CHAPTER 5
"Thanks for coming away with me," Tristin said. With the tip of his finger, he scooped off some of the whipped cream on his pie and shoved it gracefully into his mouth.
Rory smiled. She didn't expect the gratitude tossed her way. "You're welcome. I think I'm the one who should thank you for inviting me in your little adventure."
Tristin shot her a sexy grin, "I couldn't have asked for a better co-conspirator."
Rory's laugh rang in the booth. It was music to his ears. A few of the people in the room stared at them, the look they shot was unnerving. Rory realized how loud she was and scooted herself lower into her seat as not to be seen.
"I was rather surprised to see you tonight," she admitted.
"Yeah? Good surprise or bad surprise?" he asked.
Rory paused. "Good. Definitely good."
"Can I ask a question?" he asked.
"Can you?" she rhetorically asked.
He smirked. "May I ask a question?"
"You've been doing it all night. What's stopping you?" she responded.
"Do you regret leaving with me?" Tristin asked as he took a sip of his coffee.
Rory hesitated for a moment before answering. "No."
"Even with Romeo around?" he continued his badgering.
Rory Ran her index finger on the mouth of her half-empty coffee cup. "The decision was made when grandma sent Logan running for the hills."
"She did not!" Tristin responded in mocked amusement. His question on why Logan left so suddenly became evident. Despite his initial dislike for the man, he wondered why the Gilmore family despised him greatly.
Rory smiled as she threw her napkin at him from across the table. "You're insufferable!" she exclaimed.
Tristin laughed out loud. The few individuals spending their Thanksgiving in the 24-hour diner turned towards their general direction. Tristin didn't care.
"You are so different from the Rory Gilmore I knew ages ago," he complimented her. "I like it."
Rory blushed, "Thank you," she muttered.
"So how long have you been dating Wannabe?" he teased. He broke off the corner of his apple pie and took a bite of the sweet treat.
"His name is Logan and it's been almost a year and a half," she proudly announced.
"Wow," he said. "I'm impressed. I'd be thinking you'd be engaged to bagboy by now and would be planning for little paper bag babies."
"Grrr," Rory growled at him. "Consider yourself lucky that grandma had used up my anger fuse and now I have no strength to argue with you."
Her playful mood all of a sudden became somber. She paused and looked away with a look of longing he recognized from years ago; a place he really did not want to visit any time soon especially tonight.
"He got married," she stated.
"To someone other than you? Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies of idiocy!" he grumbled.
"Don't be so harsh," Rory chided him softly. "Maybe I was the one who didn't want things to happen between us."
Tristin found Rory's response remarkable. He stared at his half-eaten pie to avoid contact with her baby blues.
"Tell me," he asked almost too quietly, leaning towards her from across the table, "did you know from the start that you and he were not going to make it?"
Rory was dumbfounded. For once, she felt his sincerity. He was not condescending or annoying. She took a sip of her drink before giving him her response.
"I don't think it was a matter of making it or not," she truthfully answered. "We tried when he was getting his divorce..." her voice trailed away.
Her blatant honesty struck a chord within Tristin. Her exposed emotion made him feel like the biggest jackass in the world.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he said, empathizing with Rory. He reached from across the table and held her hand.
His sympathetic touches made her realize that she can't keep on going back to the past and wish for time to rewind. As Logan reminded her time and again, she had to live in the present and keep moving on.
"How would you have known?" she said sadly. "It's history and we've gone our separate ways."
Both were left to their own thoughts for a while. They let themselves be hypnotized by the little snowflakes slowly descending before them. Both were oblivious to the havoc they just caused by taking off without leaving word.
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"This is the most childish, unladylike stunt your daughter had ever pulled. She is a sorry excuse for a woman," Emily Gilmore roared in the empty living room.
Shortly after dinner had been served, the guests trickled home. At ten o'clock, the DuGrey clan offered their sincerest apologies for their son and grandson's improper behavior.
"I assure you that Tristin would be held accountable for his actions," Chandler apologized before the family left.
"But mom!" Lorelai interjected.
"See? That's the kind of behavior that allowed your daughter to be so inconsiderate," Emily fumed.
"Emily, Rory is a mature woman who can make decisions, albeit not smart ones as of recent. She has the prerogative to leave if she feels like it," Richard tried to placate his wife and daughter.
"No, it's Thanksgiving and she should know better than leave in the middle of a holiday gathering," she reiterated. "She's supposed to be with family."
"Family? Mom, you had the Mad Hatter's Court there and you were the Queen of Hearts yelling, 'Off with- insert head's name here'. I swear to God, mom. You could be best friends with those island head hunters," Lorelai argued.
Emily raised her haughty head. "Are you done yet?"
Christopher elbowed Lorelai to silence her. She was about to glare at him when she caught him trying to contain his laughter.
Lorelai put her head down as Christopher did. His disposition started to get to her. She herself started feeling a smile tug at her lips.
"You two are sorry excuses for parents," Emily spat out. "Leave my house before I say something that I would not be able to take back."
The two adults that were just subjected to a scolding comparable to that of a five year old scurried out to the hallway to retrieve their coats. Lorelai had the foresight to have Rory's belongings together as she braced for her mother's tongue lashing.
Christopher was laughing uncontrollably when they got out into the cold night air.
"What was that about the 'off with the head' comment?" Christopher tired to say. "I thought I was going to swallow my tongue to not have Emily pick on me, too."
"Coward!" Lorelai said simultaneously slapping him with her handbag. "You should've gotten some of her venom. You provided the getaway vehicle."
"I am at no fault. He stole it," Christopher said.
"Unbelievable. You let a kid take the fall," Lorelai shook her head at him. "You should give up all your rights on being a dad."
"Come on. At least let me get my bike back before we modify our parental rights and duties," Christopher commented.
Lorelai revved up the Jeep's engine. "I hope Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum have a good excuse for running away."
Christopher looked at Lorelai's facial expression change into mommy mode. He sighed and just remained silent. He hoped he would not have to deal with this when Gigi gets to be Rory's age.
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"So where does Logan fit into this picture?" Tristin inquired as he settled their bill.
"You've been itching to ask that question, haven't you?" she teased him.
Tristin blushed, hesitating to answer her. He wondered why Logan piqued his interest.
"Maybe-," he paused for effect. "I am... intrigued by him."
"Intrigued?" Rory speculated. "Tristin, I may not have seen you for some time but that doesn't make you a total stranger. I know you don't ask questions unless there's something in it for you."
"Are you implying that I have ulterior motives?" he accused Rory, leaning so close to her he could see the tiny black flakes in her eyes. He wanted to kiss her then and there but he held back. Why did he feel like a horny teenager all of a sudden?
"Synonymous," she quipped.
He laughed at the way she stared at him. He pulled back from her and sat back on his seat. It was a feeling of comfort he had not felt in a while.
"Okay," he admitted, "I was curious as to how he became your boyfriend when you won't even give me the time of the day in high school! Now granted, I was a pain in your side but why Logan?"
"Why not?' she countered.
"Because," he retorted.
"Because," Rory echoed his opinion. "That's not an answer."
Tristin opened his mouth to retort but he decided not to. Rory was waiting for his response. "What?"
Tristin did his best Thinker pose on the table. "You are amazing." Tristin flattered her. "I think the one thing that makes you downright sexy is your loyalty to your men. That is commendable."
Rory turned crimson at his compliment.
"Don't say stuff you don't mean," she scolded him.
"Why?" he quizzed her.
"Because you just don't know when someone would actually take you seriously and fall for you," Rory said as she got up and put back on the tuxedo jacket she borrowed from him.
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"Lor, pull over!" Christopher ordered her.
"Where? Why?" Lorelai asked as she made the balding tires to her Jeep squeal.
"There's my bike! My bike!" he yelled out loud, jumping out from his seat.
Lorelai did her best to get into the half plowed parking lot. Almost on cue, they saw Rory and Tristin emerge from the diner.
"Well, well, who do we have here? Mickey and Mallory Knox. Kill anyone in the diner, kids?" Lorelai asked sarcastically.
Rory stopped on her tracks, not realizing that her mother and father stood before her. She quickly dropped Tristin's hand started wringing hers nervously.
"Mom, I could explain," Rory said.
"I don't want to hear a peep from you until way after we get out of here. Return the coat to the rebel without a clue here and let's get home," Lorelai scolded her daughter.
Rory handed the coat back to Tristin. She looked at him and then at her dad. Christopher remained mute.
"I'll talk to you later," Rory told him.
"Not in this lifetime, you won't," Lorelai threatened. "Get in the car."
Without any pomp and circumstance, the two men were left under the awning of the diner and watched the Jeep drive away.
"Sir, I am so sorry," Tristin tried to apologize to Christopher.
"Oh don't sweat it," Christopher cupped Tristin's shoulder and walked him to the bike. "Lor and I would've done the same thing twenty years ago. Just enjoy it while you can."