A/N: Oooohhh,I think y'all are gonna like this one!

Eight and a Half

By Imagine Backstory

Chapter Nineteen – Of Somethings and Iguanas

Jess

As I tossed some bills onto the table to pay for our meals, I could see Rory silently mulling things over in her head. She was still clutching her mug between both hands and even though it was now empty, she was staring down into it as if it contained the keys to the whole universe. "Penny for your thoughts?" I asked, standing and slinging my coat on.

She followed suit, though not as deliberately. "It's nothing," she said. "I was just thinking I should get home."

"Okay," I said, holding the door open for her. "Let's go."

She stepped past me, her fingers working nervously at the strap of her purse. "No, I mean I should go home."

We strolled along the sidewalk side by side. I shoved my hands in my pockets, hoping my face didn't betray the crazy emotions that were going through my head. "Okay?" was all I could muster.

She sighed, stopping and coming round to face me. "Look, Jess, I just really think I owe it to James to hear what he has to say when he's ready to say it. And yeah, he could decide that we're over. But jumping the gun would be wrong. Not that I haven't already been wrong, but you know what I mean."

I nodded, looking away. Here it comes. I'd been an idiot to think I'd convinced her over brunch. I should have known Rory wasn't as easy as a couple kisses over eggs bennie. I did know that. My hopes had gotten the best of me. Again. Rory continued, unnerved by my silence. "And honestly I'm not sure if I'm ready to be with you."

"And there it is," I quipped, tossing my hands in the air.

She frowned. "What?"

"Rory, if you don't want to be with me, just say it. I'm through wasting my time. I didn't pine for you all those times you rejected me and I'm not going to do it now, so just be honest and get it over with."

"Jess, no. That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying?" I bellowed, cursing myself for allowing my feelings to get the best of me. "Do you want to be with me or not?"

She paused, her lower lip trembling. "It's not that simple."

I stared at her steadily for a long moment, pursing my lips. "That so?"

"You don't understand."

"Guess not. See you around, Rory." I continued down the street, turning my collar against the wind. I could hear her following me, but my longer legs allowed me to stay well ahead of her.

"You're not ready for me, either!" she called after me. I was reminded of the time I'd chased her around Stars Hollow when I'd gone back to collect my car, right before I'd told her I loved her. Except now she was the one chasing, and I was pretty sure she wasn't about to tell me she loved me. "Jess, come on, stop. Jess! I don't want the last option, okay?"

I whirled on her. "Do I have to reiterate, then? What do you want, Rory? Do you want me, or not?"

"Why does it have to be all or nothing?" she cried, holding her hands out towards me pleadingly.

I rolled my eyes. "Because that's always been the case with us."

"No, it hasn't," she insisted, taking a step closer towards me. "It's never been all or nothing, Jess, it's always been something."

I tried not to show my surprise. "So?"

"So why can't that something be friends? Or something?"

I threw my head back and groaned. "We're just going in circles now."

"I can't lose you, Jess," she pressed, reaching out to circle my wrist with her small fingers. "We can't be all. We can't be nothing. So let's be...something."

I sighed, running a hand through my hair for what felt like the millionth time. I checked my watch. "I should get to work." Seeing the disappointment flutter across her face, I took her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We'll talk later, yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

I made sure she got into a cab before turning towards the nearest subway station, turning my coat collar up against the chilly winter wind. New York bustled around me, and as I headed to SoHo I let the city swallow me whole.

"Nice haircut," Isabel said coolly as I let myself into the Café Livre, locking the door behind me. She looked strangely normal today; her platinum hair was up in a simple messy bun and her face was clean of make-up. Even her clothing was dumbed down to a pair of ripped jeans and a t-shirt with the London Calling album artwork on it that I knew for a fact was mine.

I shivered as the heat of the building thawed out my frozen fingers. New York showed no mercy in the winter. Ignoring Isabel, I kept my jacket on as I made a beeline for the stairs to the offices above. I heard her counting money quietly under her breath and paused by the stairs, wondering whether I was in the mood to get into it with her. I knew we'd have to hash it out eventually, we always did. This wasn't the first time Isabel and I had fought, and it wouldn't be the last. We were both too damn stubborn to get along for extended periods of time.

I'd met Isabel through Matt, who was her second cousin or something like that, back before I'd started working with him and Chris at what had later become Truncheon books in Philly. She and I had clicked immediately and ended up getting a two bedroom basement suite together near Truncheon; our relationship had always been entirely platonic and it had just been like we were meant to be good friends. We'd been roommates until Nora and I decided to move to New York, and when Isabel had come up to visit us over one weekend she'd met Justin and decided to move up, too, and help me open the Manhattan Truncheon, since Matt and Chris were still down in Philly. She, Nora and I formed a trifecta and we'd always been thick as thieves, even though Nora and Isabel together were enough drama to drive me crazy sometimes.

Deciding that after the almost-fight with Rory I was in no mood to start anything with Isabel, I took the stairs to the office two at a time. I jumped when I entered the room and found a stranger at Nora's old desk, bent over a cardboard box full of books and other office paraphernalia. She snapped up when she heard me come in, letting out a startled gasp. Her hand went to her collarbone when she saw me. "Christ, you scared me," she said breathlessly.

I blinked. "Uh, who are you, exactly?" I asked hesitantly. She looked about my age, maybe a little younger. Petite. Chocolate-coloured hair. Big brown eyes, which were currently wide and staring at me.

It was her turn to look confused. "I'm Katie," she explained, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "Isabel said to finish cleaning up up here...?"

It was only then that I noticed the gel key ring around Katie's upper arm. I ran a hand through my newly trimmed hair, blowing a sigh through loose lips. "You're, uh, the new manager?" Damn it, Isabel. She wasn't supposed to hire anyone without talking to me first. I felt the sting of Isabel replacing Nora so quickly. It kind of hit home that Nora really wasn't coming back.

Her brow furrowed. "You must be Jess."

"What's going on here?" I snapped, suddenly just done with this whole day.

Katie looped a strand of her curly hair absently around her pinky finger. She looked down at her feet, which were clad in a pair of pink Chuck Taylor's. "Like I said...just cleaning off this desk."

"It's fine the way it is." I stepped past her and grabbed the box off the floor, placing it firmly back onto Nora's desk. I then realized upon glancing inside the box that it wasn't even Nora's stuff. Furious, I whirled and headed for the door, ignoring Katie's urgent footsteps as she followed me downstairs. "What the hell, Isabel?" I bellowed, coming into the blonde's line of sight in the bar area.

Isabel rolled her eyes. "I see you've met Katie."

"You hired? Without me, without even telling me?"

"Relax, Jess. Katie's the new bartender. With Nora gone and me managing the place and you taking care of everything upstairs, I figured we could use one full time." Isabel shrugged. "Plus, she's hot. She'll get way more tips than you do back here." She patted the bar affectionately.

I blinked, anger melting away quickly to be replaced with weariness from the day's emotions. "So...not the new manager?"

"I'm the new manager, stupid," Isabel scoffed. "Unless you had some plan to replace me."

"No," I said softly, coming around the bar to pull Isabel into a hug. "Of course not."

"You big loser." Her arms came to wrap around me, too, holding the hug for a moment before groaning exasperatedly and pulling away, slapping a lazy hand across my chest. "God, you're such a dumb fuck."

"I'm a dumb, clueless, miserable fuck," I apologized, leaning my forehead against hers. "And I'm sorry."

"Jess, you don't need to apologize for being sad. I get it. We've all been heartbroken. I'm just so sick of seeing you, like, hurt yourself, really. You really are better than that." She sighed, stepping away from me and back to the partially counted till. "I'm sorry, too. I was way out of line yesterday."

"You were just trying to be a good friend." And that was all we needed to say. I turned to Katie, who was standing there looking rather awkward. "Sorry, Katie. Shall we start again?"

She laughed, extending her hand towards me. "Sure. Hi. I'm Katie."

"Jess," I said, returning her smile and shaking her hand. No longer blinded by emotion, I let myself register how cute she was. There was a little beauty mark on the apple of her left cheek.

"Okay, it's officially the afternoon," Isabel said, placing the till back into the register and glancing towards the clock, which told us it was indeed several minutes past noon. She held up a bottle of Jack Daniels that I knew was going to be taken off the shelf for good after today. The Café was dark on Sundays and Mondays so we could have a weekend. Isabel poured three glasses of Jack on the rocks and distributed them accordingly. "Shall we?" We raised our glasses to toast.

Rory

Seeing as it was my day off, I spent most of the afternoon wandering aimlessly around the city, too riled up from my morning with Jess to sit at home or be productive. I unlocked my phone several times with the aim of texting Jess, or James, or my mom, but every time I just put my phone away without sending anything, too chicken shit to face any of them. Jess because I knew we both needed our space to think and process for now, James because I still didn't know where we stood and of course still felt sick and guilty, and Lorelai because as soon as she heard my voice she would know something was wrong and then I'd have to tell her everything.

I thought about going home, but I was enjoying the bright winter day too much and I always found that I could think better while outdoors. Plus, there was a chance James would be at home, and I didn't want to just walk in on him. I knew he would contact me when he was ready.

Whenever James and I fought, which was rare but inevitable when in a relationship, he always just cut me off for a few hours or even a day or two while he arranged his thoughts. He wasn't one to make quick or impulsive decisions. He liked to mull things over. We were alike in that regard, though I could sometimes be a bit impulsive, like the day all those years ago when I'd skipped school to visit Jess in New York, or when I'd let Logan convince me to steal that yacht, or how I was behaving with Jess now. Very impulsive, very foolish. And, like every other time I'd made a choice on a whim, there were consequences I now had to face. And the ball was in James' court.

I ducked into a little coffee shop somewhere near Times Square; I'd wandered a lot further than I thought. As I was paying for my large black coffee and doughnut the big guy in front of me moved away and I immediately locked eyes with Nora, who was waiting at the take away counter nodding her head to whatever song was playing through her massive headphones. Her hair was black instead of the bright red it had been last time I saw her, but it was unmistakably her. We both froze, unsure what to do. We both knew we'd seen each-other. There was really no avoiding it.

"Hi," I said awkwardly as I moved towards her to wait for my doughnut.

She forced a smile. "Hey. How's it going?"

"Oh, you know." I waved my hand around vaguely.

She nodded. "Yeah. I hear ya."

My doughnut appeared on the counter and I grabbed it. "Well. Take care."

As I turned to go, I heard her call me back. "Hey, Rory?"

I turned. "Yeah?"

She bit her lip. "Are you busy right now?"

I was too surprised to lie. "Uh, no."

The lady behind the counter handed Nora her cappuccino and Nora gestured to a nearby table. "Could we talk for a bit?"

Wordlessly, I slid into the seat opposite her, my hands automatically coming up to surround my coffee cup. We sipped in silence for a few moments; I could see the cogs turning in Nora's head. Obviously, her desire to chat with me came as much of a surprise to her as it did to me. Finally, she said, "So I guess you heard about me and Jess?"

"No; what happened?" I asked, deciding that feigning ignorance was the right way to go.

She ran her thumb thoughtfully on the brim of her mug. "Well, we broke up."

"Sorry," I said, as sincerely as I could muster. "Was it mutual?"

She smirked. "Not exactly. He...proposed."

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow."

"Yeah."

"And?"

"Well, I said no. And that was that."

"Why did you say no? If you don't mind me asking."

She was playing with the numerous unique-looking rings adorning her small fingers. The ornateness of them matched the tattoos on her fingers perfectly. "I knew it wasn't what he wanted," she said quietly, keeping her gaze on her hands. "I think he just did it because either he thought I wanted it, or because it was expected of him."

"Nora," I said gently, "believe me, Jess doesn't do anything because someone wants him to or because it's expected."

"I know," she snapped. "I was with him for five years. But this time it was different."

How do you talk to a younger person who has been dating your ex-boyfriend for half the amount of time that you've known him? I admitted my uncertainty. "I don't know what to say."

"He was scared," Nora stated bluntly, shrugging. "He wasn't the same after we came back from Thanksgiving. He was really quiet and sought solitude whenever he could. I actually suspected he was planning to propose and was just getting nervous, as so many guys do when the time comes. But then when he did...I dunno, it all kind of clicked for me."

"What did?" I pressed, feeling my hands go cold despite the warmth of my coffee cup.

She fixed me with a hard stare. "What did you say to him?" she asked, her words loaded. "When you guys went outside, at Thanksgiving?"

I blinked, wracking my brain. "Nothing," I said. "I just apologized for James for announcing our re-engagement like that."

"Why the apology?"

I shrugged. "Just seemed necessary."

Nora nodded, thinking once again. Then she sighed. "Sorry. I'm not trying to, like, blame you or anything."

"I know," I said quietly. "You're just trying to understand."

"I just couldn't say yes, you know? I knew it wasn't the right thing to do. And I didn't think there would be any going back after that, so I just...ended it. And I feel like shit about it, I really do." She sipped her drink. "I really miss him." I was speechless once again, so I just gave her a sympathetic half-smile and drank my own coffee. "I just thought you might know where he was coming from. He always said you knew him better than most."

"He said that?" I asked, surprised.

She shrugged. "Apparently."

"Huh." I bit my lip. "I'm sorry, Nora, I've no idea what he was thinking. We haven't exactly been close these past few years."

An awkward silence ensued then in which we both just sipped our respective beverages, lost in thought. When Nora spoke, I almost jumped. "I really wanted to hate you, you know," she said, giving a small smile. "But you're too damn nice."

I let out a sharp laugh but didn't respond. If only she knew that just this morning I was begging Jess to consider being something with me while he practically seduced me over our brunch. I felt bad for Nora, but I couldn't let myself be too sympathetic for her. If things had been different in my life, my decision had I been in her shoes would have been very different. Then again, if I'd been Nora I probably wouldn't have found myself in her shoes at all, mainly because Jess wouldn't have proposed and I wouldn't have expected him too. I knew Jess wasn't the marrying type, which was the main reason I'd been so surprised at the reason for his and Nora's breakup.

"Well," Nora said after another uncomfortable silence. "I should get going."

"Yeah...take care, Nora," I said, standing and gathering my coat and purse.

She just nodded and headed out, pulling her headphones back over her ears. Feeling a sudden chill that probably wasn't due to the frigid air outside, I put my jacket on and, deciding I couldn't put it off any longer, headed towards home.

Jess

"It's a lizard! A frog! A fucking salamander!" Isabel shrieked while I continued to scribble furiously on the whiteboard. She had about ten seconds left to guess what the hell I was trying to draw.

"No, damn it!" I cried, using my pen to emphasize the ridged hump on the creature's back.

Isabel, Justin, Katie and Dimitri were all sprawled out around the Café, drunk and screaming at me to draw more clearly. Our couple of drinks this afternoon had turned into a few more, and our staff meeting had turned into more of a party, complete with Pictionary and the alcohol we were marking out that day. We had brought the huge whiteboard down from upstairs and were using it for the purposes of our game rather than business as planned. Turns out it had been a rough week for everyone.

A general groan resounded around the room when the last of the sand in the hourglass fell to the bottom half. Time was up. I threw the card at them, shaking my head at their hopelessness. "It's a goddamn iguana."

"Fuck! I think we guessed every reptile except that one!" Isabel cried, throwing her hands up in the air. "God, we suck."

I smirked. "You're just drunk."

"You're drunk," Isabel retorted, but she hiccoughed, which sent the room into a fit of giggles. "God, I love you people!"

In my drunken stupor, I realized how much I indeed loved these people, too. Even Katie, who I'd known all of seven hours, was fitting right in with the rest of us crazy Truncheonites. She was funny and laid-back, and she was currently holding her liquor better than all of us, even though she had matched us drink for drunk. She was lounging on her stomach on top of one of the long community tables in dark wash jeans and a tight black tank top; from where I was sitting, I had a perfect view of the swell of her breasts as they disappeared into her top. As I took a sip of my beer, she looked up and caught me looking. She smiled knowingly, and shifted as if to emphasize her body even more. Tease.

I got up to grab the next round from behind the bar, but before I could make it back there I heard sharp knocking at the front door. We had drawn all the blinds so I couldn't see who it was, but they kept knocking urgently and with force. Glancing towards Isabel, who just shrugged, I went to the door and peered through the blinds. "Oh, fuck."

"Who is it?" Isabel called from her spot near the stage.

I blamed my alcohol for my lack of rationality in that moment. Unlocking the door, I swung it open and beamed up at a slightly bewildered looking James Connolly. "Hey, James!" I cried, opening my arms to him in greeting. "Fancy seeing you here!"

"You're drunk," he stated, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed me in the dim light of the entrance way. His hands were balled into fists at his sides.

"And you're Captain Obvious," I retorted sarcastically, plastering my most winning smirk on my face. "Rory's not here," I added for good measure, looking over my shoulder to confirm this.

James' eyes were ice hard. "How bout you step outside for a minute."

"Ah, see, I would, but I'm kind of in the middle of a game with my friends here." I make a sweeping gesture to where the four of them sit; all except Isabel wave. Izzy has a slightly concerned look on her face.

"I'll just take care of this here, then," James spat, and then he grabbed me by my shirt and hauled me out of the doorway, tossing me down onto the sidewalk in front of the Café.

As I hit the pavement, hard, I heard shouts from within the bar. But James had lifted me by my collar and wailed on my face with his fist—once, twice, three times—before Dimitri and Justin hauled him off of me. Isabel and Katie were by my side immediately, their concerned faces hovering over me as they called my name and asked if I was okay. Of course I wasn't fucking okay. For what it was worth, James had quite the right hook. My ears were ringing and my vision was swimming and I felt sick. I turned my head to spit, and I tasted blood.

James was looking down at me with a look of pure disgust, his blond curls askew on his forehead. "You know what that was for, you son of a bitch," he snapped, spitting in my direction. Justin tightened his grip on James' arm. "Consider yourself officially uninvited to our wedding, wanker." And with that, James shrugged Dimitri and Justin off of him and strode off down the street, the light dust of snow that had just begun to fall swallowing him into the shadows of New York.

"Take him upstairs," Isabel ordered Katie, helping her help me to my feet. The world span around me and I stumbled; Katie caught me, steadying me with a firm hand on my abdomen. "There's a first aid kit in my desk drawer," Isabel added as I let Katie steer me back into the bar, slinging an arm over her shoulders.

We clamored up the stairs to the office, where Katie sat me down on the couch and went in search of Isabel's first aid kit. When she returned to me, she knelt in front of me and began cleaning the gash in my lip with a piece of gauze. "I'm guessing we don't like that guy," she said softly, a small smile playing at the corners of her full mouth.

"That guy's whatever," I slurred, blinking at her through my bleary vision. "I fucked up."

"Did you now?" she asked, her voice lilting with the tone of one who is trying to appease a very drunk person.

"Don't condescend me." I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. "Hurts."

"Almost done here," she assured me, giving my lip a final few wipes before discarding it into a nearby trashcan. "You alright?"

I just sat there breathing for a few minutes. The punches had sobered me significantly, but now I just felt really sleepy. "Katie..."

"Yeah, Jess?"

I reached out to tuck a loose curl behind her ear. She looked away, a shy smile on her lips. "Would it be weird if I kissed you, Katie?"

She giggled. "A little, but I wouldn't stop you."

Smiling, I leaned towards her to brush my lips with hers. They were foreign to me, but they were nice. Soft and velvety and wet. She opened up to me almost immediately, allowing me to tangle my tongue with hers. An involuntary moan escaped me and she responded wonderfully, climbing up into my lap and straddling my thighs. Cupping my face in her hands, she pulled me closer, and I ran my hands wantingly up her back. "Should lock the door," I mumbled against her mouth as her lips worked their way along my jawline.

"Already took care of it," she whispered back, nipping gently at the skin near my Adam's apple. I growled in response and reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head and tossing it aside somewhere. My shirt soon followed suit, and then Katie was tugging at my belt buckle with nimble fingers.

There were few moments in my life where I could just stop thinking and just do whatever my body was telling me to do. This was one of them, and my body wanted Katie's body, and so with her permission, I indulged.

A/N: Jeez. Only took me all day to write this chapter. I kept getting distracted. I was wanting to write two chapters today, but then Spotify and Netflix happened, and...well, you know. I don't get much done on my days off apparently.

Please read and review! I have missed your guys' comments since the last chapter came out. I will try ti reduce waiting times between chapters, I swear!