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This is a rather short chapter, but there'll be another one after this. I'm still thinking about what to do with this story and I'll tell you as soon as I've decided! Enjoy!
Jess lies on his side, face-to-face with Rory, their fingers intertwined. "What are you thinking about?" He says as he can sense from the distrait way her fingers strokes his that her mind is elsewhere.
She shakes her head and looks up at him. "I'm just thinking that now your book isn't true anymore."
He smiles. "Why do you say that?"
"Because now the old man in the book – the older version of you – won't be all alone at his old age, will he?"
A warm feeling spreads through his body at her words and he lets go of her hand and pulls her closer to him and kisses her forehead. "I guess not."
She wraps her arm around him and snuggles her head against his neck. "So…there'll be a sequel?"
"Nah." He pulls back a few inches and softly strokes his lips against hers. "Love stories isn't really my thing."
She gets up on her elbow and looks at him with disbelief. "But you just wrote one, and it was a great one. And I'm not just saying that because you wrote it about me, to me. I'm saying that because it really was a great book and you are a great writer." She sits up and wraps the sheets around her. "Maybe you don't have to write a sequel, but writing just one book in that genre, when you're obviously so good at it? I mean it will confuse your fans. They'll be like: Hey, why are you teasing us like that? We know you can do it."
He smirks and interrupts her. "My fans?"
"Yeah, your fans. The one's that will hate me, the girl that caused the old man to live his life all alone and without love."
He sits up as well and wraps his arms around her. "I'm sorry to break it to you, but writers, especially ones that have only really published one book, don't really have fans. That's why most kids dream about being rock stars and not writers."
He hesitates for a few seconds before continuing. "If you don't want me to publish it, I don't have to. I mean, it's not liked it been approved for publishing yet, it's only me and Vanessa that have read it, and we only made that one copy that I sent to you."
"You would do that? You would let his book, that you have spent all this time writing, just be unpublished if that's what I wanted? This great book that would probably help your carrier as a writer move forward with big – no, huge – steps, you would not publish it if I said so?"
He shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah. I wrote it for you. If you don't want anyone else to read it – than that's it. And you wouldn't have to worry about repercussions from my fans." He smirks.
She looks astounded. "You really did write that book just to get me back?"
"I had to get your attention somehow, right? It was obvious my stunning looks weren't doing it for you anymore."
Her eyes are filled with sadness as she meets his eyes. "Your stunning looks have always been doing it for me Jess, you know that, it's just…."
"Your vision was blocked." He smiles and strokes her cheek, trying to wipe the sad look away from her face. "The guy's a millionaire and I'm a starving writer. He could buy you all the books in the world. I'd have to find the one book he couldn't buy you, I had to write it."
She rubs her face with her hands and there's a smile on her face when she takes her hands away. "When…I mean when did you have time to write it? You're working at Truncheon, you're still doing that, right? And it was a thick book, and everything was in it, our whole history together, it must have taken a lot of time."
"Well, I actually started writing it years ago. When I left for California. By then it was nothing but a bunch of scrabbles, just a way for me to deal with my emotions." He shrugs his shoulders again. "Then I started putting the scrabbles together and eventually: Voila! A book."
"Voila?" She giggles. "Voila?"
He rolls his eyes. "Oh, shut up."
She keeps giggling as she lies back down and pulls him down next to her. "Since your job is just as easy as: 'voila!' and I'm currently unemployed we could just stay in bed all day long, every day."
He smirks and kisses her. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
She smiles and nods. "I very much would."
He opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by a knock on the door. He sighs and shouts in the direction of the door. "What?"
"Uhm…I'm sorry to…interrupt." It's Matt's voice. "But…eh…Vanessa and I have these reservations at this restaurant tonight…and she – eh – we, were wondering if maybe we should call and see if…uhm, if they could reserve a…bigger table…for the five of us."
Jess looks at Rory with a questioning look on his face. She bites her lips and hesitates before nodding.
"I mean, we totally get it if you guys want to be alone and all…I just, we just thought I should ask."
"When?" Jess asks back.
"At five. That's in three hours from now."
"Sure. It sounds great."
"Good. Great. I-I'll go make that call then. And, eh, it was – eh – nice meeting you Rory."
"Yeah. Nice meeting you to." She answers in a low voice.
They hear the sound of Matt's footsteps moving away from the door and Rory gets up from the bed, still wrapped in the sheets and starts pacing around the room, looking for her clothes.
Jess watches her with an amused look on his face. "What are you doing?"
"I have nothing to wear. I didn't bring clothes for going out. I have to find a store and buy a dress. And shoes! I need shoes. And I have to take a shower." She takes a quick glance in the mirror as she paces by. "Look at my hair! I have to wash my hair. It's all messy, they'll know what we've been doing. I have to wash it. And brush it. Maybe brush it first, then wash it and then brush it again."
Jess gets up from the bed and wraps his arms around her, still with a smile on his lips. "What's up with the freak out? It just the guys and Vanessa, I don't think they're expecting you to dress up like for the Oscar's." He kisses her neck right beneath her ear and whispers. "Besides, we've been up here, in my bedroom, for quite some time, I think they know what we've been doing."
Rory's cheeks turn red and she frees herself from his embrace. "I just want them to like me."
He bends down and picks up her bra from the floor and hands it to her with a smile. "They will. Trust me. Everybody likes you."
"No. Everybody doesn't. There was this ballerina at Yale – she didn't like me. Not the least bit. She wrote on my door. 'Die jerk' she wrote. She didn't like me. And in second grade there was this girl that had just moved to Stars Hollow with her family, and on her first day I accidentally splashed muddy water all over her shoes when I biked by her on my way to school – she never forgave me. She didn't like me either. And Matt and Chris – I met them downstairs. I overheard them talking. They don't like me either. They think I'm a bitch. And Paris. Paris didn't like me at first. She spent years at Chilton trying to make my life miserable because she really didn't like me. But then we became friends, and now we're great friends, best friends almost. And maybe Chris and Matt will like me to, but it'll take time and I have work for it. I have to…
"So, you met Matt and Chris downstairs?" He interrupts her rambling, focusing on what he feels is the most vital point of it.
She stops pacing and looks down at the floor. "Yeah. They…they were kind of rude. And I understand them, I mean I know what I must look like to them…after last time we met. But I'm going to try and I'm going to make them like me. No matter if it takes years." She looks up at him with a desperate glance in her eyes. "Oh my God! What if it takes years for them to start liking me?"
He wraps his arms around her again. "Well, I didn't quite tell them about sending you the letter, or the book. The only memory they have of you is probably contaminated with the state they found me in after you left. They don't know the whole story. We have both hurt each other, but they don't know that. They're just…being protective I guess."
Rory rests her head against Jess' shoulder. "That's nice." She says after a while, breaking the silence.
He sounds confused when he answers. "What is?"
She lifts her head and looks up at him. "That you have friends."
Jess doesn't answer, instead he raises his eyebrows and looks at her, and she hurriedly continues to make her point clear. "I mean, you never really did make any friends in Stars Hollow…besides me…and Luke, and he's a relative so he doesn't really count. It's nice. I like that they are protective of you. I like that you have people in your life that cares about you. Other than me and Luke. People here, in Philadelphia, where you live. Friends."
"Rory?" Lorelai answers on the other end of the line and before giving Rory a chance to answer she continues talking in a rapid voice. "Please tell me your talk with Jess went well. Are you together? Have you solved everything? Because you are my only daughter and I would do anything for you, I would sacrifice anything to make you happy. But Luke asked me, and he did it because he didn't want to wait 'cause in case things didn't go well in Philadelphia he didn't want me thinking he asked because of my plan and I love you more than anything but I would really want to not get married on a small boat far out at sea."
"What?" Rory fits the word in as her mother stops for a second to take a breath.
"First…" Lorelai says and takes another deep breath, as to calm herself down. "How did things go with Jess?"
Rory sounds confused when she answers; still processing the information at the beginning of the phone call. "It went good. He's taking a shower now, we're going out to dinner with his friends tonight. He told me he loved me and that he really wrote the book to…" The realization of what her mother said when answering hits her and she interrupts herself. "Luke asked you? You mean asked you the question?"
She can almost hear her mother smiling on the other end of the line. "Yes. Yes he did. He even got down on one knee. Can you imagine that?"
Rory's stunned. "Wow."
"Yeah."