Dating Luke Pro-Con List
After getting home from Luke's, Lorelai's head was cloudy and she was confused. Unsure. Date Luke? Don't date Luke?
"Mom?" Rory tapped her shoulder lightly. Her hand flew up to her heart. "JEEZUS Rory! You scared the shit out of me."
Rory looked concerned. "Mom, are you okay?"
Lorelai looked side-to-side. "I'm fine." She stopped short and tucked a piece of hair behind her ears nervously. "No, you know what? I'm really not. I can't…figure out this Luke thing."
Rory put her hand on her mom shoulder. "I know what to do."
Lorelai blinked slowly. "What?"
Rory smiled, in an evil sort of way. "Let's make a pro-con list."
"Rory…"
"Come on mom. It worked with Yale! Please? Humor me."
Lorelai sighed-long and slow. A small smile creeped up her face, and she looked at Rory, her eyes shinning. "Lets do it."
"YES!" Rory pumped her arms in the air. "Let me just get a pad."
"I'll get the pop tarts and meet you in the kitchen?" Lorelai said, almost her old self again.
"Deal!"
5 minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen table with toasty poptarts, coffee, 2 pens and a giant pink legal pad.
"Pink? COOL!"
Rory smiled; full on with an added eye sparkle. "Yale's got a great stationary store."
"You know, can you pick one of these up for me?"
Rory raised her eyebrows. "Mom. What would you do with a legal pad?"
"Low-blow!" Lorelai pouted. "Rory-honey. I'm opening an Inn on Friday. There's got to be something to use a legal pad for."
"What? Fanning away Michel's B.O?"
"Rory!"
She still looked unsure. "Right, okay. So, the list."
Lorelai nodded. "Yes. The list."
"So I added two things so far." Rory said and slid the pad across the table and took a bite out of smores poptart.
Lorelai looked down at the first thing. Sexy. "RORY!"
"What? Don't you think it's true?"
Lorelai tried to hide her blushing, smiling face. "Well…even if I did, not that I'm saying I do, but if I did, it really shouldn't be the first thing on the list. Doesn't the first thing have to be…important or something?"
"Mom. It's a pro-con list. There are no rules. Well, two. Put pros in the pro column and cons in the con column. Not so hard, see?"
Lorelai rolled her eyes at her daughter. "Okay, it stays." She moved on to the next thing. Makes great coffee.
"That I have to agree with."
Rory smiled. He did, at that. "Your turn."
Lorelai looked frantic. "My turn? But you're so good at this."
Rory rolled her eyes. "One, you know him better than I do. And two, you're the one who's dating him!"
Lorelai held up her finger. "Maybe. Maybe!"
Rory didn't buy it. "Yeah…sure." She tapped the pad and gave her mom a pen.
Luke can waltz.
"Luke can waltz!" Lorelai said.
"There you go again."
"What?"
Rory took her moms hands. "Mom. You've sure got that waltz thing on the brain. And look how you said it!"
"How did I say it?"
"Like…you wish you could see what other dance moves he could do."
"RORY!" Lorelai gasped. "Well you are your mothers daughter,"
"I'll drink to that." Rory said. She took a sip of coffee.
Lorelai's eyes lit up and she wrote something down. She held up the pad and pointed.
Rory groaned. Rugged. "Mom, that's dirty."
"Look who's talkin'." Lorelai pointed out.
Rory shrugged. "Well…" She smiled.
"Your turn!" Lorelai said and grinned wickedly at her.
"No. You do three for every one of my two." Rory said reasonably.
"Oh, alright." Lorelai obviously had an idea in her mind because her eyes flickered.
Gives good jewelry.
"Ohh yeah! I remember that, the earrings he gave you at the firelight festival." Rory remembered.
Lorelai pushed her hair aside, revealing her earrings. "These."
"Wow, they are beautiful aren't they?"
"Oh yes they are!" Lorelai winked.
"Ahh ick. Stop talking like that!"
"Like what?"
"Like you want to jump in bed with him like a little kangaroo."
Lorelai shuddered. "Creepy comparison."
"Well, I did learn from the best."
"My turn!" Rory clapped and laughed evilly.
Lorelai blinked at her. "My, my, you're getting some weird freaky pleasure out of this, aren't you?"
"I am, mother dearest." She smirked and scribbled on the pad.
Rory slid the pad back to her mother. "RORY!"
The list said, Make cute babies. "What?" She said innocently.
"Okay, I'm beginning to think that you like Luke more than I do. Why don't you date him?"
"Ew, Mom, he's like forty."
Lorelai clamped her hand to her heart in mock hurt. "Rory, he's practically my age. Are you saying I'm old?"
"Sorry, I didn't…" Rory looked so bad.
"Rory honey. It's okay. I was just kidding."
"Oh right. Okay."
Just to get back at her mom for freaking her out, she wrote another thing. Puts up with Lorelai's jokes.
"Aren't you sweet?" Lorelai said.
"Yes, yes, I am."
They smirked at each other. "Woah, Rory. We have seven pro's and no con's."
"Oh. That's not good."
"No, it's not. So, cons. Help me!"
"I personally don't think there is any." Rory said.
"Really? There has to be something."
"Well…grandma would hate it." Rory said, shrugging.
"Hon, that's a PRO."
"Let's put it in both columns, shall we?" Rory suggested.
"Fair enough." Lorelai thought for a moment. "Ah! I have thunk it! The single bed."
"No, mom. He got a full bed. Remember?"
It hit her. He had. "Damn."
Rory laughed. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"I suppose it is."
"HA!" Rory yelled.
"Woah!" Lorelai's heart skipped a beat. "What is "Ha?"
"You DO want to sleep with him!"
"Rory…can we not?" Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Since when are you so…sexually minded?"
Rory shrugged. "College."
"Well, of course."
"Anyways." Rory said pointedly. "The town would freak, you know."
"God, they would. Can you imagine Patty and Babette? Put that on the list."
She did. "He hates junk food you know."
She nodded. "You know, I really don't get that. He makes it AWESOME. But he hates it."
"He is a mystery." Rory shook her head. "Well so one for cons and one for pros."
They sat in silence for a minute. "Rory, I really can't think of any more cons."
"Me either." Rory sighed. "So, on with the pros!"
"Hazzah!"
"Oooh I've got one! His rants!" Rory said, nodding her head at herself.
"Rants?"
"You know! When he goes on and on about something that bugs him. You would be entertained for hours."
"True. Very true." Lorelai then blushed. "He's reliable."
Rory thought. "He is, really. He really is."
She wrote it down. "Ah, lightbulb!"
Keep Lorelai safe.
"Yeah, because I need the protection."
"Mom," Rory began. "You're my mother. I love you, and I want you to be safe. Luke can do that."
Lorelai knew that was true. She smiled shyly.
"See. You're soooo falling for him." Rory teased.
"Am not." Lorelai said, and panicked. "Rory, what happens if we brake up? It will be the end of our friendship as we know it! Everything would be so awkward. We could never eat in the diner any more!"
Rory put her hand on her mom's. She wanted to stop her from having a meltdown. "Mom-"
"And you! You would be heartbroken. You like Luke!"
Rory squeezed her hands gently. "Mom. Calm down. I do like Luke. But you cannot not try because of me! I will not allow it. In fact, I want you to. I really do."
"You do?"
"Yeah." Rory turned to the list. "I guess we should be "break up would be bad" in the cons, huh?"
Lorelai nodded. "That's the biggest con I can think of."
Rory wrote breakup would be bad in the cons, and then wrote something else. Sweet.
"Rory. Luke is NOT sweet."
Rory scoffed. "Have you met the man?"
"Briefly."
"He built you a chuppa. He bought your basket. He made me a freaking coffee cake, for god sakes!" Rory looked pointedly at Lorelai and she knew it was correct. He was sweet. Underneath all of that mono-syllable, grumpy dinerman stuff.
"Alright, alright. You win." Lorelai huffed. "Wait wait wait. He made you a coffee cake?"
"Yeah. For my 16th birthday. There were balloons."
Lorelai's heart melted for a second. "Aw, sweets. That's really nice. I think I remember you mentioning that."
"I know. He's like my dad, you know?"
Lorelai sat up. "Huh? Wha? What-what about Chris?"
Rory sighed. This was hard for her. "Dad is my father. Luke's my…dad. Do you understand the difference?"
"No, honey." Lorelai was trying to keep up.
"Okay. Dad is my father because be gave me my blood, bones and my well, gender I guess. But Luke is my daddy because he was always there to me. And he always will be. He came to my caterpillar's funeral because I asked him to."
Lorelai's stomach dipped. Wow. "Yeah, honey. I get it." She squeezed Rory's hand. "I never knew you felt that way."
"Well, I didn't want to freak you out."
Lorelai shook her head. "I wouldn't have."
"No you would have. If I told you earlier, you would have used one of those stupid rules and there would be NO chance you would date Luke, because you didn't want to hurt me. Now, I think, you can understand that this is even more reason to give him a try."
Lorelai felt tears welling up. She looked down at the paper and wrote 3 words. Rory loves him.
Rory took the paper back and read it. She wrote three words and handed it back. Lorelai loves him.
Those three words told her that she didn't need the list any more. She knew what she wanted. Sitting in her kitchen with her daughter, tears of love and happiness rolling down her cheeks, her eyes opened. The world seemed clearer, because she finally realized what everyone was trying to tell her. She was ready to love Luke with all of her heart. She was suddenly very hungry.
"Hey Rory?"
"Yeah?"
Lorelai smiled. "Can we go and walk past the diner 20 times?"
Rory grinned back. "Absolutely."
PRO
Sexy
Makes great coffee
Luke can Waltz
Rugged
Good Jewelry Giver
Make Cute babies
Put's up with Lorelai's Jokes
Mother would hate it
Lorelai Loves Him Entertaining Rants
Reliable
Rory Loves Him
Lorelai Loves Him
CON
Mother would hate it
Town would freak
Hates Junk Food
Breakup Would be Bad