A/N: How I think A Tisket, A Tasket should have ended. This is my first posted fan fiction. So please give it a chance and tell me what you think.
Hmm... I'm loving the reveiws everyone! Thank you and keep em coming!
whatever13245- lol, your review was fine, write what ever ou want, I don't care if it's comments about the writing, Just that you like it is good for me.
lexi- gracias!
sanfrangiantsfan- caffine is GOOD
BSManthaLUV- thanks, I always kind of thought that Jess was in denial for a while before he snapped out of it (thank god) so I guess I just wrote it that way. I'm glad you like it.
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Chapter 3: Perfect As is
A bell rang as Rory and Jess walked into the bookstore.
"Hello?" called a voice from the back.
"Hey Andrew, it's Rory." She called back.
Andrew poked his head around some bookshelves and smiled. "Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite customer. Can I help you with anything?"
"Nope, we're just going to browse."
"Alright then, let me know if you need anything."
"I will," said Rory as Andrew once again disappeared into the back room.
Rory turned to Jess and smiled before heading off into the stacks.
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Jess had noticed a change in Rory as soon as she walked into the bookstore. She had been holding back all afternoon, being careful around him, probably because of Dean, but as Jess watched Rory walking through the bookshelves he saw all the layers slowly strip away. It was like she walked into the bookstore and the real world was a figment of the imagination. Fantasy is reality, reality is fantasy. The only problem she faced here was which book to pick.
"You really like it here, don't you?" asked Jess.
"I do. All these books right here at my disposal, it's perfect," replied Rory. "Books are my escape. I can travel all around the world with them and still stay in my living room. I don't even have to go somewhere in this world. I could go to Middle Earth or Neverland. There's no limitations, no responsibilities, no drama, just a story. I can just… get away." Rory paused and looked at Jess. He was looking at her with a strange gleam in his eyes. She blushed and turned back to the bookshelf.
"What about you," she asked. "Why do you like books so much?'
Jess smirked. "Who says I like books?"
"Anyone who reads Hemmingway and Oliver Twist likes books, Dodger. Just answer the question."
"Fine, I give, I like books."
"So?"
"So what?" Rory glared at him. Jess smirked again and moved a step closer.
"I don't know. I guess it's an escape for me too, but not in the same way. When I read a book I'm in the story. I can be whoever I want to be, act however I want to act. I can be someone else."
As Jess spoke his voice got softer and softer until it was little more than a whisper. Rory looked at him in awe as what he said sunk in. Rory realized then that Jess' confidence was just one of the many masks that he hid behind so no one could hurt him, or at least, no one could see that he was hurt.
"Jess…" Rory took a step towards him and raised her hand to touch his cheek but stopped and pulled away before she did. She wanted to comfort him, to tell him that he didn't need to be someone else, nothing needed changing, he was perfect as is, but she didn't know how. She looked into his honey brown eyes and froze. She saw something warm in those eyes and it scared her. It scared her because she was afraid that maybe that same warmth was in her eyes too. Jess came closer and Rory found herself looking at his lips, wondering what it would be like to kiss him. Dean would hate it… Oh my God! Dean! She yanked back and turned around to face the books again.
"So, what do you think we should get?" She asked quickly.
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She took a step towards him. She was close enough to touch, but he couldn't, he wasn't allowed. To touch is to taint, and he would never taint her. She raised her hand, as if to caress her, but unsure, put it back down. He had been convincing himself all day that he didn't feel anything in her presence, but standing this close to her was wreaking havoc on his convictions. He wanted to kiss her. He looked up into her eyes and saw a sparkle there that gave him hope. Suddenly, the sparkle was replaced by realization, then terror, and she shot away from him, blushing.
"Why don't we split up and look," said Jess, hurt but not wanting to show it. In his opinion, space was a very good thing right then. "We'll get through more books that way."
"Good idea, I'll take this side, you take that side," replied Rory, thankful that she hadn't had to come up with something.
They split up and searched in silence for a few minutes before Rory came bounding back to Jess excitedly.
"Guess what I just found!"
"The compact Oxford English Dictionary."
"No, I already have that."
"Of course you do. Alright, what did you find?"
Rory held up a copy of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson, her eyes shining excitedly.
"The Little Mermaid?" Jess asked skeptically.
"Hey! I love this book! My mom used to read it to me when I was little but I lost it a couple weeks ago. Andrew didn't have a copy so he ordered it for me and it's in!"
"So I see. What else do you have?"
"The Children's Hour."
Jess raised his eyebrow.
"What? It's for mom."
It was all Jess could do not to laugh out loud. Loralai reading Lillian Hellman? Or, funnier yet, Lorelai reading a book? He wisely chose not to voice his thoughts. "Okay, let's go pay."
"Wait. I don't want to go yet, let's just read."
"Alright, I'll go get a book."
"Why don't we read together."
"You want me to sit and listen to The Little Mermaid," Jess asked. Rory nodded, blushing.
"Or you could read it to me, if you wanted…"
"No. No way." She became determined when she heard his flat refusal. After all, when it comes to books and coffee, nobody refuses a Gilmore.
"Please! Do it for me, Jessy?" Rory begged
With one look at her, Jess knew he was going to agree. He hated being such a softie, but that he was doing it for her somehow made it better. After all, no one in the Danes family refused a Gilmore anything.
Jess sighed. "Alright, but don't ever call me Jessy again."
"Yay!" said Rory jumping up and down and clapping her hands in excitement.
Jess rolled his eyes at her. "Where do you want to sit?"
"Over there," said Rory, pointing to a corner near the back where no one looking through the window could see them.
Jess walked over and sat with his back against the corner where the wall met a bookshelf. Rory handed him the book and sat down beside him. Trying to get comfortable, she squirmed for a while. When she stopped moving Jess opened the book and started reading.
"Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it…"
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Andrew walked out of the back room with a shipment of new books ready to go on the shelves. He was headed over to the fiction section when he suddenly stopped. In the corner between the literature and fiction shelves, Rory was laying with her head on Jess' shoulder listening to him read to her in a soft voice. Jess had his arm tightly around her waist as if he was afraid of letting her go. Andrew quietly turned and went back into the back room. The books could wait.
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None is as mysterious and compelling as the world of books..."
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A/N: Hey, yeah, I'm not sure when the next chapter's gonna be up, I have band and homework and ugh, parents breathing down my neck. I'll get it up ASAP. Scouts honor, cept im not really a scout, so take that as you will.