Chapter 9

"Her name is Kristine Haas, I'm in the Junior League with her," Gigi said. "She's opening a small business in downtown Hartford and she's going to need insurance." She handed the woman's business card to Jason. "I told her someone from the office would give her a call to discuss it."

Sloan was seated in one of the chairs across from her father when Gigi knocked on the door. She was in college now, somewhere in Massachusetts. But she came home on weekends often. She'd pestered her father doggedly, and now that she'd graduated high school, she was allowed to underwrite. Sloan affably sucked up to every senior member of the office, helpfully fetching coffee and helping with clerical tasks. She did not extend the offer to Gigi.

"Nice work," Jason said, glancing at the name. She was about to go, when he stopped her. "Hey, why don't you call her?"

Gigi blinked, surprised. "Me?"

Sloan lowered her brows in her dad's direction.

"Yeah, why not? You brought in the client. How about I walk you through it and you do the actual work, negotiate a contract, see if you like it?"

Gigi smiled. "Okay."

"Set something up, lunch or golf."

Feeling like she just got an unofficial promotion, she turned to go. Her grin lasted as long as it took to realize Sloan had followed her out. When Gigi glanced at her when she got to her office, the other blond girl glared at her. "I'm going to be your boss one day."

"Um . . . okay," Gigi said slowly.

Sloan didn't say anything else, she just gave a long withering look before continuing down the hall.

Gigi sat down in her swivel chair just as her phone started to ring. "This is Georgia Hayden," she answered.

"Georgia," the male on the line repeated.

The corner of her mouth quirked up at the sound of his voice. He had long since dropped the pretense of accidentally dialing the wrong extension. "I'm trying it out. I think it sounds more serious, for work." Then she said, "It must be working. Your dad just let me have a client."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you. You're sister was there, so she's in rare form. She just told me she'll be my boss one day."

Xavier actually giggled. "Sorry." He laughed some more. "Thank god she finally got that off her chest. Oh, I can imagine her face. I bet it was a good face."

"I'm sorry I'm missing the hilarity," Gigi said.

"Sloanie's just jealous. I don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot of old white guys in the insurance business, Sloan was going to break the typecast, but now you're stealing her thunder."

"There can't be two young women?"

"That's not as special." He added, "And, you're prettier."

"Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if my dad had worked with your dad when they were young, and I think it would be a lot like this." Anxiously, she changed the subject, "So, I'm glad you called. I wanted to ask you something. I have this thing coming up and I get a plus one, and I thought maybe you could come with me."

"You did?"

She faltered. "Uh, yeah, if you want. It's the first weekend in September. And I know it's a three day weekend and you might already have plans so I understand if you can't."

"You want me to come?"

A pause. "Yes."

"Okay, I'll come."

"You will?"

"Sure." Then, curious, he asked, "Don't you get plus ones to functions all the time and just take a friend?"

Friend—nephew of someone in the Junior League. Same difference. "Yeah, but this isn't a function so much as it's my sister's wedding," she said. "I didn't want to take just anyone."

"I see."

She rushed on, "It's going to be in her weird little town, where she's like, the crowned princess or something, so we can slip away after the meal and literally no one will notice."

"Crowned royalty? That doesn't sound American."

She opened her bottom drawer to pull out a file. "I think they're making Monday a holiday in her honor."

"It's already a holiday."

"Yeah, but they're renaming it. From now on, summer will be bookended by Memorial Day and Rory Day."

"I think you're making that up," he said. "So your family will be there."

"Just my dad—and my sister obviously, but she'll be occupied."

"Still counts."

Counted as what? "My dad calls Rory's mom my aunt Lorelai, because he thinks someone he's been with can qualify as an honorary aunt." She paused. "Oh, hey, if that's how it works, then she's your aunt too."

"It isn't, and she isn't."

"We're practically cousins."

"Stop it, we are not," he said, not finding it as funny as she did. "What about your grandma?"

"What about her?"

"Will she be there?"

"No." Gigi shook her head. "No, theirs is a mutual estrangement. Rory's grandmother will be there. She's hosting a brunch in Hartford the day after the wedding, but we definitely don't have to go to that. She hates me. Your dad and I are both in the club."

"Can I be in it?"

"Emily Gilmore has to hate you."

"Come on, I have the right associations, put in a good word for me."

"Fine, I'll think about it."

"That's all I ask."

She reverted back to their previous subject, "Sloan was having a pretty bad day. She probably needs to vent, so I'll transfer you."

"No, no, don't. Do not transfer me, Georgia."

"It's going to cheer her up so much to hear from her supportive big brother."

"Wait, don't—"

Gigi put the phone down and dialed Sloan's extension, smiling smugly.

XXX

On the day of the wedding, Gigi was at her dad's house getting ready. She carefully did her makeup in the upstairs bathroom before slipping into her dress. They were supposed to get to Stars Hollow early for some pre-wedding pictures. The phone started ringing, and since Chris was in the shower, she went to answer.

"Is Christopher Hayden there?" the woman on the line asked.

"He's unavailable, this is his daughter."

"Oh, I guess that's fine," the woman said. "Tell him Rory isn't getting married today. The wedding's off."

"What? Who is this?"

"Paris Geller, Rory's best friend."

Gigi frowned. Best friend?

There were a lot of voices on her end, and Gigi thought she heard the jingle of a bell. "Kirk!" Paris yelled, "I don't care about your scheme, this isn't a televised marathon. Stop asking for money and stick to my script." Back on the line, Paris said, "Sorry. I have to go. I have more calls to make."

"I'll pass message alo—." The phone went dead. When the shower shut off in the master bathroom, Gigi yelled, "Don't bother with your tux, the wedding's off."

Chris opened the door, a towel tied at his waist, steam behind him. "What?"

"Someone named Paris Geller just called. The wedding is off."

His brow creased sharply. "Paris?"

"She said she was Rory's best friend." Paris Geller was Rory's best friend the same way Gigi was Rory's sister. Strangely, it made her feel a little better to know she wasn't alone on the one way street.

He shook his head. "Lorelai would have called me."

Not true. A call from a random stranger was exactly where they ranked.

He picked up his phone and dialed. "Straight to voicemail," he said. "Hey, Lor, Gigi said Rory's friend just called and said the wedding is off. What's going on? Is Rory okay? Give me a call." He hung up. "She was fine last night at the rehearsal dinner. I wonder what happened."

She shrugged. "I know who you could call to find out."

"Emily?"

She restrained herself from rolling her eyes. "Luke."

Chris looked at her a moment and accepted she was right. He got up to pace as he talked to the other man. It only lasted a couple minutes. "Uh-huh, hey, I don't blame her. It's understandable. That we can agree on . . . You're right, this was smart." He nodded. "Okay, thanks." When he ended the call, he looked over at Gigi. "She just couldn't go through with it. Luke says the girls are taking some time away. It's just what Rory needs."

Sure.

"He said they have it all taken care of. The town is working on cleaning everything up, so Rory doesn't have to be reminded of it when they get back."

Gigi stared. She shook her head, incredulous. "What are you going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"There were a lot of decorations set up in the middle of town, the inn is all ready. Shouldn't one of Rory's parents be there to help?"

"I don't know, Gi'g," he said, hesitant to spend time in a Gilmore-less Stars Hollow.

"You always talk about how much you regret not being there. Here's your chance to do something for her." Manipulatively, she said, "Unless you think Luke has everything taken care of."

Chris nodded resolutely. "You're right. I should help them."

"Good. I'll come too."

They met downstairs when they were ready. He frowned at her, still in her dress. "You didn't change?" Then the doorbell rang. "Who's that?" he asked as he went to open it.

"Uh, my plus one."

Chris came face to face with Xavier standing on the porch. Gigi brushed passed her father out the door. "Dad, Xavier Stiles. Xavier, my dad," she said efficiently, pulling the younger man away. "Okay, we'll see you there."

"Stiles?" Chris watched them, perplexed.

Xavier's expression was similar. "Is he going to be ready? He doesn't look ready for a wedding," he said, following to her car.

Gigi went to the driver's side. "There's no wedding. It got called off."

"Oh. Just now?" he asked, looking at her in her dress.

"Yeah, we got the call 20 minutes ago. We didn't get a lot of details," she said. She turned on the car and lowered the volume on the radio. "But the bigger mystery is why she got engaged in the first place."

"Why?"

"Because they were on a break during the holidays."

"Maybe they worked it out."

"Maybe. Or maybe it had something to do with her pregnancy scare at Thanksgiving. I'm not supposed to know about that though," she said. "I don't know the parameters of the break, and one of her lingering ex-boyfriends was in town."

It had been a predictably awkward Thanksgiving dinner, with both Rory and Jess lost in their own thoughts while Lorelai chatted to make up for it. They remembered to bring back candles, though the wicks had been burned and some of the wax was already melted. Gigi had no idea where they came from.

"Either way, there was never a baby. And now there won't be a wedding."

"Intrigue . . . and, ambiguity."

"Sorry," Gigi said as she drove down the interstate. "I'm not in the inner circle. We can speculate, but we'll never know what happened."

"Okay. So, where are we going?"

"Stars Hollow, to help clean up the all the wedding stuff. It's not because I'm a good person. I've just started to ask myself what would Rory do, and then I do the opposite," she said. "If she didn't want to get married, fine. But she blew out of town and everyone else has to clean up. Like a hurricane."

Xavier glanced at her. "You're a good person."

They arrived in the small town thirty minutes later, to a frenzy of activity. The reception was to be in the center of town, where dozens of tables were set up with centerpieces.

"I've never been to a cancelled wedding before." Xavier reached for the knot of his tie. "I'm over dressed."

Gigi lamented, "Aw, I never get to see you all suited up."

"I wear a blazer sometimes."

"It doesn't count if it's with a t-shirt and jeans."

"I think it does."

Once he was out of his jacket and tie, she led him over to the person who seemed to be in charge of the reception area. It was Rory's friend, Lane. "Hi, do you need some help?"

"Oh, Gigi," Lane said, surprised to see her. She surveyed the cleanup. "Kwan and Martha are taking off the chair covers and bows. Can you help me break down the centerpieces? The candles go in the box and we'll collect the flower vases here for the kids to run over to Miss Patty's where they'll be disassembled." She looked up at Xavier. "And you can help Zack and Brian move the tables and chairs onto the truck." She pointed with her thumb behind her, where the blond man she indicated argued with his friend about the best way to pack the stacks of chairs.

They worked efficiently, Gigi falling into a rhythm with Lane and the college kids. Chris had arrived shortly after she did, teaming up with Xavier to take down cleared tables and haul them over to the truck. In no time, the last table was gone, and there were no traces of a wedding reception.

Gigi glanced over at Luke's Diner and spotted a figure with dark hair leaning against the building, smoking a cigarette. It was Luke's nephew. Lurking. Brooding. He belonged out on the moors. Whether he had been an invited guest or was just there to see that the wedding wasn't going to happen, she didn't know. He watched the flurry of the townspeople wiping away the evidence of the wedding that wouldn't be.

He must have felt her watching him, because their eyes met. Neither acknowledged the other, they simply stared for a moment. Then she lifted a finger to point at him and then over at Chris. She kept her eyes on Jess long enough to see him turn away from her.

This was why she was the evil one.

She looked over at her dad again, now talking to Xavier. She quickly went over and grabbed the younger one by the arm. "Let's see if they need any help at the inn. Are you going to come?" she asked Chris.

"Yeah, go ahead, I'm just going to make sure the band gets paid," he said, taking his checkbook out of his back pocket.

"Don't be silly, Hep Alien isn't even playing," Lane said.

"What kind of cancelation policy is that?"

Zack appeared next to Lane. "Babe, a word."

"Listen to the man," Chris told her.

Gigi led Xavier away, strolling through the town. He looked around and read the names of the odd specialty shops, nodding to one of the display windows. "There's a cat store, we have to go later."

"No we don't."

"We absolutely do," he said with a smile. He pointed a thumb back. "So that's your dad."

"Yup. That's him."

"And he was 16 when your sister was born?"

"Right."

He nodded. "Yeah, I was totally getting lots of girls to sleep with me when I was 16."

She grinned at his obvious lie. After they'd walked a bit, she pointed over in the distance. "There's Lorelai's house." Her arm changed angles. "And that was my room."

He glanced over with a frown. "Did you point at the garage?"

"Yes."

His brows creased. "That was not your room."

"It may as well have been, I couldn't have Rory's. I was just my dad's baggage, there wasn't a place for me."

Xavier rubbed his finger against his thumb.

Incredulous, she said, "You told me you played cello. Stop playing the world's smallest violin!"

He dropped his hand and grinned. "It's playing the saddest song just for you."

"Lorelai withheld Christmas until Rory got back from visiting her boyfriend—after the new year. Rory was in college, I was four!"

"So she's the grinch that stole Christmas," he said, mirth in his eyes.

"More like the Gilmore who stole Christmas," she said with a giggle.

As they continued on their way, she admitted, "I was visiting my mom for a while, then when I got back my dad said we lived at Aunt Lorelai's. But I was at my grandma's a lot." They would go to their family dinner every Friday night, Gigi wasn't included. She added, "It was a confusing time."

At the inn, Sookie and Luke were in charge, one forcing cake on everyone, the other leading a group of townspeople that was disassembling the ceremony site, which was to take place outside. Miss Patty was with a group of women next to the front desk. "The poor dear, she didn't try on her wedding dress this week, and oh, it's sad, but completely understandable."

The town selectman was in front of the stairs, with a group of people listening to him. "It's not surprising, really. Let us remember that Max guy. And I don't need to remind you about the Luke saga." He shook his head sanctimoniously. "Like mother like daughter."

"Taylor!" Luke shouted. "If you aren't going to help, go back to your store!" When he spotted Chris, he looked relieved and walked over. "Thank god you're here."

Gigi tilted her head toward Xavier. "Words never uttered by that man."

Luke gestured toward the dining room where the groom's parents were, deep scowls on their faces as they argued with the French concierge. "They're mad Rory left their son at the altar, as though he was good enough for her anyway. I told them it was the best thing for her, and she did the right thing, but I can't calm them down. They say they aren't paying for any of it."

Chris tapped his check book. "I've got it. I'll go talk to them, smooth it over."

"Thank you."

"Wow," Gigi commented, watching her dad go to the next room. "That was anticlimactic. There was a fifty-fifty chance they were going to get into a fight." When Xavier gave her a skeptical look, she said, "Fine, it's been 20 years, so I guess the ratio has shifted to forty-sixty."

The ceremony site was deconstructed outside, gift baskets and party favors were collected inside. In the end, the only thing left was all the food. Sookie had worked tirelessly on it the night before. It was decided everyone who helped clean up would take some, so Luke provided to-go boxes and Gigi helped Apri pass them out.

"How's Emily?" Chris asked Luke when things were finally winding down.

Luke exhaled heavily and shook his head. "She's taking it pretty hard, she was going on about how Rory should have married Logan when she had the chance."

To Xavier, Gigi said, "She could have married the Huntzberger heir."

"Oh," he said with an impressed nod. "I heard he quit and they had to bring in some lady—and something about a bastard son."

Chris said, "I'll go visit her, see how she's doing." He asked Gigi, "Do you want to come?"

She smiled easily. "Nope."

Xavier went ahead of her to load the trunk with food, but when she caught up, he wasn't at the car. She glanced both ways, wondering where he wandered off to, hoping it wasn't the cat store. She found him on a footbridge, looking out at the water.

He pointed across the lake when she reached him. "Swans. There aren't any black ones. I know they're only in Australia, but I still look, and it's always disappointing when there aren't any."

"Aren't they aggressive?"

"That's just popular imagination. They only attack if they're provoked, not for fun. Did you know they're monogamous?" he asked. "Some of the males are gay, so they have a threesome with a female. Then after she lays eggs they kick her out of the nest." He smirked proudly. "I Googled it."

She grinned back and took his hand. "I can tell. Come on, let's get out of here."

He stayed planted where he was pulling her back to him. "You look really pretty today, Georgia Rose," he said, tilting his head down to hers.

"Thanks, so do you," she said, meeting his kiss.

They headed back to the car, and Xavier put his arm around her. "Have you ever seen the Lorelei Signal episode of Star Trek?" he asked. "I think it may have been based on this place."

XXX

"I do love ballet," Xavier said the next morning, as they watched Natalie Portman's sex dream about Mila Kunis.

"My dad wouldn't let me see this when it came out. I was 13 when I finally got to." She came back in from the kitchen with two cups of hot tea, passing him one. She liked her chai extra spicy, Xavier found he liked his sweeter. It was a cozy drink for the rainy day they woke up to.

"My dad let me watch Game of Thrones with him when I was 13, whenever my mom was working late or out of town," he said. "It was awesome."

After the movie was over and Xavier was collecting his clothes, Gigi's phone started buzzing on the lamp table. "Hello?"

"Hey, kid, are you doing anything today?" Chris asked.

"Not really, why?"

"I thought we could have a late breakfast, if you want to come over."

"Okay," she said, checking the time. "How about in an hour?"

"Sounds good." After a pause he asked, "Will there be two or three of us?"

She glanced over at Xavier on the couch, getting dressed. Grimly, she said, "Two."

Chris was in the kitchen when she arrived, cooking up brunch for the two of them. She set the table while he finished up and they sat down to their omelets. They ate in silence for a few minutes before he casually asked, "So, what's going on with you and Digger, Jr.?"

She chewed another bite before saying, "That's not his name."

"Fine, Xavier then. And don't try saying you're 'just friends'. I saw you with him on the footbridge yesterday. He's lucky I didn't come over there and shove him in the lake." Gigi frowned at that. He said, "I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

"I'm not seeing him. I just see him, sometimes," she said. "He lives in Seattle and I live here. And . . . that's it."

Chris nodded slowly. "What about his parents, they treat you right?"

Her brows furrowed sharply. "They treat me fine. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, if you see their son, I want to make sure they're nice to you."

"They don't know. There isn't anything to tell. It's not a long distance relationship. We're just—," she thought about it a moment. "On-again, off-again. Mostly off."

"Ah, so whenever it's convenient."

She frowned. "That's not what I meant." Was that what it sounded like?

"That's fine. You can do better than Digger Stiles's kid, anyway."

She looked down at her plate. "Then why have I always done worse?" she muttered. Is that was she was doing? Using Xavier whenever it was convenient for her? He was the one to make random phone calls to the office. He came here, but she went to his city for work, not for him. And when she did go there, she assumed he was available, and not otherwise . . . attached.

She thought about yesterday in Stars Hollow, when she'd pointed to Jess and then her father. Was Xavier Stiles just the last point of the trifecta? No, she told herself. He wasn't an old high school boyfriend, it wasn't based on some lingering attraction, their best days behind them. It wasn't the same.

But still.

Surely he didn't harbor hopes of having a successful relationship with her in the long run, when all she did was flit in and out of his life. Just because that worked for her didn't mean it was good for him. He was a good guy, he deserved better.