic and the weather were added into the mix, his arrival before the clock struck twelve was looking rather bleak.
"I'll see you in a few hours."
"Mmhmm." Rory said absently, scowling at the happy people around her, who would have someone to kiss as they rang in the New Year.
"Stop that."
"Stop what?" Rory asked innocently, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, knowing that she was annoying him.
"Mmhmm-ing everything that I say." Tristan rolled his eyes as he pictured her making faces at the partygoers. "I'm going to be there."
"Mmhmm."
"That's it. I'm hanging up."
"Mmhmm."
"You don't believe me?"
"Nope." Rory smile disappears. "But if you want, I'll wind my watch back a few hours, and go and sit all by myself in my room, so that when you do finally show up, we can celebrate New Year's together."
"Cute."
"I try."
"I'll see you at midnight." Tristan promised once again, hanging up before she could say anything else. He wasn't that far away, after all. Maybe an hour, hour and a half, tops, with the way that he drove.
--&--
"I'm getting nuttin' for Christmas, cuz I ain't been nuttin' but bad!" Lorelai sang loudly and off key to Rory as she hung up her phone. Rolling her eyes, Rory tried to ignore her mother. But Lorelai was never a woman to be ignored, and followed Rory back into the party, still singing the chorus to 'I'm Getting Nuttin' For Christmas.'
"Mom, please stop." Rory pleaded, swiping a champagne flute from a waiter. "Seriously, don't you think that a week is long enough to be torturing me?"
"Babe, you ain't seen 'nuttin'' yet." Lorelai laughed. "Still no loverboy?"
"No." Rory answered shortly, downing the contents of her glass. "He's on his way from Boston."
"So, he'll be here by tomorrow morning then." Lorelai giggled, taking another gulp of her martini. "And maybe by then, you'll have something besides 'nuttin'' for Christmas." More giggles came from her mother, who was obviously tipsy.
"Lorelai!" Both Gilmore's turned as Luke joined them. "I told you not to leave me alone here. I've got some guy breathing down my neck, asking me if my portfolio is diversified enough."
"Aw, I'm sorry Lukie, I was just saw Rory over here, and I had to come and cheer her up." Lorelai explained, tripping over some of the words, leaning into Luke for support.
"You mean torturing me." Rory narrowed her eyes at her mother. "She was singing again."
Luke groaned. "I knew that CD set that Lane got her would be trouble."
"Hey, I loved that gift!" Lorelai exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air dramatically. "What could be so bad about 'The Ultimate Christmas Collection?'"
"That there are over one hundred and fifty songs for you to sing in public." Luke informed her, steadying her as she almost lost her balance. "And even with all those choices, all you seem to want to do is sing 'I'm Getting Nuttin' For Chrismas,' just to torture your only daughter."
"But it's true!" Lorelai giggled, putting her head on his shoulder. "She didn't get anything from Tristan for Christmas. So she must have been 'nuttin'' but bad."
"Behold, a drunk woman's logic." Rory groaned.
"I'm not drunk!" Lorelai protested, but turned to Luke. "Am I drunk?"
"I think we'd better find you some coffee, and maybe a few Tylenol." Luke told her, taking hold of her arm, trying to lead her to the kitchen with a minimal scene.
"Wow! I must be at least a little trashed, because you just voluntarily offered me coffee!" Lorelai laughed, following him happily.
Even though Rory was in a self pitying kind of mood, she couldn't help but feel happy that her mother was so happy. She had married Luke just over a year ago, and from all accounts, everything was going well. The inn was very successful, and her life was finally as perfect as it could possibly get.
"Hello Rory." Rory turned and accepted the champagne that Paris handed her.
"Hey Paris."
"So, where is Tristan?" Paris asked, not realizing that she had hit a nerve. Rory swallowed a big gulp of the bubbly alcohol before answering.
"He's on his way." She said, trying to be a little optimistic.
"Where is he?"
"Boston."
"But it's ten after ten." Paris pointed out.
"Yes it is."
"And Boston is over an hour and a half away."
"I know."
"And then there's traffic, and the bad weather, and-,"
"Paris! I know!" Rory snapped, cutting off her friend. "I know that he's not here, and that he's far away, and that the weather's bad, and that he's probably not going to get here in time!"
"Geez, you don't have to bite my head off, Gilmore." Paris said coolly. After a beat, she continued. "It seems like your New Year's is going just as great as my Hanukkah went."
On the eighth night of Hanukkah, Paris' longtime boyfriend Doyle had proposed to her, and of course, she had accepted. But the next day, she exchanged the ring he bought her for one that was square cut, instead of the round solitaire that he had purchased.
Needless to say, they had been fighting about it ever since.
"Rory, Paris." Doyle stiffly greeted them as he stood next to Paris.
"Does this mean that you two have kissed and made up?" Rory asked hopefully. This fight had been going on for long enough, and it needed to end soon. She was sick of hearing about it, as she and Paris shared an apartment, and it had relatively thin walls.
"No, it means that we have decided to put it on hold, and we will resume again tomorrow." Paris informed her, sipping her drink.
"Oh." Rory resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that it was not the time.
"Of course, it could all be over, if someone would just admit that what they did was inconsiderate." Doyle shot at her under his breath.
"Inconsiderate!" Paris growled. "I'm the one that's going to have to wear the stupid ring, Doyle. Should I be subjected to wearing a ring that I don't like?"
"If you didn't like it, why did you take it?" Doyle asked, following her as she began to walk away. "Huh? Why did you accept it if you thought that it was ugly? Tell me!"
Rory watched them go, thanking her lucky stars that her boyfriend had much better taste in jewelry. Paris had shown her the ring, and in all fairness to her, it was one of the most gaudy and unattractive rings that Rory had ever seen.
Even though they were fighting, Rory knew that eventually, they would make up, and that they would be happy together. Neurotics belonged with other neurotics, she reasoned, and Paris and Doyle were two of the biggest ones that she had ever met in her life, and she grew up in Stars Hollow.
Rory went back to her previous pastime for a while, sulking while she watched the other happy partygoers, paired off, and excited for the year ahead. She spied her grandparents on the dance floor, Richard spinning Emily, the two laughing and having the time of their lives.
She must have been the only single person there.
Well, she wasn't single, after all, she and Tristan had been dating for over two years, and she honestly had never loved anyone as much as she loved that man. Never before had she felt the utter completion that she felt in his arms, or seen forever in another person's eyes, or…"
She needed to get a grip. Rory was starting to sound like a cheesy romance novel, and not like the serious journalist that she was. It had to be the champagne.
Glumly, Rory watched as the minutes ticked by on her watch, and as it got closer to midnight, she slipped away from the party, and down the hall to the library. Maybe a little reading would help to clear her head, and keep her mind off the fact that in less than an hour she would have no one to kiss.
She pulled her copy of 'Holidays on Ice' out of her purse, and curled up in the corner of one of the comfortable leather couches. Rory was engrossed in the dark humor of David Sedaris, and when the library door opened, she didn't even notice until he spoke.
"I told you I'd be here by midnight." Rory abruptly abandoned her book, shocked to see Tristan in front of her.
"What? How?" She asked, not really caring about the answers to either question, only that he was here, in the same room with her, and there was still ample time before the clock struck twelve.
In an instant, she was in his arms, her lips on his. It felt so good to be with him again, and it felt like it was so long ago that they were together last, even though it had only been seven days.
"I didn't think that you'd really get here in time." She admitted softly, reveling in the feeling of his hands stroking the bare skin of her back.
"O ye of little faith." Tristan smirked, kissing her softly.
"Hey, it's not my fault that you left your arrival until the last minute!" Rory exclaimed, hitting him on the chest. She raised an eyebrow when her hand came in contact with a small object instead of the lean muscle it had sought out. "What's this?" She asked, reaching into his pocket.
Her heart literally stopped for a moment when she pulled out the tiny velvet box.
This was what she had been waiting for.
What she had been hoping for.
What she had been wishing for.
What she had secretly envied Paris of having, even though she had only gotten an unattractive one.
Slowly, her hands fumbled with the lid, and Rory opened the box to reveal…
A necklace.
A necklace?
It was very beautiful, platinum, with a large sapphire in the center, surrounded by diamonds. The chain was delicate, almost fragile looking. Obviously a custom piece.
But it wasn't what she had thought it was.
She smiled up at him, trying to hide her disappointment at only receiving another meaningless trinket.
Well, not meaningless. No gift that Tristan gave her was ever meaningless.
"Help me put it on?" She asked, lifting her hair when he obliged. It was beautiful, and she turned back to him when he finished fumbling with the clasp. "Thank you, I love it."
"It looks beautiful on you." Tristan complimented her, kissing her again. "Even more beautiful than it did on my grandmother, but I never said anything of the sort if Grandfather asks."
"This was your grandmother's?" Rory was filled with emotion. He gave me his grandmother's necklace. She thought to herself. Tristan trusting her with such a valuable keepsake was an even better gift than she could ever have imagined receiving.
"Yeah." Tristan nodded, pulling her close to him. "Grandfather had it made for her as a wedding present. And when she passed away a few years ago, he held on to it for me. She wanted me to give it to the girl of my dreams." He smiled at her.
"The girl of your dreams, huh?" Rory smirked slightly.
"Well, you have starred in a few of my fantasies, Gilmore." Tristan shot back. "I went down to visit, and to get this." He touched the sapphire lightly, with a reverence that she had never seen from him. "And this."
Rory's eyes widened as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out another small box. Her mouth went dry as she watched him open the lid, revealing a large oval diamond ring, surrounded with tiny sapphires. It matched the necklace that he had given her moments before, and must have belonged to his grandmother as well.
"Marry me?"
All Rory could do was nod, and a tear slipped down her cheek as he slipped the ring onto her finger.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her. Their lips met, and they were so wrapped up in each other, neither Rory nor Tristan noticed that the new year had come and gone.
So, what did you think?
Did I fool you?
Did you know all along?
Tell me!
I seriously want to know!