A/N: Chapter 110 is up! I hope you enjoy. I know these last two chapters (this one and the one before it) have been a little rapid fire and a little similar in subject matter, but I felt like they did deserve to be separate, so I do hope you like them in spite of that. Plus, they're both pure Lit. Who doesn't want more Lit?
Deleted my insanely long author's note, so be grateful. It was quite a rant. Like an ASP-monologue level rant. Anyway, please read and review and recommend and favorite and follow and whatever other contraptions this thing has created. But especially review, please! I miss my reviewers!
I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of its characters or concepts (ASP, in all her glory, does) but I do possess a completely anal/OCD list of things to get together first thing when I wake up in the morning, and I rewrote it to make it neater. Goddamn my periodic Rory Gilmore tendencies.
Chapter 110
"Rory, they'll call."
"No, they won't. I screwed up the interview and they won't call."
"And here comes the crazy. Thirty-six hours, ladies and gentlemen, a new record."
"More like 45, but who's counting?" she grinned, "Alright, sorry. It's just stressing me out."
"I know. Which is why it's so fortunate that today's Sunday."
"But there's stuff to be done around here…"
"Rory, are you seriously trying to get out of going to the bookstore?"
"Maybe."
"What's going on?"
"I just can't stop freaking out. I don't want to taint it."
"Taint it?" Jess asked, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "Taint what?"
"Taint Book Day."
"Book Day?"
"Bookstore Day?"
"Weekly Reading Day?"
"Then it sounds like a class."
"Or a religious ceremony."
"Neither of which are very suited to your personality."
"Preaching to the choir. So tainting?"
"It would taint the experience."
"Of buying books? Impossible."
"Wait, we're buying? I didn't think we were buying."
"You seriously think we won't buy anything? Rory, it's us."
"But we're broke!"
"True."
"And have no space in the shelves."
"True. I need to talk to Luke about that. Your books are seriously screwing with my apartment's interior design."
"Sorry to have offended your Queer Eye sensibilities."
"And again, taint?"
"It's our thing!" she burst, quickly gulping more coffee from her mug, "Or at least it looks like it's a thing that could be our thing or could become our thing and it could be or become or whatever our thing for however long this thing goes on so basically forever or I don't know, wow, that sounds weird, but you know what I mean, if this is an indefinite thing or our indefinite thing I don't want to taint the thing with my anxiety!"
Jess looked at her, biting his lip. "What? What is so funny?" He began laughing in spite of his better judgment. "Jess!"
"I'm sorry!" he said, trying to control his laughter, "That just didn't make a lot of sense, even for you."
"Mean!"
"Alright, alright," he said, walking over and putting his arm around her waist, "I get your point. But assuming the possible scenario in which these book buying adventures continue indefinitely and become our 'thing', so to speak, do you really think that in the rest of our lives there won't be a single Sunday when you'll be panicking about something? Do you just plan to banish your panicking proclivities to the other six days of the week and have Sunday be a day of rest? Because as great as that sounds, I have to admit it doesn't seem very realistic."
"Fair point," she sighed, "You're right. Maybe it'll help me relax."
"I know it will. And if not, we can always try massage."
"Spa?"
"Better."
"You think you're better than a spa?"
"Spas get shut down if they offer the full experience like I do."
"You're disgusting."
"No, just a mere mortal. And you're wearing my Clash shirt. That combination doesn't bode well for my hormones, even now that I'm past my teenage angst phase."
"Fair point. I should probably take it off before we go."
"Maybe then we won't have to buy the books," Jess grinned. Rory laughed, throwing the shirt at him as she went to get ready.
An hour later, Rory and Jess were huddled in the back corner of a random shop, trying to contain their laughter. They'd managed to get to four stores already, walking out with only a gently-used copy of a book of letters between Kerouac and Ginsberg ("If we do not get this, I swear to you, Austen and her friends will end up in the garbage disposal.") and a copy of Love and Friendship ("Necessary payback for that comment. Plus, she wrote it when she was fourteen. Fourteen, Jess! Do you know what I was doing at fourteen?" "Impersonating Pilgrims and campaigning for objectivism?" "Not funny."). Overall, it had been a success. But now, they were drawing glances from all the other patrons of the tiny hole-in-the-wall that they had recently walked into.
"Jess, you cannot..."
"'I am no bird, and no net ensnares me!'" he mocked, holding up the book dramatically and reading in a high-pitched voice, "'I am a free human being with an independent will.' What bullshit!"
"Jess!"
"At the end she breaks the fourth wall to tell us that she married him. It was important enough to break the wall! Where's her independent will then?"
"It's a love story."
"It's pathetic."
"You're jaded."
"And cynical."
"That's not something to be proud of."
"I'm flexible on some things, but you won't change my mind on Eyre," he said, setting the book down where he'd found it, "Oh! Hey!"
"What?"
"Arthur Conan Doyle."
"Going through a detective phase?"
"Just noticed they were lacking from your collection."
"You mean our collection."
"Yeah…we'll have to figure that out eventually."
"Merge them. Mom suggested a drinking game."
"Might be the best way to do it."
"Drink every time we argue about something on it?"
"We'd die of alcohol poisoning."
"And join some of the best literary minds in that particular realm of…" Rory's phone began to rang. "Oh my god."
"Breathe."
"Jess…"
"Breathe. Answer the phone."
Inhaling deeply, she answered the call. "Hello, this is Rory Gilmore. Yes…yes…really? Oh my god, that's…that's great news! Thank you so much, Ms. Russell. I really appreciate it...uh huh…no, Monday's perfect…8:00 sharp…I'll bring the samples. I look forward to seeing you…Thanks again!"
"So…"
"I got it!"
"Rory, that's…congratulations!" He pulled her tightly to him for a hug, and then looked around.
"There are people…"
"Like I give a shit," he grinned, before pulling her body into his and kissing her deeply, "So you're really, really staying."
"I'm really, really staying."
"This calls for celebration."
"Eyre?"
"I was thinking more on the scale of bacon."
"Sir Francis?"
"Yeah, he's a really celebratory guy," Jess laughed, taking her hand and leading her out to the street.
