The Other Gilmore

Beginning of Summer

"So. What now?"

Lorelai sighed, shaking her head. "Now, I go back to the inn."

"Really? It's so late."

"When I left, Kirk was running around without pants, and Luke ran after him, so I gotta make sure they're okay."

Frankie laughed and nodded. "Okay. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah." Lorelai hugged her daughter tightly. "What a night, huh?"

"You can say that again."

As Lorelai returned to the inn, Frankie grabbed her skateboard and rode to the town square. She walked up the steps of the gazebo and sat down on a bench, taking out her phone. Scrolling through her contacts, she hesitated over Finn's name, then kept scrolling.

After a lengthy internal battle, she decided to dial the number that she had memorized in two weeks, placing the phone to her ear and listening to the dial tone.

"Hello?"

Frankie's heart stopped at the sound of his groggy voice, and somehow managed to lose hers.

"Hello? Frankie?"

"Hi," she breathed, feeling her eyes get misty.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, uh, yeah. No, I'm fine. I, uh...I'm sorry, I don't know why I called. I'm sorry." With that, she hung up.

Placing her phone in her lap, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, but was broken out of her thoughts by her phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Frankie. Are you okay?"

"Jess, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called. I don't know why I did."

Receiving groans of annoyance from his roommates, Jess stood up and walked out into the hallway of his apartment building. "You don't have to be sorry. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just...I don't know. I'm in pain, and I miss you, and it all just hurts."

He slid down the wall to sit on the floor. "I feel it, too."

"Where did we go wrong?" Frankie whispered, holding back her tears.

Jess sighed. "Me. We went wrong with me."

"It wasn't all bad, right? I mean, I'm not just imagining things? We were good. We were happy, right?"

"Yeah. We were."

She swallowed hard, trying to suppress the lump in her throat for as long as she could. "Do you think we could ever be happy again?"

"Separately or together?" he asked, not sure how to answer her question.

Frankie shrugged. "Both?"

"I want to be. I hope we can be. Separate or together. I just want what's best for you, Frankie. That's all I've ever wanted."

"You were what was best for me," she said, barely above a whisper.

Jess pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing heavily. "You were what was best for me, too."

"I think you'll always be my person," Frankie said honestly, looking up at the night sky.

He cracked a small smile and nodded. "You'll always be my person."