A/N: Hello lovely readers! I hope you're having a fantastic day. I will apologize in advance - this chapter is a little short. But! Chapter 4 will make up for that a little. I hope. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3

"Well, as I live and breathe. You in Philly already, Gilmore?"

"No, no nothing like that…" She chuckled nervously and took a breath.

"… Rory? You okay?" Jess could hear a sense of nervousness in Rory's voice. She sounded strange and he started to get worried. He had regretted leaving Rory at the hands of Logan after what had gone down at the bar. What had that jerk done now?

"Oh yeah I'm fine, um… I need a favor. It's totally fine if you can't and you of course don't owe me anything but long story short, I'm moving out of my grandparents' house and everyone's busy or not talking to me or I dumped them a couple weeks ago, and I know you're probably back home now and so if it's too far or something, really, it's fine, but uh, I'm one person and you know, I'm not super strong or anything, I mean I'm not weak or anything I'm just not Amazonian, and my car is just a little too small to carry all my things, again I'm one person but I have more things than you might think, I mean, you've seen my books, but uh, I need some help moving my stuff to Lane's, which is where I'm staying temporarily, just until I find a place for myself that's closer to school. After that I won't ask for anything ever again and I'd be more than happy to return the favor if you need anything, ever, and really, I feel bad for asking, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have even called—"

He interrupted her rambling with a snicker.

"What?" she asked nervously.

"You're rambling."

Rory could hear his signature crooked smirk in his voice. It put her more at ease. "Yeah," she chuckled. "I realized that about halfway through, but I've had a lot of coffee today and couldn't have stopped the verbal avalanche if I tried."

"When have you not had a lot of coffee?" he asked with a laugh.

"Hey! Well… Okay, you've got a point." She couldn't argue. She was just thankful he hadn't hung up on her yet. It wasn't as if the last time they had talked had gone very well.

"Listen, I'm not home yet, but I'm not in Hartford anymore. I'm in New York. But, I have some time in a couple of days. I can drive back to Hartford, help you move your stuff," Jess offered. He wanted to see her again. He had so many questions about the things she had mentioned at lightning speed but didn't think it to be an over the phone kind of conversation. She said someone was dumped, there was something about moving closer to school, and she was staying at Lane's which meant setting foot back in Stars Hollow. It had been a while since he had had daily experience with the quick paced Gilmore monologues, so he hadn't caught everything, but he had a feeling he had picked up on the most important highlights of her caffeine-and-anxiety-induced babbling. Though confusing, her disjointed monologue had encouraged him some. From what he could tell, her life was changing in what seemed to be positive ways. Plus, he was going to get to see Rory again. That was always a bonus.

Rory immediately felt guilty for asking him to come all the way from New York. "Oh, Jess I should've thought about how much time this would have taken from you! Of course you're not in Hartford anymore. I mean, your book, and your marketing, and your job… please, I shouldn't have asked, don't worry about me, I'll figure something out, I'm sorry—"

He interrupted again. "Rory, it's fine, really. I wouldn't agree if it wasn't." He wasn't entirely sure that was true. "Listen, I have a couple more stores I have to hit, but I can be there by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. Does that work?"

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, Jess, that works perfectly. Thank you. So much. Seriously, I owe you. You need anything? Gas money? A spare kidney?" She was feeling lighter, finally feeling capable of returning to their familiar banter.

Jess laughed. "I'm set on kidneys for now, thanks. Listen, I've got to get going. I'll talk to you later, Rory."

"Bye, Jess. Thanks again."

Rory hung up feeling excited in a way she hadn't felt in a very long time. She attributed it to the fact that she was finally getting out of her grandparents' house for real, but there was a little part of her that wondered if the butterflies had something more to do with who was helping her move. She sat there and pondered, thinking it would be crazy to feel this excited to be talking to Jess. They were long over, adults now, moved on past high school heartbreak and happy to be friends. She was just eager to finally get her life back on track. Yes, that had to be it. She shook her head and stood up, mentally preparing herself for the events of the week. Moving first, then the biggest step in her plan: talking to Lorelai.