A/N: Hey guys! Thank you so much for reviewing. You have no idea how much this means to me. I hope you like this chap and please, keep the reviews coming! The whole more real, faster update thing just might be true ; P

Rory stepped out of her bus and into the bus station carrying her luggage in one hand and her purse in the other, as she looked around, trying to find her best friend.

"Hello gorgeous," she heard a husky voice whisper on her right ear from behind. She turned around and found herself face to face with Tristan. The huge smile that appeared in her face went from ear to ear. Dropping her luggage and purse on the floor, she threw her arms around his neck, hugging close to her. As soon as the comfort of the embrace hit her she closed her eyes tightly and the tears finally started to roll down her face.

Tristan stroke her hair, humming in a soothing way as she kept sighing heavily.

"Shhh... it's okay. Everything is going to be okay," he whispered into her hair in his softest tone but she would only cry harder. "Let me take you home," he said, leading her to his car.

Once they arrived in his apartment he took her to the guest room and put her luggage by the door. "Do you need anything?" he asked as he watched her sit on the bed.

She shook her head.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, running out of ideas of how to offer comfort.

"No," she said in a chocked voice. "I think I just need to sleep it over. But thanks."

"Okay, I'll let you go to sleep then," he said, walking back to the door.

"Tris, before you go... I just wanted to thank you. For inviting me here and for being my friend. I really need a friend right now and I don't know what I would do without you."

"Oh, Rory..." he sighed and took off his shoes before going to her and holding her to him. He lay her with him on the bed and stroke her hair for the rest of the night, taking care of her as she slept her problems away.

Jess entered the empty pizza place and went to sit on the counter, taking a salt and pepper shaker from one of the tables on his way. He looked down at the counter as he played aimlessly with them as he waited for Matt to finish stocking the liquor on the shelves behind the bar. When Matt was done he took two shot glasses and a bottle of José Cuervo and a lemon from behind the bar and sat on the counter facing Jess.

"If you came here to talk in the middle of the afternoon, then it must be serious," he said as explanation as he poured the tequila in the shot glasses and cut the lemon in four pieces.

"She left," he stated simply.

Matt raised his eyebrows in shock and almost spilled the tequila out of the glass, "What? When?"

"Last night," Jess sighed. "She heard from a client who happens to be her employee things about our time together. She didn't like it."

Matt scoffed and sat back on his stool, "Really? I never thought a woman wouldn't enjoy listening to what her boyfriend does in bed with another woman."

"I know it's fucked up, okay? Do you think I don't know that?" Jess almost yelled, angry at everything and everyone, but mostly at himself.

Matt decided to ignore his comment and go on with his questions, "So, you said she left? But how did she if it's her apartment?"

"She went to visit Tristan," he answered with distaste before drinking his tequila shot.

"Oh," Matt paused and smirked, "I bet you're loving it." He chuckled at his friend's chagrin face.

"Why couldn't she just go to her mother's or something?" Jess asked more than a little bothered.

Matt shrugged in response. "So, what are you going to do?"

"What can I do? Just wait for her."

"That is if she comes back."

Jess glared again at Matt, "Very comforting, really."

Matt pushed his shot of tequila towards Jess, offering him the drink, "You need it more than I do."

He ran his fingers though his hair, sighing and drinking the second shot. "What do you want me to do? It's not like I have any other option."

"Well, here is a crazy idea. Why don't you go after her? She needs to be wooed, to feel desired and specially, she needs to feel like she is the only one!"

"What if she doesn't want to see me? What if she tells me to go away?"

"Then you stay and you fight for her!" Matt answered raising his voice. "God, Jess! For a Don Juan you certainly aren't very good with the conquering and seducing!"

Jess shrugged. "I don't have much experience doing that. Never needed to chase a woman before, they always came willing and with no need of convincing."

"Yeah, well, if you want to make it work with Rory, then you'll have to actually put a lot of effort on it because it obviously won't be easy."

It had been four days since she arrived in Boston and she couldn't be happier, which in turn made her sad. It took her going to another city just to get away from Jess for her to get some kind of contentment again. But though the fact bothered her she had refused to dwell on it, simply accepting that she was finally feeling good after a long time and that was that.

Tristan did his best to distract her and keep her busy, which so far had been working very well. During the weekend he showed her around the city, took her sightseeing and to his favorite spots and the best book store in town. He also took her to the best coffee shop, which just happened to be a couple of blocks from his apartment.

When the weekend ended she half expected to go back to her usual depressed state that her relationship with Jess had gotten her, but instead she ended up following Tristan's suggestion of going back to the places she liked most on the weekend and running some small errands for Tristan. When she got back to his home it was already after 6:00 and he was waiting for her so they could go out for dinner. Every minute he didn't spend at work, he spent with her. And she couldn't be more thankful for that.

The following morning she woke up to the smell of coffee. As she had done the morning before, she stood up, went to the kitchen, poured herself a cup of coffee and got a pop-tart from the cabinet before walking to Tristan's room. She opened his door with no announcement and laid on his bed smiling while she watched him get ready for work.

"You look good, you know that?" she commented between sips.

Tristan smiled at her through the mirror he was using to look at his tie while he tried to make a knot, "Miss Gilmore, are you trying to seduce me? Because you really don't have to. We haven't slept together yet simply because you haven't shown any interest in doing so."

She laughed. "Good point. I'll think about it. So I take you're still single."

He sighed, "I guess I am." He groaned, frustrated with his tie, "I have to do it every day and I still get frustrated with it every morning. Why can't I just go to work wearing a tee?"

Rory put her cup on his nightstand, stood up and went to him, fixing his tie while he watched her closely.

"You know, this feels nice. It feels good to have you around all the time, to have a routine with you."

She smiled and kissed his cheek, "I know. I like it too." She looked down, "I wish we were in love. It'd be so much easier."

"Maybe this is a matter of trying to be happy and not to only survive being in love. You shouldn't suffer, you should feel overwhelmed and happy."

She shrugged, "I guess."

"Someone once told me that 'if it's true love then there is no suffering'. It's not supposed to be all about pain and feeling miserable. Relationships are hard enough. There are enough everyday problems without the 'Romeo and Juliet' tragedy. It should be something great and amazing."

Rory looked deep into Tristan's eyes and sighed. "I love you so damn much. But not like that. I wish it was different between us, but I know it's not. And though I wish I wasn't in love with him, I know I am. And until Jess and I figure out what's gonna happen, there isn't really much that I can do, unfortunately."

It was mid-afternoon when Rory heard her phone ring and saw "Jess" appear in the small screen. She bit her lip, sighed and looked again at his name, wondering if she should answer it or not. She closed her eyes trying to gather up enough courage before pressing the "talk" button and bringing the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Ror."

"Hi, Jess."

"I'm just calling because..." he paused, "I just wanted to know how you are doing," he finally said.

She sighed and shook her head, though he couldn't see it. "I'm good. I'm good."

"That's… good," he said unsure.

"What about you?"

"Same thing," he answered, but his voice betrayed him.

There was a long pause until Jess broke the silence.

"So, do you know when you'll come home?"

He could imagine her crossing and uncrossing her legs, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. She sounded nervous for some reason, "Not yet."

"I thought you were going to stay there only for the weekend, maybe an extra day but you've been there for almost a whole week. Won't you be in trouble at work?"

"I haven't had vacations in years; I can take about a month off if I want."

There was a long pause, "And do you?"

She sighed again, "I'm not sure yet. I'll stay here until I feel it's time to go back to New York."

"Can I do anything to make you come sooner?"

Her reply was firm, "No."

"Okay... So, how is Tristan?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation going, even if it wasn't his favorite subject at the moment.

He could hear the smile in her voice, "He is good. It's been fun to spend my vacation with him."

"I thought he was still working."

"He is. But we see each other before he leaves to work and have lunch together and the moment he is off the clock we do something fun. He has been showing me around. Boston is quite beautiful."

"I didn't think you were going to spend so much time together."

"I told you I was coming to visit Tristan."

"I thought it was more in the lines of 'I'll go to Boston and have lunch with him one day', not in the 'when I'm not watching TV in the hotel I'll be with him'."

She paused before continuing carefully, "Jess? I'm not staying in a hotel."

"What? Where are you?"

"When I told you I was coming to visit Tristan I meant that I was going to stay with him and spend time with him. He is my best friend, after all, and we haven't had the chance to spend so much time together since…"

"Since you were dating," Jess completed bitterly.

"Well, yeah, I guess so."

"Are you… are you sleeping with him?"

"Would it make a difference?"

"Yes," his tone is still soft.

"How? Are you going to tell me I should be faithful to you?"

"I can't tell you what to do, Rory. I just thought we were more than this."

"Well, it goes both ways. I thought you cared about me enough to swallow your pride and let me help you pay for school so you wouldn't sleep around for money."

"Come on, Rory. You know it's not like that."

"No, it's exactly like that. You don't need to sleep with all your clients. You say you don't have any option but you do, we both know you do. You wouldn't make half as much money but I could help you if you weren't just so damn stubborn and proud. Then we could be happy instead of having you asking me if I'm sleeping with my best friend."

She pressed the "end" button on her phone and hung up on him. She had had enough of the drama. She was happy in Boston and she wouldn't let Jess make her feel bad, which apparently he could do even when he was far away.

Rory heard the door being unlocked from where she sat on her bed and a minute later Tristan came in yelling a "hey" form the living room. She wiped her tears away furiously, trying to look as normal as she could before yelling back "in here".

A moment later Tristan walked into 'her' room with a smile that turned into a frown as soon as he noticed her red puffy eyes.

"Hey, what happened? Why are you so upset?"

"Try to guess," she replied sarcastically.

"Jess?" he asked unsure of how he could affect her so much from so far away.

"Yeah. He called me this afternoon. Wanted to know when I'd be back 'home'," she scoffs. "I don'ts even know where 'home' is anymore."

Tristan sighed and sat on the bed next to her, hugging her with one arm to show support.

"Come on, you shouldn't let him affect you this way."

She sighed, "I wish I could help it."

Tristan looked at her for a moment before standing up and offering her a hand, "Come on, stand up." She did as he said and he declared, "Get ready. We're going out."

She laughed as if he had told her a really funny joke, "Tristan, I'm too old to go clubbing."

"You're not too old, you're too serious," he corrected. "And you really need to take some weight off of your shoulders."

She tilted her head to the side, narrowing her eyebrows, "You know what? Maybe you're right. It's time I have some fun, too."

Tristan gave her a huge smile. "Okay. Dress up and meet me in the living room in fifteen, okay? I know just the place to go," he said before leaving her room and for once she was excited about having a night out without risking on bumping into one of Jess' clients.

Half an hour later Rory stepped into the club wearing a short red dress she had bought that week in a spur of the moment, a pair of "fuck me" high heels that made her four inches taller and holding Tristan by her side. They walked to a booth and sat down, watching the small crowd dancing.

"God, it's been so long since I've last been to a club! I forgot how I love dancing."

"Well, then I'm glad I brought you here. Do you want to have a drink first or just go to the dancing floor?"

"I think I'll go with the second option."

"Okay, let's go then."

"Tristan, you hate dancing."

"But you love it."

"So sit down and watch me do what I love," she replied with a smile and walked to the dancing floor before he could answer. Tristan smirked at her back, happy she seemed to be feeling better and watched as Rory closed her eyes and started to move sexily to the rhythm of the song, letting go of everything.

Soon enough a tall guy with brown hair and hazel eyes approached her, "Hey, I'm Brian. What is your name?"

"Rory," she answered barely over the music.

"Hi Rory. Would you give me the pleasure of dancing with you?"

When she heard his request first she was surprised, then she felt empowered. A handsome man was asking her to dance with him. He didn't know her at all. Didn't know how successful she was professionally or how non-existent her social life was. He just saw her and decided he wanted to get to know her better. Maybe it was all physical; maybe it wasn't. Either way it was great to feel wanted.

"Yes, I'd like that," she answered with a grin.

He grinned back and started dancing, matching her moves. She thought they looked pretty good together and when he moved behind her and put a hand on her waist and the other on her hip, moving in sync with her, she threw her head back and laughed, enjoying herself.

After dancing for half an hour he touched her shoulder and leaned in to whisper in her ear, "I'm sorry but I have to go. I have an early morning tomorrow."

She smiled at him, happy that he had approached her, even if it was just to dance for half an hour. Lost in her thought, she was surprised when he spoke up again.

"Can I have your number?" Brian asked in a husky voice.

"Uhm... yeah, sure... why not?" Rory said, trying to convince herself that it was no big deal, as he handed her his cell.

She took a picture of herself before saving her number in it before she handed him her phone and he did the same with her phone.

He gave her her phone with a grin, "I'll call you tomorrow but feel free to call me whenever you want, too."

She gave him a coy smile. "Let's see if you'll really call. Then, who knows?" she flirted with him, so unlike herself. It felt weird, but good somehow.

He walked her to the booth she had been sitting on before with a huge grin on his face and hugged her goodbye. When she sat down Tristan was smirking at her.

"Not even five minutes dancing and a guy hit on you. Told you you were hot!"

She bushed shyly and hit his chest playfully, "Shut up!"

He chuckled. "Okay, what about a beer now?"

She wrinkled her nose, "Nah. Can you get me a Screwdriver?"

"Huh. I think I like your wild side," he smiled at her before standing up and going to the bar to order for their drinks.

She looked around the club, completely distracted peoplewatching when a guy with black hair and green eyes stepped in front of her.

"I'm sorry to bother you but I have been watching you the whole night and I know that if didn't come here and talk to you I would kick myself in the ass tomorrow," he told her completely serious and she chuckled.

"Hi, I'm Rory."

"Sean. It's nice to meet you, Rory. You know, when I saw you dancing, so beautiful... I was two steps away from reaching you so I could ask you to dance when that guy approached you."

"Well, you're here now," she said, unsure of what to say.

"Yeah, we both are. So, you wanna dance?"

"Sorry, I'm kind of tired. But you're welcomed to sit down if you want," she offered him the booth to her left and he sat before she could have a second thought.

"You dance beautifully. Are you a dancer or something?" he asked, trying to start conversation.

She laughed and waved a hand, "No! Though it would be much more fun than what I do. I just have one of those boring office jobs."

"I know what you mean. I'm a lawyer. When I'm not in court I'm in the office. I love what I do, but I wish I could spend more time outdoors."

"I can imagine. Boston is so beautiful. I'm having a lot of fun sightseeing."

"You're not from here?"

She shook her head, "No, I'm from New York. I'm just visiting."

Tristan chose that moment to arrive with their drinks and looked at Rory questioningly.

"Oh, Tris this is Sean. Sean, this is my friend Tristan. He is the one who invited me to come to Boston."

"Hey," Sean greeted politely.

"Hi," Tristan sat on his stool handing Rory her drink before sitting down and really looking at the man next to him. "So Sean, have you ever been to New York?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah, a few times. Last time was about a year ago."

Tristan smiled at Rory and she gave him a look. After that the conversation flew easily. About an hour and a half, two more Screwdrivers and a lot of laughter later, Tristan finally looked at his watch with surprise.

"Wow, time really flies. I have to go home," Tristan said as he got his wallet out of his pocket. Rory also got her purse, getting ready to leave.

Sean quickly offered, "If you want I can give you a ride home later."

"No, thanks. I'd rather go now."

"Can I call you sometime then?"

"Yeah... I guess so," she answer again, reassuring herself that giving these two men her number was no big deal.

"I'll call you tomorrow. Maybe we can go out before you go back to New York...?" he asked as he handed her his phone.

She nodded unsure as she exchanged numbers with him just like she had with Brian.

He leaned in and hugged her warmly, "I'll see you soon, then."

She pulled away and smiled at him, then she turned to Tristan who rested a hand on the small of her back and guided her out of the club and to his car.

She was quiet all the way back to his apartment and Tristan let her be.

As soon as they arrived in his apartment Rory went to her room to take her heels off and put her purse on her bed. She went back to the living room to find Tristan, taking off his shirt while

"So, you had fun tonight?"

She nodded quietly, "I didn't know I could have that kind of reaction in men."

Tristan chuckled. "I told you. You just refused to listen."

"It was good, really good. Thank you Tristan, I don't know what I would do without you," she said hugging him.

"You're very welcomed. I love having you here," he said into the embrace before slowly pulling back. When their lips were just inches apart he took a deep look into her eyes and gasped at their intensity. Instead of pulling away he start to lean in again, softly pressing his lips to hers. The kiss was chaste, slow, careful, comfortable, almost innocent. Their trance kept going another kiss until she finally realized what was happening. She rested her hand on his bare chest and barely pushed him away, and looked up into his very blue eyes. "I can't," she whispered, and he nodded. She stepped back, turned around and walked to her room. Closing the door behind her, she rested her back against it, closed her eyes and sighed; it had been a long night.

After having Rory hung up on him, Jess sat on their bed staring at the wall in front of him, wondering how it could all go so wrong. But wondering wouldn't change anything and he started trying to look for a way to fix this thing he had with Rory.

He knew what she wanted him to do; she had already made it painful clear. The question was what would happen if he really quit. Would it really be enough? And what if it wasn't? What if he quit for her just to have her realize that she was still unhappy and didn't want him after all? Jess had always been terrified of changes and quitting the job that had help him pursue his dream of going to college was a huge change for him.

It took him a few hours of staring at a wall but he finally decided that being alone in New York wouldn't do anymore. He took his cell and went through the contact list until he found 'Lauren' and pressed 'talk'.

"Hey Lauren. I'm calling because I'll have to cancel," Jess said into his phone as he went through his closet and threw some clothes on the bed. "No, I'm not sure when I'll be available again, probably next week... Yeah, I know it's short notice but something came up and I'll be out of town for a few days."

He listened to her, rolling his eyes as he got a duffle bag and put the clothes on the bed in it.

"If you want there are always other guys available, I'm sure one of your friends can give you a number... Well, I'm sorry, but I just can't."

He closed the duffle bag, got his keys and left the apartment, locking it behind him. He listened the woman talking non-stop while he pressed the button to the elevator and waited for it.

"Okay, listen Lauren, as I told you I won't be available for the next few days. If you're still interested, call next week. Otherwise, have a nice life. Now I have to go. Bye, he said, hanging up on her and stepping into the elevator. It was time to follow Matt's advice and go after Rory before it was too late.