15. Christmas Presence
'Verse: AU, in which Rory & Jess never met before
Timeline: post-series
Date: December 2010
Jess had barely been in the apartment ten minutes when someone started pounding on the door. He didn't think it was too much to ask to want to shower, eat, and sleep after a long day, but apparently somebody disagreed. Yanking open the door, he didn't even realise he still had his shirt half unbuttoned until the woman on the other side stared.
"Wow," she said, blinking fast then shook her head. "Merry Christmas."
It was Jess' turn to look bemused then as the stranger thrust a package into his hands. "Do I know you?" he checked, already knowing he would like to, but that wasn't the point. "I mean, a Christmas present...?"
"Oh, sorry, no," she said, pushing her hair back off her face. "I'm Rory. I just moved in across the hall," she explained, gesturing behind her to the door marked 20. "The delivery guy came in with me. He actually helped me bring a few boxes up, so I said I'd take the package for you, neighbour," she said, smiling wide.
"Huh," said Jess, nodding his head. "I'm Jess, by the way," he told her, putting the box down on the chair by the door and extending a hand.
"I know," she said, shaking said hand. "It was written on the package."
"Right, obviously." Jess rolled his eyes. "It's been kind of a long day."
"For me too," Rory admitted. "I was exhausted from all the moving a couple of hours ago but, I don't know, maybe it's the whole moving to the city thing, but I suddenly feel so alive and awake. Is that weird?"
"Probably not," Jess considered. "Where'd you move here from?"
"Stars Hollow. It's a small town in Connecticut that you definitely would never have heard of," she said absently, eyes now looking past Jess and further into his apartment.
He was about to ask what the hell her problem was when suddenly he followed her gaze and realised what had her attention. When he glanced back at Rory, it was a little strange for Jess to realise she was looking at his bookshelves like she wanted to take them to bed or something.
"Um, are you okay?" he asked, deliberately cutting into her line of vision.
"Oh, sorry... again." Rory shook her head. "I was... You have a lot of books."
"I have some," he considered. "A lot is pushing it."
"Maybe," she replied, smiling widely as she moved back across the hall to her own door. "I guess a lot would be more like this?" she suggested, opening the door and gesturing for Jess to come look inside, which he duly did.
A low whistle escaped his lips as he surveyed the scene. There were at least ten boxes piled on one side of the room, all labelled 'Books' plus a couple of piles of volumes stacked up by a shelf that would never hold them all.
"My mom was joking that in an apartment this small there wouldn't be room for a Christmas tree or anything," said Rory, smiling still, "but Luke, my step-dad, he told her if anything was going to crowd out the tree, it'd be the books."
"He probably wasn't wrong." Jess nodded. "I'm impressed."
"By a girl with a book addiction?"
"By a woman this dedicated to good literature," he replied, picking up the nearest book and reading the spine. "So, Rory, how about I pay you back for taking in my delivery by buying you a drink?"
She was smiling when he looked up again, and thankfully, nodding her head in agreement. Maybe she really was going to bring Jess a Merry Christmas after all.