Rory gasped, almost backing away from the present herself. She squinted, thinking back to the last time she'd seen Dean. She'd been at his doorway, avoiding his eyes as she stared at her shoelaces, nervously twitching her body...and then she'd ran away like there was no tomorrow. At the time, she'd been so affected, crying for the whole night...but now, her feelings for Dean had gone to zilch.
She narrowed her eyes. Why didn't she see it before? Of course it was Dean! It could be no-one else! He knew her fetish for music-boxes, how much she loved flowers (he'd once given them to her a week straight during one of their many anniversaries) ... he knew her locker at Chilton...wait a minute. No he didn't! Her eyes narrowed even more, until they were slits...that meant that...Dean had given her this separate present, but the flowers were from her mystery admirer? Or...her mystery admirer was pretending to be Dean...What?! Rory shook her head. That didn't make sense. Why would anyone do that?
Unless...he didn't want her to know who he was? But wasn't that misleading? It was kinda rude, too. Unconsciously, Rory put her hands on her hips in indignation. The nerve of that guy...of course, Lorelai had always taught her never to jump to conclusions. Oh wait, no - that was Emily - but the principle still stood - never pretend to be your infatuation's ex-boyfriend. Rory shook her head again. Boys these days.
She was having a good laugh at her silly behaviour when the telephone rang, "Gilmore residence. Rory speaking."
"Rory!" Rory smiled - she recognised the voice immediately.
"Hi, Lane, what's up?"
"You'll never guess what happened?!"
Rory rolled her eyes - Lane was always one for melodrama, "What..." Frankly, Rory was tired and sleepy. All this second-guessing about her secret admirer's moves was making her exhausted. She just wanted to know...she considered telling Lane about today's mystery present. But she was too tired, and it was way too confusing to explain her thoughts coherently.
"Well...my Mum was packing up at the store last week, and then this guy came in and he really really wanted to buy this one antique, but my Mum got all mad, saying the price he was asking for was way too low!"
Rory smiled, nodding along. Lane usually got sidetracked in their conversations, taking up to an hour to get to her main point, and sometimes she even forgot the reason she called. Lane continued.
"So, this guy leaves, right? And my Mum goes, 'Finally!' throws her hands up in the air, locks the door, and gets all huffy because she couldn't close a sale, and also because the boy was 'way too young' and kept saying he needed it cheaper so he could buy it for his 'special girlfriend'. Well, the next night, the music box was gone, and in place, the exact amount of money my Mum asked for! Isn't that nice! He must've worked really hard, or gotten a loan from one of his friends or something, all for his special girlfriend!"
Rory could visualise Lane hugging herself, wishing for a special someone to display such a romantic gesture for her. Then she felt her blood run cold, "Wait, did you say music box?"
"Yeah, it was a really nice one too. Had faeries on it and stuff...and I loved the melody...it was so beautiful! Really, I'm kinda sad it's gone...hehe..." Lane laughed at herself.
"Quick, what was that guy's name?"
"Huh, which guy?"
"The one that bought the music box!"
"Oh, er...sorry, I don't remember. I wasn't even there...my Mum just told me about it when she got the money. And she doesn't have his name either, because he didn't pay for it - not the usual way, at least...anyway, what was I calling about?"
Rory laughed at her friend's silliness. She wanted to go back to a time when she wasn't plagued with weird stalker mystery admirers, and the thought of her current boyfriend and ex-boyfriend wandering through her head - not to mention Tristan's unusual show of affection (unusual for him, that was)...she smiled as Lane went through her 'I'll-call-you-back-when-I-remember' routines and then hung up.
So...she had an appointment with Lane's mum that weekend...she smiled wryly - she was one step closer to finding this mystery guy.
