Tristan’s follow up to the movie was a coffee house, where Rory was able to drink Russian’s own unique coffees as well as some of her favorites from Hartford. However she quickly told her escort, about the best coffee on earth could only be found with Luke. The way she told him was not cocky or ungrateful, he knew she was giving him a piece of herself when she talked about Luke and his legendary coffee.
After the coffee house, or rather after Tristan dragged Rory away from the coffee beans, they were again in the limo with Mark.
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
“What about now?”
“Mark will you please ignore Ms. Gilmore, I should have stopped her from drinking that last cup of mocha-vanilla latte.”
“As you wish Master Tristan.”
“Where are we going now?”
“Wait and see.”
“I am a Gilmore we are nothing but persistent, are we there yet?”
“Decaf!”
“Blasphemy!”
“Caffeinated to extreme!”
“Gilmore!”
“DuGrey!” At Tristan’s last outburst they both promptly fell back into a fight of giggles, or rather Rory was giggling while Tristan watched her caffeinated self fall apart with a big grin on his face. He couldn’t ever remember feeling this happy, or seeing the woman beside him as happy as she was at this moment.
The limo stopped and Mark held open the door for a solid minute, before either one of dual noticed.
“Rory?”
“What? Oh we’re here!” She quickly jumped out of the limo excited to see what was next for Tristan to show her.
“A casino?”
“The Shangri-La hotel and casino, I figured after injecting you with coffee, we would need a more stimulating atmosphere.” Tristan said as he led her into the hotel.
“I’m a terrible gambler.”
“We could watch a show.”
“And miss the black-jack tables? No way, bible boy, we are going to gamble away your future multi-million business.”
“Alexie might get mad.”
“Leave him to me, no one, and I do mean no one, can resist the Gilmore puppy-dog look.” Rory was already dragging him towards the casino and ultimately his money’s grim future.
Three hours later found Rory on a winning streak, and Tristan the gold-digger boyfriend at her elbow. She was in the middle of a poker game when Tristan was ready for the next phase of their evening. He had been standing behind her for the last twenty minutes, and though she did not come out and say it, she was enjoying him being on the side lines while she dominated the table. When another female came up to him, she would ever so slightly turn, place her hand on his arm, letting him know that she wished to speak to him, but couldn’t take her attention away from the game. He would find him self giving the wanting female a small sorry smile, and leaning down to find out what Rory wanted from him, only for her to say never mind and continue with her game, a winning smirk plastered in her eyes. However now it was his turn to play flirt games with her.
Tristan drew closer to her chair, gently swept her hair to the side, and bent down to whisper on her neck. “Mary, you are the worst gambler.” He felt a shiver run down her spine, but she was careful enough to leave her table mates unaware. “Quit while you’re ahead and I’ll give you another surprise.” His voice was dripping in sexiness, that Rory had a hard time to keep from melting into a puddle under the table.
“Last hand gentlemen, it would seem my man is getting bored.” Rory said nonchalantly to the three men she had been playing poker with for the last hours.
“Darlin’ I could see to his entertainment if you give me the chance to win back some of the money you took from me.”
“Sir I out smarted you fair and square, and I can see to my man’s entertainment just fine thank you.” She said with a wink as she won her last hand and rose from the table. “Gentlemen I would like to thank you for a lovely evening of cards.” Rory took Tristan’s arm and successfully walked away. “Where to lover boy?”
“Dinner.” He said with a wink to his winning gal. Tristan led Rory to one of the Hotel’s three restaurants.
When Rory saw the restaurant’s décor she was amazed by the amazing atmosphere of being under the sea. She felt like she walked right into Triton’s Kingdom. “Tristan this is amazing!”
“I know.” Tristan loved being able to just watch Rory’s reaction to all of Moscow’s sights. Since he had not previously taken the time to explore his new home, he was enjoying being able share all of this with her, if only she realized how much this time together meant to him.
Their dinner went by quickly as they talked and watched the fish. Much like the previous night their topics were kept safe, avoiding anything they felt would ruin the good cheer of their evening. Both were aware of the fact this may very well be the last night the spend time together alone, and knew they needed this occasion to figure out what this constrained relationship would turn into when they returned to the states and ultimately to their realities.
As their dessert plates were being cleared, Tristan led a very satisfied Rory to the door. “What no dancing?”
“And give you the chance to step on my toes, I don’t think so, however I have something better planed.”
“Such as?” Rory asked skeptically, because she really did want to dance with Tristan. They were now being ushered out to their waiting limo, which Mark had pulled around to the front of the hotel.
“Tisk, Tisk, have you really not learned anything.”
Once inside the limo Rory immediately turned to Tristan and tried to convince him to tell her how he planned to end their evening.
“Why don’t you tell me where we’re going?”
“No.”
“I know you want to tell me.”
“Actually…I don’t.”
“But you do, I remember vividly, you telling me how much the ending of the night was not a secret.”
“I’m sure you do, however I don’t recollect ever saying such a tale.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” Rory asked in surprised shock.
“I would never!” He proclaimed in his defense.
“Then I must be right.”
“Then you must.”
“So…”
“So, what?”
“You were going to tell me where we are going.”
“I was?” Tristan said in fake confusion.
“Yes.” Rory said with fake frustration
Still looking confused Tristan was ready to continue his Gilmore torment, but the limo stopped. “I guess your waiting in suspense will have to wait, since it seems we have arrived.”
“But where are we?”
Mark opened the door, and the couple exited to a parks gate. Rory could hear music coming from inside.
“Oh Tristan you bought me a park, it’s what I always wanted. How did you know?” Rory said with complete surprise and happiness.
“I made a few phone calls.”
“To my mother, how sweet.” Rory said giving him the sweetest fake smile that ever crossed her face.
“Actually, I called Headmaster Charleston and Brad.”
“Because those are the people I tell all my hopes and dreams too.”
“I figured as much.” Tristan started leading Rory into the park, giving Mark a head nod as they past. As they walked along the path the music grew louder, and then they were in front of a gazebo sparkling with lights. Rory was reminded of the Star’s Hollow Gazebo during the fire-light carnival, Tristan had a weird feeling of day-ja-vu.
“May I have your hand for the next dance, my lady?” Tristan said with a small bow, while holding out his hand for Rory’s.
“What about your toes.”
“Step on my toes all you want, I won’t care.” Tristan said while leading his lady to the center of their personal dance floor.
The night air was chilly, but the dancing couple didn’t notice. They were in their own private hideaway hiding from their own realities and personal feelings. They were finally living for themselves, living for the moment, living for the chance to just be happy. “Thank you for tonight.” Rory said sleepily from Tristan’s shoulder, has he gently opened the door to his apartment.
“You’re welcome.” Tristan said gently has he sat her down on the couch, leaving her quickly to start the coffee pot. They had stopped to pick up to-go cups of joe, but Tristan knew that one cup would not last long for a Gilmore. Especially a Gilmore that declared twenty minutes ago, that though her feet were killing her, and she could barely keep her eyes open, that neither of them were going to be sleeping tonight, since they had six years to catch up on.
When he returned to her, with a BIG pot of coffee and two cups, she had a sinister look on her face. “What’s on your mind Gilmore?” He asked as he sat down on the couch.
“Nothing, well actually something. I was just wondering what a date with Tristan King of Chilton would have been like. Care to indulge my curiosity.”
“You do know that curiosity killed the cat.”
“Good thing I’m just a kitten still.”
Tristan laughed, and slightly blushed at the thought of what a typical date with him in high school consisted of, “I would of made you feel special by bring you to a fancy restaurant, which would of normally taken years to get a seat at, and then whisked you off to a concert or movie premier, with a very climatic ending at a make-out point or one of our houses.”
“Sounds oh so repetitive and boring,” Rory said with a frown.
“It was.”
“Is that what you had planned when you ask me to the PJ Harvey concert?” Rory asked seriously hoping he had something more than dinner, concert, and hard core make-out session planned.
Tristan thought back to that time in his life. The one time he was uncertain of female’s response to high-handedness. Though he should of known her answer would have been no, since she never indulged his egotistical self before, but he still held hope she would of at least considered going with him and not reject him like she had. “Yes, and no, honestly I didn’t have much planned because I was too worried about your response to going with me to the concert.”
“I should of said yes,” Rory said guiltily.
“Why?” Tristan said hoping it was because she regretted going back to her green giant of a boyfriend and not because of the stupid “de-Mary” fiasco.
“Because we wouldn’t have had to go through all this now,” she said semi-dejectedly. She had fully enjoyed the majority of her time with Tristan over the last week, but if they would have gone to that concert everything would be different now. Maybe she would have considered him boyfriend material or at least friendship material, instead of going back to Dean, and ultimately getting hurt over and over again. She didn’t regret her past and current relationships, but they were filled with many terrible and emotional moments.
However Tristan only heard the surface of her statement. “It’s still about the Mary thing for you.” Rory heard the defensiveness in his voice, and was worried about loosing everything they had worked so hard to tear down.
“No…I mean yes…Ugh…” She was frustrated as she watched his carefree blue eyes turn cold as he physically and mentally moved further away from her. “Tristan how can I move on with my life, if this,” she moved her hand in a pointing direction between them, “is not taken care of? I love Logan and for some reason this means a lot to him.” She said honestly, though she knew some how this week in Europe turned out to mean more to her than just pleasing Logan.
Tristan looked at her, really looked at her and realized she didn’t know everything behind Hutzberger’s façade. Which sadden him, but he wasn’t the one to remove Rory’s rose tented glasses. No he would leave that to her boyfriend. “Did you ever wonder why some high school nickname caused him to reject you?” He asked hoping to get her thinking and find out exactly what Logan clued her in on.
“He is not rejecting me! He just gave me time and space to get this thing between us sorted out. And I know why!” She said in defense of her relationship. Tristan raised his eyebrow at her, in a gesture for her to continue. “It’s a tradition and tradition means a lot to the society circles we are held too.” Rory said in frustration, since she has been saying this line over a thousand times the last month.
“The same society you use to laugh at?” Tristan asked, not realizing he was repeating something Rory had heard before from another man from her past.
“It’s his world.”
“It’s his cross to shame.” Tristan said this so quickly Rory was a bit taken back. He sighed and continued. “Go home, jump into his arms and ask him who his Mary was.” Tristan stood to leave Rory with that last statement to contemplate, but being a Gilmore she would never let him have the last word, at least without a fight.
“What are you saying DuGrey.” Her defense was up again, and they both knew it.
“You aren’t naive enough to honestly think Hutzberger did not have his own Mary. With his natural leading ability and popularity? Think about it Gilmore, how does his past effect you?”