4 months earlier

Jess looks around the crowded room. He doesn't see a single person he would find remotely interesting to start a conversation with. He sighs and goes back to looking at the piece of art hanging on the wall in front of him.

What was it really? He had never understood the enchantment of art. He narrows his eyes and tries to really look at the painting. Nope. Simply smudges of color. Like those kindergarten paintings his little sister had made and that Liz had sent him a few years back.

He looks around the room again. Where had Jake disappeared to?

Jake was a writer he got to know while he was still working at Truncheon. About a year ago he had stepped down and became a silent partner as he felt the paperwork and whatnot of owning a business took away too much time from his writing. Although, he hadn't been able to let it go completely, it was so easy for him to sneak in and do some paperwork – just to help out a bit, whenever he was in the neighborhood.

Therefore, six months ago when Jake told him a friend of his was subletting his apartment in New York, Jess had jumped at the chance, thinking it might help get his writing started.

It had really helped, the last three weeks he'd been writing almost non-stop. That was why Jake had dragged him to this art show; he figured Jess needed some socializing. Maybe he was right, but to be honest, Jess would have preferred going to a pub, drink a few beers and talk.

This, this was just so pretentious. All these people, what were they even doing here? He doubted they were here because they all loved art. Well, to be honest – he himself wasn't here because he loved art. But that was different.

He turns around to face the crowds of people in the gallery and looks around. These high society wives that couldn't care less about things like struggling artists or their artwork. But of course, going to an art show had a nice to ring to it. He could imagining them having coffee with their friends the next day, casually mentioning the art show the night before; trying to sound cultural and deep.

"Hey man!" Jess stirs as the voice of someone approaching him rips him from his thoughts. "Where've you been?" Jake adds as he stops besides him and hands him a drink.

Jess shrugs his shoulders and takes the drink from Jakes' hand. "Looking around."

"Well, you can stop looking now." Jake says with a smile and nods his head in the direction he came from. "I've found two lovely ladies that wouldn't mind going for a drink with two interesting authors when this thing is over."

Jess smirks. Wherever they went, Jake always met a lovely lady that wouldn't mind going for a drink or a dinner at a later time, and surprisingly often she had a lovely friend. Jess shakes his head. "I'm not really feeling well, I think I should head home."

"You sure? The blonde has these amazing legs..."

"I'm sure." Jess interrupts him. The lovely ladies always had amazing somethings. To be fair: Jake had good taste in women. But tonight, as most nights lately, he was more eager to get home to his writing than to flirt with women.

"Okay. Your loss." Jake says and shrugs his shoulders. He doesn't look the least bit surprised, Jess often came up with excuses for not accompanying whatever plans Jake made with the lovely ladies and their friends.

"Maybe another time." Jess says and gets a short nod from Jake as he starts walking away.

"Another time, sure. Call you later." He says while disappearing into the crowd.

Jess takes a sip of his drink as he starts walking towards the exit. With a disgusted look on his face he stops and puts the glass down at the nearest table. That could very well have been the most awful drink he ever tasted. He doesn't even know how to begin to describe the taste. Way too sweet but at the same time…bitter? Awful either way.

He picks up his walk towards the exit when a group of women across the room catches his eye. Isn't that? No, it couldn't be. He tears his eyes away from the group of women and fixes his gaze at the wardrobe near the entrance a few feet away.

This isn't the first time he imagined seeing her across a crowded room. It had happened all the time back at Truncheon. He would see a dark-haired woman entering the store and immediately think it was her; changing her mind and coming back.

But each and every time he would be disappointed; learning that is was only his imagination playing tricks with him. As he reaches the big archway separating the wardrobe and the entrance from the rest of the gallery he turns around and casts another glance back towards the group of women and more specifically a dark-haired woman with her back turned against him.

It's been years since his imagination had played tricks on him like this. Could it really be her? No. It can't be. Not here. Not like that. He takes a closer look at the woman. The brown hair is put together in one of those constellations that looked like she just threw it together in a hurry before leaving home, but really took much longer to get in order. He had spent enough times waiting for women to get ready to know the time spent behind those hairstyles.

She's wearing a black skirt that ends right above her knees and a blue shirt in what he imagines is an expensive material tucked in it. The skirt fits tight around her lower body while the shirt seems to be floating free around her upper body but at the same time revealing a well-shaped figure. To make the outfit complete she's wearing high heels which make her legs look amazing, to use Jakes' choice of words.

As if the woman feels his eyes intently fixed upon her she turns around and causes his heart to take a leap in his chest. It is her. It is Rory Gilmore, standing across the room from him.

She doesn't seem to notice him and he sends a thankful thought to the crowd of people between them. She looks different. Not bad different, but different all the same. She looks older, more mature, and…something else he can't quite put his finger on.

Well, of course she looked older. He probably did as well. After all, it has been seven years since last time they saw each other.

He turns around to get his coat from the wardrobe. With his thoughts elsewhere he stirs when the young girl behind the counter reaches him his coat and says something.

"I'm sorry, what?" He says while incessantly casting glances through the archway and into the gallery.

"I said: have a good evening sir." The young girl says and rolls her eyes.

"Yeah." He says and takes his coat. "Yeah, yes, I will."

The young girl shakes her head and walks away to attend to another guest.

On his way out he takes one last look through the archway and his eyes immediately finds the group of women across the room. She's gone. He sighs and walks out the door.

It's a chilly night and he wraps his coat around him as he starts walking. He lives quite a few blocks from the gallery, but he feels the cold air would only do him good at this point.

What was she doing here? Last he heard she lived in California with Logan; that was before Luke had stopped mentioning her in their conversations, knowing it hurt him too much to hear her name. About the same time he had told him he couldn't come to his wedding because it would hurt too much seeing Rory again. Well, not only Rory, that he could probably have endured, but seeing Rory and her boyfriend – the man she loved.

4 years earlier

"You're really going to do that to Luke?" The woman on the other end of the phone was furious and she made no effort in hiding it. "I know you don't like me, or this town, hell I wouldn't even hesitate to say you don't like the world in general, but Luke." She stresses his uncle's name. "After all he's done for you, you're just not going to show up at his wedding? You should be there." Her tone has changed from furious to accusing. "All the people he loves and cares about are going to be there, right know I can't for the life of me figure out why, but you're included in that bunch of people. You should be there Jess."

"Luke knows why I'm not coming." He simply says. He had spoken to Luke yesterday and Luke had told him he understood, so why was this crazy woman calling to yell at him?

"Yeah. He knows. You think it hurts less because he knows?"

He sighs. He never wanted to hurt Luke, but he couldn't attend the wedding. He couldn't stand seeing Rory there with her boyfriend at her arm, dancing with him, smiling with him, being in love with him. "I said I'll make it up to him."

Lorelai sighs on the other end of the phone, sounding resigned . "You better do that Jess."

"I said I will, and I will, okay?"He shouts before hanging up. He hadn't meant to shout at her, he knows she's simply looking out for Luke, but he feels bad for not wanting to be there at Luke's wedding. He hates himself because he's not strong enough to suffer through one day in the vicinity of Rory and Logan.