7. Hanging Out
Ring. The doorbell rang about thirty minutes later while I was in the middle of wearing my knee length boots. I opened the door to find Jess standing outside wearing a pair of black jeans and a light blue, long-sleeved shirt. I could see a book sticking out of one of his back pockets, as usual. In his hand was a small gift wrapped in shiny blue wrapping paper and a white bow on the top.
"I was meaning to give this to you…erm…the last time I saw you," Jess stuttered.
"Thanks," I said as I took the gift and kept it on my night table.
"I'm all set, let me get my purse and I'm ready to go." I was a little excited for tonight since I would finally be able to see New York at night.
We were on the road for thirty whole minutes in the car. Jess drove a silver porche. It was a really sexy car.
"Where are we going?" I asked impatiently. It was probably the fifth time I asked him that question.
"Hold your horses. We're almost there. Geez, you must've been such a pain when you were little."
Finally we stopped by a fancy restaurant. A la Claire, it was called.
"It's the best restaurant in Jersey city. My favourite actually. Excellent chicken dishes." Jess said. "I thought you might like it, since you and your mother are both chicken lovers."
"You're right about that." I said.
When we got in, a plump waitress with a red and white uniform came to us and led us to a square table with a burgundy tablecloth and fancy wine glasses on top.
"This is a really nice place Jess."
"Well, what can I say," Jess said proudly, "I'm a man with taste."
I grinned. "I'm not too sure about that." I said.
"We'll see about that." Jess said. "I'm thinking I should order for you tonight."
The plump waitress came back to our table and was about to give us our menus when Jess told her we knew what we were going to order.
"We'll have two orders of the Chicken pasta dish with lots of the specialty sauce. And we'll have two orders of the Spicy Chicken with rice." The waitress gave us one of those looks Mom and I got a lot because we ordered the amount of food for four people when there was only the two of us. But in the end, they'd be surprised because we'd finish off every bit of food that was on our table.
"And for drinks, we'll have a pitcher of Nestea." Jess looked at me to confirm that I was okay with Nestea. I gave him a nod.
The waitress quickly wrote down the last order, and left.
"So how are things going with you at Yale?" Jess asked.
"Umm…pretty good…actually…I'm taking some time off." I said quietly.
"Time off? Why?"
"I don't know it's just that, all that work made me all stressed out and I mean I just needed a bit of time off. That's all." I lied.
"Oh, okay," said Jess. He probably knew that I was hiding something.
After we ate our dinner, we walked towards Jess's car.
"That was the most amazing food I've ever had!"
"I told you, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to food."
We hit the road again, this time for about twenty minutes.
"Where are we going Jess?"
"To this really amazing record store." Jess said "It has the best classic records you'll ever find."
The store was called Al's Old Record Shop. The sign said it was closed right now.
"It's closed." I said as we got out of the car.
"Do you have a clip on you Rory?" Jess asked.
"Umm…ya…but why?" I asked suspiciously.
"Just pass it Sherlock." I handed him a bobby pin I had in my purse. Jess walked up to the door and kneeled down to face the keyhole. For a few seconds, he jiggled the pin in the key hole for the store and click – Jess had cracked the door open!
"Jess! What're you doing?"
"Are you coming in or what?" Jess asked as he stepped into the store.
I thought for a moment, and then I gave a big sigh, "If you can't beat them, join them." I said quietly as I followed Jess in.