Chapter 17
When they walked back into Truncheon, Jess pulled Rory aside. Lowering his voice, he said, "Let me talk to Chris first. He can get a little pissed off when things don't go according to plan. He's not quite as mellow as I am." At that Rory smiled again, though this time it was obvious she understood what was going on.
"Look, if it's gonna be a big deal, I can just go back home. I really don't want to make things more stressful," Rory said, looking at him purposefully. Jess knew that she didn't want to make things hard for him. But his desire to figure out what was going on with her, or just give her a chance to get away from whatever was obviously bothering her overpowered the fact that he knew exactly how Chris would react.
"It'll be fine. He needs to learn to chill anyway and we could really use another pair of hands," Jess said, meeting her gaze definitively. "So it's decided. You'll stay. I'll go talk to Chris, go get your stuff or whatever you have and head upstairs. It's unlocked, put your stuff on the bed with the navy bedspread and I'll be up in a minute." She nodded and they walked in their separate directions.
Jess sighed as he turned the door to the office open. "Don't you dare tell me that you're taking the night off, because I can't take that shit today," Chris said, not even looking up from his screen."
"Actually, it's worse," Jess replied, sitting down, "I'm working. And I got us another pair of hands." At that, Chris looked up.
"No."
"You don't even know her!" Jess countered in frustration, "Seriously, you've never had a conversation with the girl. And I'm not gonna hash this out with you right now. She's upstairs, she's staying the weekend, in the other bed, in case you were going to pry, and she just needs an out right now. We've all been there. That's why I fucking work with you guys. You get what it's like to have to get away from what you were and are, and she needs that for the weekend. I can't explain why, I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I'm not in love with her and I'm not trying to get back together with her. I just want you to be civil to her tonight while she helps us handle the shitshow that has become our day and either be polite or avoid her the rest of the weekend. I don't ask a lot from you, ever. Can you just do this? Please?"
Chris looked at Jess for what seemed like hours. Finally, he shook his head in resignation. "Fine," Chris assented, "But if it's more than the weekend…"
"Just deal with the weekend. That's all it is," Jess responded, standing up and walking out the door, "Thanks, Chris. I really appreciate it."
"You owe me!" Chris called as Jess started walking towards the stairs.
As Jess reached the door, he paused for a minute. What was he doing? This girl had treated him like shit, and hadn't been in his life for years now. One could argue that Rory hadn't done anything for him beyond affirming some of the good things from so long ago.
And things were different then. Something was so much different about Rory then than it was now. He couldn't place what it was. It was clear that she was driven, as evidenced by her career success, and that she was no longer aimlessly ambling around, doing insane and asinine things like stealing boats and joining the DAR. She talked to her mother. From what Jess had heard, all was well.
But some things told Jess a different story. The fact that she hadn't been going to Stars Hollow, and that she'd even wanted to take a day off work, for no real reason. But mainly, Jess saw it in her eyes. Something in the way Rory looked at him now was uncertain and unclear. And as well as Jess knew her, he knew it meant something was wrong, even though he didn't know what. With that thought, he opened the door, having come to terms with the realization that he may have to fix things with Rory Gilmore more than just the once.
"Hey," he said casually, glancing towards Rory, who was sifting through his bookshelves, "Should've known you'd be pilfering."
"I wanted to see if you kept The Holy Barbarians," she responded, not taking her eyes away from the bookcase, "But I can't find it."
"I never owned it," he said, walking towards her and starting to peruse the volumes, "I borrowed yours."
"Oh, yeah," Rory replied awkwardly, "I forgot. Sorry. It's been a while."
"Don't stress about it," Jess quietly answered, "It's been a long time. Anyway, we should head down. I'm gonna be putting you to work today for real. We need a lot of labor, and it might not be fun."
"The change'll be nice," Rory responded in a voice so quiet he could barely hear her. She walked out the door, him following close behind.
An hour later, Jess was helping customers, Rory was making phone calls, and Chris was handling the events. Rory fell naturally into the business end of things. She came off professional but friendly, and dealt with people effectively.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Jess asked, unable to stop himself, "I didn't think that reporters did a lot of this kind of thing." At that comment, something flickered across Rory's eyes, but they cleared just as quickly.
"My mom," she said, a small smile crossing her lips, "She's always been amazing with business. And I worked at the Independence Inn after school once in a while in high school."
"Doesn't surprise me," Jess replied. He quickly adjusted his answer when he saw the shock on Rory's face, "I mean, she owns an inn and when you showed up in New York, you missed her graduation from business school. It seems like common sense to say that business is her thing."
"Have you seen Luke lately?" Rory changed the subject as she sent off another email.
"Once in a while," Jess said. For some reason, he decided that it wasn't the right moment to tell Rory about his peace with Lorelai. It just wasn't the time.
