Lorelai glanced across the candle lit table at her husband. Chris slowly chewed his steak and occasionally reached up for a sip of wine. Though Lorelai had repeatedly tried all evening, she couldn't get Chris to respond with a worthy conversation.
"How's your steak?" Lorelai asked, though she really had no interest in the topic of his food.
Chris' eyes gradually rose from the table and met Lorelai's, "It's fine."
"Just fine? Not superb? Not splendid?" Lorelai teased. "Not going, going, gone! Out of the park home run?"
Just as dully as before, Chris' solemn voiced replied. "It's fine, Lorelai."
"Is it fine enough to talk about?"
Chris sighed. "Lore, please, not tonight." He rolled his eyes back into his head and closed them.
"I'm sorry, it's just you didn't speak a word during the movie, you didn't say anything during the ride to the movies, and we had no type of dialogue before we left the house. Should I take up miming or something? Are we going to become mimes?"
"Why is everything a joke to you? I work all week in a stressful job environment and come home every day to you cracking jokes. You never take anything seriously. All I wanted to do was have a quiet evening with my wife but you can't even do that."
Lorelai's head sank back between her shoulders. Someone was awful testy tonight. "What is wrong with you?" she asked in a high whisper.
Chris seemed to ignore Lorelai's question and continued eating his dinner. After several seconds of silence and the gaping glare coming from his wife, Chris finally acknowledged Lorelai was talking to him and looked up at her blankly.
The loud clang of the silverware against Lorelai's plate, caused Chris to blink his eyes. She stood from her chair quickly and grabbed her purse from the table.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked condescendingly.
"You mean aside from crazy? I'm going to call a cab, Chris." She attempted to walk away, but Chris jumped up beside her and placed his hand on her arm.
Chris pulled out his wallet and flipped through it for a few seconds. He pulled out a fifty, "Here." He said while Lorelai looked shockingly back at him. A few moments passed until he finally followed it up with "Pay for dinner and I'll go get the car."
Lorelai slowly took the money. Casting Chris an evil eye as she did so. After paying the waiter, she anxiously waited out front for Chris to pull around and pick her up with the car. Nearly ten minutes passed before Lorelai saw the headlights of their Honda Civic pull up to the sidewalk. She opened the door, got in and slammed it violently.
"Hey! What the hell is your problem?" Chris interrogated.
Lorelai looked straight ahead, not allowing her eyes to fall upon him. "Nothing. I'm fine." She emphasized.
Chris shook his head disgustingly while he started driving the two of them home. Half way home, Chris reached over and turned the radio on to break the silence.
A Black Sabbath song filled the air in the tiny car. Lorelai, who despised Black Sabbath, reached over and changed the station. Chris, sharply glared at Lorelai for several seconds, and then switched the station back. He was the dominate one in the relationship, the husband, the father, the controller of the radio. His superiority was quickly relinquished when Lorelai snapped the radio completely off.
Several minutes later, they arrived home. Each stepping out of their side of the car, slamming the doors behind them, and marching up the steps to the house. Lorelai beat Chris to the back door. She opened it and let herself in, but quickly slammed it right behind her. Chris reopened the door, and stepped inside. Lorelai had walked straight from the kitchen to her bedroom, not even speaking a word to Rory, who was sitting on the couch.
Rory looked up at Chris who had walked up behind her "What's wrong with her?" she asked concerned.
Chris flashed a smile. "Ah, nothing… you know how she gets sometimes. The waiter at the restaurant screwed up her order and one of her heals broke."
"She didn't even speak to me." Rory noted, not fully buying her father's excuse.
"Well, she probably didn't see you sitting there." Chris replied.
"I'm pretty sure she did." Rory continued.
Chris sighed heavily, "Rory, please, just leave it alone. Okay? Don't build mountains out of mole hills."
Rory narrowed her eyes, "I'm not building mountains out of mole hills, though that is a very strange analogy, it's just obviously something is wrong." She noted cleverly.
"I can't deal with this right now…." Chris grunted as he massaged his temples and turned back towards the kitchen.
Rory leaped up from the couch. "Where are you going?" Chris didn't reply he kept walking. "Dad?" Rory stared as Chris walked straight out the door, and into his car.
At the sound of an engine starting, Lorelai jumped to the window, just in time to see Chris pull out of the driveway. She dried the trickling stream pouring down her cheek "Damn it Christopher" Lorelai erupted as she hit the window frame. It was no mystery to Lorelai, where Chris was going, he always ran away to the same place.
Lorelai jumped at the sound of a knock coming from her door. Rory let herself in and found her mom standing by the windowsill. "Do you need anything mom?" Rory asked cautiously.
"No honey, I just need to get some rest." Lorelai responded gently as she restrained her tears.
"Ok. Goodnight." Rory said trying to end the night properly on a better note than Chris had left her with.
"Goodnight, Rory, I'll see you in the morning." Lorelai replied.