A/N: Next chapter, I am so loving writing this story. Thank you for those of you who responded nicely to my story, and did not attack me for missing the spelling of Lorelai's name by one letter. I'm sorry I didn't look it up before I started writing, I just followed my instincts and I'm sorry I was wrong. And from now on, I will spell the name correctly. Read and review please. Hope everyone's doing good. There's only going to be one more chapter after this.
"Wait a second…Luke did what?"
"He…he kissed me…and then told me he's been crazy about me…for like, forever…" Lorelai repeated for what must have been the fourth time. Rory was clearly shocked. Her eyes were two times larger than their normal size. She looked like a Disney cartoon.
"Well, duh, but for him to actually say something?" Rory said in disbelief.
"Wait, what," Lorelai said, "You're surprised, not because he has feelings for me, but because he did something about it? You knew!"
"Everyone knows, Mom," Rory answered, "Everyone knows how Luke feels about you. Except, up until this point, no one realized that Luke actually knew too."
"This is making my head hurt," Lorelai mumbled. She took a sip of her coffee, which they had made at home today. She flinched, disliking the taste of her own coffee. On a normal day, she would have been drinking Luke's coffee by now. She really wanted his coffee.
"So…how did you feel about kissing him?" asked Rory.
"I…I have no idea. It just kind of happened," Lorelai responded.
"I know it happened, I was asking if you had any idea about how you feel about it," Rory retorted. The crease between her mother's eyebrows deepened.
"I really don't," she mumbled, shaking her head, "Ugh." Rory frowned along with her.
"Mom…" she began gently, "this is Luke. He's a part of our lives. You can't just…avoid this."
"Yes I can," her mother retorted in a petulant manner.
"No, you can't," Rory gripped Lorelai's hand to get her attention, "Eventually, you will have to see him. You will have to talk to him."
"Maybe it isn't as big a deal as we think and we've done all this over thinking for nothing?" she said hopefully.
"He might ignore it and it might be weird for a while, but I don't think this is just going to go away…" Rory answered.
Lorelai frowned. She rubbed her temples in frustration.
"I don't even want to talk about this now," Lorelai muttered, "Okay, hon, you need to hurry or you are going to be late for your bus."
"Love you, Mom."
"Love you too, kid."
By the time she finished getting ready for work, she had resolved to go the diner to talk to Luke. But by the time she got to the front door, she decided that she would do it at lunch today. And by the time she reached her car, she knew she would not be able to face him at all that day.
She was unbelievably distracted the whole day. People had to call her name multiple times in order to talk to her. At the inn, she put salt into her coffee instead of sugar and proceeded to spit it out on Michel, who practically had a heart attack about the stain on his tie. She didn't even notice Sookie being carried out of her kitchen until the flashing lights of the ambulance nearly blinded her. The harder she tried to figure out how she felt about Luke, the more confused she got.
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Lorelai continued to avoid the diner for a week. Sunday morning, Rory convinced her to go get coffee with her, telling her that Luke was not going to confront her with Rory right there. Not that Luke was the confrontational type at all, as Rory pointed out repeatedly.
Rory walked into the diner in front of her mother, Lorelai partially hiding behind her. Rory slid down into the first empty table she spotted, and Lorelai sat down next to her. The pair of them looked up in time to see Luke walking downstairs from his apartment, fiddling with the cuffs of his flannel shirt to roll the sleeves up. He froze up completely when he saw them sitting at the table. Lorelai focused on the menu with a ridiculous intensity. Luke walked over to the table slowly.
"Hi…umm, hi Rory…Lorelai…what can I get you?" he asked awkwardly. Lorelai refused to take her eyes off of her menu.
"Blueberry pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns," Rory ordered without hesitation. Luke moved nervously as he wrote it down. Rory nudged her mother roughly.
"Uhh," Lorelai stuttered, "Pancakes."
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"No coffee?"
"No, no no…no coffee. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Okay, Mom…maybe if you actually look at him, you'll be able to figure out how you feel."
"And if I don't look at him, things won't be awkward."
"Right, because holding your neck in that same position throughout the entire meal is completely normal."
"Shut up."
Luke did not say a word to Lorelai the entire time they ate, nor did Lorelai meet his eye. She gave the money to pay for the meal to Rory and gathered her purse and coat. She walked to the door, and before she left, she looked at Luke for the first time since that night in his apartment. He was standing near the cash register talking to one of the customers, writing down his order. He felt her gaze and looked up at her.
She looked at him, trying to understand what he was thinking. What was he thinking right now and what was he thinking that night? Was that just an impulse that caused him to do and say what he had or was it just a build-up of feelings he had always had? She knew she felt something when she kissed him, she just had no idea what it was. Whether it was just some fluke moment because Luke was such a big part of her life and she cared about him or whether or not she had the same feelings for him. How on earth was she supposed to fix this? There was a level of pain in his eyes that made her want to cry. To run up and give him a hug, but that would be confusing to him. It would be confusing to her. She just didn't know. She didn't know anything, other than Luke was one of the most important people in her entire life.
She bit her lip and left the diner.
Rory watched her mother and Luke and rolled her eyes. She chuckled, for she could not believe how clueless her mother was being. She and everyone else had always though that Luke was the most clueless in this relationship, but it had become abundantly clear that Lorelai Gilmore took home the trophy in that category.
A few minutes after her mother left, she'd finished her breakfast and walked towards the register. Luke smiled at her weakly as she paid for her food. He handed her the change and Rory latched onto his hand with her own.
"Luke?"
He looked at her.
"Just so you know…I'm rooting for you."
Luke looked stunned, but Rory peaked over her shoulder as she walked out and saw him smiling for real.
