For DSLeo. You ask how, I give you how.
Enjoy!
He hadn't intended on getting drunk that night. On the other hand, maybe he had. He had hoped that maybe, he'd reach a point that he wouldn't even think about her. He wouldn't wonder if she and Rory were safe. If they were having fun. If she thought about him at all.
But exactly the opposite had happened. The more he drank, the more he couldn't stop thinking about her. How she looked. How she smiled at him. The flirting, the little touches on arms and shoulders that they allowed themselves, the occasional hug. How his arms ached to hold her close.
He suddenly realized that he was alone, and looked around for Nicole. She was standing at the bar, making conversation with the bartender. From behind, in the low light and alcohol taking effect on his vision, he allowed himself for one moment to believe that she was someone else. That he and Lorelai were on this cruise, not him and Nicole.
A slow song was playing. Something he was willing to dance to. Luke made his way over to the bar, and got her attention by taking her elbow. "You wanna dance?"
She smiled, and nodded. They walked over to the dance floor. He held her close and closed his eyes. He heard her sigh and she relaxed, resting her head on his chest, letting him taken the lead. He moved his hand to her hair, working his fingers through it, caressing her scalp with his fingertips. He let his mind drift, and let the music move them.
Absently, he thought it odd that combing his finger through her hair wasn't as hard to do as he had imagined. Her hair usually had such a lovely curl to it, and he'd long dreamt of letting his fingers tangle through it. He reasoned that she must have had her hair straightened. She did that sometimes, and he secretly hated it. Not because she didn't look good that way. She always looked good. He hated it because he'd fallen in love with her curls.
But he never remember a time when she had cut her hair so short as she had it now.
He jumped back all of a sudden, as if he'd touched a live wire, and Nicole was left with a shocked expression on her face. Luke could do nothing but stare back at her.
He'd forgotten she had even existed.
He'd forgotten that he wasn't dancing with Lorelai.
He'd forgotten that Lorelai was thousands of miles away, in Europe with Rory, while he was on a cruise that Lorelai herself had encouraged him to take. As if there was nothing between them.
Maybe there wasn't.
Nicole looked at him with loving concern. "Luke, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
Luke opened his mouth to answer and nothing came out. What could he say? That he could never love Nicole as much as he loved the woman who'd let him leave? That he'd let himself believe that he was dancing with someone else instead? That he'd finally realized that Lorelai would never love him back?
Luke was tired of waiting for something to happen. He was tired of hoping for Lorelai to notice him. And he was drunk enough to take a chance on happiness with Nicole.
Luke took a deep breath and reached to hold Nicole's hands.
"Do you wanna get married?"