When Jess and Rory took Richard and Emily upstairs, Lorelai went to the counter to talk to Luke.
"Jess is going to Friday night dinners?" Luke questioned.
"He figured it was less stressful for Rory if he just agreed to it."
"Okay."
"There's something else." Lorelai said.
"What?"
"You're coming to dinner at least twice a month too."
"Since when?"
"I'll put on my black dress and flip my hair?" Lorelai offered.
"Why am I agreeing to this?" Luke asked.
"Because you love me and you want to give Jess and Rory moral support."
"I knew there was a reason."
GG
"So this is where you're living." Emily said.
"Yes." Rory replied.
"It's bigger than the potting shed." Emily said.
"Why does the door say William's Hardware Office?" Richard inquired.
"Jess's grandfather used to have a hardware store downstairs, when he died Luke turned it into the diner and moved in up here. It actually used to be smaller."
"Smaller?" Emily questioned.
"When my mother sent me to live with Luke, there was a wall here." Jess explained. "He ended up buying the building next door to annoy Taylor and he knocked through and we had the extra space. Although he rents the downstairs of the building to Taylor now."
"There seems to be several stacks of books." Richard commented.
"Ran out of shelf space." Jess said. "One stack is books I read recently that are worth reading again, ones a stack of books that Rory doesn't have but I think she should read and the other is just ones I will probably read again eventually."
"And where are your books Rory?" Emily inquired.
"On the shelves in my room at mom's or at Yale."
"Less are at Yale than she originally planned."
"They were all good books." Rory pointed out to Jess.
"Taking four boxes of books to Yale was a little excessive, two was more reasonable." Jess countered. "Maybe we should drop this before it ends up as another Rand, Hemingway debate."
"Good idea." Rory agreed. "Anyway, that's Luke's bed when he's here but he really hasn't been as far as I know for a while and the bathroom."
"It's a reasonable space." Richard commented. "How much rent do you pay?"
"I don't." Jess replied. "Since Luke owns it and he doesn't charge me rent, but I pay the utilities since I actually live here." Jess replied.
"And you work in the diner?"
"All day Monday through Thursday. Friday mornings, I help with the dinner rush Friday nights. Breakfast and dinner on Saturdays and breakfast on Sundays and then I close up after Rory goes back to Yale."
"What about your parents?" Emily inquired.
"Jimmy took off when I was born and lives in California with his girlfriend and her daughter. Liz got married about five months ago to her fourth husband, who surprisingly isn't a drunk or high but he is crazy and annoying. She makes jewellery and sells it at a Renaissance fair, but she's coming back here at the end of October which should be fun."
"I see." Emily said.
"It's really beautiful stuff Grandma." Rory told her. "I have a pair of earrings Liz gave me, when we went to tell her, back at school."
"Went?" Emily questioned.
"We went to Maine to tell Liz and TJ, and then stop in Boston on the way back to tell Dad."
"I haven't spoken to Christopher in a while." Emily recalled.
"I'm not speaking to him at all." Rory replied.
"Why ever not? He's your father."
"He came uninvited to the diner and yelled at Jess in front of the customers, so the whole town found I was pregnant before I wanted them to know. He comes into our lives when he feels like it, turns our lives upside down and leaves again; I've had enough of it. So I told him to stay of my life."
"Hey Ror, you might want to take a deep breath or two, I don't need you passing out on me again. Once was enough." Jess told her.
"You fainted?" Emily was concerned.
"Just once." Rory replied. "Dean hit Jess and I'm fine." Rory replied.
"Scared the hell out me." Jess admitted.
TBC