Life and Times of a Socialite
Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls. It belongs to WB/CW and Amy Sherman Palladino.
Chapter 8: Art of Avoiding the Paparazzi
Rory felt pathetic, she was sitting in her Jaguar outside of Luke's diner in Stars Hollow staring at Jess go about his work of serving customers their food and drinks. She had drummed up the courage to come back to her small town and warn Jess about the paparazzi. And she might as well admit it to herself; she had wanted to see his reaction first hand when she delivered the news about her inheritance.
Logan had not been happy that he wasn't at least allowed to be there when she told Jess about the past year. The way he looked at it, as her boyfriend, lover and confidante he had the right to be there. Rory had tried to convince Logan that it really wasn't necessary for him to be in attendance.
When that hadn't worked she had promised to let Finn and Colin follow her to Stars Hollow and intercede after a previously agreed upon time deadline. Rory looked at her rear view mirror and saw Finn wave at her from his Cadillac Escalade and Colin seemed to be yelling at Finn about something or other. She had agreed to let Logan's best friends tag along because she knew that if Logan had accompanied her he would have tried to pick a fight with Jess.
Rory took a deep breath and opened her car door. She gave Colin and Finn pointed looks, which stated that they were to stay put and not move. Rory turned around and headed towards Luke's.
As she stepped into the diner she had the attention of all the diner patrons and as she headed towards the counter and Jess, who still hadn't seen her, her audience waited on baited breath. She took a deep breath and said, "Hello Jess."
Jess almost dropped the coffee pot that he had lifted but held on for dear life. He didn't realize that he had said coffee pot in a death grip so he took a deep breath and turned around. 'God she looks so beautiful' was the first thought that had popped into his head the minute he saw her. She was wearing a white dress with flimsy straps and she had paired it with a blue cardigan that made the outfit look casual. To him she looked gorgeous.
"Oh…Rory…hi." Jess couldn't believe that he sounded like such an idiot.
"Listen I don't know when your break is, but I have some important things to discuss with you. If you tell me what time you have your break I can come back at a more convenient time for you."
"You want to talk to me?" at her nod he continued, "Well…I'm free now. Just let me tell Caesar where I'll be."
Rory watched him go talk to the older man and thought that they would have to talk outside where prying ears wouldn't be able to repeat the conversation to the paparazzi or worse Miss Patty.
When Jess came back, Rory nodded towards the door and they made their way outside into the fresh air. He had no idea what this conversation was about but he had an inkling that it probably had to do with why he had left Stars Hollow and why he was here now.
He tried to ease the conversation by making a joke, "So did someone in this town win the lottery or something? First there was the limo in front of Doose's now there is an expensive looking SUV and Jaguar. What happened to a sensible car?"
Rory didn't answer him instead she said, "Jess I'm not sure whether you're aware of all the changes that have taken place since you were last here in Stars Hollow."
"Oh don't I know about the changes that have taken place. Lane apparently has a job and is living with her band, which I did not expect. Lorelai and Luke seem to be dating. My mother is living here with her husband. Dean and Lindsay got married then divorced a few months afterwards; personally I didn't believe that marriage could last," joked Jess.
"Yes those are just a few of the changes that have taken place here in Stars Hollow, but I'm talking about just as a whole." Rory realized that they had walked to the town gazebo and so she climbed up the stairs and sat on the bench.
"Well I just named you all the changes that I have noticed. What are you getting around to Rory? Listen if you want to ask me why I left the first time it was because I wanted to get to know my dad and I'm truly sorry I left you without saying goodbye, but I just didn't know how to say goodbye to you."
Jess paced the floor of the gazebo and just continued on not even allowing Rory to interrupt, "I ran away after I said I love you because I was scared. I joined the Peace Corps because I had to grow up Ror. You were too good for me and I had screwed up a few times too many. I'm truly sorry for hurting you."
Rory couldn't get a word in edge wise and so she had let him ramble on. "Jess you have to get one thing straight. The past, our past, is that the past. I don't want to rehash old wounds that would only frustrate me. I don't care what your reasons were for leaving and I sure as hell don't want to hear them two years too late. I have moved on with my life, but I did not come here today to relive the past."
Jess knew he deserved everything she had dished out to him, but it still hurt that she had been so blunt about it. He truly did not know how much he had wanted Rory to forgive him until that moment. So he tried to compose himself by asking, "Then what exactly was the point of this conversation?"
"My great-grandmother Lorelai the 1st died of a heart attack a while back. She was a very shrewd woman who always took care of her family and believed the saying 'blood is thicker than water' wholeheartedly." Rory looked at Jess and knew that she had his full attention.
"Anyways about a year ago the Gilmore family lawyer contacted my grandparents to inform them of some news. It seemed the Gran had a knack for investing and she had used the money at her disposal to grow the family fortunes. My grandparents were, of course, overjoyed and so-" before Rory could continue the story Jess butted in.
"Are you telling me that you are now an heiress? Like Athena Onasis?" When Rory nodded Jess didn't know how to take such news. "Oh…umm…Congratulations, I guess."
"Jess I'm not telling you this so that you can congratulate me. I'm telling you this so that you can prepare for the vultures," said an annoyed Rory.
"Vultures? Who exactly are these vultures?" asked Jess.
"I'm talking about the paparazzi Jess. You know the annoying men with long-lens camera's that hunt down people that are newsworthy," said Rory.
"What…why would I be hunted down…" Something Luke had said to Jess finally clicked in his head 'Did you happen to get any American newspapers?' Jess just stared at Rory, so the love of his life had became a newsworthy personality due to her financial predicament.
"Are you telling me that I'm going to be hounded by a bunch of paparazzi because I am your former boyfriend?"
"Yeah, you have to get used to it and I didn't want you to be a fish out of water. When everything first got started anyone who was close to me or just sitting next to me in a class had pictures of them taken. But mostly they ask you questions about me or if you happened to talk to me lately stuff like that," explained Rory.
Jess was silent for a minute he couldn't believe how calm Rory seemed to be, he was freaking out. How was he to handle such a situation; he had come back early using his mother's anniversary celebration as an excuse to try to mend the fences with Rory only to run into a hurdle such as this.
"So what am I supposed to do?" asked Jess.
"I suggest that you not answer any questions the press or paparazzi throw your way. Try not to acknowledge them and just go about you daily work and they will probably leave you alone after a while, they did that to Lane."
"Well if they did that to Lane!"
"Jess there is no need for sarcasm I tried to do the polite thing and give you the heads up, but if you don't want any help you're welcome to handle them on you own." Rory got up and walked toward the direction of Luke's.
"Rory…I'm sorry…you have to look at this from my point of view. You just sprung all this on me now and you expect me to say thanks and not react," replied Jess.
Jess followed Rory and was confused when she stopped at the SUV and started talking to the people within the vehicle. When he caught up to her he caught the tail end of their conversation "…can you help him out?" The answer must have been in the affirmative because the passenger and driver doors opened simultaneously.
The two men who came out of the vehicle shouted money and a whole lot of it. One was about six feet tall with brown hair and fashionably dressed in trousers and a shirt with a sports coat; he was also sporting sunglasses. The other one was just a little bit taller than Jess and was wearing khakis and a sweater.
Rory turned around and noticed that Jess had followed her so she did the proper thing and introduced her companions. "Jess I would like you to meet Finn and Colin who are friends from Yale and Finn and Colin this is Luke's nephew Jess."
After the usual hellos were reciprocated Rory led them back to Luke's where it seemed Lane was on duty. They sat down at a random table and ordered coffee from a very confused looking Lane. Rory took a sip of her coffee and said, "Jess, both Finn and Colin have been nice enough to volunteer to give you some suggestions about handling the press."
"Rory we did not volunteer to help anyone. We were forced to do this against our will isn't that right Finn," asked Colin. He was looking at his best friend to see if he would back him up.
"It's too damn bright to have this conversation at this ungodly hour. I suggest we all go back to bed and come back to discuss this situation like rational human beings over a bottle of Guinness," replied Finn adding in his two cents to the crazy scheme.
"Alright you two, enough with the chit chat. Come on explain to Jess the fine points of dealing with the paparazzi since the two of you have been doing it all your lives," ordered Rory.
Rory watched as Colin and Finn went into detail about the art of avoiding the paparazzi. Half way through the rather detailed explanation of paparazzi avoidance Colin got a phone call that had him heading back to Yale to assist Stephanie with a problem.
Jess listened to Finn drone on and on about how he had gotten caught with his pants down, but he was really looking at Rory walk Colin to the big fancy SUV. He got the feeling that he was missing a huge chunk of the puzzle. Colin and Finn seemed like they were friends with Rory and he would have recognized if one of them happened to be her boyfriend.
He continued to watch Rory as Colin leaned in and embraced her then gave her a peck on the cheek. Colin said a few words to her and then got into the SUV and drove off to god knows where. He wondered if Rory was seeing anybody and he didn't want to ask anyone for the risk of it getting back to her.
"…so there I was mate naked as the day I was born and a man with a camera just snapping away. I was thinking to myself 'What is Father going to say about such a picture?' But really I didn't have to worry because he just told me…"
"Finn are you telling Jess a story about when you went through one of your many naked phases because that does not sound like advice on how to avoid the paparazzi, but on how to get them to follow you," remarked Rory.
"Love, I was just getting to the good part. Did you have to interrupt me when I was quoting my Father?"
"Finn there is no reason to quote your father. I highly suggest that you not quote you father what with his tendencies for cross dressing and all," joked Rory.
"Darling don't be so narrow-minded. My father adores you; he speaks rather highly of you to anyone who cares to listen. Did you know he actually told me to marry you?" Rory chuckled at that response.
Jess could not believe half of what they were talking about. Since when did Rory associate with people like this?
Jess cleared his throat and said, "So Finn how exactly did you end up at Yale?"
"Well mate I just didn't end up at Yale. I was always going to go to Yale. You see I happen to descend from a long line of Yale alumni so hence Yale was chosen for me since the day I was born. Gilmore and I happen to have a lot in common on that front since we are both Yale legacies and have the difficult task of trying to live up to our family names."
Jess looked at Finn and finally realized how Rory ended up associating with people like Finn and Colin. They were all the children of wealth and power. It seemed that they had made some kind of secret society that others could not intrude upon.
"Rory love, am I going to get a ride from you or is Colin going to be come back to get me?" asked Finn.
"I'll drive you back to Yale Finn, don't worry you won't be stranded," joked Rory. "You guys continue to discuss the topic at hand. I'll be right back I think I left my cell phone in my car."
Jess watched Rory walk out of the diner and realized that he would have to knock down several walls if he was going to get her back. And if she did have a boyfriend he would not let that get in his way, it's not like he hadn't faced that obstacle before. He continued to watch her and realized that she had stopped at the Jaguar. 'Well would surprises never cease?'
-GG- -
As Jess was looking at a very different Rory Gilmore his mother was sorting out her mail just a few miles from Luke's Diner. She couldn't believe that there were so many bills but she assumed that was what she got for settling down in small town, USA.
She was sorting out said mail into three piles: one was for bills the other was for trash and the last one for personal letters. As she was going through the piles a particular letter in the personal pile caught her attention. She opened it and realized it was an invitation for dinner with the Gilmore's.
The date of the family get together was supposed to be on Friday. She had to go to the mall as quickly as possible to get herself a new outfit and she would have to check to see if T.J and Jess had appropriate attire to wear to the Gilmore Mansion.
She couldn't wait to tell her boys about the surprise they would spring on Luke and Lorelai so that their families could get to know one another. She couldn't wait for Friday.
Revised: June 9, 2009