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Luke stood at the counter meticulously wiping down the surface and occasionally glancing up at the two women who currently commandeered two of the diner's tables. As if they had planned it right down to the minute, and he was convinced that they did, just mere seconds after the lunch rush ended and the diner began to clear out for it's late lunch patrons, Lorelai and Sookie arrived and announced their presence by pushing two tables together and placing their lunch order. When he tried to protest, and he did, Lorelai assured him that they wouldn't be in the way of his business as his afternoon lull was coming up and this was the best way to jump into planning that he wanted to be a part of since they could easily wave him over to ask his opinion. He couldn't really argue with that and made them promise that as soon as one of the tables that they were using was needed that they could give it up for actual paying customers. She gave her promise in the form of a smile.
Their planning in the diner involved calling him over anytime they needed his opinion, Lorelai trying to discreetly make phone calls to Rory to ask her opinion since she couldn't be there in person, and the occasional townsfolk that happened to be in the diner dropping by the table to offer their opinion. Since April had left a few days earlier, she couldn't be there for planning but Lorelai planned to fill her in the next time she called. He even had to shoo Lane away from the table a couple of times since Lorelai and Sookie shanghaied his employee to talk wedding plans with her. When he asked about Emily since he knew that she was going to be a part of the planning as well, Lorelai reminded him that they had weekly dinners at which she was sure her mother would present ideas and then there were the phone calls Emily had started to make during the week, so she was still a part of the planning without being physically there at the moment.
He stored the rag underneath the counter and reach for the coffee pot behind him figuring that at this point they would need a refill. Stepping out from behind the counter, he walked over to the pressed together tables which seated Lorelai, Sookie, and a vast amount of wedding plans. As he approached, he held he coffee pot in plenty of view.
"Refill?"
"Do you have to ask?"
That reply came from Lorelai as her fingers curled around the handle of the up and she lifted it up to him. The cup was easily filled as was Sookie's, though she requested decaf which required an extra trip back to the counter. As he turned back to head back to the counter and the other customers, he was pulled back to the table by Lorelai who had a binder open in front of her with several magazines articles slipped in plastic coverings.
"So," Lorelai began as a beaming smile stretched across her face. "You know how we haven't really decided on a date yet because we're still not sure where to hold the wedding?" she asked.
Luke nodded his head. "Yes."
"Well..." Lorelai started to say but was interrupted by Sookie squealing.
"We know the place!"
"Sookie," Lorelai cut her friend off. "Let me."
Sookie pretended to zip her lips then throw away the key before she bobbed her head up and down excitedly and gestured for Lorelai to go on and tell him.
"Anyways," Lorelai said tilting her head up to look at Luke. "I know we discussed the town square but I really think we should do it at the Dragonfly. We have dates open and I think it will be perfect."
"It's where you had your first kiss!" Sookie couldn't help herself.
Luke blushed and Lorelai emphasized, "And second kiss." She gave his hand a squeeze, "It is a special place for us but more than that, we've thrown beautiful weddings there before. We have plenty of space for the ceremony and the reception, of course we'll bring the chuppah in and use it in the ceremony. You invested in the inn, in me, and I think it will be perfect for our wedding. And I have an in with the owner so I can get it for practically nothing. What do you think?"
"I think The Dragonfly sounds great," Luke answered her question.
"Great but not perfect?" Sookie immediately questioned.
"Ignore her," Lorelai ordered but promised Sookie that she wasn't being mean, she just wanted Luke's opinion without any sway from her. "So what do you think?"
He avoided Sookie's questioning gaze and focused on Lorelai. "I think we should get married at the Dragonfly." He knelt down so he was just speaking to her. "It was your dream and you worked hard for it. Let's get married there."
She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Dragonfly it is then." She braced her hand on him and helped him back up to a standing position, making an 'old man' comment when she heard the sound of his joints popping. Then she gestured to shoo him away from the table. "You're free to go back to work now, that's all I needed."
"Remember if a customer comes in and needs this table -"
Lorelai spoke up, finishing his sentence, "Then we'll give up the table. At least one of them. I remember the rules."
"Good."
When Luke walked over to a table to ask the patrons if anything was needed, Lorelai returned to the task at hand which now meant documenting the official location of their wedding. She scribbled the location down under a list of possible dates in her official wedding notebook. When she heard a clapping together of hands and an excited squeal that she knew could only belong to Sookie, she looked up and across the table at her friend.
"Oh you two are cute!" Sookie exclaimed. "This is going to be a great wedding."
"And I agree on both things but we've barely begun planning Sookie. We have a location, that's it," Lorelai pointed out. "And a vague semblance of a date."
"We have more than that," Sookie argued. "We already know who's doing the wedding cake and food, that's me," she said excitedly. "And you already have your dress."
Lorelai nodded her head though she was having second thoughts about the dress. "I do have a dress," she confirmed.
"The perfect dress," Sookie detailed.
"Is is really perfect?" Lorelai asked.
Her second thoughts about the dress came a few days ago when she was home alone and was excited to try on the dress now that they were actually moving forward with plans for the wedding but when she did try on the dress, she was disappointed that she didn't get the same feeling she had the day she bought it. She was in a weird place that existed between liking it to wondering why she ever thought it was the perfect dress.
"You said it was the perfect dress," Sookie reminded her. "And it's looks so beautiful on you."
"I know." She sighed softly. "I just...I'm not sure anymore."
"Sure about what? The dress?" Sookie asked and Lorelai nodded. "Come on Lorelai, don't do this. Don't back out of this, don't tell me you're thinking about not going through with the planning."
Lorelai looked to Luke who was busy with a customer at the cash register to see if he overhead but there was no indication that he did. She knew she had to act quick before Sookie started to hyperventilate. Again.
"Don't freak-out Sookie. I'm going through with the planning. There's no doubt about that. I just might not like the dress as much as I did when I bought it."
Sookie looked like she was going to pout at this point. "But it's perfect."
"I don't know." She gave a shake of her head like that would clear the uncertainty about the dress. "Maybe I'll try it on again later, see how it feels this time. Maybe I was just having a weird day when I tried it on."
"I'm sure that was it. Try it on again," Sookie agreed with a smile. "I'm sure you'll love it again."
Minutes later, Sookie checked her watch and regretfully informed Lorelai that she had head home even though she would like to stay behind and help with the planning. Lorelai helped her friend out the door, reminding her that she did have to get home to her family and considering that they did work together, they could technically plan some of the wedding on the inn's time. Once Sookie was gone, Lorelai gathered the wedding planning supplies and stacked the binders on top of one another while moving the tables back into their original position. When finished, she tucked the binders underneath her arm and headed towards the counter.
"Headed home now?" Luke asked when Lorelai approached the counter and stood directly across from him.
Lorelai shook her head. "I think I'm going to head to the inn for a bi. Check the dates there again, scope out the place for our wedding, see if I can annoy Michel into helping me plan because he acts like he doesn't want to but the second we exclude him, he'll want to be involved. He'll get jealous."
"How many people are going to plan our wedding? Isn't that our job?" Luke asked.
"Yes, but it's also the bride's daughter, the groom's daughter, the best friend, the mother, the co-worker/friend, and every person in Stars Hollow that wants a convenient date for all," Lorelai listed off.
"We don't need to plan around them."
"I know babe."
Luke sighed and repeated information that he was bombarded with earlier. "But Babette made it clear that July won't work for her. Anytime before that is good though."
"The whole month?"
Luke nodded the confirmation and Lorelai briefly set down the wedding planners binders in her arms to scribble down the note.
With the note down in her planner, she leaned across the counter and was met halfway by him. She pulled back after he pecked her lips. "See you at home hon."
Luke tossed a 'see ya at home' back at her as she tucked her wedding planning binders back under her arms and headed towards the diner door. She gave him one last smile over her shoulder before she was out the door and headed towards her jeep on the way to the inn to annoy Michel into helping.
Arriving at home after a couple of hours at the Dragonfly, Lorelai was met by Paul Anka who she promptly fed and then fled the room since he was still self-conscious about people watching him eat. On the way out of the kitchen, she stopped and checked the messages that the blinking red light indicated that she had. There was only one, from her mother, informing her that she could have wedding planners set up as well as tastings and demonstrations for table placements and decorations, all it would require was a call back. She deleted the message and told herself to call her mother back soon to stop her from going overboard since it seemed that's were this was already headed.
She headed up the stairs and into the bedroom and them immediately over to the open closet doors. She slid her hands into the rack of clothes and pushed in two different directions, splitting them apart until the wardrobe bag that held her wedding dress was revealed. She pulled it out and hung it on the back of the door. Her fingers gripped the zipper and slid it down the length of the bag exposing blush-colored bodice followed by the tulle of a similar color. She slipped the dress out of the bag and hung it on the back of the door to look at it in all of it's glory.
Her fingers caressed the material that she once loved and swore was the perfect dress, Luke even said it was perfect -well she was perfect but she was in the dress at the time- but now she didn't feel like she felt nearly a year ago when the dress had been purchased. With their decision to have a spring or summer wedding, a strapless dress should have been perfect but she found that it no longer made her smile like it did before. Stepping back from the dress, she stripped off her jeans and sweater and dropped them into a pile on the floor. She pulled the dress from the hanger, unzipped it, then slipped it over her body.
Once it was zipped and the veil was in place, she moved over to her full length mirror. Her hands ran down the fabric, smoothing it in places that really didn't need to be smoothed down. She slowly turned from side-to-side and examined herself in the mirror. She even turned completely around and angled her head over her shoulder to get a back view of the dress. None of it really helped since she didn't like what was looking back at her. The dress being the problem. She thought it fit her like a glove so that wasn't the problem. No, now she had problems with the crystal beading along the bodice that seemed to be interspersed with what looked like flowers. The blush tulle no longer flowed like she thought it did before, and the cream, satin sash seemed out of place.
She turned her head when she heard the click-clack against the flooring that let her know Paul Anka had decided to join her in the room. She watched as she crossed the room and decided to sit next to her, almost sitting on the train of the dress.
"What do you think?" she asked him and only received a blank stare back. "You know you could at least do something so I know that you're listening to me."
Paul Anka continued to stare.
Lorelai turned back to the mirror and adjusted the veil on her head. She wasn't sure if it was her hairstyle, which was just looser curls than normal, but even the veil seemed out of place. She spent a few minutes adjusting it, brushing her hair to the side and then putting it to the back and then holding it up in an up-do to see if that made any difference but she found it still looked out of place.
"My head might be too big for a veil," Lorelai commented aloud. She looked down at Paul Anka, "But do not let my mother know I said that, she's the one that made that comment in the first place."
Paul Anka blinked at that moment and she took it as a sign of recognition that he was actually listening to her.
She spent a few more minutes trying to convince herself that did love this dress and that it was perfect but it was to no avail. Deflated, she marched back over to the bed and collapsed onto the mattress still clothed in the dress. She heard Paul Anka root around in the closet before leaving her alone in the bedroom.
That's where Luke found her several minutes later when he walked into the bedroom after calling her name several times when he entered the house. When he saw that she was in her wedding dress, he tried to back out of the room despite the fact that he already saw her in the dress once before but she called him back in.
"I don't think I like this dress anymore," Lorelai confessed when Luke sat next to her on the bed where she lay. She turned on her side, propped herself up on her elbow, and stared up at him. "There's something wrong with it."
Luke brought his hand to the side of her face, he gently ran his fingers over the smooth skin of her cheek. "You look beautiful."
His hand fell away as she sat up and crossed the room to stand in front of the full-length mirror again. "I don't know." She let out an exasperated sigh. "I loved it when I bought. I really did, now I just don't know. It doesn't feel right."
Luke walked up behind her, his eyes locked with hers in the mirror. "Are you happy with this dress?"
She answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I think you look perfect," Luke whispered in her ear. "But I want you to be happy. I like to see you happy."
She leaned back against him and his arms instinctively wrapped around her waist. She studied their reflection in the mirror. In her mind Luke wasn't wearing the red flannel that she thought looked so good on him, instead he was wearing a tux that she imagined for their wedding day. It was evident then that the dress no longer worked, it was no longer her perfect dress. She had no qualms with returning as she might have had before, instead the idea of going dress shopping again thrilled her. This time she could invite more than just Sookie and make a whole day of dress shopping. And this time Luke wouldn't see the dress before the big day.
"Take a good look at this dress," Lorelai said as she removed herself from Luke's arms and turned around to face him. "Because it's going back. This is no longer my dress."
"As long as you're happy."
"I am babe," Lorelai assured him with a smile. "And just for an extra precaution, the next dress I buy for our wedding you will not see until the moment I walk down the aisle."
Luke nodded his head. "Fair enough."
"I thought so."
He pressed a kiss to her lips then announced that he was going to get started on dinner and maybe make a phone call just to check in since he last spoke to her the day that Anna picked her up from their house. Once alone, Lorelai took one last look and at herself in the wedding dress and smiled knowing that she was perfectly happy with not using this dress that she once thought was perfect. All she had to do know was inform everyone else that her first wedding dress was out and there would be a need to go dress shopping in their near future. Of course, it would have to wait until it was their weeks with April again since her future step-daughter needed to be included.
Out of the wedding dress and back in her jeans and sweater, Lorelai headed downstairs and found Luke on the phone while simultaneously getting the supplies from their dinner out of the refrigerator. Once he said goodbye to his daughter, Lorelai took the phone just to chat for a few minutes about the young girl's school and friend drama and the details of the wedding planning that had been discussed so far. Their conversation was short and soon Lorelai put the phone back where it belonged and returned to the kitchen.
"So speaking of April – or really to April," Lorelai started as she made her way over to the counter where Luke was busy chopping veggies. "There's something that I should talk to you about, something my mother brought up the other night when they were over."
"Okay," Luke gave a nod of his head and continued to prepare their dinner. "What's going on?"
"Remember how I told you before that my parents wanted to buy us a house as a wedding present?" Lorelai asked. When Luke nodded his head again, she continued on. "Well as is turns out, that house is still available and my mother wants us to give it another shot; think about it again."
"What did you say?" Luke asked.
"Well first I told her that we had a house and then I told her that I would talk to you about this," Lorelai answered. "She said she spoke with her realtor and there's another couple that is interested so if there was a chance we wanted it, that decision should be made soon."
"Are we interested in that house?" Luke questioned. "We already have a house, this house. We renovated for more room."
"And that's what I told her when she brought it up again," Lorelai pointed out. "And I love this house, believe me, no one loves this house more than I do. But she did make a few good points about how little space we have here. Like this past weekend, Rory couldn't stay with us because there was no room. I love April staying here but I also wanted Rory to be able to stay too. It would be great to have them both here at the same time."
"It would," Luke agreed. "Especially since you wanted movie night."
"Yeah, but more than just movie night."
Luke stopped what he was doing and moved to stand in front of Lorelai. "I know. It would be nice to have them both here at the same time, let them spend time together too. Do you want this other house?"
"I don't know," she honestly answered. "I mean I really do love this house and there's so many memories here but maybe we do need something bigger," she admitted softly. "We've talked about wanting kids and with April's visits and Rory's, we don't have enough room here. Unless we just have develop a system to have one kid in here at a time. Though I don't know how that will work if we had a baby."
Luke chuckled. He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "Well it couldn't hurt to at least look at the house. It doesn't mean we have to move in there. We could just go look and then tell your mother we don't want it, if we don't."
"Yeah," Lorelai sighed. "I guess it couldn't hurt."
He noticed the solemn expression on her face. "We don't have to though."
She quickly shook her head, "No, it's not that. From the pictures it looks very nice. I think we should look at it."
"Then what is it?" Luke prompted.
"Just the thought of possibly not living here anymore, like when we had to leave the potting shed behind." She remained quiet for a minute then let out a breath she wasn't even aware she was holding. "No need to worry about that now, we're just talking about looking at a house."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine babe. Really," she added on when she thought that he didn't believe her. "I'm okay Luke."
"Just checking."
"I know."
With that, Lorelai moved to sit down at the kitchen table and enjoy her view of him preparing them dinner. She offered to help at one point but when there was really nothing for her to help with, really nothing that she wanted to do, she started the wedding planning again. This time using a phone book and then her laptop to look up nearby wedding dress stores to try and find somewhere suitable to find a new dress since her old one no longer worked for her. She found a few and made a list of them all the while listening to stories of Luke's day that always involved a good Kirk anecdote. Eventually the couple started to work in silence on their respective tasks, the only sounds in the kitchen being that of Luke cooking and Paul Anka walking around on the tile.
As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.