A/N: I split chapter 12 into two paragraphs for Vera Cobb; hopefully it's easier to read now. As always, thanks for the reviews.
Disclaimer: Seriously, if I owned anything related to Gilmore Girls, I wouldn't be so broke.
Ch. 13- A Lost Bet
Despite pleading from Rory, Jess would not tell her when his novel was going to be re-printed and she was too busy with work to dig around and find out herself. About two weeks after finding out about the dedication, as she was settling into yet another motel room, her phone rang. Her eyes lit up when she saw Jess' name on the caller id. It was too early for their scheduled nightly call, but she was glad for the psychic powers they had seemed to adopt, always knowing when the other would be free to talk outside of the normal range. The only other person that had ever been able to do that was her mother. She made a mental note to call her mother after talking to Jess as she answered the phone.
"Hey!" she said brightly.
"It's out" was the only reply.
"What's out?" she asked before realizing she already knew the answer, "Oh, your book? Of course it's your book, I'm dumb, aren't I? I'm going to get it right now and you can't stop me!"
"Wanna bet?" Jess asked provocatively.
"Well, considering that I'm going to win, yes I would like to bet" she replied in a playful tone.
"What are the terms for this bet?"
"I don't know, I'll figure out what I want after I win."
"Huh. Okay, sounds fair, I'll do the same."
"You are so not winning this. I have my shoes on and I'm walking out the door now" she said as she opened the door and immediately dropped her phone to the ground.
"No fair!" she shouted as she jumped toward her boyfriend, kissed him, and wrapped her arms around his neck, giggling.
"I told you I'd win" he smirked.
"You haven't won anything yet! I'm going to that store right now and there's nothing you can do about it" she stated stubbornly, reaching down to pick up her phone and inspect it for damages, pretending he had no effect on her.
"I think you'll change your mind once you hear the terms of my winning the bet" he said slyly before whispering scandalously in her ear.
"Did you at least bring me a copy?" she asked breathlessly, knowing she was beat.
Jess produced a brand new copy of his novel from his bag before leading Rory back into her room and hanging the Do Not Disturb sign on the door as he closed it. Several hours later, a slightly disheveled Rory came running back out of the room and down the stairs to meet with her co-workers. A few of them eyed her askance as she slowed to a walk to approach them, but thankfully she was not the last one to arrive. Cliff, one of the photographers, was almost always at least ten minutes late. As her boss took a final head count, one of the other female reporters she had become friendly with smiled in her direction and gave her a knowing wink. She blushed and stifled a laugh. Amanda had a tendency to flirt with all the attractive male reporters that were not co-workers, she had a strict no dating co-workers rule, and had actually made several late appearances herself throughout their time on the campaign trail. There was an odd number of girl reporters, so they each had turns with a single room. Somehow, Rory had been lucky that each time Jess made a surprise visit, it had been her turn. As they boarded the bus to head to their work site, Rory made sure to sit with Amanda.
"So, boyfriend in town again?" Amanda asked with a smile.
"Yeah. His novel was re-released and he brought a copy to show me the dedication."
"You are so lucky to have such a good boyfriend. And a writer at that. I've heard that artistic men are good in bed" she said with a slight air of curiosity.
"Oh and where did you hear that? You read Cosmo too much for someone who likes to report the truth" Rory replied, rolling her eyes.
"Well, just tell me this. What time did the boyfriend get here today?"
"About a half an hour after we did" she admitted reluctantly.
"Ha! You can't tell me you spent hours just reading one little dedication. And I know you weren't talking either. You talk enough every night when he's not here, there's nothing left to talk about now! You were spending some nice quality horizontal time together."
"So did you have fun with that Kent guy the other night?" Rory asked abruptly, trying to change the subject.
"Actually, we did have some fun. He was way hotter than my ex. And foreign, too. You know how I like those British boys."
"I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure he was from Australia" Rory laughed, wondering how she had become friends with this girl.
"Well, whatever, that's even hotter. He can feed me some Vegemite any day" she replied, laughing as well.
"Dirty!" Rory exclaimed, suddenly remembering that she hadn't called her mother yet like she told herself to.
"What's wrong? You just went from laughing to homesick in two milliseconds" Amanda questioned, obviously concerned.
"Oh, nothing. I just forgot that I was going to call my mom earlier. Jess distracted me" she added quietly, blushing again.
"Call her on break. You certainly won't remember tonight when you get back to your room" she noted wisely.
"Good call. I'll do that" Rory smiled gratefully at her co-worker as the bus slowed to a stop, remembering now why they had become friends.
Rory did call Lorelai during the intermission of the debate and filled her in on Jess' visit so far, well the not-so-dirty parts anyway. Lorelai told her that Lane had just shown her the new sonogram pictures showing that she was thankfully only having one baby this time. Lane had promised to send pictures of the twins and sonograms of the new baby to Jess' apartment, since he got to see her most frequently. Rory made a new mental note to have him check his mail as soon as he got back to Philly. The fifteen minute call was nowhere near long enough, and she felt extremely homesick the rest of the night. The only thing that kept her from falling apart was knowing that Jess was waiting for her back at the motel. Of course, knowing this made it very hard to concentrate on her work and she wasn't sure how good her article was going to be on this particular event. She took a deep breath and focused once more on the candidates speaking in front of her. There would be time for Jess tonight. She had already spotted a Chinese restaurant within walking distance of her motel. She was going to get him that egg roll he kept harping on about and he was going to eat every last bite of it. Then they could "talk" some more before having to say goodbye in the morning.
A/N: Sorry it's so short. I'll try to update again soon to make up for it, but no promises.
