"I gave Logan the slip." Honor said with pride. "Jess I know we can work it out. You can have Rory as a girlfriend on the side as long as I don't see her or hear about her." She announced, satisfied with her solution.
Jess and Rory looked at each other. "Honor" he started, but wasn't sure how to continue. How could he have a conversation with someone that clueless?
Finally he started again. "Rory and I are together." he stated. "I love her, not you. And you really should go back to your husband."
"But if you are with her you'll be stuck with a kid that's probably not even yours." Honor pointed out.
Jess gave Rory a helpless look so she jumped in to help. "You're pregnant too. And it's your husbands baby." she pointed out helpfully.
"Right.." said Honor. "I just still think that we could work it out."
Just then, Ted thankfully entered the room. He eyed Honor appreciatively and Jess jumped at the chance.
"So Honor, this is my old roommate, Ted." She smiled coyly at him.
"And I'm wondering why I ever moved out." Ted said, looking between Honor and Rory. But he settled his attention on Honor and Jess guided Rory back into the bedroom.
"That should distract her for a while." Jess said.
"Yeah, so what now?" Rory asked.
"Well this is no place to raise a child."Jess said, looking around. "And what about you? You've put your life on hold for him for so long. What do you want? I mean what do you really want?"
"I'm not really sure. I guess nothing really went the way I wanted it to. I always wanted to be a journalist but now..." Rory looked up at him. "I'm really not sure. What about you?"
"I like my bookstore, no I love my bookstore, but maybe its time to move on from that too." He said thoughtfully. "I've wanted to get back into writing but thats not exactly lucrative."
Rory smiled a little. "Unfortunately, I'm suddenly poor. I didn't fight Logan for anything, he had a prenup, and most of the income I'd earned went to pay lawyer fees after covering the three months in Europe. I do have some money, but not a whole lot."
She leaned back against Jess as they looked out the window at the beautiful view of a brick wall.
"I know you've always had everything planned." Jess started to say. "That you always knew where you were going and what you were doing. I've never had a plan. I guess thats why I never got far."
"Look where my plan got me." Rory said, looking ruefully around. "I'm in my 30's, with no career, newly divorced and having a baby with my high school boyfriend."
Jess laughed a little and Rory couldn't help laughing with him.
"I'm tired of having a plan." Rory said finally.
"I'm tired of not having a plan." countered Jess.
"Fine." Rory pulled out a sheet of paper, dividing it into two columns. On the top of one she wrote Plan and on the other she wrote No Plan. Jess rolled his eyes.
"Okay, what are the pros of having a plan." she asked him.
"Security." Jess said.
"But the other side has adventure." Rory immediately said, writing both down in the columns.
This went on for a while until Rory looked at the list. "It's clearly in favor of no plan." She said, waving it in Jess's face. He laughed and she realized how comfortable they were together, how easy it was to talk to him. After all those years with Logan she and Jess had already achieved an intimacy that she and Logan had never had.
"You know... the baby might not be yours." She reminded Jess.
"I know. I don't care. It'll be yours, so I'll love it." Jess told her. "I love you, how could I not love your child?"
She tilted her face up for a kiss. "Let's go." she said, standing up.
"Where?" He asked.
"Somewhere. We'll know when we get there. We can drive around until we find the perfect place, the perfect jobs. Or the baby will decide for us by being born."
Jess smiled. "I know you got a tattoo, but can you live this recklessly?"
"Try me." Rory threw a few things in a bag. "I have a car, we'll drive to the ATM and get the rest of my money. I can always get in touch with my mom, and Luke. You can write and sell your stories, and worst comes to worst, we always have that Honor thing." She was mostly joking, but who knows what poverty will drive one to.
"That sounds like a plan." He told her, throwing his things into a bag as well. "And I'll sell my share of the bookstore. Ted has a lot of friends who would want it."
Rory threw a pillow at him. "Not a plan. Just a guideline."
Jess shouldered the bags, threw his arm around Rory's waist and they walked out of the apartment together, no regrets and never looking back. An hour later they were out of the city.