Note: Thank you to those who answered the questions from my previous chapter. I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts, and hope you will continue to offer them! Without further ado...

Chapter Eleven

Jess stretched out, as much as the short couch would allow. "Did I hear you say something about chocolate cake?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rory answered, sheepishly.

"I'm sure that Luke has something downstairs." Jess sat up and took Rory's hands in his, lacing their fingers together.

"Hi." She smiled, holding his gaze.

"Hey." Jess leaned in towards her and left a lingering kiss on her cheek.

"How long was I asleep?"

"I hope long enough. Can't have you sleep through our las..."

Jess interrupted before she could finish. "Don't say it."

"Not saying it isn't going to change things. I have to go back to New York. I have to pack and talk to my landlord, but I won't be gone for long."

He dropped her hands and walked to the kitchen, massaging the back of his neck.

"How long?"

"A couple weeks, maybe a month?"

"What if I came to help you?"

"You're needed here, Jess. I can take care of things in New York." She met his pace in the middle of the room, smiling when she realized the significance of that spot.

"I feel like Luke is gonna come barging in, looking for his pocket knife, or checkbook, or whatever he left up here on purpose so he would have an excuse to check on us."

"If he were to barge in right now, would you run away like you did then?" He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.

"Probably." She looked towards the door, as if just talking about Luke would bring him bursting in. "Not that I'm not enjoying this, but what are we doing?"

"Making up for lost time?" His lips trailed a line of kisses from her cheek to her neck.

"That's just it. There's been a lot of lost time. Don't you think we should slow down a little bit? Get to know each other again."

"Sshhh." He hissed, against her skin."I know you, Rory. I've always known you."

"I want to know about Kate." The words fell from her mouth before she had had a chance to think about it.

He took at step away from her, stunned by the abruptness of the request.

"What good will that do? Why dredge up the past?"

"Because I want to know that she really is the past."

"What about you? You said that you had many failed relationships in New York. Can you honestly say that you want to sit here all afternoon and talk about your old boyfriends."

"I didn't say many. There were a couple, yes, but not many. If you want to know about them, I'll sit here all day and talk about it."

"Fine, what do you want to know?" He pulled a chair away from the table, and waved his arm inviting her to join him.

"How long has it been over?"

"A year." He answered, offering no further details.

"How long were you together?"

"Two years."

"Wow. What happened?"

"She wanted more and she made me want it too. I proposed, she said yes, and then she got a job offer in Arizona. She chose her work, and I chose Philadelphia. End of story."

"How is it that I never knew about her? You never mentioned her in any of your texts."

"You never told me about anyone you were seeing either."

She thought about it for a moment, realizing of course that he was right. "It wasn't intentional. I just didn't think you'd want to know."

"I would have been happy for you, as long as you were happy." A sadness clouded Jess' eyes. "I always hoped that you were."

"That's it. I wasn't, and I didn't even realize it at the time." Rory fidgeted, chipping at the remnants of a long forgotten manicure . "I guess that's why I'm here."

"It's your turn now, Gilmore. Spill."

"I was just like my mother." She shook her head at the realization. "There were a few dates, but when things started getting serious, I would usually be the one to bail. It just always felt like I was looking for something that just didn't exist in New York."

"You're not getting off that easy. I told you about Kate. You don't get to talk in generalities. Didn't you see anyone there that could have been the one?"

"Curtis Keplinger."

"Go on."

"He was a writer at the Times. He still is, actually. We dated for 11 months. He kinda reminded me of Logan without all the drinking, and I thought at the time that was what I was looking for at the time." Jess flinched with the mention of his name.

"That couldn't have ended well."

"It didn't. He cheated on me, just like Logan did. The worst part was that I still wanted to be with him, and I still had to see him every day. But it got easier as time passed, and then he transferred to another department. He eventually married her, and that was that."

"I'm sorry." He reached out and covered her hands, stopping her from fidgeting. "You deserve better than that."

"You too." She took a deep breath and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. "I can't believe that it was my idea to do this."

"But we're here now, you and me. A little older, hopefully a lot wiser," He lifted her fingers to his lips. "This is what I want, actually what I've always wanted. And I'm all in, if it's what you want."

She thought back to the night in her room at Yale, when he begged her to run away with him. She remembered how hard she fought against her heart to tell him no, and chuckled thinking about how easy it was now in contrast to just say yes.

"It's what I want." She nodded. "I want to be with you. I don't know how or where, but we will make this work, Jess. We will."

"Ok." Jess tried his best to hold back his smile, but inside he felt like professing his undying love from the gazebo in the town square. "We'll make it work. Failure is not an option, not this time."

Note cont'd: These past 4 days, snowed in with nothing else to do, have been really great. I'm crossing my fingers for another day off so that I can write Chapter Twelve.