Sorry for keeping you waiting. My issues with the internet supplying company have been resolved, but I've been sick for most part of the weekend and you know: the usual, life and stuff got in the way…If there's any inconsistencies in this chapter I'll blame it on the fever I had when writing most of it!

This chapter is also divided, the first part is about Jess and the time after Rory left and the second part is about Lorelai reading his book. I hope that isn't confusing, having two different time lines in the same chapter?

For those of you requesting the meeting between Rory and Jess: it will soon be here. I just have to get Jess started on writing that book first…

"It's been three months Jess." Matt leans on the counter and looks at Jess as he's sorting the receipts in the cash register. "I'm not saying you have to marry the girl right away, but give it a chance, go on a date, you might even enjoy yourself."

Jess gives him an irritated look across the counter, which Matt chooses to ignore. "Come on, she was hot, right? Chris said she was hot." Matt tries again.

"She was…okay." Jess nods and walks towards the small room in the corner of the bookshop, which was originally meant to be used as an office, but instead was more often being used as a storing space.

Matt frowns. "Okay? That's not the description Chris gave me. He said a hot girl gave you her phone number. A hot girl, not an okay girl, a hot girl."

Jess sighs and turns around to face Matt, who is still leaning on the counter, looking at him. "Yeah, she was hot, okay? But that doesn't matter, I'm not calling her."

"Why not? I heard you got along quite well." Matt lets go of the counter and stands up straight, pointing his finger at Jess. "Give me one good reason that doesn't involve the name Rory and I'll let you off the hook."

Instead of answering Jess turns around again and takes up his walk to the office/store room. He wasn't ready to have this discussion with anyone yet, he was still processing it in his mind. On some level going on a date felt like cheating on Rory, although he knows that it wouldn't be – it's been years since they were actually together. At some point he would have to move on, but he wasn't sure he had reached that point just yet. Shouldn't you know for sure when you reached that point?

"Okay then, don't answer." Matt follows Jess and places himself in front of the door to the store room. "But answer this: which books did she buy?"

Jess sighs. "The sub-sect and a copy of 'The Old Man and the Sea'."

Matt gives him a knowing look. "Yeah, you're right. She doesn't sound at all like a girl you would find interesting." His voice is clearly ironic and he rolls his eyes to accompany the tone, to make sure his point isn't missed.

Jess gives him a tired look. "Move please, so I can put these…" He holds up the pack of receipts in his hand. "…in the store room and go upstairs and write."

"You mean sulk? 'Cause that's what you do, you sit up there with your notebook in front of you and sulk. You don't write, I haven't seen you lift your pen once in three months."

"What?" An irritated look flashes across Jess' face, but as he knows Matt doesn't mean any harm by nagging on him like this he forces himself to smile and continues in a mocking tone. "You're watching me? There's nothing more interesting on TV these days?"

"I'm just saying." Matt shrugs his shoulders and moves away from the door. "Maybe one night of thinking about something else is exactly what you need."

Jess gives him another irritated look and goes into the storeroom. He hears Matt sighing as he walks away.

"Make sure to hit the lights when you leave, I'm meeting Chloe for drinks at the bar." He hears Matt shouting before he exits the door out onto the street.

Jess puts the receipts down and sits down on one of the chairs in front of a pile of books and papers covering what was supposed to be a desk. A date. He couldn't go on a date. He was still painfully in love with Rory. Why would he go on a date with someone else?

She had seemed like a nice girl though. She had talked a lot, she actually kind of reminded him of Rory. With the slight difference that she actually seemed to like Hemingway's writing. That's why she had come in.

"I've read most of his books, but that was back when I was a starving student, and I borrowed almost all of them at the library. Now I've finally got myself a job with a paycheck that allows me to start my own collection of books. So that's what I'm doing, bit by bit."

It had been a slow morning and they had ended up talking for quite some time; debating their favorite books and authors – agreeing on most of them, disagreeing on some. She had described the emptiness she always felt when finished reading a great book she borrowed from the library and realizing she had to go return it. "Like losing a dear friend, or giving your baby up for adoption." He smiled at the memory. A woman describing a book as a close friend, or her baby, he only knew one other woman that would look at a book that way.

He sighs as he gets up from the chair and starts walking back into the store. He might have lost Rory and his heart would most probably remain broken forever, but it's been years since he really had her so the difference isn't all that big.

He turns the lights off and walks up into the apartment he still shared with Matt and Chris. They were all sporadically browsing through newspapers and ads to look for their own places, but the fact was that they all kind of liked living like that. They had gotten used to each other and the apartment was big enough for three people to live in it, no doubt about that, and it also felt good not having to come home to an empty apartment every night.

"Hello!" He shouts into the apartment to announce his arrival as he opens the door and steps in.

Chris answers with some incomprehensible mumbles from the living room. On his way to the kitchen Jess takes a quick look into the living room and finds Matt heavily concentrated on reading something.

Jess grabs a soda from the fridge and goes back into the living room and sits down at the opposite end of the couch. He casts a glance at Chris, who's still concentrated on his reading, and then shifts his focus to the floor. Jess draws his breath to say something, but changes his mind at the last minute and sits back in the couch, twirling the soda can in his hands.

Too impatient to sit still he leans forward and places the soda can on the table and changes his position on the couch. He looks at Chris again and opens his mouth as to say something, but quickly closes it again, shaking his head.

"What is it?" Chris suddenly says, putting the papers he's reading down and looking at Jess.

Jess hesitates for a few seconds. "Nothing." He shakes his head in what he hopes is an affirming way.

Chris sighs. "Thinking about the girl?"

After their communal break-down that night when Rory came and left, he and Chris had gotten closer. Jess had never felt comfortable talking about feelings or emotions with anyone before, not even Luke, who he trusted more than anyone in the world. But talking to Chris about Rory almost felt like talking to himself, debating with himself. Chris had gone through – no, was going through – the same thing Jess was. Although, Chris seemed to have the situation under far more control than Jess did.

"Which one?" Jess meets his eyes.

"Either one – or both, I'm guessing." Chris leans forward and places the papers he was reading on the table. "I know it sucks, but there's a point where you have to try and move on."

"How…" Jess hesitates and rubs his temples with his fingers. "…I mean, you've been on dates since Jennifer…How do you get yourself to stop hoping and wishing, and fucking dreaming about her coming back when you're awake as well as when you're asleep?" He sighs and looks down at the floor before asking the question that's been bugging him ever since he started talking to that girl in the store earlier in the day. "How do you go on a date with a girl without fearing that her presence in your future will interfere when that other girl, that one girl, maybe decides she wants to come back?"

Chris shrugs his shoulders. "It gets easier with time. The first time will probably suck, and you'll be thinking about her the entire time, comparing the girl to her. But it'll get easier."

Easier? Would going on a date with another girl ever feel easy? He didn't want to be with anyone else, ever. He wanted Rory – simple as that. "Why should I bother going on a date when I can't see myself ever being with another girl?"

Chris' reply comes fast, as if he'd been anticipating the question. "Because that girl that you can see yourself with has another guy in mind when thinking about her future. You can't live your life waiting for the time when she maybe will come back to you, 'cause maybe she won't and then you will have wasted your life waiting for her – while she's out living hers."

She has another guy in mind. He can't see himself being with anyone else but Rory – but she, on the other hand, can't see herself being with anyone but Logan, that's why she had left. She would never come back. She was gone. She as living her life with Logan, loving him, needing him and not being able to imagine her life without him.

When he meets Chris' eyes again he knows for sure that the hurt he's feeling is showing in his eyes. The apologetic look on Chris' face leaves no doubt about it.

"Listen…" Chris says. "…I don't know if it's the right way to go, but Jennifer isn't coming back, and I'm guessing Rory isn't either." He shrugs his shoulders. "In my case, I'm not sure I even want her to come back, seeing how things ended last time. Somehow I have to learn how to move on, and so do you. Life has to be more than this; it can't be 'one strike – you're out'. It doesn't make sense."

Jess sighs. "No. It doesn't."

They sit quiet for a time, both of time preoccupied with their own thoughts about their situations and the concept of moving on even though you're not sure you really want to.

"Have you eaten?" Jess says as he stands up after several minutes.

As always when he and Chris, accidentally or as in this case; on purpose, had opened up and really talked, they both felt somewhat exposed, and there was usually a bit of tension between them for some time afterwards. As if they both regretted opening up to the other, but still they couldn't stop themselves from doing it from time to time.

Chris shakes his head in response.

"Pizza sounds okay?" Jess asks as he picks up his jacket.

"Sure." Chris says as he picks up the papers he had been reading when Jess had entered the apartment.

"I'll go pick some up." He says as he heads for the door, neither of them mentioning the delivery service they most often used when ordering pizza. Jess needed to clear his head and a drive through town was usually a good way to do that. Besides, leaving the apartment would probably relieve the tension between him and Chris. When he came back they would be colleagues and roommates again, not the type of friends that poured their hearts out to each other – that only happened in rare cases, or when a large amount of alcohol was involved. It was a system that worked well for the both of them. A confidant when needed, but buddies for the most of the time.

Jess exits through the backdoor of store and makes his way to his car which is parked nearby. When he reaches his car he unlocks it and reaches in through the passenger door, opens the glove compartment and picks out a pack of cigarettes.

He had stopped smoking a long time ago, this was simply and emergency pack. This situation might not qualify as an emergency, but he felt a strong desire for just one cigarette; to clear his thoughts and to help him think.

He lights the cigarette and draws a smoke. It never tasted as good as he imagined it would, but somehow it always managed to calm him down.

Maybe moving on is his only alternative. He can't go his whole life waiting for Rory to come back. He had showed her several times that he wanted to be with her, she knows what he wants. If she wanted to be with him she would already be. But she didn't want to; she wanted to be with Logan.

He throws the half-smoked cigarette on the ground and steps on it. In his mind smoking always tasted so good, in reality: it didn't. At least not the first ones, and suffering through those first ones only to get to the good part only seemed like a good idea when he was really feeling down – or intoxicated.

He gets into his car and starts driving towards, in his opinion, the best pizza-place in all of Philadelphia. It was a number of blocks away, but it was worth the drive. Especially today as the drive gave him time to think.

Chris was right, it didn't make sense. It was only in silly romantic movies or fairytales that people loved each other forever. In real life, you had several shots at being happy, at being loved. He wasn't a noble fairytale prince and Rory wasn't his fairytale princess, they were real people and their story didn't end with the words 'and so they lived happily ever after'.

In real life, no one's story did. In fact, in real life, the stories never ended. Not even after we're dead. In real life, our stories keep going through our memory, through our children or grandchildren, all the people that loved you or hated you – in one way or another, the story never ends. And in real life stories there isn't just one prince that can wake the princess from her eternal sleep and the glass slipper will fit on more than one foot.

Rory had loved Dean and Logan, and even though she had never said it he was pretty sure that once she had loved him too. Luke had loved Rachel and Lorelai, and probably at some time he had loved April's mother. His mother had been in love more times than he could count.

And there were other types of love as well. Rory loves her mother and her father. Luke loves his daughter and his sister. Liz loves him, even though he at times had doubted that love was as important as the men she loved, he knows now that she does.

Maybe a heart could never be full; maybe there was always room for more love – for new loves, not meaning that you would in any way have to diminish the love that was already there. Maybe it was possible for him to still love Rory, to always have the memory of her in his heart, and still move on and fall in love again.

He shakes his head to rid himself of the thoughts as he parks his car on the side of the street outside the pizza-place. He takes a quick check inside his wallet, to see if he needs to pay a visit to an ATM before ordering the food.

After making sure he has enough cash he picks up a piece of paper placed in a compartment inside the wallet. It was the phone number that girl had handed to him in the bookstore. After hesitating for a few seconds he picks his phone up and dials the number.

"Hello." She answers almost immediately.

"Hi, Vanessa?" He clears his throat, he feels more nervous than he thought he would. "It's Jess…from Truncheon books."

"Hi." She sounds surprised and happy.

How did you do this? He had never once asked a girl out before. Shane had been the one taking initiative when they started dating that summer, when he and Rory started dating they already knew each other well enough to avoid the 'asking her out on a date' part and the girls since her had been more of casual hook-ups than actual dates. He was 23 years old and had never ever asked a girl out.

"This is kind of freaky." She says and laughs. "I just got home and I was sitting down with a cup of coffee, about to open your book – and then you call."

"So you chose my book to start with, over Hemingway? Don't know if I'm more disappointed or thrilled." This wasn't that hard. She was easy to talk with; the words seemed to come out so easily. She made it easy to talk to her.

"Well…I weighed my options carefully and came to the conclusions that the author of 'the Subsect' was more likely to call and ask my opinion than the author of 'the Old Man and the Sea', and besides, if Hemingway did somehow wake up from the dead and decided to call me… " She laughs, or giggles, or something in between the both, he can't quite decide how to describe the sound, but it draws a smile to his lips. "…I would probably come up with a few things to say even if I hadn't just recently read any of his books."

He laughed and leaned back in his car seat. "Yeah, when you put it that way…"

When hanging up the phone he casts a glance at the time. They had talked for almost 30 minutes. It hadn't felt like 30 minutes. Even though he just recently met her, it felt like talking to an old friend. It felt like what he imagined talking to Rory would feel like if they had met when they were older and didn't have all that complicated history between them. If Rory had liked Hemingway that is, and if she hadn't been in love with the Jerk.

He and Vanessa had decided to meet for dinner on Friday, and he was actually looking forward to it. Dinner on Friday. A Friday night dinner. He wonders if Rory still goes to Friday night dinners at her grandparent's house. She probably does. He wonders if Logan's going with her. He decides that he probably is.

Her grandparents probably liked Logan. He wasn't the type of guy that would show up with a black eye and not give them any explanations. He was the type of guy that knew in an instant which fork to use with which dish. He was the type of guy that could probably make dinner conversation with her grandmother and share a glass of brandy and a cigar with her grandfather after dinner. He was probably the type of guy that she didn't have to talk and beg into coming with her to Friday night dinners. Maybe he was the type of guy that Rory should be with.

Maybe Chris was right. Maybe he had to learn how to move on. What was the point of pining after a girl that had so clearly chosen to be with someone else?

Maybe Vanessa wasn't the one he would fall in love with. As far as getting over Rory, she would probably remind him too much of her to make that possible. But at least it was a step in the right direction and he had a feeling that he would enjoy her company on their Friday night dinner.

OoOo – Lorelai's point of view, reading the book – OoOo

There was a lull at the Inn at the moment, as the guests that were supposed to check out had done so, but the new guests hadn't arrived yet. Without knowing it, Lorelai had placed herself to continue reading in the same armchair that Rory had sat on that night when she read Jess' book.

She sits for a while, holding the book in her hands. There were so many things she didn't know about Jess. She didn't know he had the same passion for books as Rory did. She didn't know why he had done all the things that in her eyes had passed off as rebellious acts or a protest against this small-town and all it stood for.

She opens the book and flips back a few pages from where she left off. She draws her finger against the lines as she re-reads them.

When we got up to leave I noticed her bracelet had fallen off. I took it. I didn't intend to keep it, but by not giving it back right away it would give me an excuse to talk to her at a later time.

He hadn't taken the bracelet out of spite, or to support his rebellious acts. He had taken it because it gave him an excuse to talk to Rory again. With everyone in town rooting against him, she could easily understand his need to find an excuse to talk to her. That was why he had bought her basket; to spend time alone with her.

Rory and Jess, spending time alone – talking about books. She smiles to herself. If someone had told her seven years ago that Jess wanted to spend time alone with her daughter, talking about books wouldn't be the first activity that would have sprung to her mind. But that's what they had done the very first time they were left alone.

She sighs with the smile still on her lips and keeps reading where she left off to let her thoughts wander.

But that wasn't necessary, we talked anyway and I forgot about the bracelet. Later, when I found out that her boyfriend had given her the bracelet I couldn't just give it back to her, everyone would assume I stole it to mess with her. She would assume that.

Lorelai bites her lip. She had immediately jumped to the conclusion that he stole it. She can't remember exactly what she had said, but she remembers calling him on it when he returned the bracelet to be found in Rory's room.

It seemed like many of the things he had done that had made her dislike him he had done to get Rory's attention; to make her look at him instead of Dean.

By the sound of the first guests of the day stepping through the front door, she gets up from the chair and greets them, the book safely put away in her handbag.

I don't know if it might be a bit out of character for Jess to open up to someone like he did with Chris in this chapter, but I figured it could be possible as it is somehow his first real friendship and with someone that is going through the same things he is. Let me know if you think it's too much out of character…

The part with Lorelai reading might was a bit short, but the Jess part of this chapter got to be a bit long, so I hope that makes up for it…