January 13th. Monday.
Jess made sure to stomp the snow off of his boots before he stepped all the way into the cafe, thankful for the warmth that reached his cheeks almost immediately. He pulled off his knit cap and re-ruffled his hair.
Was he the first one there? Matt and Chris weren't at their regular table... Ah, no. They'd shifted to sit next to the radiator on the other side of the room. Chris raised his hand to acknowledge Jess's presence and Jess waved back, heading to the counter to get his coffee before he sat down. He'd had to walk the twenty minutes from his apartment through the snow; if he sat down before getting his cup, he wouldn't be getting back up.
One hand stuffed his hat into a coat pocket while the other pushed into his jeans to find his wallet. He'd just pulled out one of the most wrinkled ten-dollar-bill he'd ever come across when the man in front of him stepped to the side, leaving him to step up to the counter.
"Hey, Jess," Chirped the barista, brushing a loose wave of strawberry blonde behind her ear.
"Olive," he nodded, shooting her a smile. "I'll have a peppermint-
"A peppermint mocha latte. Large," Olive finished, already done writing his order on the cup. There was a smiley face on the end. "That's three fifty-two."
Jess laid the bill in her outstretched hand and leaned forward to rest on the counter. "I thought the large was five dollars," he asked, his brow wrinkled.
There was a tinge of pink of Olive's face when she leaned forward to conspiratorially whisper. "It is. Without the employee discount." She punctuated this with a wink and reached out to hand him back his change. He shoved his five-dollar-bill into the tip jar and moved to stand by the pick-up counter.
Once his gloves were safely zipped into his coat with his hat, Jess pulled out his cellphone, glancing at the screen. One text from his mother, asking whether he was still going to be able to drive her and Doula back to New York after the wedding and then another from Luke, reminding him for the fifty-first time that he had to drive up to Stars Hollow that weekend for his tux fitting.
It was almost like Luke was under the impression that Jess had the memory of a goldfish, though if Jess was under the control of Emily Gilmore... he would most likely be the same bundle of nerves. He hadn't gotten to see the beast that was Mrs. Gilmore planning her only daughter's wedding, but apparently the woman was formidable.
He sent back a confirmation back to both in time to turn and catch Olive coming toward him with his drink.
"Thanks, Olive," he smiled, taking the cup.
"Stay warm, Jess," she replied pleasantly, turning around to make the next drink.
He forced his still-frozen legs to drag himself to the little booth in the corner, dropping into the seat next to Chris and drooping back to sip his drink.
"How was your holiday?" Matthew asked, looking at Jess with mild sympathy. Another swallow and Jess set down his cup, straightening his posture.
"Busy. Spent a week in California, Christmas in New York, and a few days after that in Connecticut. Lots of driving," Jess counted off, dropping his phone on the table. "Ended up giving the rest of the poems a read, though. So we're ahead for the compilation," he nodded.
"Jeez," Matthew said. "I didn't even leave town and I could barely manage responding respond to a text. I don't know if you really know what a vacation is supposed to be."
"I offered to take you with me to Cancun," Chris reminded.
Jess waved them both off. "Figured I'd give you a head start since I'm taking another vacation in a month," he reminded them.
"Can being the best man in a wedding really be considered a vacation?"
"Think about it, Matt," Chris tapped his fingers to his temple. "At the very least, he'll have some time off from working. The bachelor party will be the first party he's been to in a year that he hasn't been working at."
"Maybe he can find a date to the reception," Matthew mused, scanning the mostly empty room for a possible suitrix.
If he hadn't just swallowed his mouthful of latte, it might have come out of Jess's nose. "The thought of finding a date in Stars Hollow doesn't seem entirely likely," he reckoned, remembering the general contempt that all of his classmates had held for him.
Chris nodded in agreeance. "Yeah, what were you thinking, Matt? No way he'd get a date to the wedding."
"You don't think he's cute enough?" Matthew teased, winking at Jess from across the table.
Jess raised an eyebrow in return, trying to recreate the smouldering look that they'd observed their friend Thomas attempting a few days before. It earned a snort from Matthew.
"Jess can't even find a date when they try to fall into his lap every day for months. He definitely couldn't manage in a hostile environment," Chris shrugged. "Has nothing to do with how cute our boy is."
"Hey-" Jess started, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Don't 'hey' us," Chris interjected, holding up his hand. "We've been trying to clue you in for days." He subtly pointed through his body and toward the counter.
"Olive?" Jess asked, glancing back and forth from Chris to Matthew.
"Olive," Matthew nodded.
"Has she said anything to you?" Jess questioned, trying to subtly peek over at the barista while she worked. This earned him a pair of eye rolls. "It's not like you're mind readers. What makes you think she has any interest in me?"
Wordlessly, Chris grabbed Jess's coffee cup and turned it over so that he could point at the smiley face that punctuated his name.
"Ahh..." Jess murmured, thinking back as to how many times there'd been some sort of drawing on his cup. More times than not, really.
"Yeah. Ahh." Chris set down the cup and picked up his own to finish the last dregs of his coffee. "Why d'you think we've been coming to this place so damn often?"
"It's been pretty painful to watch you miss all of the flirting," Matthew chimed in. "And that's coming from me."
A low blow. Jess had spent a lot of time watching jokes and references fly over Matthew's head. The times he'd seen the guy flirting had been... well, painful was definitely accurate there. He stared down at his drink for, running his thumb over the smiley face. Olive was sweet; short, plump, and always with a smile on her rosey face. He was mildly surprised to find that he didn't feel any hesitation before speaking. "Well. I don't think I'll take her to the wedding either way. Doesn't mean I can't ask her out for a drink sometime, though."
Matthew let out a hoot of celebration, pumping his fist into the air. The following expression was one of immediate regret, an expression shared by Chris and Jess. They all shrank down into their seats, aware of the eyes that had turned in their direction.
"So, you might not have a date to the wedding, but at least you'll have some time to relax. Sit back and read something that you don't have to correct for once?" Chris suggested.
"Yeah," Jess agreed. "I'll stop by a bookstore before I go, pick up something random. Probably won't get a chance to finish it, knowing Stars Hollow."
"It'll at least be better than the last wedding I went to," Matthew grimaced. "It was a shit show. There was almost a fist fight over the mayoral election as soon as my cousins got a few drinks in them."
Jess chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think that anyone is that politically minded in Stars Hollow. Except Luke, maybe, and he's too busy managing his mother-in-law-to-be."
"The mythical Emily Gilmore," Chris nodded. "I hope to one day meet the savage woman."
"Call her savage to her face and you might not live through the experience," Jess warned.
"It is with the greatest respect," Chris insisted. "I think that a woman who has such a commanding reputation precede herself must truly be a force to be reckoned with."
"Spoken like the pretentious writer that you are," Matthew teased.
In truth, the thought seeing Mrs. Gilmore again was something that had shaken Jess's nerves. The last time had hardly been a success, leaving him to suspect that she had a less than favorable opinion of him. Though, this time he was going to simply be a member of the ceremony and not a potential member of her immediate and prestigious family. Plus, he was an adult. No matter what she felt about him, Jess's life would remain unchanged.
Either way, he imagined that Rory's ire wouldn't be exacerbating the situation this time around. They'd been relatively friendly for a while now, trading book titles and general life updates about once a week. Her holiday reading list had truly been impressive considering that she only got a week off of work from Christmas to New Years. She'd always been impressive.
The fact that she was working so hard on the Obama campaign was just a small part of the awe he felt, though he imagined that it was a large part of her future resume. She'd mentioned something about writing and rewriting her resume a short while ago, though he wasn't sure if she had actually managed to finish it and send it in anywhere.
Was he seriously worried about her ability to meet a deadline? He would have laughed out loud if he didn't think that he'd have to explain to Matt and Chris afterward. No one had ever had to have that worry with Rory.
"-just seems a little too cheesy, though. Doesn't it?"
Shit. He was expected to answer?
"What is?" Jess asked, tuning back into the conversation.
"Your uncle having the wedding on Valentine's Day," Matthew repeated.
"It's not on Valentine's Day," Jess said, shaking his head. "No, they chose the fifteenth. Lorelai says that's the day that all the chocolate goes on sale."
February 13th. Wednesday.
'I remember too well how I thought at times when it comes down to rock bottom, I didn't care tuppence about anything, or anybody, except myself; and that everybody else was the same. If this is true, it is something a man should not-'
The phone was ringing again and no one seemed to notice. Jess looked up from his book, trying to peer into the kitchen and setting eyes on Luke, bent over Lorelai's chair to watch her do something on her laptop screen. They were ridiculously stressed for two people who'd declared that night as the night of calm before the storm that was their rehearsal dinner. Their last night of freedom.
Jess stole another handful of monogrammed M&Ms as the ringing cut off once again, turning back to the book in his lap.
'If this is true, it is something a man should not know. It may be it was the one lesson we learnt from the Occupation, but it was the wrong-'
The ringer again. He groaned quietly and slipped a bookmark between the pages before dropping his paperback onto the coffee table, between the pizza and the plate of cookies, and walked toward the kitchen.
"You do know that someone's calling, don't you? They've tried three times in the last ten minutes," Jess asked, leaning against the doorframe in the entryway of the kitchen. Luke glanced up at him, almost as though he was surprised to find him in the house.
"The phone?"
"The phone rings; it rings for thee," he nodded, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. Luke jogged into the other room, answering before whoever was calling could be sent to voicemail yet again.
Jess glanced at Lorelai's computer screen, watching her type with the speed of someone undistracted by her surroundings. Not wanting to disturb her, he slipped to the fridge with as little sound as he could to grab a soda. Once he'd cracked the door open, all he found there was an overabundance of condiments, a half eaten burger in some tupperware, and a case of beer.
"Everything edible's already out on the coffee table." Jess turned around just in time to see Lorelai getting up from her chair and shutting her laptop lid. She rounded the kitchen table to get to the fridge, grabbing herself one of the beers left in the six-pack. She picked a second one and held it out to Jess. "Want one?"
He couldn't help but see this as a full-circle moment.
"Yeah, sure," Jess shrugged, taking the bottle and shutting the door. He and Lorelai had reached a place where they mutually and silently agreed not to acknowledge any of the things they'd said in the past. It would just dredge up more issues than it was worth to either of them.
Yet more ill-will buried in the past by his decision to let his relationship with Rory lie where it was.
Jess offered Lorelai a smile and the bottle opener once his own cap was popped off. They drank in the quiet, listening to Luke's unintelligible but clearly irritated words drift in from the hall. The phone call ended. Luke grumbled back into the kitchen.
"Well, you seem downright chipper," Jess commented, exchanging a look with Lorelai before looking back at his uncle.
"Paint a smile on his face and he might just rival good ol' Ronald," She said, stepping forward and offering him a sip of his beer. He gladly accepted.
"Your mother said that she was going to manage her," Luke complained once he'd had a good few swallows.
"Manage who?" Lorelai asked.
"That woman. Charlene."
"Charlotte," She corrected, adding "the wedding planner" for Jess's benefit.
"Charlotte. She just had to call at 10:30 and ask me about whether we wanted Checkmate or Spanish Dress petals for the flower girl to carry. Of course, I said we just wanted roses, because that's what you told me was happening, and then she just repeated the question," Luke griped.
Lorelai smiled, clearly amused. "Well, those are different kinds of roses-"
"Oh, I know that now. But I still don't know why we should care."
"Well, if you want my opinion, I think that the Checkmate one would be more cohesive with the overall feeling you'd want for the wedding," Jess said, glad that he could sound so sure over something had had absolutely no idea about. The look of pure fire in Luke's eyes was enough to make it truly worth it. "I think I'm gonna head out. I'll see you guys tomorrow for the rehearsal." He raised his beer to his lips and downed it, setting the glass on the counter before turning to leave.
"Be there at three, Jess. No later than three," Luke called.
"Really? I was thinking of coming around five-thirty," he responded, collecting his book from the living room and shoving it into his back pocket. Just as he was grabbing his coat from the hook by the door, the phone rang again.
"Son of a bitch!"
Jess concealed his chuckle and popped back into the hallway before Luke could step out of the kitchen, taking the bullet for his stressed out uncle and answering the phone.
"Gilmore residence."
"... Hello? Who's this?"
"You called here. Who're you?" Jess asked, waving Luke off and turning around to go back to the living room.
"It's Rory."
Oh.
Jess dropped onto the couch and cleared his throat.
"It's Jess. Luke was losing his mind with all the phone calls, figured I'd take one for the team," he said casually, kicking his feet up.
"They're swamped, huh?" She sighed, sounding resigned.
"Yeah. Surprisingly enough, they've managed to have things to do before the wedding."
"Probably why they forgot me," she speculated.
"Forgot you?" Jess repeated, glancing up at Lorelai while she climbed the stairs. She froze on the spot and turned around, staring at Jess like a deer in headlights.
'Is that Rory?' She mouthed, pointing at the phone in his hand. Jess's nod sent Lorelai running back into the kitchen.
"Yeah. I just got into Hartford. Mom was supposed to meet me here and drive me back, but I can just catch a cab to my grandparents' place."
"From what I hear, you're not gonna want to do that," Jess remarked, standing when Luke and Lorelai both hurried back into the room, whispering hurriedly to each other.
Rory hummed in response, obviously tired. "Why not?"
"The Gilmore clan is in full wedding-mode. It might not be safe to adjust the schedule," he responded, covering the receiver so that Rory couldn't hear what he said next. "You forgot she was flying in tonight?"
"He forgot!" Lorelai insisted, pointing a finger at her exhausted fiance. Luke shot her a look and then reached for the phone. Jess stepped back.
"Well, then I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do from here. I don't think I can afford the cab fare for a ride all the way to Stars Hollow at this time of night," Rory admitted.
"I can come get you, then," Jess offered, nodding at Lorelai when she mouthed 'really?' to him.
"I don't want to put you out-"
"It's really not an issue. I was just gonna go back to the diner and read. Nothing I can't do later," he insisted. "Here, I'll give your mom the phone and start heading your way."
"Thanks, Jess."
He paused, his heart faltering for a moment.
"Yeah. No problem." He held the phone out for Lorelai and headed toward the door again, zipping his coat up and looking for his snow boots. Luke followed him into the front room.
"I can go get Rory, Jess," Luke started, his tone sounding ever-so-slightly reproachful.
"I only had one beer. I'm not even buzzed," Jess shrugged, kneeling down to tie up his boot once he wedged his foot inside.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. I just don't know how friendly you guys are... If you'd be uncomfortable being alone with Rory, or something?"
This was the incredibly tired version of what was probably a gesture of parental concern.
"That's not a problem anymore. We're past all of that stuff. You might call us friends, even," he joked, standing up.
"Friends?" Luke questioned.
"Yeah. Friends. Platonic friends," Jess confirmed, opening the front door. "You should get some sleep. You need your beauty rest. Tomorrow's a big day." And with a wink, Jess slipped outside into the cold night and jogged through the snow to his car.
Parked between a minivan and a white and blue taxi, Jess decided that it would be advisable to turn down the angst-ridden indie rock. He didn't need to be confronted by any of the overtired mothers of three that would take offense to the lyrics of this music.
He lowered the volume of the stereo and wrestled his cellphone out of the crack between his seat and the center console. Jess barely had enough time to type out a message to Rory ('I'm right out front') before he heard a tap-tap-tap on his passenger-side window. Thankfully enough, the tapper wasn't a sleep deprived soccer mom, but Rory Gilmore herself.
She looked much better than someone who'd just been on a four hour flight should be allowed to look.
Thoughts of that manner shouldn't be entertained, especially not late at night. Instead, Jess climbed out of the car and jogged around the front to lift one of the suitcases from Rory's grip.
"I thought that you were only staying for a few days," Jess smiled, dragging the bag to the back of the car and lifting the lid of the trunk open. "You pack like you're moving back home."
"I plan to commandeer the washing machine," Rory nodded, lifting the second suitcase and her carry-on bag in with the bag Jess had packed away. "It's much harder to get your laundry done right when you're sharing a laundromat with fifteen other people."
Jess hummed in response, slamming the trunk shut and rounding toward the driver's door. "Well, I hope that you get your laundry done the right way, then. I imagine that your version of 'right' is with more categories than most people know exist."
He slid into his seat and buckled himself safely before turning his attention back to Rory. "You look more rested than I would have expected, knowing how hard you're probably working."
A tired laugh escaped Rory's throat. "Well, that's a carefully cultivated sheen of adulthood. I'm probably kept together with only scotch tape and dried white out at this point."
That earned a laugh in response from Jess. After turning the music up a bit, Jess peeled out of the airport lot. He felt less relaxed than he had been just five minutes ago. Where he had been blasting his speakers to keep his mind awake enough to drive, now he was sitting forward over the steering wheel, his fingertips buzzing with energy. This silently frenetic energy was absolutely born from the fact that they hadn't seen each other since the open house. Since he'd kissed her and she'd told him that she was still in love with him. Jess's chest tightened. It'd been almost two full years since they had been in such close proximity, just by happenstance of their busy schedules, and since then he had been able to convince himself that he didn't feel any trace of what he used to taste in every breath. In the quiet between them now, or at least in the guitar riffs playing over the lack of conversation, there hung a pregnant moment.
Jess wasn't sure how long he'd been thinking about what to say. It didn't matter anyway, since before he could find the words his thoughts were interrupted by a gentle snore. A brief look to the side and he found Rory asleep. Her hair was tied up into a messy bun and her lips were slightly parted. If he had a free hand, he would have adjusted the angle of her neck as it looked uncomfortable, but instead he turned his eyes back to the road.
It was for the best, then.
February 14th. Thursday.
The coziness of a Friday night dinner, albeit on a Thursday, was a welcome thing. Rory had been raised to accommodate the diet of fast food and Chinese takeout that she was subsisting off of, but that didn't mean she didn't sometimes miss the sit-down meals from her grandparents' house. The key difference between the regular Friday night dinner and what they were doing in that moment was that instead of the diners being just herself, her mother, and her mother's parents, they had added Luke, her mother's husband-to-be, Sookie and Jackson, the maid of honor and her husband, and Jess.
It was hard to really say what Jess was, beyond just being a nephew to Luke. Yes, by law they would be family in about... eighteen and a half hours, but she couldn't ever really consider him part of her family. They couldn't even consider themselves friends at this point, could they? The pair had been texting relatively regularly, but beyond those small book recommendations and check-ins, they hadn't talked. Maybe it was better that way, seeing as they'd never really been just friends to begin with. The physical distance often resting between them was enough so that neither of them had to truly consider how they might want to move forward- or not move forward, should that be the case.
Rory had recognized this hesitance to assimilate him into her family group early on and had resigned herself to blaming that feeling on the fact that she once considered losing her virginity to him. No one would think twice about it if the situation were properly explained, that she and Jess had been together long before they were ever cousin-in-laws. That didn't mean that the term 'cousin' didn't make her feel uncomfortable enough to deny it to him.
Everyone else was wrapped into the middle of a story about how obviously oblivious her mother and Luke had been to each other's feelings. For years they'd danced around the topic and now, despite everything, they were finally concluding the love story. She should probably have tune in.
"-and the way that he would just do absolutely anything for her! You know, he fixed her skates once. She and Rory were planning on ice skating and as soon as he saw the rust on the blades, he just stole them from her so that he could fix them up," Sookie giggled, sipping on the last of her wine. Luke looked genuinely embarrassed by the story, though he was very possibly pleased by the way that Lorelai was grinning at the memory.
"Oh, I knew they were interested in each other from the moment I met him. The very moment," Emily declared, smiling proudly. "I told Lorelai as much, but she wouldn't listen to me- not that that was much of a shock."
"They wouldn't listen to anyone!" Sookie agreed. "I know that I tried loads of times."
"It wasn't like you two were the most clued in!" Lorelai retorted good-naturedly waving her wine glass between Sookie and Jackson. Luke caught the glass from her hand, setting it on the table before she could slosh the wine onto the white table cloth. Lorelai smiled at him before continuing. "You were arguing like children every time you saw each other. At least we were friends."
"You're absolutely right," Jackson nodded, taking a sip of his beer before continuing, "our months of arguing is completely comparable to twelve years of pretending not to see what literally every other person on Earth saw."
Another table-wide laugh. Rory caught her mother's eye and they shared a smile. She hadn't realized how much she had missed home.
Lorelai's mouth opened, most likely to protest at the teasing, but she was interrupted by her own joy at seeing the dessert being brought out by a small group of servers. Sookie and Emily broke off into their own conversation about the food: miniature raspberry pavolva macaroons and two full trays of multicolored tea tarts. Emily's explanation was that they would have enough cake at the reception, no need for any more. Plus, Lorelai had always loved the apple tarts.
While she loaded up her own plate with at least one of each type of dessert, suppressing an amused smile when she caught Jess sniff at a particularly green-looking one.
"Pear, I'm guessing," She offered, catching his eye and nodding at the treat in his hand. "The strawberry ones are really good. Apple, too."
"Thanks," he nodded, using the tongs to grab a pair of each. In the next second, their gazes met again and Rory could feel the acknowledgement there. The understanding born from that look was that was one thing to talk over text, to have shallow conversations. Could they move past that and toward actual friendship when just a polite smile could constrict her airway with guilt? She'd treated him horribly the last time they were together.
If she hadn't been so exhausted the night before, Rory might have reveled in this feeling a little longer and found some course of action. Now, all she could manage was small talk over the value of pastries.
The urge to say something to Jess, to offer some sort of apology, was almost overwhelming. Saving her from herself, Richard stood up to raise his glass in a toast to his daughter, leaving Rory to sink back into her seat and stare at the food on her plate. What was she going to say to him in front of her family? 'Sorry that I used you to revenge-cheat on my boyfriend when I knew full well that you had feelings for me'? She didn't see that going over well.
"Well, Luke," Richard nodded, raising his glass of newly topped off wine. "I know that you have long suffered the drama of the Gilmore clan and I would like to commend you for coming out on top. You make Lorelai happy. I've always known that she would find happiness some day, and I truly believe that you helped her to get there as quickly as possible. You helped her start her business, you were a reliable resource for both Lorelai and her daughter, and you have given her this feeling," he gesture to his daughter, who might have been close to tearing up, "this feeling of love and safety. I can not thank you enough for that, and I am glad to call you a member of my family."
"Dinner was amazing, Grandma, really," Rory smiled, wrapping her arms around Emily's shoulders for a tight embrace.
"I'm so glad that you enjoyed it," Emily responded, kissing Rory's cheek and releasing her granddaughter. "I'll save you all of the leftovers, that way you'll have something decent to eat when you fly back- you're sure you have to go after tomorrow?"
"I do," Rory lamented, looking over her shoulder toward her mother and Luke. They were saying an amorous goodbye that, had they been completely sober, they might not have done in the front hall of the Gilmore house. Rory let out a short laugh and turned back. "But I'll see you all day yesterday. And I'll be back in April for mom's birthday."
"Then you're gone again for months!" Emily protested.
"It'll all be over by January," Rory assured her, giving one last hug. Behind her there was a clatter of something falling to the floor and a burst of laughter. By the time Rory had turned around, Jess was already scooping a metal ashtray off of the ground and replacing it onto the table while Lorelai whispered to Luke, holding him to her level with her scarf around his neck. "I've got to get her home."
She crossed the floor and placed her hand on her mother's shoulder, not particularly wanting to know what it was she said that made Luke's face turn that shade of pink.
"We've gotta go, mom. It's gonna snow soon, don't want to be driving when it starts."
"Buzzkill," Lorelai whined, pecking Luke's lips before wrapping her scarf around his neck another time. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"
"I'll be the one in white," Luke replied, kissing her forehead.
"No, that's me. Remember?"
"How could I forget?" Luke groaned, his grin widening. Rory playfully rolled her eyes and wrapped an arm around her mother's waist to peel her away from her fiance.
"You've got him?" Rory asked Jess, pulling Lorelai's arm over her shoulder to prepare for the ice outside.
"No problem," Jess said, pulling his dark green hat down over his ears. The hat made his eyes look a little bit lighter, oddly enough.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow. C'mon, mom," Rory sighed, pulling Lorelai toward the exit, pulling open the door and calling her last goodbyes while she braced herself against the biting cold.
Traversing the driveway was a lot easier after Jackson shoveled a walkway from the doorway to his car, which had been parked just behind Lorelai's jeep. Rory didn't bother getting Lorelai to the passenger side, instead packing her into the backseat and buckling her in.
"Man, you're such a good kid, Rory," Lorelai sighed, reaching out to hold Rory's cheeks between her palms. The corners of Rory's mouth tipped upward and she grabbed her mother's wrists, laying them in her lap.
"Thanks, mom. I appreciate it. You're a good mom."
"Damn right I am!"
Rory let out a soft huff of laughter and shut the car door, turning just in time to see Jess attempting to do the same with Luke. Seemed that he needed to be corralled more than Lorelai had. Carefully, Rory walked across the drive to offer her help.
"Luke, you have to get in. Can't get married tomorrow if you're stuck in Hartford," she pointed out, trading a look with a slightly exasperated Jess. Luke muttered something under his breath and nodded. Probably wasn't anything profound.
"Can you grab the door?" Jess asked, shifting his footing so that he could catch Luke before he slid on a patch of ice.
"Sure." Rory pulled the door of Jess's new silver Chevy and stood back so that Luke could be fit into the passenger's seat. Once Luke was buckled in, Rory closed the door and let her attention fall fully on Jess.
There wasn't any music to fill the silence this time. The snow had a way of making the world sound even quieter than it would have any other time.
"So... I guess I'll see you at the wedding, then?" Jess offered, shoving his hands into his coat pockets and glancing at Luke while he fought with the stereo in the truck.
"And the reception," Rory agreed, wishing that she could say something else. Maybe something profound that could fix this uncomfortable feeling in her gut. Would apologizing fix anything or just make it worse?
"And the reception," Jess echoed, rocking from foot to foot. Another pause. "I've gotta get him home," he said, gesturing to Luke with his head.
"Oh, totally," Rory nodded, taking a step backward. "Go ahead."
He extended a smile, one that didn't reach his eyes, and headed toward the driver's door. Rory watched him, the itching feeling crawling back up her spine for the second time that night.
"Uh- Hey, Jess?"
Oh god... What was she going to say?
Jess turned around, his hand on the door handle. "Yeah?"
Her stomach was tying itself in knots.
"We're friends, right? Or, I mean... we can be?"
That seemed to take him by surprise. His eyes were adamantine and unreadable, maybe only for a second.
"We are friends. We're always going to be friends."
"Right," she said, her heart lightening. At the very least he wasn't angry with her, even if he wasn't acting like he used to. She just missed the rhythm that they had together, once upon a time. "Good. I'm going to- I've got to go take her home." She pointed her thumb back at the jeep holding her mother.
"See you tomorrow, Rory."
"Bye, Jess."
Rory turned on her heel and headed back to the jeep, climbing in and starting up the engine.
February 15th Friday.
"They're disgusting," Rory said, watching her mother and Luke lean into each other, their faces split in half with delighted smiles. They'd been smiling through the entire ceremony and into the reception, only breaking to greet the few people that ventured to break their concentration.
Lane shrugged, picking a chocolate covered strawberry off of Rory's plate. "It's gross, yeah. But in a really nice way, don't you think? They're really happy."
Rory nodded, swatting Lane's hand away when she tried to steal more food. "You do know that you can just go get some of your own, right?"
"Of course I can," Lane agreed, "but my plan for the night is to move as little as possible. This is the first time in months that I've been out of the house past seven and I've got to conserve my energy. Zach already wants to dance after we play our song, so I have to make sure that I don't fall asleep right after that."
"Motherhood sounds like an ordeal." Rory raised her arm to wave at Paris as she escaped the dance floor.
"Friend, I have never loved anyone as much as Kwan and Steve. Sure, I'm constantly drained and exhausted, but at least that's something Zach and I can bond over."
"Where's Doyle?" Rory asked, offering Paris one of the cookies left on her plate.
"He was appropriated by Stars Hollow's Elizabeth Taylor," Paris pointed back to Doyle, currently being being held close by a pleased looking Miss Patty.
"Ahh." All three women watched the pair twirl for a bit. Just to their right was Emily and Richard, neither of whom were moving fast enough for the music. Nonetheless, they looked... sublime. It was something else, to know that two people could be so in love after everything they went through together. It was something to aspire to, to be able to build a life as happy as theirs.
"You ready?"
Paris and Rory turned to their left to see Zach helping Lane up to her feet.
"Hey, Rory. Paris," Zach nodded, his right arm snaking around Lane's waist. "We've gotta go set up. Almost time to play the-"
"The song you wrote, yeah," Rory nodded.
"It was totally Lane's idea," he bragged, squeezing his wife a little tighter. "Anyway, we do have to go. Brian and Gil are waiting."
"See you later. And save a dance for me!" Rory called after Lane, watching them disappear into the fold.
"You want to dance?" Paris asked, raising an eyebrow. "We can dance."
"Oh? Sure, that'd be great. Let's do it after the song though. They wrote it as a thank you for letting them use or garage for a practice space when Mrs. Kim was against the whole music-making idea," Rory explained, standing and picking up her half full glass of champagne. "I'll be back, I just want to go to talk to my mom."
Rory started toward the higher table, where she'd originally been sitting. She'd moved places to sit between Lane and Paris after she gave her maid-of-honor speech, wanting to be able to both give Lorelai and Luke their time together and catch up with her friends for once. Working on the Obama campaign was an amazing job, but it kept her sorely out of the loop.
"Hey, mom?" Rory prompted, leaning forward so that Lorelai could hear her over the music and chatter of the crowd. It seemed like all of Stars Hollow had come out to celebrate with them, a real feat seeing as the ballroom was halfway to Hartford.
It was almost as though Lorelai had to tear herself away from looking at Luke's face. She'd always said that she loved Rory more than anything and anyone else, and Rory believed that, but there was no mistaking the fact that Luke just made her happy. Pure happiness was hard to come by for a lot of people.
"Rory! Where've you been?" Lorelai asked, standing and leaning over the table to hug her daughter.
"I snuck away when you two started to talk about the honeymoon," Rory admitted, returning the kiss on the cheek she had received. "I mean, I'm sure that you'll have fun, but I don't feel the need to hear everything you're planning on doing."
"Fair, fair," Lorelai nodded, standing straight and turning to her husband. "Think you'll miss me if I walk away?"
"Mmm..." Luke looked his wife over, pretending to consider. "Probably. But I think I might survive."
Lorelai laid a gentle kiss on his lips and looked back at Rory. "C'mon, kid. I want to talk to you," she nodded, waving Rory to follow after her while she gathered their coats from the backs of their chairs. Rory gladly took hers, waiting until they were in the entry hall before pulling hers on.
Once the two of them were outside, under the overhang, they stopped to watch the snow fall. Lorelai slung her arm around Rory's shoulders, Rory's around her mother's waist, and they existed in this comfortable silence for a minute, maybe two.
"I'm so happy for you, mom," Rory said quietly, watching the way that the lights made the fabric of her mother's skirt sparkle.
"And I'm so proud of you, Rory," Lorelai started, lifting her dress up while she turned her body to face Rory's. "You work so hard at this job and then- I mean, your speech?"
"You gave me everything, mom. You're my best friend," Rory cut in, shaking her head.
"You're my best friend too." Lorelai took Rory's hands and squeezed them gently. "I just want you to know that I'm so happy that you're here. I know you weren't going to miss it, I just... you and Luke are my people and not having you here would have been wrong. I don't know if I could have done it, I don't know if Luke could have." Rory could feel her eyes starting to sting with the threat of tears, but she didn't wipe them away. "I'm sorry that we didn't get to spend more time together. I mean, I forgot you at the airport and then I passed out right after you got home-"
"The wedding has kept you so busy-" Rory tried."
"-and I still want to spend time with you. I talked to Luke and he said that he's gonna go home when this is over to finish packing for the Honeymoon. He's going to talk Jess into sleeping over at the house so that the two of us can have the diner to ourselves, yeah? We can have a real movie night together before you have to head out again."
Rory couldn't stop the single tear that dripped down her cheek, but she did hide it with the bear hug she gave her mother. They called, texted, Skyped, everything. None of it had anything on being together, in person. Her chest was bursting with waves of homesickness, the feelings that she'd pressed down to do her work.
It meant so much to know that, even on her wedding night, her mother would put her first. Of course she would put her first.
"That sounds good?" Lorelai prompted softly, combing her fingers through Rory's hair.
"Great," Rory nodded, pulling back and wiping her eyes. Lorelai's cheeks were wet with her own tears. "It sounds great. I can get the snacks from the house."
"Day-old-pizza sounds great, doesn't it?" Lorelai teased. "Let's go back inside. Won't want anyone to think we ran away from another wedding."
Rory let out a burst of laughter, stepping toward the door and opening it for her mother. "I don't think that I need to visit Harvard again."
The two Lorelais walked back into the reception, only to see that Hep Alien had taken the stage and were just finishing their set up. Rory left her mother with another hug before weaving her way back to the table with Paris and a tired looking Doyle. She watched her mother join Luke back up at the main table and watched as he helped her mother pull off her coat and hang it on her chair before they went off to dance together.
Rory's eyes had just left her mother's face and were on their way back to search for her lost glass of champagne along the high table when they slid past Jess. In what must have been an obvious expression of shock, Rory's eyes snapped back to meet his for the sparest portion of a second.
A spike of electricity ran down Rory's spine and her face whipped back around to face her empty plate, her cheeks turning pink. Thankfully enough, it didn't seem anyone noticed either because of the tinge from the cold weather or the focus on what Zach was saying into the microphone. Either way, Rory was left alone with her thoughts.
Had Jess really been looking at her? She would ask Paris to look for her, but the subtlety her former roommate could manage wouldn't be nearly enough for that moment.
His expression was that of someone engrossed in his own thoughts, so it could be that he hadn't meant to look at Rory. Perhaps his eyes were stuck on the empty space between them while he thought things completely unrelated. But the intensity of his gaze had already seared itself into her brain... he had to have been looking at her.
She would never really know what he was looking at or whether she was right as, by the time she'd turned to check again, he was deep in conversation with Caesar.