Page 50
She sighed. “I kissed him.”
“Jay?”
“Well, I guess, yeah,” she replied. “And…and Tyler.”
Jess froze mid-bite, staring at her. “Wow.”
She sucked in a breath. “That’s all you got?”
Jess looked back down at the food, taking another bite.
Rory couldn’t bear the excruciating silence. “Please say something,” she whispered.
“I don’t have much context to work with here, Gilmore.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Jess put down her fork, leaning back against her chair and crossing her arms. “Alright, fine. Only if you tell me what’s going on.”
So she explained everything. From making up with Tyler earlier that month to him dating Zoe and her being with Jay, then the constant fighting…and the eventual kiss in her backyard.
To her surprise, Jess actually chuckled, a small smirk curling up her right cheek as she opened up one of the cake containers. “Sounds complicated.”
“Complicated is an understatement,” Rory grumbled.
“But I’m kind of curious…why come to me? Why not Melanie?”
She huffed. “Calvin.”
Jess hummed, as if in agreement with Rory’s decision to stay away. “He giving you shit?”
“Kind of,” she explained. “He basically thinks Jay and I won’t last.”
“And after tonight, do you think he’s wrong?”
She rolled her eyes before placing her forehead on the table. “No,” she admitted.
“You have to break off whatever this is with him.”
“But I’ve wanted this…wanted him for so long,” she whispered.
“Clearly it’s not what you want, though.”
She heaved out a sigh, everything feeling heavy. Nothing made sense. Maybe she was just doomed to that kind of fate—pining for something she couldn’t have. Waiting for the people around her to choose her instead of something—or someone—else.
Her thoughts drifted to her father. She wondered for the hundredth time how Fred Barry was spending his Thanksgiving. Was she cursed to always have poor relationships because of him? Because she’d become accustomed to longing for things out of reach?
And if so, was this whole thing with Tyler just a trick of the mind? Did she actually like him, or was she just afraid of losing him?
“Now this is a very sad excuse for a Thanksgiving meal,” said an amused voice next to them.
Rory looked up to find Kevin standing there. His shoulder-length honey-brown hair was pulled back into a bun, and the beginning of some sort of tattoo was peeking out from the neckline of his sweatshirt. She didn’t really know Kevin that well, other than the fact that he owned the bike shop in town and was friends with Calvin.
She watched Jess roll her eyes. “What do you want?”
“I just missed your sunshiny disposition, my dear Jessica,” Kevin replied, a playful grin on his face.
Jess looked ruffled at Kevin’s use of her full name and the way he was goading her.
