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Chapter 4
Lorelai's POV
It has been about a month since the Luke incident, and I have almost fully recovered. He hasn't called, or come by since then. I was surprised when my daughter admitted to telling Luke to call me the day before. I guess she just wanted me to tell him, but that didn't happen.
"Coffee?" Sookie asks breaking my thoughts.
"Um, no thanks. I'm good." I turn my nose up at the thought.
"What, you don't want coffee?" She asks taking a step back.
"No, it kind of makes me nauseous now. I mean, two weeks ago, I would have jumped at the chance for having coffee behind Rory's back, but now, it just makes me violently ill. I can't even be within 20 feet of the stuff." I said, and backed towards the door.
"Disposing of now." Sookie pours it down the drain. "Oh, and by the way, you might wanna go shopping for some new maternity clothes."
"Can you tell?" I say looking down at my growing stomach.
"Well, I can't, but Michelle asked me if you were going to join a fat farm earlier this morning." Sookie said frowning.
"Ah, well, that's nice. He's very subtle, ya know? He could've just said 'Lorelai's gaining weight.' But no, we have to hurt a pregnant woman's feelings." I say, surprised that Michelle would notice.
"I'm sorry, hon. I'm sure he didn't mean it in that way. I told him that you were being a couch potato recently, you know, ordering all that pizza." Sookie pats my arm.
"Thanks. I'll go shopping today. Rory's got a paper thing at school, so I'll go after work." I said.
"I would go with you, but Davey's going to be in a pre-school play this afternoon." Sookie explains.
"It's fine. I think I need some time by myself. I'll be in my office." I say walking out of the kitchen. I cover my stomach as I walk past the front desk, where Michelle is standing.
"You know, Weight Watchers is having a special this month. You might want to give it a try." Michelle offers rudely.
"No thanks, Michelle. I've got my own diet!" I yell at him, while closing the door to my office. Sighing to myself, I flop down in my chair, and rest my head on the desk. A few minutes later, I'm out cold.
A few hours later
"Alright, Michelle, I'm leaving early. Make sure you finish signing those insurance documents. They have to be out today!" I say, grabbing my purse from behind the counter.
"Fine, I'll try my hardest to do my job. Wait a minute, what's on your forehead?" He asks in his annoying French accent.
"What? Oh, I guess I fell asleep on my stapler a little while ago." I answer looking into a mirror, and seeing 'Swingline' backwards.
"That's nice. I'm out here working my tiny butt off, and you're in there sleeping soundly like a fat hog. It's great how this system works." He complains.
"Isn't it though? Okay, I'm gone." I say putting on my charming smile. "Oh, has Sookie left yet?"
"Yes, she left 20 minutes ago. You would've known, if you weren't so busy sleeping!" He replies.
"Okay, thanks, bye." I say quickly, and leave, before he starts throwing one of his temper tantrums.
I hop in the jeep, and crank up the engine. It makes a sputtering noise, and won't crank. I try four more times, and it won't even make the sputtering noise.
"Oh, no, no, no. This can't be happening!" I mutter to myself. The maternity store I was going to go to was all the way in Hartford, because of everyone in this stupid small town. I certainly couldn't go now, so I weighed my options. I could get Michelle to take me, but then he'd find out for sure, and I really don't want to deal with his pouty attitude right now. Sookie already left. Rory's at school. I'm practically broke, so a cab's not an option. Well, then, I guess I'll just go home, and order pizza. I get out of the car, and notice it's dusk out, so I can still see. I walk down the road, and after a few feet, it starts to sprinkle.
"Oh, this is perfect." I say to no one in particular. There's no one outside anyway, so I keep walking, hoping it will slack up. It doesn't. Then, it really starts to pour. I run a little bit, and get tired fast, so I go back to my regular pace. I'm already soaked, so what does it matter. I start to think of ridiculous things while walking in the rain. This would make a great movie: a pregnant woman running through the rain, while she examines her life. My unborn baby's father doesn't even know I am in the world. My parents have no clue of said child, out of wedlock, might I add, and would probably excommunicate me from the family if they did. My only daughter, so far, is breaking her poor back trying to help me and keep everyone from finding out at the same time. My best friend is cooking weird foods for me, and then serving them to her kids' dogs, when I look at her like she's crazy for making that dish, and also trying not to tell anyone. Yup, I would definitely go see this one! I walk to the center of town, and see Luke's across from me.What I don't see is the man coming from around the side of the building, rolling the garbage cart around to the front. If it was only this easy just to walk in that diner and tell him! Tell him that we're having a child together, and that I love him! I sigh and start to move in the wrong direction: home. Then I hear something.
"Lorelai, is that you?" A voice a know all too well asks. I turn around, my hair hanging wet and loosely on my shoulders hits me in the face, as I look at him. He is about 20 feet from me, also wet. Little droplets of water are bouncing off of his trademark blue hat that I gave him that wonderful Christmas, when he took me to see my father in the hospital. We both just stare at each other's faces, and don't even notice that we're standing in the pouring rain. His eyes travel down to my body, and he stops at my stomach. I look down also, and see my pregnant belly. I'm wet, so you can pretty much see all the way through; it's very obvious. We both look back up at each other, slowly, knowing the truth. His mouth is wide open, eye's questioning, face twisted into a confused look. I start to panic, and put my purse over my stomach. I bite my lip and start to run in the other direction. He's yelling my name, and running up behind me, I just know it. I can't face him. It's all my fault. I know I can't do this by myself. I feel myself fall to the ground. I sit there, with my legs up under me, and just cry. Cry about anything, and everything. Luke bends down beside me, and at first I resist, but then I let him in. I know I need him. I cry in his arms. His strong arms are supporting me in my weakened state. I can't even remember the last time I ate anything, which is probably why I collapsed. I look up at him, and his face shows no emotion, but sorrow. He asks one question, while sitting there in the rain that is now coming down in sheets.
"Why?" He almost yells, because of the rain.
"I-I'm sorry! Luke, I'm so, so sorry! I should've told you! I-I love you!!" I scream, and fall back into the soaking flannel. He holds me for a minute, and doesn't say anything. After a few minutes, he bends down and whispers something in my ear.
"We need to get you out of the rain." So not what I thought he was going to say. I wanted this scene to be like in The Notebook, where they get out of the boat while it's raining, and they kiss each other like they're both gonna die. It wasn't. He picks me up, bridal style, and I put my arms around his neck. Noticing how he said 'you', I realize that he still cares. I burry my head in his clothes, and start to cry again. We get in the diner, and head upstairs.
"Shh… it's okay, Lorelai. I'm here for you. Don't cry. It's okay." He comforts me, as he takes one hand and rubs my back, and the other goes in a drawer and pulls out some clothes. "Lorelai?" I stop crying long enough for him to talk. "We need to get you out of these wet clothes before you catch a cold, which isn't good, since you're—." He pauses, not able to say it. "Well, because of your situation." He puts me down, awkwardly, and we both stare at the ground for a second.
"So, ah, here's the dry clothes. You left one of your shirts here a few months ago. So, I kept it for you, in case something happened or you would need it. Not like I was expecting something like this to happen, but in case it did, I would have-…" I put my lips on his to stop him from rambling. My hand was resting on his chest, and I could feel the pounding of his heart. It was a short and sweet kiss, but it meant so much more. He tasted like… well, Luke.
"Thank you, Luke." I said simply, and took the clothes from him. Reluctantly, I peeled my hand away, as if I didn't, or couldn't let go. I went in the bathroom, and slowly removed my wet maternity dress. I put on the sweatpants, and my shirt. I noticed it was very snug, and showed off my pregnant belly. I didn't care; however, I already looked crappy enough. Pulling my hair back with one of my scrunchies from my purse, I sighed, and walked out into Luke's apartment. He was sitting on the couch, in dry clothes, with his hands on his head.
"Wow, you look uh…" He can't find the words to describe her.
"Pregnant? I know, that's what I said." I sat on the couch beside him, and put my wet clothes on the floor.
"No, well, yes, but that's not what I meant. I meant that you look beautiful when you're pregnant." Luke told me while looking me straight in the eyes. I start to cry, which catches Luke by surprise.
"What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?" He asks. I lean into him, and he simply puts his arm around me while I continue to cry.
"No, Luke, you did nothing wrong. It's these hormones." I said. I lean up a little, and he just looks at me.
"Oh, okay." He stares at his hands, at a loss for words. I think of what I said to him outside in the rain, and he didn't say it back.
"Listen, Luke, I'm gonna go on home. I haven't eaten in about a day, so I'm pretty worn out." I got up off of the couch and headed for the door. He stops me with his words.
"Lorelai, you can't walk away from me. I have a right to know." He said standing up.
"A right to know? You already know!" I scream, as my temper rises.
"No thanks to you! If I hadn't seen you out there in the rain like that, I think there's a pretty good chance I would've never known!"
"Well, it's none of your business!" What am I saying??
"What do you mean 'none of my business?' Am I not the father?" He asks, shocked.
"No! I mean yes!" I calm down a little more, and close my eyes while saying this to him, almost in a whisper.
"You are the father of this baby girl."
"Girl? We're having a girl?" Luke asked, putting his arms on mine. His attitude changes very quickly.
"Yes, I found out a couple days ago. I haven't even gotten a chance to tell Rory." I realize that Luke now knows more than my best friend.
"Oh, Lorelai, this is perfect! I couldn't have dreamed for this to have happened any better!" He says picking me up. He twirls me around a few times, and then puts me back down, arms still on mine. I laugh at his attitude; I've never seen him like this before
"You wanted this to happen?" I am surprised, as I wipe the smirk off of my face.
"Yeah, and you didn't?" We go sit down on the couch again. I take a breath, and think of how to say this to him, without crushing him.
"Honestly? At first I didn't. I had just broken up with Max, and thought it was his, but we hadn't- well we hadn't been together in over two months. So, I thought about you, and I was confused." I said, looking at him.
"You didn't want it to be mine." He shakes his head, and looks down. I am really getting tired of him looking down. It's not a great sign.
"No, you didn't let me finish. I was confused, but not in a bad way. I thought I shouldn't be happy, because of what we did. And then I wanted to be happy, because of what we got out of it. Then I thought, 'Hey, it's great this happened, because how else would you get to tell him you loved him?' So, I saw you today, and it just came out. But I can understand if you don't feel the same way." I tell him how I've felt these past three months, and it feels great, even if he doesn't feel it.
"I do love you. I just- out there, I couldn't respond. You stunned me. I hadn't heard from you at all, so I figured you wanted nothing to do with me. And then you yelled at me over the phone, so I knew it." He takes my hand in his.
"Wow…" I am speechless. For once, everything in my life seems to be working out perfect. I know, I'm pregnant without a ring on my finger, and no one knows but three people now, but I can feel that this will just work itself out.
"Didn't you ever listen to the dumb town, and their theories about us? They kept going on and on about how we were meant to be together." He rolls his eyes, and I start to laugh.
"I've heard rumblings yes, but never that. I just heard that we would make a great married couple." I say, still laughing.
"Well, for once, I agree with them." He states, looking serious.
"Wh-what?" I sort of laugh in between. He's confusing me now.
"I agree with the town."
"Okay, I'm sorry; can I get that on a tape recorder?" I joke, as he pulls me closer.
"Not a chance." He mutters, smiling into my lips, as we kiss fervently. We pull back after a couple of minutes, and look at each other.
"Wait, did you say 'a great married couple'?" Luke asks me.
"Yeah, Patty and Babette said that, why?"
"I think they're right. No, I know they are right." He said pointing his finger at me. I grab it and start to wonder.
"Luke, what are you talking about?"
"Come here!" He drags me over to the bed, and sits me down on the edge of it. Luke goes in a drawer and pulls out a small velvet box.
"Oh, dear Lord, Luke please tell me this isn't what I think it is!" I start to sweat, and wonder if he's serious.
"Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, will you marry me?" He asks the big one, down on one knee. I breathe through my nose, calmly, and make a counter offer.
"Luke, I promise to marry you within the next year. How's that?" This has to work.
"That is… perfect! Interesting response, but I'll take it."
"Luke, you have to understand, I don't want to get married just because I'm pregnant. That happened a little over 16 years ago, and it didn't turn out so well. Partially because of my parents influence, and because I didn't love the father, but that isn't going to happen here." Luke kisses me hard on the lips, and he smiles at me.
"I understand. Don't worry about a thing. Would you do me a favor though?" He asked.
"Anything." I state simply.
"Wear this ring? It was my mother's, and I think she really would've been proud to see that you would be the one to wear it." Luke opens up about his past, and I feel like I know a little more about him, now.
"Of course, I would be proud to." I answer, as he slips the ring on my finger.
"A perfect fit." He states.
"A perfect fit." I agree. We seal it with a kiss, and I put my arms around Luke's head, playing with his brown curls. I can't stop thinking of how lucky I got, as I continue kissing my guy.
TBC
I decided not to give you a cliffy!! Thanks for reading!!! Tell me what you think…!
