It was amazing how seamlessly they fit back into each other's lives. As soon as they decided that yes, in fact, they should be dating each other, it felt so natural that neither could believe they hadn't thought of it before. They both had their own lives, their own work, their own friendships, and Jess was as happy with his as Rory was with hers. Neither had any intention of giving up any part of themselves, but each found the space to let the other in. Maybe it was a honeymoon period, but it felt to both of them like this relationship was a part of the puzzle that was just waiting to be rediscovered.
Jess was still splitting his time between Philadelphia and Boston, giving Rory plenty of time to focus on work without getting distracted. From Monday to Thursday, her life continued as usual, with her time split between writing her thesis and teaching commitments. Friday was set aside for job applications and meetings. Once it got to 5pm, she'd head back to her apartment for a quick change of clothes and a dodgy eye- and lipliner job, and head out to wherever Jess had instructed her to meet him.
Jess always suggested their date spots. Rory may have been in the area for almost five years by this point, but she was a creature of habit, and struggled to come up with any suggestions other than the unofficial postgraduate bar just off campus and the dingy coffee shop where she spent half her stipend every month. Rather than have her make up a spreadsheet listing the merits and drawbacks of every conceivable date location in the greater Boston area, Jess had soon taken to just texting Rory a location every Friday afternoon. It made sense for him too – he was going to end up organising events in the city once Truncheon's new office was set up, and he appreciated the opportunity to scout out locations ahead of time.
Mostly though, he revelled in finding somewhere for her – for what he knew she needed based on whatever kind of week she'd had. He'd discovered this on one of their first dates at the end of a week where she'd sent him several desperate texts about her struggles to meet the department deadline for marking midterms. When she showed up in the tiny jazz bar in Back Bay, the anguish faded from her face as she saw him waiting on a dishevelled purple love seat holding out a glass of Sauvignon for her. She dropped her bag and her coated, took the drink, and sunk into his arms. "This is absolutely where I want to be," he thought, as they held each other, slowly getting buzzed and listening to the mellow Ella Fitzgerald tribute. She looked up at him as Autumn in New York played in the background. "This is perfect." He smiled back at her, and kissed her forehead.
Six weeks after their conversation in the coffee shop, they were heading towards Jess's hotel room. "I don't understand you," he laughed, as they walked hand in hand along the waterfront. "Why don't we just go back to your apartment? Don't you wanna wake up in your own bed?" Rory turned to face him, smiling mischievously. "Hotels are more romantic." She took his hand again, leading him to the hotel and into the elevator. As the doors closed behind them, she put her arms around his neck and started kissing him. He pulled her towards him, and let himself be pushed up against the wall. He squeezed her tighter, moaning as she bit his lip. When the elevator stopped, she jumped into his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist. They kept kissing furiously as he fumbled in his pocket for his room key.
Jess threw Rory onto the bed in front of him, and she tugged on his shirt to pull him towards her. Pulling his shirt off over his head, she wrapped her legs around his neck. Jess clambered onto the bed, pushing Rory up towards the headboard. He pulled her tights down and started kissing her thigh as she started to get wet with anticipation. He ran a finger across her pussy, teasing her before pulling away again to grab her ass and kiss her other thigh. She moaned softly, running her fingers through his hair. He looked up at her. "Tell me what you want." Her eyes sultry, she smirked back at him. "I want you to make me so fucking wet, and then I want you to fuck me."
After the fact, they lay on top of the bedsheets, breathless, their clothes strewn around the otherwise pristine carpet. "I'm not crazy, right?" asked Jess. "It's never been that good." Rory giggled, still staring at the ceiling. "I told you. Hotels are romantic." After a few moments of just lying next to each other, Rory stood up, and started walking towards the other side of the room. "What are you doing?" asked Jess, sitting up. "Looking for the best thing about hotels," replied Rory, crouching down under the desk. "I thought we just did the best thing about hotels," said Jess. Rory popped back into his view, holding out a bottle of wine and two paper cups.
"Minibar."
Rory clambered back onto the bed and poured a cup for each of them.
"Cheers." She held out her cup to Jess, who laughed and matched the gesture. He put his arm around Rory as she sank back into the bed, interlocking the fingers of her non-wine hand with his. They sat for a while, content in each other's company, watching a rerun of Malcolm in the Middle.
"It's just so weird seeing Walter White with hair," said Jess, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between them.
Rory turned to look at him. "Jess, I… I hope you know how happy I've been these last few weeks. Really."
Jess sat up straight. "Oh. Huh. Yeah, I mean, me too." He broke eye contact, reached for his jeans, and swung his legs off the bed to start getting dressed.
"Jess, what are you doing?" Rory asked, bewildered.
"Like you said," replied Jess, still not looking at her. "It's been great. Sayonara. See you at the next family shindig."
"What the hell are you talking about? Sayonara? Where's this coming from?" Jess ignored her, pulling his shirt on. "Jess!" Rory exclaimed, grabbing his hand so he'd finally look at her.
"It's fine Rory. You had fun, now you want it to end. No hard feelings."
Rory broke into a soft laugh. "Jess. I don't want it to end."
"Oh… it's just, you said –"
"I just said how happy I am!"
"No, you said how happy you have been. Have been. Past perfect. Not anymore."
Rory started giggling. "What?" asked Jess, indignantly. She kept laughing. "Rory, will you please tell me what's going on?"
"I'm sorry. It's just so funny how serious you looked arguing about tenses." Jess smiled awkwardly, glancing off to the side.
Rory knelt up on the bed to meet his height. "Present perfect, Jess. How happy I have been. How happy I am still being. Now, in this moment, in all the other moments. It's been amazing, Jess. Is amazing," she corrected quickly, as she saw the relief spread across Jess's face. "It is amazing. You and me, it's amazing. I always thought it could be, and now we're together and I've managed to get you to calm down and stand still for two minutes – it is. I think we've both been waiting for this for a really, really long time. Both of us – me too. I know maybe you're afraid to let yourself believe this, but I am in this, Jess. I love you. I've wanted so many times to be able to tell you that in person, and now that I have it I am not gonna let you convince yourself otherwise. I am here, I want to be here, and I'm not leaving."
Jess pressed his face against hers, closing his eyes. "I love you too, Rory. I love you."
She pulled him towards her, his head buried in his shoulder. She held him for a moment.
"Look, Jess," she said, pulling away so she could look at him again. "I know communication has never been our strong suit – with each other, maybe with anyone. But if this is going to work, like I know we both want it to, we need to talk. I need you to talk to me, I need you to let me talk – before you finish my sentence through catastrophising. Neither of us is perfect and I know it's hard but – look, we're not 17 anymore. Fuck the awkwardness, fuck tiptoeing around each other. God knows it's screwed us both over so many times, avoiding conversations we should have had. I want to be here with you and for you, and you need to let me in. We need to talk. We always need to be able to talk, no matter what. Okay?"
"Okay," Jess, said softly. "You're right, it's never been my strong suit, but I'm trying. I want to do that, for you. For us."
He kissed Rory tenderly on the lips. She smiled back at him. "Come back to bed," she said, grabbing the wine bottle off the nightstand to pour him another cup.
As he took it and sat back beside her, it occurred to him that there was a whole other conversation she had planned to have with him. "What were you gonna say? Before I, what was it, finished your sentence through catastrophising…"
"Oh, it's okay, we don't have to talk about it now," she replied, looking away.
"But you want to. I know you."
"Okay." She exhaled, as though she was preparing herself for some big announcement.
"See, it's that kind of thing that made me think you were ending it. Why do you look so stressed?" Jess let out a chuckle to try and mask his own stress about the unknown.
Rory looked up at him as though she was about to ask him to give her a kidney.
"I want you to come to the wedding with me."
"Aaaah." Jess nodded, finally understanding where the tension was coming from.
"Look, I know it's not really your thing –"
"Not at all my thing," Jess cut across her.
"Right, not your thing, but it's gonna have to happen eventually – they're gonna have to see us eventually – "
"They see us all the time."
"Together. They're going to have to see us together eventually." Rory could tell what his next comeback was as he was opening his mouth to make the point. "See us together when we're both of legal drinking age."
Jess sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. "Does it have to happen now? I mean can't we wait, just keep it to ourselves for a while longer?"
"It's just… I've been wanting to – but I don't, I mean if you haven't –"
"You wanna tell your mom."
"It's just that I've never gone this long without telling her about a guy like this, and once I tell her she'll tell Luke, and I don't know how but Babette or Patty or East Side Tilly will overhear them talking about it, at the diner or at the inn or at the Black, White and Red or something and suddenly everyone will know and it just seems like maybe this is a good opportunity to rip off the band-aid."
"Rip off the band-aid, huh?"
"Seems like it might be easier to do at an event with easy access to alcohol," Rory said, smiling hopefully. "Plus I… I just really want to be at that wedding with you."
Jess did his best to hide how happy he was at that by affecting another sigh. "I'm not wearing a tie."