everlasting • gilmore girls

chapter nine

ʲᵒ'ˢ ᵒᵘᵗᶠⁱᵗ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ.

ᴄʜ. ɴɪɴᴇ

"𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡．"
— 𝑅𝑢𝑡𝑎 𝑆𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑦𝑠， 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒

。・ ゚・.・。・.・ ゚・。

Luke's diner was hectic and very crowded during the morning rush. During Luke's solo apartment hunting, he somehow bought the whole building next door. He thought it was a good idea to expand the apartment upstairs instead of moving. Jo and Jess were both cool with the idea since they could easily go downstairs for their shifts.

But this morning was crap, parts of the ceiling were falling on customers' food and two people nearly got nails in the head nails. This was no longer a diner, it was a hazard construction site.

Jo sat on a tall stool behind the counter with a hard hat. Since she could be in the apartment and rest, Luke had her pour people some coffee as she sat.

The Gilmores walked in the diner, as usual, every morning since they never had food at their place. This time they were surprised about the state of the place. "Jeez, look at this place." Lorelai said as Rory and Lorelai made their away to an empty table and Nathan, an empty stool at the counter in front of Jo.

"Hey, Jo." He said giving her a smile that could immediately make anyone's day better.

"Hey, preppy." She smiled at him before grabbing a clean mug behind her and set it in front of him and filled it with the thing she believes he loves the most in the world, coffee.

Nathan looked over the counter between them to look at her cast. "So the story is true." He said. Last night, over the phone conversation Jo told him what happened. Although, she exaggerated a little. Okay, a lot. "Does it hurt?" He asked with a slight frown on his lips, for the tenth time in the past twelve hours.

"Only if I put my weight on it, besides that, I'm all right. Oh! I almost forgot," She said getting a spare hard hat from underneath the counter and placed it on his head. "So, you don't get a concussion."

Luke overheard this and threw her a flat look. "Real hilarious." He said dryly before turning to Nathan. "Keep it on." he said before leaving to give food to people.

Nathan watched her as she refilled the surrounding peoples' mugs. "I got you something." Nathan said with a secretive smile.

Jo raised a brow and placed the half-filled carafe down. "But I didn't ask for anything."

"I know." He shrugged and pulled a copy of Beloved. "I saw it at the book sale and I remembered that you said you lost your other copy in New York, so I thought I should get you it."

Jo almost leaped from her seat when she went to grab the book. "This is my favorite book." She said with her eyes examining the small book that sat in her hands.

"I know."

Her fingers traced the beat-up edges and spine. "It was well-loved." She said with a smile, she loved tattered and used books better than a new and perfect condition one. She remembers telling him that but she didn't think he'd remember. She opened the book and smiled at the small annotations the previous owner wrote in the margins and recognized it was Nathan's handwriting. "You read it?" She said and looked up at his blue eyes that had been set on her since he walked in.