Happily Ever After- Gilmore Girls sequel

Chapter 2

Rory pulls up to 1818 Market St., her new place of employment. She parks in the garage. While still in her car, she takes a deep breath to calm her nerves and slowly exhales.

Rory tried to reassure Jess this morning that she will be ok. No need to worry, but the door to her new job is now within reach. Rory's anxiety is up and she's worried that all of this is a mistake.

Just then, her cellphone beeps, alerting her to a new text message. "Good luck. You got this. Call me if you need anything." It was a text from Jess. It was enough boost of confidence to get her out of the car.

As she walks to the door with a briefcase, the security guard asked for her ID. She had to explain its her first day of work. The guard asks her to wait at the lobby as he calls upstairs.

While waiting, Rory takes in her surroundings. Beautiful lobby, great architecture, floor to ceiling windows.

She hears a familiar voice and looks up to see Mrs. Nordiff walking towards her. "Ms. Gilmore. Hi. Thank you for coming in early."

"Nice to see you again." Rory shakes her hand.

"Ok, please follow me." Alexandra leads Rory across the lobby into the elevator. "So since today is just your first day, I will lead you to the HR Department where they give you your ID badge, garage sticker, and you have to fill out some paperwork. Now after all that, come meet up with me so I can introduce you to some of our other reporters and the people you will be working with who writes in the special events department. Now, like I have said before, because you're newest here, they get first and second choice in stories. You have last."

Alexandra leads Rory to a door in the 36th floor. "Ok, so here is our HR department. Once you're done here, come to my office. You know where it is." Then she leaves.

"Wow, good thing I have on flats." Rory thought as she opens the door.

*****

Later that afternoon, Rory finally comes home. She is exhausted from working all day, but also exhilarated. Working at Philly mag reminds her of her internship at Stamford Eagle Gazette. Fast paced, intense, lots of action.

One great thing about this new job though is that she doesn't have to come to the office daily. Rory, working only with the online magazine can write her articles at home and just send in the finished copy to the editor when done. Rory has signed up to write about two special events this week.

Jess isn't home yet. He always has to stay later than usual on Mondays. Rory takes advantage of being at home alone to call Logan.

"Hello. You have reached the phone of Logan Huntzberger. I cannot pick up the phone right now. Please leave a message and I will call you right back."

"Logan, it's Ace. Where are you? I haven't heard from you in over two weeks. Please call me. I just want to be sure you're ok. I just need to know that you're ok. Hope to hear from you soon."

As she hangs up the phone, Rory hears keys in the lock. "Hey, Jess."

"Hey. Rory." Jess enters with bags of groceries.

"Let me help." Rory slowly gets up to help Jess into the house.

"Sit down. You need to rest. How was your first day at work?" Jess asks. He bought ingredients to make stuffed bell peppers.

"It was fine. Busy. Today was pretty much orientation, getting my ID, you know first day stuff. I have my assignment, which is fun. I will be writing about a slam poetry open mic event tomorrow."Rory says as she gets behind the counter to help Jess.

"Sounds like fun," Jess says. "Didn't I tell you to rest?"

"I'm fine. Let me help."

"Ok. Cut the stem off the peppers. Then take out all the seeds." Jess grabs the cutting board and a knife and hands it to Rory.

As they proceed to prepare dinner, Jess and Rory discuss their days at work. Jess told Rory he brought up the idea to Matt and Chris of publishing her book. They agreed to read it and make an objective decision on whether or not they are going to publish it. Rory is excited about the news, but she's not ready yet.

While the stuffed peppers are in the oven, Rory and Jess sit on the couch to watch the news. Just then Rory's cellphone rings. Caller ID states it's Lorelai. Rory can't help but be a little disappointed it's not Logan returning her call.

"Hey mom," she answers the phone.

"How was my little Christiane Amanpour's first day of work?" Lorelai asks.

"I haven't reached her status of journalism yet, mom. Just working on special events of an internet magazine."

"All journalists start somewhere. So how was it?"

"The usual first day. Got my badge, parking sticker, first assignment. Nothing special." Rory says.

"That's good. What's your first assignment?"

"Tomorrow there's a SLAM poetry event in one of the local coffeehouses. I'm so excited."

"That sounds like your type of event." Lorelai says. "Have fun. Tell Jess hi for me."

"I will. Love you mom." Rory hangs up the phone.

Jess looks at Rory. "How's Lorelai?"

"She says hi. I think she still misses me being at home." Rory says.

"I don't blame her. We can go visit again this weekend if we are not too busy."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'd like that." Rory pulls Jess to a hug and kisses him.