Lorelai stared off into space at the desk.

"Excuuuse me, but I don't remember having a potted plant here, and I do not like potted plants, I'm not Paul James on HGTV, so Lorelai please leave me alone."

"Oh Michel, you know you love me. Cupid told me so."

"Leave!"

Morosely Lorelai skulked back to the kitchen hoping Sookie would make her spirits light.

When she pushed the door open, she saw Sookie holding court with a ladle, and everyone was laughing about something Bourdain ate.

Sookie looked up and the laughing stopped.

"Can we help you?"

"No, hi, I just, thought, hey got any coffee?" she beamed hoping to ease the tension.

"Eduardo just made a fresh batch. Have at it."

Have at it? This was now the course of their discourse? Ugh. No Sookie, no Luke, barely Rory, and soon no Dean. She needed Dan Brown to write a Robert Langdon character into her life so he could decipher or decode all the mysteries of her life.

Rory sat in her crap shack bedroom, thinking about the three month anniversary date she had with Dean. Her mother had now "been" with Dean for about 3 months. Why was she thinking of the past, why was she keeping track of her mother's dating habits? She shouldn't have let Dean go, she shouldn't have treated him so badly. Maybe if she hadn't dumped him for Jess/let him dump her so she could get to Jess things would be different right now, and Rory would be happy in her romantic life.

Luke stared out at his diner from behind the counter. The din had lost its zing without the girls. His coffee didn't need reordering as often. He talked even less to people than that Ron Swanson guy on that tv show. Oh god, he thought, I look forward to interactions with Kirk. I need a hobby.

Dean drove down the slate gray pavement back to Stars Hollow. He was enrolled, and he was leaving in a week. They had avoided all conversation concerning the topic and substituted the repressed anxieties with harsh tones and short tempers. It had to end, didn't it? Realistically, could he ask a woman in her 30s to be in a long distance relationship with a college undergrad? So many men would be circling her trying to engage her in a real, grown up, full time local relationship. This was pure agony.

As he drove past the square, he saw her, standing in front of the bookstore window, thick black hair cascading down her back, red leather boots climbing up her calves, and as he stopped to gaze wistfully, she turned to fully face Dean. They were motionless, separated by one street lane, looking into each other's eyes, sad.

Lorelai broke eye contact first, head down, slowly walking to her house. Dean drove off to his apartment.

When she was safe behind her front door, Lorelai sobbed uncontrollably. Sinking into the couch she clutched the pillows so tight her knuckles throbbed. After a few hours she rolled off the couch and pulled herself up the stairs. I'm like Sisyphus pushing the relationship rock up the mountain, again and again and again. I'll never be happy. Flopping down on the bed she pressed PLAY on her CD player. Linkin Park's Numb sang her to sleep

"And I know I may end up failing too
But I know you were just like me with someone disappointed in you"