Chapter 16

Jess Mariano was beginning to wonder if all of this was some kind of elaborate hoax and Chris and Matt were back in Philly laughing at what had been a hellish day. To start, the flight he was supposed to get on was cancelled and he had to wait four hours at the airport for the next one, even though he could have driven there in that time, all because they'd refused to refund his ticket. Then upon finally arriving in Boston, where it was cold and drizzling, he found that the airline had lost his bags and that Matt had made some mistake booking his rental car. And to top it all off, after arriving at his hotel by a very expensive taxi well after eight o'clock, cold, wet, and hungry, he found the hotel had given away his room when he'd failed to arrive at the scheduled time and that most of the hotels in the area were completely overbooked.

Grumbling, after having tried every hotel listed in the area, Jess gave up and reached into his pocket. He hated to do this but he was desperate. Carefully he unfolded the paper and dialed the number. Thankfully she picked up after three rings.

"Hello?"

"Rory? It's Jess."

"Oh?" She sounded surprised as she should have. "How are you?"

"Standing in the lobby of the Holiday Inn desperately needing a place to sleep."

"Ooooh?" She dragged out the sound as if she was unsure of what to say, she decided humor was the only way to deal with the situation. "So I suppose you're here for that worldwide dentistry convention?"

Jess let out a laugh. "You know me, I care so much about my teeth."

"And of course you forgot to make your reservations early like all the other evil dentists and now you have no where to stay?"

"That sounds right, although I'm less evil than the other dentists, I promise."

Rory laughed, he'd forgotten how much he liked the sound of her laugh, it had been so long since he'd heard it. "Well I suppose you can stay here, my little sister's staying with me until Friday but she can sleep with me and you can have the couch."

"Thanks Rory."

"It's not a problem. Are you at the one off Blossom?"

"Yeah, but I can take a cab."

"Cabs are expensive, I'll come and get you."

"What about your sister?"

"She's still awake. In fact maybe a drive will calm her down a bit, I gave her too much sugar and now she's jumping up and down on my couch like Tom Cruise."

"Sounds like fun."

"I'll be there in ten minutes okay."

"Thanks Rory."

He hung up the phone and headed to the front to wait for her.