CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

Monica and Chandler

Maria Quinn

Maria Quinn was paying at the counter for her breakfast when she remembered something.

"Hey, Luke." She called out to the man behind the cash register. All he did was grunt in reply. As he always did. "I just wanted to thank you for sending Cassie and Rory that care package," she thanked.

Luke looked up from the register with a confused look. "The what?"

Jess, who was behind Luke with a book in his hands, perked his head up. A book that she was sure she'd seen in Cassie's room before. "Luke, I think they hit the water line again." He tells his uncle, pointing toward a fat corner of the diner.

"Geez. Tom you're dead!" Luke yells out as he heads in the direction Jess pointed. "You hear me? Dead!"

"You here to pay?" Jess asked as he pressed a few buttons on the register.

Maria ignored his question. "Luke didn't know anything about the food, did he?"

Jess didn't show whether she was right or not. "I'm out of quarters, I'm gonna have to give you nickels."

"Why?"

He sighed before looking at her with a glare. "Why what?"

"Why'd you send my daughter food?" She asked.

"No, idea what you're talking about," he lied.

"Stop lying."

Jess sighed. "Look, I'm trying very hard to be nice."

That took her back. "You're trying hard to be nice? You didn't seem to have any problem the other night." She remarked.

"Cause Cassie was there."

"So what? Cassie is the nice police?" She commented.

He took some change out of the cash register. "She told me to be nice and now I'm doing that." He handed her change to her with a fake smile. "Have a nice day, come again soon."

"Listen, I don't know what your deal is with my daughter but you better not get her in any trouble." Maria told him sternly.

Jess nods at her with a mock salute. "Yes ma'am."

~~~

"He really said that?" Lorelai exclaimed in her kitchen.

Maria ran a hand over her face. "That's exactly what he said," she confirmed as she told Lorelai what had happened with Jess that morning.

"Hey," she pipes up. "You know what you should do?"

"What?"

Lorelai looked over at her with a glint in her blue eyes. "You should call him Jessie."

"How is that gonna solve my problem."

She shrugged. "Cassie told me we could call him that. Or even Tess."

"Do you think he likes her? I mean I'm pretty sure he does but I don't know." Maria sips on her third cup of coffee for the day.

"Oh yeah, he's whipped." Lorelai agrees.

She groans and puts her head in her hands. "I just don't want him to hurt her. You know guys like that."

"He's like James Dean except alive."

"The last time I got engaged with a guy like that I wound up pregnant!" Maria voiced her concern.

Lorelai nodded in solidarity. "Don't I know it."