A/N: Not abandoned! I know, I know, it's been awhile. Life happened. Sorry to keep you waiting. Thanks to those who checked in on me though! I hadn't forgotten about the story. Just haven't been in the proper headspace to write. I also might have dabbled in a few other fandoms... (gasp!) I hope this isn't pure shite but it very well may be. Need to get back on track!

Eight and a Half

By Imagine Backstory

Chapter Twenty-One – Practically Perfect

Rory

Jess was surprisingly punctual to pick me up that night, his black Comet reflecting the streetlights from where he had parked it at the curb right in front of my apartment. As I approached him, I couldn't ignore the perfect placement of his car as all I had to do was walk a few steps from my apartment door to where it-and he-stood waiting. "How did you get this parking spot?" I asked, eyeing him warily.

"Hello to you too," he chided with a smirk, pulling me in by my jacket collar and planting a knee-buckling kiss on my lips.

"Jess..."

"Had to beat rush hour." He shrugged.

I felt a blush bloom across my cheeks. "You're saying you've been waiting here for at least two hours just so you could park by my front door?"

He grimaced. "I walked around a bit. You don't have to make it sound so creepy."

"It's not creepy," I insisted, wrapping my arms around his waist. I smirked into his chest. "Well, not by your standards, anyway."

He frowned down at me, eyebrow raised. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you know how you were when we were kids," I said, pulling back and waving my hand around. "Always showing up wherever I was, outbidding Dean on my basket, bringing me food and then lying about where it came from..."

"Okay, you've made your point."

"...Stealing my book and writing weird notes in it..."

"I get it, Rory."

"...Jumping into my carriage at Bacebridge..."

"I'm warning you."

"...Switching DVDs around to make me look like less of a princess..."

"Alright, that's it." Grinning wolfishly, he slung an arm around my neck and pulled me down for a nougie while I squealed and shrieked in protest. He was totally messing up the hair I had just spent a good hour curling. Still holding me down and against him, he chuckled, "Just remember, this creep got you, twice. What does that say about you, huh?"

"Jess!" I squealed, whacking him in the ribs with my flailing arms. "Let me go!"

He let up, but only so far as to kiss me deeply, still holding me tight to his body. After a moment I felt his tongue prodding at my lips, asking for entrance. I gratefully obliged, and melted into the heat of his kiss, his mouth, his hands burning trails up my back under my jacket, pulling me flush against his chest. I could feel his heart pounding as he devoured me, the kiss quickly becoming fierce and I felt dizzy and crazy and alive.

When we finally pulled apart for the sake of public decency, we were both panting and staring at each-other with a strange sort of wonder. He smirked. "That part really does always work, huh?"

I kissed him again to shut him up.

As expected, Jess was a total hipster and brought me to a boutique restaurant on the Upper East Side. I could tell it was fancy and felt underdressed; I was wearing a mint green dress with grey tights underneath for a bit of warmth, but compared to the other patrons in the restaurant I felt a bit frumpy. Jess could get away with his charcoal grey dress shirt and black slacks, although I'd seen the host give him a disapproving glance when he saw Jess wasn't wearing a tie.

As the server left our table to grab our drinks, I gave Jess a reproachful look across the table, which was dimly lit by a cute centrepiece of fresh flowers and a candle. "This place is really nice."

He avoided my gaze. "I know." He pretended to study the menu, but it was barely hiding the smile brewing on his lips.

I narrowed my eyes. "No offence, but are you sure you can afford this place?"

"Don't worry about it." The look he gave me after discouraged me from pushing the matter any further.

To my dismay, there was a bit of an awkward silence when the server returned with our drinks: two Manhattans. We delicately clinked our glasses together and then sipped as tense, nervous energy passed between us. I remembered when it used to be so easy to be around Jess. Not when we'd first met-he had been infuriating and incorrigible, and in a lot of ways he'd made my life more difficult. But once we'd gotten to know each-other and especially when we started dating, things between us had just fallen into place. Our easy back-and-forth banter and endless topics for conversation had kept us chatting for hours at a time. Now, though, with all that had happened and the sexual tension thick as butter around us, I felt oddly tongue tied.

"You okay?" Jess asked as he set down his glass.

I tried to smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

He knew. "Nervous?"

"A little."

"This is a little weird."

"I was thinking the same thing." I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. "I mean, it's...what is this, exactly, Jess?"

He grinned. "It's a business meeting." Upon seeing my eye-roll, his smile widened. "What? What did you think it was?" God, it was like we were seventeen all over again. Especially with his hair cut the way it was, with the curls making it stick up at the front; the fact that he was clean shaven made him look nearly the same as he had when I'd met him over a decade ago, save for the thin lines around his eyes and mouth that were barely visible in the warm light of the restaurant anyway. And, much as he looked like the old Jess, I felt like the old Rory, completely bashful and innocent and unsure. I felt my cheeks turn pink as I looked down at my hands, which were fiddling with my napkin in my lap. If it were even possible, Jess' smile only grew. "You think this was a date, Gilmore?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Well? Isn't it?"

"Well, considering you said you weren't ready to be with me, I suggest we keep this to strictly business until you're...good and ready." He sipped his drink.

I felt my toes curl in my shoes as he gave me a sexy glance over the rim of his Manhattan glass. "You could be waiting a long time," I quipped.

He set his glass down and leaned in towards me. "I seriously doubt that."

"You think you're hot shit, don't you?"

"Aren't I?"

"Cocky."

"You act as if you expected anything less."

"And you? What are your expectations for this evening?"

"Like I said, Gilmore...business only."

"Okay." I licked my bottom lip before taking a sip of my drink. "Whatever you say."

He dragged his teeth over his own bottom lip, as if biting back a grin. "As it should be."

God. He had to stop looking at me like that or I seriously doubted I would be able to stop myself from launching myself across the table at him. He was being so infuriatingly Jess and it was driving me crazy in the best way. Or worst way, depending on how you looked at it.

We bickered a bit more before our food arrived, and after we'd taken the first few bites in silence, Jess finally got to the point. "So. Any developments on your job situation?"

I shook my head. "Nothing new to report. Still seem to be teetering, though. My boss keeps giving me these guilty looks."

"Nice to know he'd keep you on if he could," Jess said thoughtfully, rubbing a hand over his jaw.

"Would you really want me to work at Truncheon?" I blurted out, quickly looking down at my food as I felt my cheeks heat up. I hadn't planned on asking so outright. I didn't want to seem desperate, after all.

Jess regarded me, a twinkle in his eye. "Yes," he said. "Eventually."

"Eventually?"

"Time, Ror. We both need it. I don't think working together would make things easier." I nodded, feeling both relieved and disappointed at once. "Besides," he added with a smirk, "I don't want you getting sick of me too fast."

The rest of our meal passed by in easy banter, complete with lively debates about the books we were each reading, had read, and planned to read. We left with our arms around each-other and big, goofy grins on our faces and decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood, with the intent being that he would eventually walk me home. My hand slipped into his with ease as we walked, the most natural thing in the world.

I glanced sidelong at Jess. I'd wanted to address the most obvious thing; the bruise decorating his left eye, only barely fading after his run in with James. But I didn't want to bring the latter up for fear of spoiling the atmosphere Jess and I had created, albeit a rather naïve one. Instead, I floundered for something to say, and, unable to think of anything mildly intelligent, I went for something as obvious as his bruise: "Where are you staying nowadays?" I blurted out as we hopped onto the sidewalk just as a taxi went squealing around the corner. "Just at Truncheon?"

The grimace that twisted his lips told me that was still the wrong thing to say. He shrugged. "For now. Nora's kind of taken over the apartment, I think." So much for not bringing up exes. I let myself go quiet, eager for a change of subject but not trusting myself to do so. Jess had other ideas, though. "Why?" he asked, glancing over at me.

I decided to be honest. "Honestly I was just looking for something to say. I didn't want to say anything about your eye, so I floundered."

He smirked. "I was wondering when you were gonna bring that up."

"I feel awful about it," I said, stopping and reaching up to gently caress his cheekbone with the very tip of my finger. "Does it hurt?"

Again, he shrugged. "Not much. I'm alright, Ror."

With a start, I realized that we had arrived at my apartment. "Here we are," I stated, letting my arms swing by my sides. I suddenly felt very awkward and childish under his amused gaze. We both knew what was coming next, but I knew he was going to make me squirm until I asked myself. "Do you...want to come up? For a bit?" I heard myself ask it, but it still didn't seem entirely real. I felt outside of my body, looking on as someone who looked just like me said the things I thought I'd be too afraid to say.

A twinkle lit in his eyes, but he sighed and shifted his weight, letting his hands fall into his pockets. "Think that's a good idea?"

I bit my lip, willing myself to think rationally. "It feels like it," I replied honestly, reaching tentatively out to take his hand. I knew that was not really an answer, neither yes or no, because we both knew the answer should be no but we both so wanted it to be yes in that moment.

He squeezed my hand in his own and stepped towards the gate. "After you."

As we climbed the stairs to my door, I thought my pounding heart would send us crashing through the steps. My brain raced through everything in my fridge, hoping I could offer him a beverage or snack of some sort so that we wouldn't just be standing in my apartment, awkwardly waiting and wondering if something was going to happen. I found myself relieved that I had shaved my legs in the shower this morning, though quickly shook myself of that thought because it didn't matter, because nothing should happen. We could have just parted down there on the sidewalk, maybe shared a sweet kiss, and that could have been that. And yet there I was, leading him up the stairs to my apartment.

I turned my key in the lock and shoved my weight against the door to open it; in its old age the door had warped slightly, rendering it difficult to open sometimes. "Here we are," I said, reaching for the light switch and flicking it on. Ask I kicked off my shoes, Jess filed in next to me, shutting the door behind him. "Forgive the mess," I added, and I knew I couldn't keep the nervous tinge out of my voice. The place wasn't really messy, but I'd felt the need to fill the silence anyhow.

He was silent as he took off his own shoes and moved into the living room, glancing about with seemingly great interest. I just stood and watched him move around my living space, drinking in every detail, skimming the spines of the books on my bookcase, noticing, perhaps, the small holes scattered around the place where James' stuff had been. There were even a few boxes still lying around he had yet to collect. I felt myself zoning out as I dreaded the day he would come to pick up the last of his things, how only then would it truly be over. Maybe, after that, I would never see him again. That thought hurt my heart in a way that was both nostalgic and selfish. I had done this to us. It was my fault. And now Jess was here, walking among James' boxed possessions, and a new kind of trepidation sent a chill up my spine.

Jess had stopped moving and was just sort of standing in the middle of my apartment with his hands in his pockets. I was still by the door, my keys still in hand, heart rate accelerating as his dark eyes slowly slid from the floor up to mine as the rest of him remained motionless. "Like what you've done with the place," he all but whispered, gesturing with his elbow. His gaze fell to the boxes and a vein pulsed in his jaw as he swallowed thickly. I knew what he was thinking, which was weird because this was Jess and seldom was it that anyone knew what he was thinking. "I shouldn't be here." It wasn't a question. It was the truth.

I nodded slowly a few times and chewed on the inside of my lip. "Do you want something to drink?" I asked quietly, moving towards the kitchen so as to get out from underneath his dark gaze. I opened the fridge and bent to look inside, feeling a sigh of relief pass through me when I realized I still had a couple of beers in there. "I have beer." I stood up with the bottles in hand and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw he was near me now; I hadn't heard him approach. He was about a foot away, leaning against the counter opposite the fridge, and he was looking at me. A true Jess-stare that had me instantly coming apart at the seams. "W-what?" I asked, my voice a weak little squeak of a sound.

"I don't want a beer," he said, and I knew what he really wanted to say. I want you. And god, I wanted him too. But then my gaze fell to the boxes over his shoulder and that sense of wrong overcame me again.

Reaching behind me, I opened the fridge and put the bottles back, never taking my eyes off him the whole time. I couldn't. He was staring at me, he had me. And when I shut the fridge again and leaned back against it, I felt utterly trapped. My heart fluttered as an almost sense of fight or flight kicked in. "What's happening, Jess?" His bottom lip was sucked into his mouth at the question and his eyebrows rose a fraction. I let my lips with my tongue. "Why does this keep happening?"

To my surprise, a short, deep chuckle escaped his lips as he finally dropped his gaze from mine. His hands went back to his pockets as he slouched against the counter, crossing his legs at the ankles. "Again. Timing." He nodded his head back towards the boxes. "I'm here. But...he's still kinda here, too." He sighed and shook his head, ran a hand through his hair so that it stuck up at the front. He let his hand slap down to his side and looked at me helplessly. "Maybe I will take that beer."

Complying, I fished the beers out of the fridge once again, and upon handing his to him I moved to the living room, eager to get out of the corner he'd all but backed me into. I sat on the couch, pulling my feet up and under me, and he sat next to me, knees splayed in a manly fashion, leaving a respectful distance between us. We sipped our beers in silence for a few long moments, each stewing in our own thoughts. Finally, I spoke up, unable to bear the silence any longer. "So, I never asked you..." I trailed off, unsure now whether I hadn't asked for a reason. But I'd opened the topic and he was waiting for me to finish, so I pressed on. "...how you met Nora."

He exhaled loudly as if surprised I had brought that up. "Nice choice in conversation."

I felt slightly defensive at his sarcasm. "We might as well talk about it. I'm kind of sick of the elephant in the room, aren't you?"

He looked up at me from under his lashes with a playfully exasperated look. He groaned. "Rory..."

"Come on, tell me," I said brightly, shifting in my seat to get comfortable. Being bubbly was an easy way to distract from feeling nervous. Besides, my curiosity was piqued about how on earth Jess had ended up with a girl like Nora-not only because she was so young, but because she didn't seem to be as intellectually inclined as Jess was. Not that I thought she was dumb, but I knew Jess and I knew he got bored when he was around people whose minds were different or just plain not as sharp as his was.

Jess was looking at me sidelong, one eyebrow raised quizzically. "You want the long version or the short?"

"Whichever's best," I replied quickly, beaming cheekily at his exasperated expression. I squirmed once again, burying further into my couch.

He rolled his eyes and cleared his throat, wiping his hands on his pants, and I wondered if it was because his palms were sweaty. "Well," he began, taking a sip of his beer, "we met over five years ago in Philly." That surprised me. Although when I did the math, it made sense that they would have met before moving to New York. It just hadn't occurred to me. "She walked into Truncheon for this slam poetry reading...and I...was a gonner, right then." He looked a little uncomfortable to confess this to me, but where I had expected to feel a pang of jealousy, I only felt sadness. I knew Jess had truly loved Nora. It was a shame things had ended the way they had. Jess continued, "She hung out all night and flirted her ass off and, well, the rest is history. She started hanging out at Truncheon more and more and she had the idea to bring the cafe element to it. But the one in Philly was too small and I wanted to move to New York anyway, so...one thing led to another. Got a place, moved our shit, opened Cafe Livre and...you pretty much know the rest."

I gaped at him when he stopped talking and looked at me expectantly. "Okay, now the long version," I said, raising my eyebrows pointedly at him.

He kind of scoff-laughed. "That was the long version. What, you expected some sort of long-winded Romeo and Juliet fairytale, or something?"

"It was a little disappointing," I pointed out with a teasing tone to my voice. "You gotta fill in blanks, though. You can't say that I know the rest. There's five years of stories there, Jess, and I've only around or even aware of it all for about six months."

Jess sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess by now you've done the math," he said tiredly, purposefully avoiding my gaze. "She was seventeen when we met. I didn't know until a few months into it while we were already living in Brooklyn."

My mouth fell open. "How do you go a few months without knowing how old your girlfriend is?" I asked incredulously.

He merely shrugged and picked at a thread on his slacks. "She lied about her age. Told me she was twenty-one. She had a fake ID and everything." He paused to take another big swig of beer. "Believe me, I was not pleased when I found out the truth. I mean, I was twenty-four. I felt so...creepy, you've no idea."

"I'll bet," I offered uselessly, taking a drink of my own beer. I regarded him thoughtfully, let him take his time.

"Anyway," he continued, his voice taking on that raspy quality that always melted me a little. "We got past it. But, uh...shortly after we moved to New York, she started...going a little nuts." I just gave him a look which prompted him to continue, which he did, albeit a little reluctantly. "She liked to party. Hard. She'd get into trouble and I'd have to go save her. It happened way too frequently and it was scary as hell."

"Why did she do that?" I asked. "I mean, did you ever talk about it?"

"'Course we did," Jess replied, frowning slightly. "At length. But, I dunno. I guess she had some growing up to do. A young girl in a big city...it's hard to resist the temptation, I guess."

"What about her family?" I asked. "Her parents?"

"Let's just say she ran away for a reason," Jess said darkly, and I knew not to press that matter further. I was already pushing the boundaries of my business as it was. Jess sat up straighter then, and finished off his beer. "Anyway," he said, clearing his throat. "That's that. Can we be done with this conversation now?"

I laughed lightly and looked at him, feeling the burn of his dark eyes as they bore into mine. "Sure," I said.

"What about James?" Jess asked, gesturing to the boxes a few feet away. I'd nearly forgotten about them. "You can't tell me he was all sunshine and shamrocks."

I smiled coyly at the jab, no matter how immature it was. Taking a deep breath, I focused on tearing the label off my beer. "He had issues going in," I began, shrugging slightly. "He was married before and that ended badly. His wife cheated on him with his best friend."

Jess whistled lowly. "Wow."

"Yeah." I drank my beer. "So he had trust issues right off the bat. It was hard. I knew where he was coming from but it sucked to be constantly compared to someone who did that to him, you know? Anyway...we got past it eventually but every now and then he'd get a little irrational." I stopped, noticing how Jess' hand was now resting on the couch between us, unmoving, and he was looking at me with watchful eyes. "I guess not all relationships are perfect, huh?"

"Well, I mean..." Jess smirked then, my favourite crooked smile of his. "We just bitched about our respective SO's flaws...didn't really talk about our own."

"That's because we are practically perfect in every way," I chided, smiling. "Obviously."

I had expected him to smile, but he didn't. The corner of his mouth just kind of twitched and he looked away towards the window, a pensive frown on his face. I let my expression fall and we sat there in silence for several minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. When he spoke, his voice made me jump. "I should get going."

Surprised and a little wounded, I just nodded. "Okay," I said in a small voice. As I walked him to the door, I folded my arms over my torso. "We barely even talked business at all," I reminded him, trying to keep my voice light, but I ended up just sounding sad and pathetic.

Jess looked up at me as he bent to tie his Chuck Taylor's. "We will," he said quietly. "When we're ready."

Suddenly, my temper flared and I lost patience. "God, you're like a yoyo!" I exclaimed, letting my arms drop with a slap down to my sides.

Jess looked slightly surprised as he straightened. "What?"

"First you're begging me to drop everything and be with you, now you're saying 'when we're ready'? I mean, I'm kind of getting whiplash here!"

Jess held his index finger out towards me, instantly confrontational. "Hey, you're the one who said we needed time, not me. I'm doing what you wanted."

"Well if you don't know what you want, it doesn't exactly help me decide," I retorted, folding my arms again. "You're making this harder."

"Oh, because trying to read your mind is a damn cakewalk," Jess sneered, rolling his eyes yet again. "We both want each-other, Rory. We're just both too damn practical to admit it!"

The room went silent as we faced off, staring each-other down. Fire rose from deep within me and I wasn't sure if it was anger or a sudden, crazy desire. It rose to my cheeks and I knew I was probably bright red, but I didn't care. He was looking at me again, and this time, I had nowhere to do. I couldn't back down. All rational though abandoned me, point blank.

We moved at the same time, crashing together in the middle, a tangle of limbs and teeth and lips and tongues as we finally gave in to exactly what Jess had said-the unrelenting want, the need, the desire we had both kept buried for years while trying to lead separate lives. It was obvious, now, that that was just not meant to be for us. We would always gravitate towards each-other in the end. The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating.

I walked Jess backwards and towards my room, his hands holding my hips steady between as my fingers fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. I couldn't process fast enough what was happening so I stopped trying, and instead just appreciated the events as they came, indulging and letting my body do the talking for me. When I finally got to the last of his buttons he shrugged the shirt off his shoulders, letting it drop unceremoniously to the floor. My hands instantly went to his chest, feeling the taut muscles there, feeling the smooth skin of his shoulders and the lean curve of his biceps. I realized I'd never seen Jess shirtless before; it was well worth the wait. He was lean but not overly built, just slender enough to show the ripple of muscle at his abdomen.

The backs of my knees hit the bed and I went down, pulling him on top of me, barely daring to break our kiss for even a second. His hands were everywhere, my sides, my arms, my thighs-he curved his hand underneath one of my thighs and slowly ran it up, pushing the fabric of my dress up as he went. His fingers boldly curved in the waistband of my tights and I let him pull them off, each leg one by one. He looked down at me and the look in his eyes...I felt suddenly overwhelmed by emotion watching him watching me, perched there above me on my bed, as he drank in the sight of me flustered and wanton and bare-legged. He reached out and took me back the back of my neck, gently pulling me into a sitting position, and stared into my eyes before kissing me tenderly, sweetly, a kiss that lingered and burned and sent shivers down my spine. He curled his fingers in the hem of my dress and pulled it up and over my head, discarding it without a second thought. Now I was left in my bra and underwear, his nose brushing mine, and I could feel the heat radiating off of him from his nearness.

He gently laid me back onto the bed, pressing himself to me, and I heard myself whimper as I felt him hard against my thigh. He gasped, licking his lips, and looked down at me, and his face was for once an open book. He looked at me so openly, innocently almost, and there was nothing but love and maybe a little fear there. "Rory..." he whispered, his finger tips gently brushing the side of my face.

But I didn't want to talk any more. Tangling my fingers into his hair, I pulled him to me.

A/N: Hope it was worth the ridiculous wait. I want to get back into updating this story regularly...crossing fingers I remain inspired! Kindly leave me a review if you can...I miss you guys!