Rudy Can't Fail #9
Luke sighed as he walked into his apartment after his date. He shed his coat and walked over to the blinking answering machine. He pressed the button and waited.
"Luke! It's Buddy! Just checkin' up on ya, Kid! Gimme a call."
Beeep!
"Hey, it's Jess. Just doing the phone thing... I guess you're out so I'll call back or... you'll call me... whichever."
Beeeep! "You have no new messages," the machine told him.
He sighed and picked up the phone, dialing Jess's number.
"Hello?" Jess's voice asked sleepily.
"Hey, it's me," Luke replied, sitting down on the couch. "I wake you?"
"No, I was reading," he replied, sitting up. "Nadia's got a cold, so she fell asleep pretty early?"
"You guys living together now?" Luke asked.
"Nah," Jess replied. "But I don't have a roommate and she does, so it makes more sense to spend time here."
Luke nodded.
"What's up with you?" Jess asked.
"Not a lot," Luke replied. "Rory and Dean broke up."
"Huh."
"You can break out the party hats later," Luke said dryly with a smirk.
"I don't care," Jess replied.
"Yeah, you do," Luke told him. "You still care because she was your friend first."
"Nope."
"Jess..."
"What else is up?" Jess asked.
"Lorelai had lunch with Chris," Luke told him, knowing he wouldn't get anywhere with the Rory topic.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"And are we turning green with envy yet?" Jess asked jokingly.
"Nope."
Jess snorted.
"I'm not!"
"Sure."
"TJ went after some guy with a pipe."
Jess blinked. "What?"
"He went after this... y'know? Never mind," Luke squeezed his eyes shut. "I really don't wanna talk about TJ."
"Me, either," Jess muttered. "How's Liz?"
"She's good," Luke replied. "I helped fix the pipes in their house so they don't have to use my shower anymore."
Jess sighed. "I am so glad they don't live near me."
"Yeah, count your blessings," Luke replied. "So, uh... I found a couple of boxes of your grandfather's old stuff."
"So?"
"So, I thought maybe you'd wanna help me go through 'em," Luke replied.
"Why don't you ask Liz?" Jess asked curiously.
"Ah, she always gets all weepy when we go through old stuff," Luke said gruffly. "And you didn't know the guy, so I figured you might wanna see some stuff."
"Met him a couple of times," Jess said quietly. "Not for very long... He and Liz always wound up fighting."
Luke nodded. "Hey, what're you guys doing for Thanksgiving?"
Jess shrugged. "I don't know yet. Why?"
"Why don't you two come here?" Luke asked.
"I don't know, Luke," Jess sighed. "You saw the look on Rory's face when she spotted me leaving last week..."
"Since when do you worry about Rory?" Luke mocked.
"I don't want our hating each other to screw things up with you and Lorelai," Jess muttered.
"It won't."
"It will."
Luke groaned. "Y'know what? You're coming for Thanksgiving. You're gonna dress nicely, and you're gonna bring Nadia, and dessert. You got me?"
"Fine!" Jess snapped.
"Fine!" Luke snapped back. "See you next week!"
"Fine!" He hung up.
Nadia squinted her eyes open and sniffled a little. "What was that?" she asked in a nasally voice.
Jess sighed. "You better be healthy by next week... we're going to Luke's for Thanksgiving."
She grinned. "We are?"
He rolled his eyes.
Her grin widened as she sat up. "Really?"
"Yes," Jess snapped. "Why are you so happy about this?"
"Because I've never been to the diner," Nadia told him. "It's a Jess landmark."
"Jeez..."