The next day, Emily was having an unheard-of second chocolate muffin for her morning coffee break while Richard listened magnanimously to her tirade.
"Richard, I was absolutely mortified. Thank goodness I caught them before things went any further and someone else found them."
"Emily, what things exactly did you see?"
"They were together, Richard. Brazenly defying the fact that Christopher had brought a girlfriend. And I had hoped against all reason that Lorelai had struck something up with that charming son of Florence Stewart."
"The one who recites poetry in answer to a simple hello?"
"Don't mock me, Richard. Can you imagine how I would look if the whole community found out that my daughter was having a dalliance with her ex-husband after ending her rekindled love affair with her ex-fiance? It makes my head spin. In fact, I feel a crippling headache coming on."
"Well then perhaps you should go take a Tylenol. Double strength, if you feel you need it."
"Richard, have you got any sympathy for your wife at all?"
"Emily, I'm just having trouble comprehending what you're so worked up about."
Oh, well what would you have done if you'd found them together in that gazebo?
"I found them together in our old gazebo numerous times and I never had a problem with it. In fact, I slipped quietly away."
"That was when they were both teenagers. Lorelai and Christopher are thirty-nine years old. They chose to separate. When will they learn to accept the consequences of their actions, instead of forever flitting back to each other like a pair of moths to the flame?"
"Oh, I don't know. I don't suppose you have any idea what it feels like to be sixty years old and having second thoughts about separating from your spouse."
"We were a completely different situation."
"Yes, because we separated when had forty years of marriage beneath our belts. Lorelai and Christopher were newlyweds and should have known exactly how to make a marriage work."
"You act as though a separation two months into a marriage is a normal occurrence. I'm starting to think you expected them to reunite all along!"
"Emily, you're a charming, intelligent woman, but you're also one of the most bullheaded women I have ever met in my life. And your daughter takes after you."
"So in addition to being bullheaded, I'm also unconscionably rude, self-centred and ungrateful."
"Look, Lorelai has been in love with Christopher most of her life and he with her, and yet because she's as stubborn as you are, she'll slam the door in his face the minute he makes the slightest misstep."
"Well, Christopher isn't exactly the finest catch Lorelai could make. Sometimes I think the man has never grown past sixteen years old. I heard him bragging to Rory's boyfriend one day about his collection of video and computer games."
"Emily, I think both you and Lorelai underestimate Christopher."
"Oh, I take after Lorelai again, do I?"
"No, she's the spitting image of you. You both have about half the confidence in Christopher that you should have, and yet he can melt you both like butter."
"Well, if you hold Christopher in such high esteem, maybe you should have had a talk with him about his behaviour in this shambles of a marriage."
"Maybe I will. But may I ask, if you were so dismayed by this separation, why didn't you speak to your daughter, seeing as I was recovering from a heart attack and was in no condition to take on a heated discussion?"
"I have spoken to Lorelai. I have spoken to her and spoken to her every time she heads towards another disastrous mistake, and she always turns around and throws my advice in my face by doing exactly the opposite of what I suggested."
"For goodness' sake, Emily, don't talk in sweeping generalities. Give some examples."
"All right: in the last three years alone, I told her I didn't approve of Luke, and she dated him; then when he broke up with her and she was miserable I took pity on her and sanctioned the relationship. We bought a house for them, sent out save the date cards and did everything short of outright misrepresentation to make Luke appear at least somewhat palatable to our social circle. Then we find out Lorelai and Luke have not only postponed their wedding, they've ended their relationship outright."
"And both of us very wisely held our tongues about that. We agreed that Lorelai was too old for us to give judgments about her relationships. "
"Exactly. And that was why I kept my congratulations to a minimum when they announced their marriage, and why I didn't say a word when Lorelai told me she and Christopher had separated."
"Although you were deeply upset."
"Well of course I was, Richard. I had to take back all those wedding invitations, not to mention endure all the looks from friends. If you hadn't needed my constant attention I probably would have taken to my bed again."
"I wasn't such an invalid that you couldn't spare a moment to give your daughter some motherly advice. We agreed we wouldn't condemn her, not stop sharing our opinions."
"I'm finished with giving opinions and dispensing advice, Richard. It has fallen on deaf ears every single time since Lorelai was thirteen years old."
"And that was why you launched into a tirade at her last night?"
"It wasn't a tirade, it was simply righteous indignation. I thought Lorelai and I were finally getting back on good footing. Now I feel as though I've just opened up the San Antonio fault line."
"That's it. I'm going to call Christopher this evening and ask him to join me for a game of golf on Saturday."
"You are in no condition to golf. The doctor told you to refrain from strenuous physical activity for three months."
"And it's been nine months since my heart attack."
"I still don't approve."
"What would you approve of, then? Another sixteen year-long rift between us and our daughter? I haven't agreed with many of Lorelai's choices over the years any more than you have, but someone has to do something. Christopher is a sensible young man. If anyone is going to accept reason here, it will be Christopher."
Several days later, Christopher was sitting at home early in the morning, drinking coffee and mulling over his unexpected golf game with Richard. Richard had always been friendly to him, and Christopher had almost assumed this game was just a belated peace offering from an ex-father-in-law. After all, Richard wasn't Emily.
The first sixteen holes had seemed to be that--a friendly golf game. Richard played a pretty good game for his age, but by the sixteenth hole, Christopher had a three-shot advantage. He was just starting to feel comfortable and competitive when Richard suddenly said, after shooting his ball into a stand of trees,
"So, have you been seeing much of Lorelai these days?"
"Ah, well, occasionally, but we're like most couples who've split up. We don't have too many occasions to see each other."
"That's too bad. I'd hoped you'd be working things out right now."
Christopher was in no mood for subtleties. "Emily told you about our little gazebo encounter, huh?"
"What? Oh, yes, Emily mentioned that she found you and Lorelai in the gazebo. Quite frankly, I didn't understand why she was so upset."
"I've let your family down enough times. It was probably just the last straw."
"Nonsense. Emily just gets a bee in her bonnet about nothing sometimes. She and Lorelai are too much alike. I remember when she and I separated. I thought she was never going to take me back."
"Look, Richard, Lorelai and I didn't separate over any one thing. She just didn't want to be with me. That's the end of the story."
"Emily said very similar things to me. She told me we were over for good. And I must admit I responded in kind."
"That's not it. Lorelai and I just grew away from each other."
"I saw the way you two exchanged secret messages over our heads at Rory's graduation. Growing apart is one explanation I won't accept."
"That was the explanation I got."
"Christopher, Lorelai is Emily's daughter. She says what she thinks she means, but that's rarely the whole story. I have no idea why Lorelai took it into her head to ask you for a separation, but I expect she'll regret her words, if she hasn't already.
"I'm not counting on it."
"You'd better count on it, because I am."
"Richard, it's a little late for--"
"It's not a little late for anything. Christopher, I've always respected you. You were a reckless boy, but you took responsibility and proposed when Lorelai became pregnant. You did the right thing with Sherry, but a sudden marriage can't undo twenty years of history. You and Lorelai and Rory are a family. Lorelai chose to go her own way at sixteen, but I always thought she would eventually--"
"Figure out she didn't want me."
"This may surprise you, Christopher, but I wasn't astonished by your separation. I know it's not easy living with a woman as stubborn as Lorelai, or Emily, for that matter. You got married too quickly and she dug in her heels. That doesn't mean she doesn't love you."
"Yeah. You know, there's a saying about actions speaking louder than words."
"They certainly do. I can see you don't believe me, Christopher, but I'll leave you with just one thought before I finish up this hole with a double birdie and even our score. Lorelai didn't wait nearly forty years to marry the wrong man. If you think actions speak louder than words, you'd better listen to that."
Looking out the window of his apartment, Christopher sighed. He was in a disgruntled mood. He'd thought he had his life all figured out. He was going to leave Lorelai behind and move on with Melanie. Why did it seem like the whole world was conspiring to draw him back into that unhealthy relationship he'd had with Lorelai? Christopher had always respected Richard. Richard could be formal and aloof, but compared to Christopher's own father, Richard seemed almost warm and cuddly. And here he was telling Christopher to hold on to Lorelai, to fight to win her back.
Christopher suspected that much of what Richard was saying was right. He was getting the feeling that their break-up in January hadn't been anywhere near as permanent as it had felt at the time. And he couldn't deny that there had been something between them that night at the 90th birthday party, even if he hadn't wanted to see it. Worse still, Lorelai seemed to have changed yet again. Once she'd have flirted around with all the eligible men at the party. Only a few months ago, as friendly as she might have been, she probably would have kept her distance from Christopher. Instead, at the party she'd seemed relieved and overjoyed to escape with him out to the gazebo. It was as though she really had no interest in anyone other than him. Even more bewilderingly, Lorelai had known he was with Melanie and that he wasn't available to her anymore. But she made no overt maneouvres to get him back; no matter what Emily said, she wasn't trying to stake her claim on Chris.
She was just being Lorelai. And that was the problem. When she was acting like herself, Chris had a weakness for Lorelai. He wished he didn't. But when they were standing beside each other, talking together or being silent and simply thinking together, things felt so right.
Last year, Chris might have been ecstatic at all these positive omens for his and Lorelai's relationship. But now--he'd been married to Lorelai. He had no interest in going through the work of courting her all over again, only to be met with another rejection. Sure, Lorelai might seem interested now. But that was the way she'd seemed last year—right up until the day they'd married.
Maybe he could ask her to something innocuous. Something that could fit either friendship, or romance. But then he had to deal with Melanie.
Chris groaned inwardly. He didn't want to give Melanie up. He really liked her. But the truth was, he'd been thinking ten times as much about Lorelai as Melanie in the last few days. And worst of all of Richard's words seemed to have imbedded themselves in his mind.
As had the way Lorelai had looked standing across the room at that birthday party.