Thank you for the overwhelming response to this story. I'm so totally flattered. I have no outline for where I want this story to go, kinda flying by the seat of my pants, but I hope you bear with me.
Any dialogue you vaguely recognise is stolen. Borrowed if you will. But, whatever I don't own it.
Chapter two : Friends and Boyfriends
"Will you just call her." Bee pushed her filing cabinet drawer closed with her hip. "You've had that soppy 'I've met a girl face' for two days now and if you don't do something about it, I will put your head through a window."
Jess rolled his eyes, tapping his pen on the edge of his desk. "Well I feel the love."
"And if you don't want that pen in your eye, I suggest you stop hitting it of the table."
"Someone's crabby." Jess smirked, crossing the room and pressing a kiss on Bee's cheek.
"I'm irritable. And you're not helping." She scowled, poking him in the chest.
"Well, I'm out of here." Jess slung his messenger bag over his shoulder. "I'll drop this weeks zine content of at the printers. You wanna have dinner later?"
"No, I want my bed, painkillers and a 'Sex and the City' boxset." She sighed as she refilled her coffee cup. "And please call her."
Rory sat the dining table, drumming her fingers across the surface watching as Katie put the finishing touches to their dinner.
"Pasta alá Katherine." She grinned as she sat the dish in front of Rory, who narrowed her eyes and then squinted up at her friend.
"It looks like mac and cheese."
Katie sighed and dropped into her chair. "It is mac and cheese. But last time we were in the Hollow Sookie told me you can call any pasta dish 'pasta alá your name' to make it more fancy. Even mac and cheese."
"Okay, sure." Rory nodded, picking up her fork and taking a bite. "Wow. This is really good."
"Yeah, it's amazing what Kraft can do these days."
"You didn't make it from scratch?"
"No." Katie scoffed. "I do work too."
"Yes, but you made a big deal about making dinner. I could have made this." Rory rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." Katie lifted a piece of bread and tore the end of it. "When's Adam home?"
"He's in London until next week." Rory replied stiffly and lifted her wine glass taking a large gulp.
Katie bit down on her lower lip and glanced sideways at her friend. "You gonna tell him about Jess?"
"Jess?"
"Yeah, you know, that really hot guy that was here yesterday morning? The one that has you checking your phone every fifteen minutes to see if he's called or texted."
"Well, I want my umbrella back." She retorted, annoyed that Katie had noticed her frantic phone checks. "Besides, what would I tell Adam. That I fainted and some guy caught me?" She silently added the fact that she'd been thinking about him constantly, and was disappointed he hadn't called her yet, or that she hadn't thought to get his number.
"But, he's not some guy, right?"
Rory snapped her head up. "What'd you mean?"
"That you knew him in high school. That's what you said. Why would introducing your boyfriend to an school friend be a problem."
"Because he wasn't a friend. He was a senior and I was a sophomore and yesterday was the first time I ever spoke to him."
"Oh. So telling him you met a handsome stranger might not be the best idea."
Rory cocked her head to the right, knitting her eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean, he's not quite Othello, but he does have a touch of green eyes about him."
"You think he'd be jealous?"
"You don't?" Katie set her fork down and rested her chin on her hand. "Rory, he pitched a fit when he saw you showing Dave around the city. Dave! A guy who is married to one of your oldest friends."
"Well, Adam didn't know who he was." Rory reasoned.
"That doesn't matter. He should trust you."
Rory sighed and pushed her plate away. "Listen, I know you don't like Adam-"
"I do like Adam." Katie interrupted. "I like him fine. I just think he should give you a little bit more credit. You're nothing but faithful. You can't even change the toppings of your pizza without getting guilty."
"He trusts me. He loves me. He's just been hurt before." Rory sighed.
"So that means he gets to judge you by the standards set by others? You have never hurt anybody. Dean broke up with you because he was jealous you got into Yale. Logan, because you weren't ready to get married. You have never hurt any man, I don't know why he thinks you'd start with him."
"Do you have a point?"
"I think I did." Katie nodded, "But I may have misplaced it within my rant. All I'm gonna say is don't let what Adam might think ruin your chance at making a new friend."
Rory bit down on her lower and pressed her forefinger to her temple. "Kate, I don't even know if I'm gonna even see this guy again." She glanced up as their front door knocked, and she stood to answer it. "I mean, for all I know he thought I was some crazy fainting chick, and he's legged it with my umbrella with no intention of ever showing up again." She pulled open the door and was shocked into silence.
"One umbrella, returned in the condition it was loaned in." He grinned, holding the pink umbrella out to her.
Rory reached out and took it from him, their fingers grazing for the briefest of seconds. "Uh, thanks. I said you could keep it."
"Not really my colour, but thanks."
Rory gave him a small smile, tossing the umbrella on the table. "Right."
Katie who'd been watching Rory noticed the flash of pink and quickly joined her at the door. "Jess, good to see you again."
"Yeah, you too."
"You wanna come in?" Katie smiled.
"I can't, I just wanted to know if Rory wanted to get a cup of coffee?"
"She'd love to." Katie grinned, grabbing Rory's coat from its hook.
"I would?" Rory eyed her friend.
"Sure. She was just saying how bored she was, and I have ton of work to do for the gallery, so you have saved me from a night of Rory Gilmore complaining." Katie told Jess before turning back to Rory. "Here's your coat and purse. Have fun!" She handed Rory her things and gave her a gentle nudge out the door, closing it as soon as she's stepped over the threshold.
"Sorry." Rory threw him a smile. "Sometimes she's a bit much-"
"It's fine." He held up his right hand to cut her off, "I have someone who's a bit much at times too."
"Right." She nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear, while he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
"So..." He leaned back and inclined his his towards the elevator, "shall we?"
"Sure." Rory pulled her coat on and followed him into the elevator.
"Anywhere in particular you want to go?" Jess asked as he pushed the button for the lobby.
"Well, Java has the best coffee in a twelve block radius."
"So you just don't go there because it's across the street?" Jess grinned.
"Nope." Rory shook her head. "I live here because it's across the street."
"What?"
Rory let out a short laugh at the confusion on his face. "Never underestimate the lengths a Gilmore will go to for a decent cup of coffee every morning."
"Okay, then." Jess quirked her a grin as the doors binged open. "Lets go." He placed his hand on the small of her back, and Rory could shake the feeling that it felt perfect and completely wrong all at the same time.
"Eleven?" Jess eyed the brunette in front of him in disbelief.
"Yip, but I didn't understand a word of it and had to re-read it again at fifteen."
"I have yet to make it through it." Jess admitted.
Rory looked up in shock. "But, the Fountainhead's a classic."
Jess scoffed. "Yeah, a classically good paperweight."
"From the man who likes Hemingway?" Rory retorted, an grin threatening to break her face.
"Hey!" Jess chided. "Ernest only has lovely things to say about you."
"Well, that's understandable." Rory laughed. "I am lovely."
"Modest too." Jess smirked. "I can't believe we weren't friends in high school."
"Yeah. It would have been nice to have Paris scold someone else for like The Beats."
"National Enquirer of the 50s, you know?" Jess laughed.
"She used that on you too?" Rory rolled her eyes. "God, sometimes I miss Paris."
"Well, she mellowed a good deal in college." Jess grinned. "She had a crafts table."
"No way. Paris into gluing pasta shells onto picture frames? That would have been worth going to Harvard for."
"What? You were gonna go to Harvard?"
"Sort of." Rory nodded. "I got in. And ever since I could remember I was going to Harvard. At cheerleading lessons, I wouldn't cheer for any other school but Harvard."
Jess grinned and raised one eyebrow at Rory. "Cheerleading?"
"I was six, and it's not the point. I always had Harvard as my goal, but I never researched into it. And I was Miss Research. So when I actually looked into it, Yale was much better fit for me. It had all the classes I wanted, it was close to home and it had some great teachers. You know, I was taught by Asher Flemming."
"I heard he died in bed, with a student."
"Yeah, some insipid redhead, who I think slept with someone in admissions to get into Yale in the first place. But on the bright side, Katie's boyfriend at the time, Marty, won five hundred dollars in a pool, because he bet that Flemming would die in bed."
"So we could have met at Chilton or Harvard," Jess started, "But I choose to faint on you." Rory finished, laughing.
"Well, yes." Jess agreed, "But I was gonna say, we could have met at Bryman's."
"Bryman's Publishing? Where I work?" Rory asked.
"Yeah, I had an internship there. They offered my a full time position, but I turned it down."
"Why?"
Jess shrugged. "Always wanted to own my own business I guess. Not sell out to the giant corporations."
Rory sat down her coffee cup and squinted at him. "So I'm a sell out? Well I could always come work for you." She grinned when he nodded his head.
"What? No. I can't have a Rand fan in my office." He chuckled. "God knows what you'd try to publish."
"Listen mister." Rory pointed her finger at him. "I'll tell you what. I will try the painful Ernest again, if you..."
"Give Ayn one more go?"
"Yeah." She smiled. "Commit to it one more time, and if it's still as bad I will make it up to you."
"You swear."
"I'll even pinkie swear." She laughed, holding out her right hand pinkie to him.
He rolled his eyes, before grabbing her pinkie with his. "Deal."
"Excellent." She laughed before a comfortable silence surrounded them.
Suddenly a deep English voice broke their silence. "Rory, there you are."
Both Jess and Rory looked up to see a tall male in an expensive grey suit walking towards them. "Adam?" Rory sounded shocked as she stood to meet him. "I thought you were in London until next week."
"I was." He confirmed, giving her a kiss, "But we settled the case earlier. No point in hanging around deary old London. I wanted to surprise you."
"Well colour me surprised, you did it." Rory gave an uneasy laugh, much different to the one that Jess had heard all evening. "So you didn't want to spend time at home. See your mom?"
"Rory, not everyone is as close to their mother as you are."
"Right." Rory smiled up at him, with a little more teeth on show for it to be natural.
"Who's this?" Adam gestured to Jess, who was still sitting on his end of the couch.
"Oh, this is Jess Mariano." Rory explained. "He went to Chilton." She told her boyfriend, once again skating over the truth. "Jess, this is Adam Whyte."
"Boyfriend?" Jess asked, standing to shake Adam's hand.
"Yeah." Rory quietly confirmed.
"Going on a year." Adam smiled, slipping his hand around Rory's waist, pulling her closer to him. "Listen, Rory, I'm exhausted. Jet-lag, you know."
"Oh you have to go?" Rory asked, pulling out of his embrace.
"Well, I was hoping I could stay at yours. We haven't seen each other in three weeks."
"But I have work tomorrow and..." Rory trailed off as she looked up into her boyfriend's grey eyes. "Sure. We were just about done here anyway." She reached up a pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Just gimme a sec to say bye?"
"I'll wait for you outside. It was nice to meet you." He nodded at Jess and then turned to leave.
"Sorry about this. He was supposed to be away for another week."
"So you said." Jess nodded. "You never mentioned a boyfriend."
"Never came up." Rory shrugged. "I do want to be friends with you Jess."
"Friends?"
"Yeah, we can have coffee, talk, watch a movie. Friend stuff." She asked, a hopeful look in her eyes.
"We'll see, Rory." He gave her a half smile and handed her her coat.
"Well, you have my number if you want to do anything. Send me a text, or whatever." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I really had a lot of fun this evening."
"Yeah." He smiled and then nodded his head to the door. "Beat it."
"Bye Jess."
"Bye Rory."
"So how'd it go-oh! Hi Adam. You're home early!" Katie met the couple as the front door opened.
"Settled the case early." Rory smiled, throwing her coat and bag onto the couch.
"That's great." Katie gave Adam an unnaturally big smile.
"Yeah It's good to see you Katie." He nodded slowly. "Mind if I take a shower, sweetheart?" He asked Rory.
"No, I'll meet you in there later." She smiled as he kissed her cheek and walked to her room.
Rory sighed and sank down onto the couch.
"What happened?" Katie sat beside her friend, offering her an opened bag of chocolate.
Rory reached out grabbed a piece of candy before looking up at her friend. "I was having a great time with Jess, and then out of nowhere, Adam appears. I hadn't even told Jess I had a boyfriend. He looked so upset."
"But you didn't lead him on. You were out as friends. It was never defined as a date, right?"
"Yeah, I guess." Rory sighed, putting her head in her hands. "I just felt like such a jerk." She moaned as her cell phone beeped.
She reached into her bag and pulled it out and opened to the text message.
'So this is a text or whatever. Friends sounds good. We'll catch up later. And you can tell your friend all about your boyfriend. J'
"He doesn't seem that upset." Katie read the message over Rory's shoulder.
"Do you not understand privacy?" Rory snapped her phone closed.
"Nope. And if you're not going to date Jess, can I have him?" Katie laughed as Rory stood up and crossed the living room to her bedroom.
"No." She laughed, closing her door behind her. She leaned up against it, listening to the sound of the running water in the next room. She smiled to herself, grateful that she had Jess as a friend. She knew that now that she had met him, she wouldn't be able to forget him as quickly as she did in high school.
Please read and review, let me know what you think!