Hi there, me again. I haven't written anything in ages, sorry. There was a string of bad luck with my computer (DVD thing broke, got it fixed only to have the wi-fi thing break, got that fixed and then the motherboard crashed) but I should be back writing at least once a month. We'll see. I've lost the directional buttons on my laptop but that shouldn't change anything (I should probably buy a new computer, shouldn't I?). This story is oddly sexual, I'm sorry. Or not. I think more than other stories this one relies on the one that precedes it, which is 'It's Not the Champagne Talking'. But if you can't be bothered reading a bunch of interconnected one-shots, basically Jess and Rory have just hooked up at Luke and Lorelai's wedding.

Lunch Date

After two hours of croissants and catching up with her grandparents, Rory Gilmore was left to her own devices. It was now ten in the morning, and she had until midday to figure out what to do about the Jess situation. Or to be more accurate, to figure out what to wear when she told him that she was one hundred percent ready for a relationship with him and to thank him for the fantastic sex last night. Something like that. Fortunately she'd moved her bags back to her shared room with April, so she wouldn't have to worry about Jess laughing at this very silly behaviour. He wouldn't notice if she hadn't showered, or still had hairspray and eyeliner from last night on. Still, it was a matter of confidence that led her to the fourth floor room where her stepsister was still asleep.

"Welcome back, stud." April muttered sleepily from her bed. Rory rolled her eyes but couldn't stop the smile from escaping. Damn right she just spent a night in a good looking guy's hotel suite and was only just sneaking back in!

"I guess I hoped you wouldn't notice."

"First of all, you left your purse at the reception. Secondly, you and Jess missed nearly everything. Cake cutting, speeches, all the maid of honour stuff."

"Crap."

"It's okay, Sookie covered for you. But really the biggest clue for me was Lorelai knocking at my door at seven this morning and grabbing your bags to take to Jess' love den. Her words, not mine."

"She's going to be so insufferable all weekend now. The entire time we were at breakfast she kept giving me this look, this 'I'm going to mock you ruthlessly as soon as Richard and Emily are gone' look."

"At least the sex was good?" April grinned at Rory's expression of horror. "Seriously, go look at yourself in the mirror. No amount of makeup is as good as some really good sex. You're glowing."

"How do you know so much about this? Are you-"

"Please, Trevor and I have barely been dating two months. I read books too, you know."

"Be careful with your expectations then. It's all flowers and sunshine until you're actually losing your virginity to a guy a foot taller than you in your tiny twin bed."

"Gross."

"And that's how I know you're a virgin. I can sleep easily tonight."

"Something tells me you'll barely be sleeping at all."

"You think? I mean, we're meeting later to talk things out, but you think that we'll... do that again this weekend?"

"I think any chance of you guys starting off slow went out the window some time between dessert and Lorelai throwing the bouquet." Rory smiled a little, before realising she needed to sit down. She jumped onto her bed and faceplanted into the pillows.

"Oh my god, I'm dating Jess Mariano."

"I think you guys need to talk about it, but... yeah?" April was perplexed. She'd never seen Rory this way. She was always prim and proper, the little roving reporter who used to date a media mogul's son until she turned him down because she was Rory Gilmore, strong independent woman. Seeing her like this, hair stuck to her face and eyes lit with a piercing blue flame, she realised she didn't really know her stepsister as a human being at all. It was kind of awesome, this sisterly bonding session.

"Jess Mariano, bestselling author. Voted one of America's 'Authors Under 30'. He has a website, and probably has groupies. I could potentially date a man with groupies."

"I hear they have a cream for that."

"What if we break up?"

"What if tomorrow a sun flare so intense burns the entire planet to dust? Would you rather spend tonight watching Clueless with me, or off having great sex with a guy who's loved you since he was seventeen?"

"I really like Clueless."

"Rory!"

"You're right. Sun flares. Got it. I need to go shower. I have enough time to reapply my makeup three times and hyperventilate, right?"

"I think you'll manage. Wear the blue sundress with your Jimmy Choo's, you'll knock him dead."

It was just past midday when Rory made her way to the small café she'd told Jess about. True to her word she'd tried several different styles of makeup before deciding on something almost natural, with her hair tied up in a messy bun. She'd also taken April's advice and worn the light blue sundress and strappy black heels. With her oversized sunglasses and huge bag, she almost looked like an incognito movie star on vacation. She almost tripped over her own feet when she noticed that Jess was already there waiting for her, his look of bored concentration turning into a small smile the second he saw her. With his blue jeans and sleeves of his collared shirt rolled expertly up to his elbows he looked absolutely perfect. She gave him a small wave which he returned with a roll of his eyes.

"You're late."

"I hope I'm not pregnant." Rory suddenly realised what she'd said and started to backtrack. "That was probably the stupidest thing I could've said."

"I'd say the fifth stupidest at worst. Though with your little trip on the gutter over there you're really not making a great first impression."

"You saw that?"

"I'm an observant man. For instance, I notice that you've showered since I saw you last."

"We're in a place full of people, I didn't want to smell."

"Yet you didn't mind stinking out your grandparents? Admit it, you're trying to impress me." Jess noticed her blushing, which made his smile widen. This was too much fun.

"You're getting entirely too much enjoyment out of this!" Rory said indignantly.

"I can't help it, you're cute when you get all huffy."

"Shut up!" She threw a breadstick at him, which to her dismay he caught in one hand and started to eat.

"Oh, very mature. Thanks though, I was starving. It might be a while before we're served, I haven't seen a-"

"Were you ready to order?" A waiter had appeared out of nowhere to stand beside Rory's chair. As he took their order Jess noticed he didn't take his eyes off of her, and barely let him order his sandwich before disappearing.

"You were saying?" Rory said in between mouthfuls of bread.

"Can't we go out to eat anywhere without the wait staff flirting with one of us?"

"Yeah, that guy was a little obvious."

"Can't say I blame him. I'd flirt with the most beautiful woman in the room too if I wasn't already having lunch with her." To his surprise she didn't look away or blush at his compliment, but started to laugh.

"You definitely weren't this smooth in high school."

"I had my moments."

"I think the closest you came to complimenting me was one time when we were making out and you said something like 'you're so hot'. I'm definitely cleaning up the language there too."

"Yeah, teenage me was a jerk. Sorry you had to suffer him."

"Well it wasn't like I was little miss smooth or anything either."

"You did okay."

"Yeah?"

"You were the object of many dirty teenage fantasies, long before anything happened between us."

"Such as?"

"We're really doing this?"

"I'll tell you one of mine about you."

"Okay, but tell me to shut up if I start getting too graphic. It was at Luke's around closing time and you'd come strutting in wearing the dirty seventeen-year-old's equivalent of your Chilton uniform. You know, long socks, short skirt, shirt tied in a knot. Anyway, I'm cleaning the counter when you walk up to me and have this look on your face, and before I know it you're on the counter with your legs wrapped around me and I'm making vague complaints about the door being open and people walking in but then you shove my face down your shirt and really I think you can guess what happens after that."

"My guess is the pool boy and the pizza guy come because damn that is bad porn if I ever heard it!"

"Hey, be grateful I even thought of that much storyline, Luke's shower used to only get ten minutes of hot water before cutting off. Not very pleasant on the nights where my brain went more elaborate. Now I believe you had something similar to describe to me? And make it vivid, the waiter's coming back with our food and I'd like to make him as jealous as possible." Rory went to retort but was momentarily distracted when Jess grabbed one of her hands with his and began to stroke his thumb across her fingers. Whether he was doing it for show or he just really wanted to hold her hand, she didn't care. The important thing was that their food had arrived, and she was starving. The waiter hadn't even left and she was already eating with gusto.

"You have a very healthy appetite, ma'am."

"That's what happens when you're eating for two, isn't it honey?" Jess said in his sweetest voice. The waiter's eyes widened in shock as he slowly backed away before walking briskly towards the kitchen. Jess grinned evilly as Rory kicked under the table wildly, trying to get his shin.

"Jerk!"

"Hey, it worked, that guy won't be hovering around you anymore."

"Was that for my benefit or yours?"

"I don't see why it can't benefit us both."

"Well if you think you're hearing my sexy story now, think again mister."

"No big loss. Knowing seventeen-year-old you we probably kissed and then you felt guilty for even thinking about it."

"I never said I was seventeen when it happened." She replied coyly, eating another large bite of ravioli. "I had a dream the night I saw you in Philadelphia, in January," When Jess did not interrupt her she continued, "I figured it was because I fell asleep reading your book or something. I dreamt that I went back to Truncheon after finishing my article and your friend lets me upstairs. Now I never visited that apartment but in this I walk straight to your room and you're half naked and I start stuttering but then you kiss me and I'm pretty sure you can use your imagination for what happens next. Except maybe the part with the ice cubes, but even I was surprised by that." Jess smiled, but a silence fell over them as they ate their lunch. It was several long moments before he replied.

"I sort of hoped that you'd come back that night."

"For a minute there I thought I had. It was very vivid, and I felt very guilty. I was, uh... sort of seeing someone at the time."

"You never mentioned a guy, though I remember there being crying over that blonde douche at one point."

"Yeah, Mark was completely my rebound guy. He was a journalist too and it was more convenience than any real feelings. I ended things the next day. It wasn't fair on him to string him along while dealing with unresolved feelings for two ex-boyfriends."

"And now?"

"Now I'm sitting in this restaurant eating fantastic ravioli with this guy who somehow manages to be both a complete dork and the coolest person I've ever met. I'm completely famished, mostly due to having the best sex of my life last night and I'm really hoping that it can happen again in the near future. That's pretty much it."

"This entire conversation has been more sexual than I was expecting."

"Tell me about it."

"I can't believe it's on me to be the mushy one, but here we are. I want you to know that you're the most amazing woman I've ever met. Hell, you're the most amazing person. You're smart as hell, funny in the most understated way, and fucking gorgeous. I'm amazed by you every time I see you and I want so badly to be the kind of guy you'd fall in love with. That's been the biggest inspiration to me for becoming who I am today, even when I'd given up the idea of us ever being together again."

"Wow." Rory had stopped eating and was looking at the man in front of her. She was reminded vividly of the time he asked her to run away with him, when he was scared but still trying to prove himself to her. He had said she could count on him, but she knew it wasn't true. This time he hadn't said the words, because they weren't necessary. He'd finally become the person he was desperate to be in her dorm room at Yale and it was so amazing she wanted to lunge across the table and kiss him senseless. "I can't believe I'm dating Jess Mariano."

Later that afternoon Rory found herself yet again draped in a sheet and nothing more, as she tried to fight sleep with her head on Jess' chest. After their surprisingly revealing lunch they wasted no time in grabbing her bags back from her hotel room and relocating them upstairs where they would be staying until Tuesday morning. They'd run into April on their way up, but fortunately she was on the phone and only rolled her eyes and gave a big thumbs up at their joined hands and mischievous expressions. Noticing that Jess had started to snore, Rory slapped him lightly on the chest.

"If you go to sleep now, you'll be cranky and late for the post-wedding party."

"You're really adamant on going to that?"

"It'll be fun," hearing him scoff she continued, "no, really. Only friends and family we actually like are still here. Even my grandparents left this morning."

"So there won't be more bored housewives propositioning me for extramarital affairs?"

"That happened this weekend?"

"Twice."

"It's because you're so pretty."

"That's what it says on the bathroom walls."

"Look, I know you're not a social butterfly or anything, but stuff like this is part of me. I go to functions, galas, charity events. Not as much as I did when I worked for the DAR, but they still happen. You're going to need to come to Friday Night Dinners too, which is completely non-negotiable. Not all of them, exactly, but-"

"Rory."

"I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Not too badly, but if you let me get a word in here I'd tell you that I know all of this. In fact, you won't be just dragging me to all of those fancy-pants shindigs either. I have a gala next Saturday and it would be make infinitely more tolerable if you came with me. You can wear that pink Emily Gilmore dress and impress all the snooty society people with your pedigree, and I can spend the night staring at your ass."

"Jess! And yes, I'll be happy to come. What's the night for, anyway?"

"Uh... some stupid award or something."

"Is it a writing award? Jess, are you up for a fancy award with a gala and everything?"

"Well it's not like I'm going to win, but yeah."

"That's incredible! I'm so proud of you!"

"God you sound like my agent. He's going to be bummed that I've got you to take to these things now, normally it's his way of getting a date. Seduce a girl with promises of a black tie event and she could even bring her single friend because I needed someone to go with."

"Oh you poor thing, free booze and an array of girls sounds so terrible."

"I didn't say they were all girls. One of the last ones we went to I was paired with a lovely man named Jack."

"Your friend's date thought you were gay?"

"Nope, we were both very much straight men. Apparently Chris was very vague on the gender of 'my single author friend Jess' and the poor woman just naturally assumed I was a girl. It ended up being one of the more fun nights after we got over the misunderstanding."

"All this new information is leading my brain in many different directions."

"You can ask me whatever you like. Today's been a sort of Q&A anyway, and I promise I'll be completely honest, within reason."

"Okay, let's start simple. How old were you when-"

"Fourteen."

"I didn't even finish my question!"

"I'm sorry. If the question was anything other than 'how old were you when you lost your virginity', please finish it."

"Fourteen, huh?"

"Yep. I'd tagged along with some friends to a high school party, though I'm pretty sure they only let me come because of my mom's inability to lock up her alcohol. Plus whenever we took it she just assumed she drank it herself. So this girl walks up to me, and she has to be at least sixteen. She wants some beer, I tell her she has to pay for it. Of course she's broke, so she suggests an alternate payment plan. The rest is history."

"You really got sex in exchange for beer?" Rory was very confused. When she was fourteen she was dancing around her room with Lane, or at her worst staying up late to watch movies. Jess had certainly lived a very different life from her own when he grew up in New York.

"It got me invited to a lot more parties, that's for sure. Suddenly I was the guy who traded beer for sex and it wasn't the worst thing to be. It wasn't like I was going to drink it anyway, I valued my brain cells too much. This also answers your future question of why I got sent to Stars Hollow."

"It took your mom three years to notice?"

"Would've been longer if the cops hadn't raided Katie Raymond's Sweet Sixteen. Or if I'd had the good sense to jump out her window instead of, uh..."

"Raiding Katie Raymond. Got it."

"So can I ask you the same thing? I know it's somewhere between eighteen and twenty-three, but I can't narrow it down from there."

"Nineteen. Near the end of my first year at Yale."

"Why do I have the feeling I know exactly who you slept with?"

"Because I'm predictable?"

"Do you regret it?"

"Parts of it, yeah. Him being married for one, that should've been a huge red flag."

"You deserved better."

"It should've been you."

"I'm sorry."

"I know. They don't even give out ribbons for fourth place." She grinned, trying to alleviate the heavy tone that had set between them. To her surprise Jess' eyes widened.

"Fourth? As in, you've only ever slept with four guys, including me?"

"I take it your number is much higher?"

"Considering I was already on twice that number when I first met you, yeah."

"Wow, now you have to tell me. What's your number, Jess Mariano? No judgement, promise."

"As of nine pm last night my grand total is twenty-nine."

"That's all?"

"You say that as though your number isn't seven times smaller."

"Well, how many of those were one-or-two night stands?"

"About half, why?"

"I've probably had as much sex as you. Since I was nineteen I haven't gone long without a boyfriend, or a no strings thing. Sure, it was mostly the same person, but yours works out to like four girls a year. That's not so bad when you think about the amount of times I slept with the same guys."

"Huh. Funny how people don't look at it that way, isn't it?" He looked down at his chest to see Rory very obviously falling asleep. If he stayed perfectly still and didn't disturb her, they could both flake out and miss the party entirely. They'd already attended two big events this weekend, surely that was enough. Unfortunately he knew how much that would both the woman asleep on top of him, so he gently shoved her off and sat up.

"Come back, pillow," Rory murmured with a silly grin on her face, rolling around on her side of the bed as she pawed uselessly at his chest. He watched her antics with an arched brow, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"This pillow knows how pissed you'll be if you miss saying goodbye to your mom."

"The party doesn't start for almost two hours. I think me and my pillow have time for a nap."

"You'll be cranky when you wake up. Remember that time you came over after school and we ended up taking a nap before you needed to go home to study? It took me twenty minutes of prodding and a whole lot of coffee to make you remotely human again." Jess was surprised that his gentle teasing caused her to sit up and look at him with the most serious expression he'd seen all day.

"You remember that?"

"It was pretty memorable. Scary, but memorable."

"That was the day I realised I loved you." Her eyes were shining earnestly as she looked at him with a small smile.

"It was the coffee, wasn't it?" He grinned as she shook her head before wrapping her arms around his neck, her nose grazing his as she sat on his lap. Jess noticed idly that they were both still naked, the thin hotel sheet the only thing separating them. Placing his hands on her hips he kissed her softly in between soft laughter from both of them.

"Jess?"

"Hmm?" He muttered in response as he pushed her hair from her face.

"When we go to this party, what are we telling people? Because personally I don't care about labels but somebody's going to ask something at some point. Even if we go separately, there's my mom, and Luke, and April..."

"First of all, you're giving Luke entirely too much credit on how observant he is. More importantly, we're going together. There's too much history for us to casually date, and if the words 'seeing each other' are uttered I will most likely break something. If people ask, you're my girlfriend. If that's what you want?"

"Fine, but then you have to deal with being my boyfriend. Unless you want me to refer to you as my partner, but that always brings cowboys or lawyers to my mind."

"You've got some weird fantasies, Gilmore. Nothing but chaps and briefcases."

"That's the worst dirty talk I've ever heard."

"I'm more of an actions man, myself."

"Then why are we still-" her sentence was interrupted with Jess flipping them both over and kissing her passionately. Hands fumbled to remove the barrier of sheet between them and soon moved to exploring each other's bodies. Rory sighed as she felt the brush of stubble from his chin as his mouth moved its way reverently down her body. Her hands were in his hair as he kissed her upper thighs before making her feel all kinds of wonderful as he demonstrated what his mouth was actually good for.

They ended up being ten minutes late to the party, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Lorelai or her new husband. Luke wasn't surprised to see Rory and Jess enter the hall holding hands, but he was one of the few who weren't. Eyes turned to the couple, most widening in shock. Jess noticed that most of the citizens of Stars Hollow were no longer present, which was a good sign of him escaping this night without a mark on him.

"Well that explains where you were all day." The two turned to see Lane coming towards them with a huge smile on her face. With a nod of approval she pulled Jess into a surprisingly strong hug, which he awkwardly attempted to reciprocate. He'd gotten much better at dealing with things like hugging over the years. Still, he didn't let go of Rory's hand. When Lane turned her attention to squeezing her best friend too tight, Jess took this as a sign to let the girls speak in peace.

Tonight's affair was much more relaxed. There was a buffet table of food, a jukebox machine near the dance floor and the bar was a fridge full of soda and a few bottles of wine. It was the first time all weekend he felt his uncle's influence, and even then it was barely there. Considering there was pizza available, he doubted Luke had approved the meals. He was pouring out two glasses of champagne when he was approached by the man himself.

"Have I said congrats yet?"

"You have not. You also didn't give a speech last night. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of Zack of all people I would've had a toast from Kirk. I never would've forgiven you for that."

"Zack gave a good speech?"

"He's a good kid. I'm godfather to his sons, it wasn't suspicious or nothing."

"I keep forgetting that Lane has kids."

"You're getting to that age I'm afraid."

"Huh."

"Look, Jess... You know I think of you like a son, but Rory's like my daughter."

"Not really a connection I wanted to make, Uncle Luke."

"You wait until you see Lorelai, she's got about ten 'dating your cousin' jokes ready to go. My point is, I don't want to see either of you hurt. You reckon you can help me with that?"

"I have absolutely zero intentions of letting anything like that happen."

"You love her, don't you?"

"More than anything." Luke was surprised with his nephew's frank honesty. If you told him they'd be having conversations like this even a year or so ago, he would've laughed. He and Jess were two of a kind when it came to speaking about their feelings, but here they were.

"Good, I'll tell your Aunt Lorelai she has nothing to worry about."

"Aw jeez Luke!"

"Have you started embarrassing Jess without me?" Lorelai had materialised out of nowhere, a mug of coffee in her hand. "How is this marriage going to work if we don't mock together?"

"Yeah I hear lack of mocking is the cause of half of divorces." Jess retorted dryly.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of the banjos, nephew."

"If the best you can do is a Deliverance reference I'm going to go away now. Congrats, you two." Lorelai watched him go towards her daughter with the champagne flutes, before the two clinked glasses in a shared toast that made Rory laugh. All teasing aside, it was great to see her daughter this happy again. She was worried that after Logan and a year of travelling the country her daughter wouldn't adjust or find her sense of purpose in her post-college years. At least if Jess didn't give her purpose he would give her happiness until she found it on her own. As strange as it was to think, the young man was very successful and it wouldn't hurt her daughter to be around that sort of person.

"Your mom's staring at us."

"She's worried about me."

"Because of me?"

"God no, you're like an answer to her prayers. You've got a good job, and ambitions and stuff. She's just worried because this is the first time in my life I don't have a goal to work towards. Afraid I'll lose myself or something."

"You're working towards the Times."

"Right. New York. Hey, we'll be in the same city!"

"I've got a mortgage for a one-bedroom in Brooklyn that says I'm not going anywhere." He joked, before noticing her shocked expression.

"You bought an apartment?"

"Didn't I tell you that?"

"No!"

"Well it's half mine. Half is the bank's. I like to imagine I own the kitchen and the bedroom."

"That's what I look for in a man."

"You'll have to come for dinner sometime."

"Can I watch you cook?"

"Does it turn you on?"

"I have a feeling it will."

"In that case I look forward to burning the seafood when we inevitably end up naked on the tiles."

"That sounds cold."

"Counter tops?"

"We'll work something out."

So I may have basically finished this story a week ago but couldn't find a place to end it. So why not end it at the random sexual thingy? Why not indeed.