'Chink-chink bum, chink-chink bum, chink-chink bum – I never knew. I never knew that everything was falling through. That everyone I knew was waiting on a queue…'
The words to Over My Head drifted up to Rory, signifying yet another call she had to take. For the last 48 hours her ear had been glued to her phone talking to decorators, caterers, the press and invited guests.
Multi-tasking had become her friend. Absentmindedly she checked over her half of the list, while listening to the event curator from the Met.
"Okay, Susan. Let me just talk to Junior and I'll give you a call…. say in a half hour."
"Great, talk to you then. Bye"
Glancing at the clock, she realized that she had 20 minutes to race home to meet Junior.
Maneuvering through Manhattan traffic could give the sanest person a headache, but today it gave Tristan a few moments of peace to gather his thoughts.
For the past few nights he had been helping Rory change the venue for her mother's party. So many things were falling into place, not just with the party, but also between the two of them. He was getting to spend time with her; showing her that he could be a reliable, compassionate partner.
Rory had a tendency of holding back with him. She allowed him to only focus on the pleasure they could give each other. She acted as if reality didn't factor into their time together. While he was angry at her father for leaving the weight of the party planning to her, he truthfully was grateful for Chris's mess-up. He was man enough to admit that without Chris's faux pa he wouldn't have broken past those carefully erected emotional walls Rory had protecting her from their 'short-time' together.
Breaking for a red light a few blocks from Rory's home, Tristan thought back to the previous night. She had been talking about her mother, which had felt like a major victory because she was always very careful about revealing personal information. He knew first-had that Lane was her childhood best friend but she explained the mysterious relationship she had with her mother.
He already knew of Lorelai Gilmore, it was hard not to. From a business standpoint she was a success. Everyone knew the story of the little chic boutique that ballooned into a celebrity favorite. But she told him about the 'real' person, the person the cameras didn't see.
"My mother and I are kindred spirits, without her, I don't make sense. When I was growing up and every little girl wanted to be a princess, I wanted to be Lorelai. She always sparkled and made everything better. It was like she was my own personal princess. And my dad? He was the prince. I can remember sitting in her studio watching her create beautiful things. It was magical. There was this one time I was sitting on one of the chairs watching my dad passing at the bottom of the stairs. He was dressed in a tux telling me not to be like my mother, keeping her husband waiting, and then in the middle of his sentence, he just stops and turns. I don't know how he knew she was standing there, but he did. The look of love and amazement on his face was humbling. Even as a little girl I knew how special their love was. I knew I would never settle for less than what they had together."
Seeing a parking spot just down the block from Rory's place he pulled over. Pinching the bridge of his nose he took a deep breath. The moment from last night had been playing over and over in his mind all day long. It really drove home, that what he was doing, was wrong.
Sure, he could admit to getting involved with women where the basis of their relationship was physical satisfaction, but those instances could be counted on one hand. Rory definitely did not belong on that hand. He needed some advice, pronto. Glancing at the clock, he grabbed his cell to dial Jess.
"Yo!"
"Jess do you have a second?"
"Ya man, what's going on?"
"I'm getting ready to meet Rory and man, Jess. This is so screwed up."
"What are you talking about? For the last week you two have been attached at the hip. Speaking of which, I haven't seen you around here lately.
"Yeah I know. Sorry about that, but between helping Rory move the party and work. It's just been a little crazy, but I'll definitely be there for the sale this weekend."
"Great, I knew I could count on you. So, lay it on me. What's the problem?"
"You know how I've been helping her. Well as bad as this is to say, I'm grateful for her dad's screw up. It's given us more time to spend together. I know we've only been together for a week, but god, I can so see her as my future. I've never felt like this before. I know we've only known each other for a week, but it's right. I know it.
"I've told you she's made it apparent that she see our time together as temporary but, man, she's opening up, telling me things about her family. As much as I would like to believe that everything will work out fine, I know it won't. Last night she was telling me about her mom and dad. How she will never settle for less than what they have. You should have seen her face when she was talking about them, it would have humbled even your cynical ass."
"Okay."
"Okay? That's all you have to say?"
"No, just give me a second without butting in. One, you're talking about this girl being your future. That's real quick, man. How can you know that she is the "one"? Yeah, you've said it feels right. But that waitress, Anna, when I was with her it felt right."
"Shut up. I knew I should have called someone else for advice."
"Alright. Alright, I'll be serious. It's going to suck to hear this, but I've never lied to you before and I'm not gonna start now. It is true. She is going to be mad that you've lied. You have to pick the right moment to tell her. If you two are connecting like you say you are, you have to use the good times and her insight to the 'real' Tristan to show her it hasn't all been a lie. Tell her you were so blown away by her that you took any chance you could to meet her. Tell her you wouldn't hurt her for the world and if she could look beyond this one little mistake, you would do everything in your power to make her happy. Sure, Junior isn't really your name, but is it your nickname. You do play the bass, you do work at Vinyl. The only part that hasn't been true is that you are a number man at her father's business. Oh, and the apartment, but that's not a big deal."
Tristan sat there flabbergasted. He knew that beyond the cavalier attitude and sarcastic wit, Jess was introspective and caring, but at times it still threw him when he saw the other side of his best friend, "Thanks man. It means a lot to have you in my corner. I'll talk to ya later."
"Okay, good luck. Junior, I am sorry."
"For what?"
"If it wasn't for my misdirection, none of this would have happened and you wouldn't be in this position."
"Jess, no worries. Yeah, you may have misdirected her, but I made the decision to play along. Truthfully, even if it doesn't work out the way I want it to, I don't regret any of the time I've spent with her. You are right though, without you none of this would have happened and I could have missed out on getting to know this amazing woman. If nothing else, I should have said thank you. Alright. I gotta go before I'm late."
"Bye"
Dry wiping his face and glancing at the clock one last time Tristan got out of the car ready to face the prospect of losing his shot at happiness.
Ring! Ring!
"TRISTAN! Geez, I told you it would work out."
Lane looked at the phone confused,"Umm, is this Vinyl?"
Raking his hand through his hair in frustration Jess apologized, "Sorry about that I thought you were someone else I had just been talking to. This is Vinyl, what can I do for you?"
"Uh, that's okay. I was in there last week. My name is Lane Kim and I was just calling to ask if the guitar for Dave Rygalski had come in?"
Rummaging through the shipping slips he found the one marked 'KIM', "It should be in, Saturday. We open at 9. So, you can stop in any time after then to get it."
"Great. I'll be in. Thanks."
After hanging up the phone, Lane grabbed her red pen and circled Saturday. Maybe she'd get to see Rory's new man while she was there.
"Dr. Beard will be right with you Mr. Hayden."
Absentmindedly, Chris nodded at the nurse. Sitting in the exam room, all he could focus on was the white walls and the smell. It was too clean in there, too sterile.
Each second seemed to last an eternity as they slowly ticked by. Finally, he could hear rustling outside the door, the jingling of the handle. Time seemed to slow even further. In those seconds before the door opened he recalled the conversation with David from the other day.
"Chris, I have your lab work. There was an unusually high PSA result, and I think we should get you in here for further testing. That way we can see what we are dealing with."
"Chris, good to see you."
"David. Is it? Is it really good to see me or is that your standard greeting."
Dr. Beard stood there looking at his life-long friend, and shook his head. "I see that your attitude hasn't changed from earlier in the week."
Chris took a deep breath and slowly released it, trying to keep his anger from escalating. "How would you feel not knowing what you are facing?"
Knock, knock
"Come in. It's unlocked."
Tristan walked to find Rory sprawled on the sofa watching TV. "How safe is that? You didn't know it was me at the door."
Rory ignored the stern look on Junior's face, focusing instead on how happy just seeing him made her. Patting the spot next to her head, "I knew it was you, I'm psychic. Now come over here and be my pillow."
Shaking his head at her, he walked to the sofa and laid on top of her, bracing his arms next to her head to keep most of his weight off of her. "Nope. It's your turn to be my pillow."
Locking her arms around his neck Rory gazed up into his soulful blue eyes and smiled, "I think I could be happy doing that."
Tristan wrapped his arms around her waist and rolled to the side, reversing their positions.
"Hey. I thought I was supposed to be the pillow this time."
Taking the time to brush her hair away from her face before responding Tristan said, "I like you too much to crush you. Besides, I like holding you."
Leaning into the soft caress, she nuzzled his hand. "What would you say if I told you that I made the last arrangement for the party this afternoon?"
"That you are amazing."
"Well, not only did I do that, but Susan called me. Apparently she can't make it to a showing of Wicked next week and she thought that we might want to go. What do you think?
"That sounds good. Just let me know what the day and time."
Glancing at Rory hands that were busy plucking the material of his shirt Tristan was reminded of his childhood cat. "Do know you're like a cat. When I was little we had this cat named Fluffy-dandelion."
Rory couldn't help the snicker that escaped, "Fluffy-dandelion?"
He couldn't believe it, but he felt himself blush. "Hey. I was four. But back to my story. We had this cat and every time you sat down, she would climb on top of you, using her paws to knead you until she found the perfect spot. And once she was content she would use her head and rub it against you until you pet her. You're just like her. Every time I have you in my arms, your hands are always busy, plucking at my shirt. Or when I brush the hair away from your face, you lean into the caress. It's sweet."
It was Rory's turn to blush a little. Thinking back to every other time they had cuddled she realized he was right. "I can't help it. You're shirts are always so soft and I can't get enough of the way your hands feel on me."
Laying back down, with her cheek pressed against his chest she asked, "Would you mind terribly if we just vegged out tonight? The past few days have been crazy hectic and now that we have some peace and quite I want to take advantage of it."
Dropping a quick kiss on top of her head, he nodded, "That sounds perfect. How about we order some pizza."
"Mmmm extra cheese."
"Deal. Wanna grab the phone and I'll order?"
Listening to Junior order the pizza, Rory sighed contentedly, thinking, I could get used to this.
While Rory lay there giggling at Hyde and Fez, Tristan laid there pretending that this was reality.
He would tell her the truth tomorrow.
AN: I'm so sorry for the lack of updates. I know it wasn't action packed, but bear with me while I get back into the groove of the story. I hope the tone was inline with the pervious chapters. Don't forget to review.