"Jess…" Luke pleaded.
"Absolutely not."
"Please?"
"Do you not understand the word no?"
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?" Luke hated doing this, but he really needed his nephew to be there. Jess was a big part of Luke's life and besides, he couldn't think of another best man.
"Um…no. You and Lorelai can just get married without a best man. That solves everything. Or better yet, just don't get married at all!" Jess knew that he was going to go to the wedding and be the best man, but he almost perversely enjoyed making his uncle squirm.
"What! What kind of supportive relative are you?"
"The one that's not supportive." Jess replied, mocking Luke.
"But…but…I told Lorelai you'd be there. I told her that I had the whole best man thing covered! She's gonna kill me when she finds out that I don't actually have a best man." Luke was getting frustrated.
Jess, on the other hand, was having a lot of fun with this. "Lorelai is going to kill you before the wedding one way or another, so it's better to get it over with now, right?" Jess smirked.
"Jess!"
Jess decided that maybe this was the time to let up. He was sure that his uncle was probably not in the mood for joking anyway. "Yes, fine, I'll do it. But I'm not wearing anything pink or one of those waist things that looks like a huge belt."
"A cummerbund?" Luke asked.
"Yes. I'm not wearing one of those."
"But you have to! It's like part of the dress code."
"Just to clue you in, there is no dress code for weddings, and besides, when have I ever followed dress code? Certainly not in high school. You really think I've changed that much?"
"No."
"Point proven. Now I have to go. I'm cooking dinner and if I don't get off the phone soon it's going to burn."
"You're cooking?"
"Yes, I'm cooking. Are you happy now?"
Luke chuckled to himself. "Ok ok, I'll let you go back to your cooking." Hehe
"Thank you. Goodbye." And with that, Jess hung up.
Luke was still laughing when he hung up the phone. Just then, Lorelai came banging into the diner and nearly broke the bell hanging above the door. "Coffee! Aspirin!" She yelled in his general direction.
Luke knew better than to get in her way when she was in need of medicine, so he ran to the back and came back out with an entire pot of coffee and enough pain medication to die from if taken in large quantities.
"Thank you, Oh Holy One." Lorelai looked at Luke in admiration. She never got over how this man could just produce the things she needed without her having to ask twice. She could barely believe that he was actually going to marry her. I certainly don't deserve him.
Luke, on the other hand, fully believed that he was way below her standard. This woman gave birth to a child when she was sixteen, yet look where she is now. I don't really understand why she wants to marry me. She could have any guy in the world, and she chooses the diner guy? He gazed at her admiringly, and they locked gazes.
"Thanks, hun, but I gotta go. Sookie needs me at the Inn. And you know that if I leave Michel too long bad things will happen."
"Yeah. Oh, hey I got us a best man!"
"Oh really? Who?"
"Jess is coming over from California."
"Jess!" Lorelai nearly spit out her coffee.
"Yeah, why?"
"Because it's Jess! Look, he doesn't have the best record here in Stars Hollow."
"I know, but I think he's changed. I'm willing to give him one more chance."
"What about Rory?" asked Lorelai. "What do you think this will do to her?"
"I don't know."
"Jess didn't exactly leave on a good note last time."
"I know! I really think he's changed. He's got a house and a job and everything. He's doing so much better."
"That doesn't change what happened before."
"I know that. I just…I really want him to be there…I mean, he is my nephew and he spent a good part of his childhood here. He's like my nonexistent son." Luke looked at Lorelai with pleading eyes.
"Hey, I'm not worried about your relationship with him. It's Rory that I'm worried about. I don't know how she'll take all of this. She is the maid of honor, so they'll have to at least look at each other…"
"Rory's the maid of honor?"
"Yeah, didn't I tell you that?"
"No! Man, you think she would tell me something like this. She does work here." Luke was starting to get worried.
"Luke. What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong is that Rory and Jess are going to be the maid of honor and the best man at our wedding."
"I did actually know that."
"This is not going to end well."
"Uh, why not?"
"Because it's Jess and Rory!"
"I knew that too. Hey, you told me not two minutes ago that everything would be fine."
"That was before I know that Rory was going to be the maid of honor!"
"What did you expect? That I'd get Miss Patty out there in a strappy dress?"
"Bad imagery there, Lorelai."
"Sorry. But seriously, who did you think I would invite?"
"I don't know, I just didn't think it would be Rory."
"She's my daughter! She works with you, Luke!"
"I know." Luke sighed.
"She works a minute away from our house, yet she lives with my parents all the way in Hartford. Hartford!"
"I know, Lor, I know."
"It's all my fault. I'm the one that kicked her out. I told her she couldn't come home and just hang around Stars Hollow. She turned to them for help. And you helped her too. You're the only person that I can hold onto, it seems." She started to cry.
"Shh, it's ok. Come here. I'll always be here, you know that, right?"
Lorelai just nodded. "I've got to get back to the Inn. Sookie must be killing Michel by now."
"You sure you're going to be ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Lorelai assured him. "Thanks for all of this. And for finally getting a best man, although I wouldn't have chosen Jess."
"Yeah, Yeah. I know. If it makes you happy, know that I'll be kicking myself about this for the rest of my life."
"Oh yeah, that cheered me right up!" Lorelai laughed and went out the door. The only reminder that she had ever been there was the soft tinkling of the bell.
