It's new year's eve. The Gilmore Girls are having lunch at Luke's. They are playing the 'One, Two, Three. He's yours' game, which consisted in looking at the window and the first guy who passes is "yours", but every person has 3 passes, because there are some people that we don't want to be ours. My sincere apologies for the bad explanation.
"I'll go first." Lorelai said. The three of them looked at the window seriously.
"And... one." Rory spoke as the first guy walked by. He had greasy white hair and looked like he could be the live-action Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
"Pass."
"Why?" Emma asked, taking a bite of her food.
"Because I'm not Demi Moore. Next."
"Okay."
"Two!" Rory called their attention as the second guy walked by. He was on a skateboard. Emma laughed.
"Pass." Lorelai said wisely. "I don't feel like being a pedophile today. Next."
The three sets of blue eyes were looking at the window so attentively that they didn't notice Luke coming to the table:
"What are you looking for?" He came to refill her coffee cups. Rory held hers with the biggest glow of gratitude in her face.
"My new husband."
"She already passed two perfectly good prospects." Emma commented. Luke was extremely confused as he poured the coffee.
"But I'm feeling pretty good about number three." Lorelai smiled brightly.
"Do I want to know what you're really doing?"
"Hey." Rory took a sip of her coffee. "Luke came to the table. Does that make him number three?"
"No." Luke and Lorelai answered in unison.
"That was a little too quick." Emma took a sip of her coffee.
"Yes, it was." Lorelai agreed. "Why don't you want to be my husband? Am I not good enough for you?"
"You also said 'no'!" He protested.
"That's not same. I said 'no' because I think there's someone better out there for me."
"Then let's see." Luke grabbed a chair and sat with the Gilmore Girls. Kirk walked by.
"No!" Lorelai complained. Luke smiled.
"Daddy!" Emma and Rory chanted in unison before entering the land of laughter.
"I want to go back to the hunchback!"
Kirk entered the diner. Luke walked up to him with a once in a lifetime kind of happiness.
"Congratulations!" He said to Kirk, tapping on his back.
"Thank you..." Poor Kirk. Lost in his confusion.
"Who's next?" Rory asked.
"I can go next." Emma volunteered. Fate is funny, a cute type of funny, because sometimes it pulls the right strings and the puppet show of our lives ends up looking like a high-budget Broadway musical.
Tristan walked by the window.
"You're kidding! I get a guy who changes jobs more than my mother changes maids and she gets her prince charming! Life isn't fair." Lorelai grabbed her phone. "I'm going to call Max and suggest a new path for his weekly hikes."
Emma was already outside. She ran into his arms and kissed him.
"What are you doing here?" There was a sweet euphoria in her heart.
"I was bored at home. I went to your house, you weren't there. Then I went to the bookstore, you weren't there. And now I'm here."
"I'm flattered you went on a hunting adventure for me, but you could've just called."
"Yes, but I wanted to surprise you." They were smiling like fools. Emma felt as if everything was right in the world, there were no wars, no starving children, no climate change, she felt as if his smile was the missing piece for the great solution, his joy, his heart, his soul was the missing key to open the door of utopia.
Her blue eyes noticed the sweater he was wearing.
"You're wearing the sweater I gave you!" For Christmas, Emma gifted Tristan a dark red sweater with a heart pendant sewn into one of the sleeves. She wanted him to have her heart on his sleeve, on his body, at all times, because she vowed to always showing him every inch of her love.
"I'm constantly fighting the urge to not wear it. I just want to wear it everyday." His hands were placed on her lower back. The air had its typical December coldness, but his touch, even through layers of clothes, had always a warming effect on her body. The fire reached her cheeks.
"That's sweet." They were leaning in again when Lorelai knocked on the window. She finished the call with Max.
"Come in. It's cold." Her voice was barely audible outside.
"What? We can't hear you." Emma was gesturing.
"Come in." Lorelai spoke louder and more slowly.
"What?"
"Just come in for God's sake!" Luke opened the door of the diner to scream at them. He was tired of their embarrassing attempt of a conversation.
"Oh. Thank you."
They walked in.
"Look! The Male Cher Horowitz!" Lorelai called Tristan by one of his nicknames.
"Hello to you too, Lorelai."
"So what are you doing here?" Rory asked.
"I just wanted to come by. Is that a problem?"
"No, not all." Lorelai reassured.
Rory was the only one on that table immune to Emma's contagious euphoria. She missed Paris. They decided to take things slow, mostly because Paris was spending the winter break in Copenhagen.
"Rory. How's Paris?" Tristan inquired.
"She's great. Yesterday she went to the Glyptoteket."
"That's good." Emma looked at Tristan. His voice sounded like he knew something he was trying exceptionally hard not to tell. "She'll be back soon."
"Yes, of course." But missing someone is inevitable.
✯✯✯
It's new year's day.
The faithful group of friends were heading to Madeline's house. She was having a new year's party.
The clock said it was 9pm. Rory was sitting on a couch trying to not think of Paris. But it was really hard. Extremely hard. Rory's mind couldn't erase the face of that fierce girl. It got even harder when the face wasn't just in Rory's mind, but in front of her blue eyes.
"Hello, Gilmore."
Is it real? Am I dreaming? Hallucinating? Is it a hologram? The Gilmore girl's mind was racing, overthinking and questioning everything. She was speechless. No words were formulating. All those years, building a vast vocabulary by spending hours and hours reading, were to waste. Rory didn't say anything, she just stood up. Her hands found Paris' face, she wanted to make sure it was real, that it wasn't a dream, or a hallucination, or even a hologram.
Paris was waiting for a response, a reaction, an exchange of an 'I've missed you'. Her breath wasn't steady whatsoever. She looked up into Rory's eyes, that were so close to hers. She watched as Rory looked around the room and kissed Paris with the all consuming saudade.
"Did you miss me?" Paris asked innocently.
"That's an euphemism."
"So, you're happy I'm here?"
Rory couldn't help but smile.
"I've never been happier."
"Good." Paris was struggling to get oxygen in her lungs. "God, Rory. You're breathtaking."
"You're stealing the words out of my mouth."
No air. No words. No hurricane. No storm. No airplanes. No distance in between. No judging eyes. Just a youthful love.
Just the genuine promise of 'Right now, I want to give the world, I want to be by your side, I want to fly through the Atlantic ocean to just hear your voice, I want to swim to you, I want to drown in you, I want you to want me as much I want you.'
✯✯✯
"Do you want to go outside?" Tristan asked Emma. He could feel that she was getting a little claustrophobic due to the roaring crowd. She nodded with a smile.
He took her to the garden, holding her hand.
It was a full moon. It matched their full hearts.
"Thank you." She said.
"You know, it's the first 'party' we've been together where you're not playing."
"Oh. Right." She didn't really know what to say to his observation.
"I can finally dance with you. You're not on a stage."
"Who said I wanted to dance with you?"
Tristan smiled and grabbed her by the waist. They slow danced to the muffled sound of a not so slow song. They were living the teenage dream.
And the Gilmore girl couldn't stop herself from acknowledging how much life can change in a year, how much different things were from last new year's. 365 days later and Emma had the best of friends, genuine people with genuine intentions, she was in the school of her dreams, she was in a band pursuing her biggest dream and she was in love, utterly in love, with the guy that was wise enough to love her back. 365 days later and Emma was completely, perfectly and incandescently happy.
She was looking into Tristan's eyes. She was completely mesmerized and in disbelief, swooning over every single one of his brush strokes. To her, he was the most beautiful painting to ever exist.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He felt the affection of her gaze.
"You're just so pretty."
Tristan blushed.
"Be careful, Gilmore. It kind of sounds like you have a crush on me." He spoke playfully, trying his best to ignore the crimson in his skin.
"Well... Can I tell you secret?" He nodded as her mouth got closer to his. "We have a crush on each other."
"What? Really?"
"And... Wait, this is a good one." She whispered the following words. "We're dating."
"We are? I have a girlfriend? Emma Gilmore is my girlfriend?" Emma softly laughed at his fake incredulity. "You should've told me this sooner."
"Why?"
"Because I've been dying to do this." He spun her around and caught her body in a dramatic end of a ballroom dance way. Then, Tristan kissed Emma, the girl with the unbreakable smile.
The roaring crowd ran to the garden.
"It's almost midnight!" Someone screamed.
"Are the fireworks ready?" Madeline asked Louise.
"Yes. I took care of it." She answered her best friend.
"Thank you. I don't know how I would've survived without you." Madeline rested her head on Louise's shoulder.
"Then it's a good thing you'll never have to find out."
"5 minutes! 5 minutes!" Brian screamed.
"Calm down, please." Dave said to his best friend.
"I'm just really happy."
"We know." Clarissa, the girl in his arm, commented.
"Brian is a very subtle guy." Lane added.
Rory and Paris appeared through the wide opened doors.
"I have to find my sister." She said to Paris. And they scattered the crowd for Rory's actual other half. It took them 3 minutes to find her.
"Rory!" Emma shouted.
"Emma!"
"I was looking for you." They said in unison.
"Are you ready for next year?" Emma asked.
"No."
"Me neither."
They laughed in the name of sisterhood.
"3, 2, 1... Happy New Year!" Every single soul chanted. The twins hugged each other before turning around to celebrate with their loved ones.
And this is the story of when Emma Gilmore fell in love... with a gold rush.
When Emma falls in love, she paces the floor, closes the blinds and locks the door. When Emma falls in love, she calls up her mom, jokes about the ways that this one could go wrong. She waits and takes her time because Little Miss Sunshine always thinks it's gonna rain. When Emma falls in love, I know that boy will never be the same.
Because she's the kind of book you can't put down, like if Cleopatra grew up in a small town. And all the bad boys would be good boys if they only had a chance to love her. And to tell you the truth, sometimes I wish I was her. Just between me and you, sometimes I wish I was her.
Just between me and you, I don't want this story to be over.