"Lorelai!" Michel began scoldingly as he called the moment Celeste had left the Dragonfly.
"What, Michel?" she replied drowsily being woken from a dreamlike haze.
"I believe you forgot to mention something very important, Lorelai," he said, hoping she'd think of it herself.
What?" she repeated, not following.
"Why didn't you tell me SHE is the person you sent to take care of the weddings?!" he exclaimed.
"Celeste, yeah, why?" Lorelai answered in confusion, still not quite connecting the dots.
"Call her whatever you like but please have a courtesy to tell me when you're sending someone of her caliber to me, I would've worn a better suit," Michel huffed annoyedly.
"Oh…," Lorelai finally realized.
"Surely you must've known who she is!" he continued.
"Michel, I need you to listen very carefully now - nobody can know, okay?" Lorelai spoke slowly, trying to gather her courage to explain this very clearly. "She's a bit gentle when it comes to that subject, so it's best you don't mention anything, okay?" she explained.
"I already did. The poor girl went white in her face when I did. I apologized, don't worry - I'm not an imbecile," Michel described.
"Shoot, I better have Luke go over to talk to her, she must be pretty upset," Lorelai realized.
"That's why you always have to give me warning about these things," Michel's voice echoed as Lorelai's mind was already elsewhere.
Celeste had already been over to the Inn Annex, and as the place was fairly familiar to her already it really didn't take her long to get the general setup of things figured out. It did bother her, but she tried to push what had happened to the back of her mind, deciding to have hope that Lorelai's friend wasn't malicious. She just needed to get through the next couple of days.
"Hey, Evie," she now greeted, being back at the diner, waiting for her dinner, with her headphones on and video chatting on her tablet.
"Mommy!" Evie exclaimed cheerily.
"Did you have fun with Finny today?" she asked.
"We play - train, ball, park," Evie attempted to list, clapping her hand on occasion as if demonstrating how she catches a ball.
"Sounds like fun!" Celeste replied. The discussion continued for about ten minutes along the same path - Evie wanting to show off her strawberry patterned dress, which of course was no news to Celeste and she tried to explain what she had had for dinner.
"Things going okay at the Inn?" Jess asked after Evie's attention scattered.
"It's okay, I think I can handle it," she replied. Somehow here, in the diner, that wasn't yet completely deserted she didn't feel like discussing what had happened with him. Besides, she wanted to learn to manage her fears herself, having already done a few thinking excersised she'd learned from her therapist on her way over here.
"Wait, you're at the diner - with your headphones!?" Jess noticed then as Luke brough over her plate waving briefly to Jess on the tablet.
"Yeah," she relied confusedly.
"You should know Luke hates when people sit in the diner, eating and isolating themselves with headphones and laptops and such," he warned. Not that he expected Luke to hate her for it, but this was almost like diner etiquette.
"Oh, I didn't know," she replied apologetically glancing around her and clearly noticing Luke being a lot more friendly towards the customers that seemed to be doing the diner thing - eating and chatting - the old fashioned way compared to a couple of hipsters in the far corner, faces glued to their screens.
"I'm sure it's fine, just - I'd recommend you don't make a habit out of it," Jess chuckled.
"I won't," she promised smilingly, knowing that he only meant well.
"You know, you could call me back later… maybe when you're in bed or something?" Jess added after a moment's pause, appreciating her cute smile. He missed her already.
"Ah..," Celeste laughed at the flattery, adding, "we'll see…," as she teasingly waved him off, disconnected the call and began to eat her chicken tacos.
It wasn't too much later, perhaps ten-fifteen minutes or so as Celeste was finishing her meal, when he heard Luke on the phone.
"He what!?" Luke exclaimed a tad louder than he had intended, his hand placed on her hip, clearly seeming a little upset by something.
Celeste observed him hesitate briefly and then watched him walk over to her table.
"Hey," he began in a low whisper, as he'd taken a seat next to her, leaning his elbows on his knees as if beginning to tell a secret.
She waited expectantly to hear what he had to say.
"Lorelai asked me to make sure you knew that Michel is harmless. He's an odd guy, as far as I reckon he's just a deranged fan…," he tried to explain.
"Oh," she reacted, feeling relieved. She was surprised how fast news had travelled though, she just hoped that this direction of the news travelling was the extent of it. But at the same time she got an odd feeling, realizing that there were still people out there who not only had read about her but had actually enjoyed reading about her - and not in a scornful or envious way. Strangely enough, that felt good.
"Lorelai will make sure he keeps this to himself," he assured.
"Thanks," she smiled hesitantly, feeling strangely protected. Luke's words seemed so simple, yet genuine. Maybe that was what it felt like to have a family that cared?
Rory was in the middle of the dance floor, moving her hips to 'Shape of you" by Ed Sheeran. She felt as light as a feather, every part of her body swinging, hands in the air and thoroughly immersing in the rhythm. It felt like a shot of euphoria to be able to move like this, small drops of sweat beginning to form on her skin. The club around her was dark, just a few colorful beams of light flashing, a light sparkle of the discoball swirling above her, creating the perfect atmosphere. She felt so free, so good.
She was slightly taken aback as she felt a pair of hands move around her waist from the back, beginning to dance along with her, clearly enjoying the feel of her as she brushed gently against his groin half-accidentally. First just a casual curve of her back, soon more deliberately. As her arms rose above her head again, the pair of hands trailed upwards her sides, and along her arms, his mouth gently blowing hot air into her ear.
"You look amazing," she heard the man murmur into her ear, the music masking his voice. The tone was familiar though, even the scent of him, but she couldn't quite place it. The music pulsed encouraging the sensual movements to carry one.
It was then another man approached, the lights just masking his face, who began to dance in front of her, facing her - her body almost squeezed between the two men. The man was shorter than the other, more muscular, yet his moves were even more brave, not waiting very long to push his thigh between her legs, gently nudging her core. God, that felt good. The man behind her kept moving along as well, his open palm gently moving up her stomach towards her breasts.
Suddenly another man stole a kiss from her from the side, assertively, the stubble feeling ever so familiar. The kiss took her breath away for a moment. The dancing continued, the third guy continuing to kiss her neck, while the other two grinded against her, making her throb. She could feel the men becoming more confident and soon one of them slipped his hand underneath her shirt, tracing her skin until he reached her nipples, which he pinched, making her bite her lip. She'd barely noticed as her short skirt had been pushed up, the man from the side skimming her thigh as the other continued to grind against her wet center. Rory could feel the bulge the man in front of her against her thigh had, and another against her ass, sending shockwaves through her body, making her almost pulsate in anticipation for something more - and then the man on her side, having reached all the way up her thigh, slipped his fingers into her panties, making her let out a deep moan.
"Ace? You okay?" Logan asked, waking her.
"What?" she barely managed to breathe out. Her body was sweaty, her breathing rapid, almost panting. Her body felt deprived.
"Are you hurting?" he asked with concern, the moan having woken him.
"No," she replied, not wanting him to worry.
She didn't want to return to reality just yet. She pushed her ass back against Logan, and searched for his hand and led it down her pyjama shorts.
"Ah…," Logan murmured as he felt her being dripping center. Yet he hesitated - her state having seemed not quite up for sex these days. She could feel him doubt, but he didn't remove his fingers either.
"I just had a very hot dream, I don't want it to end," she whispered in the dark room. "I feel good, really," she assured.
"Care to tell me about it?" he asked, Rory sensing his smirk behind that question.
"Ugh…," she moaned as he began to move his finger along her slit.
"Tell me," he insisted in a low tone.
"I was dancing…," Rory said, only really managing to make out short sentences between his strokes. "And there was this guy grinding up against me…," she exhaled, moving her hips. "He was really hard, just like you," she added, curving her back to push back a little stronger.
"Uh-uh, anything else?" he inquired, as he began to kiss her neck and shoulders, as his hand continued to stroke her.
"There was another guy in front of me, pushing his thigh firmly against me…," Rory described, voicing another moan. The thought of his wife with a random guy, let alone two guys was definitely an interesting thought - a definite turn on.
"Like this?" he said as he pushed the back of his hand firmly against her core.
"Uh-uh," she agreed. "And there was this third guy," she began, stopping to groan as he began to circle her clit.
"Oh really?" Logan asked with a low satisfactory chuckle, biting her shoulder teasingly.
Rory turned her head slightly, enabling her to kiss him then. Deeply, hungryly their tongues demanded access into each other's mouthes - damn, how she wished she could just flip over and wrap her legs around his waist right about now.
But before she had a chance to really grumble from annoyment, his hand slipped her underwear down just enough, then repeating the same move with his and with a shift thrust he made her forget all about it. God, how she'd needed this.
It was perhaps ten minutes later, the two of them panting in bed, slightly chuckling at the scenario that had brought them to this state at 3 AM in the morning.
"Hey, Ace?" he began, propping himself up to his elbow, gently stroking her skin.
"Yeah?" she replied. Somehow this unplanned activity had relaxed her muscles perfectly - almost making her forget all of the uncomfortableness she'd been experiencing.
"You ever going to tell me who those guys were in that dream of yours?" Logan inquired with a smirk.
"How dare you bring that hussy to your daughter's wedding," the mother of the bride accused her ex-husband in the Inn Annex's foyer, loud enough for everyone within the 200 ft raidus to hear.
"That is my fiance and you have no right to speak of her like that," the father of the bride, a tall man in his 50s, replied.
"Well she's not going to be in the family picture with Lori and Mark!" she argued.
"Like hell she isn't," the man replied.
"Listen guys," Celeste stepped in, trying to resolve the quarrel. "Why don't you do one set of pictures with both the mother and father of the bride and then you, Sir, can do another round with your fiance. Besides I'm sure that on the happiest day of your daughter's life we can ensure that nothing shadows her special day, don't we?" Celeste added and gestured the two towards the reception table.
"Now, why don't you," Celeste said, turning to the mother, "enjoy a nice drink at the patio - Carlos just made fresh sangria," she suggested and sent her off in one direction. "And you, Sir, I suggest find your lovely finance and bring her over to the reception - I'm sure we could still squeeze a couples massage into your itinerary. Women love it when these gestures come from the man," she added with a smile and a wink.
Celeste sighed with relief having diverted the situation from escalating. It had been just one of the obstacles she'd had to resolve that afternoon, the outside caterer having mistaken the two Inn's and nearly delivered everything to the Dragonfly, being one of them. With just a few hours to go before the ceremony she headed towards the large dining hall to go over the seating charts.
"Oh hey," Sarah, the women who worked there as a nanny, noticed her. "You were here as guest once, weren't you - Jess' wife, right?" she recalled.
"That's right," she replied, "I'm just helping Lorelai out with this," she added, gesturing around the pink wedding decor.
"Wow, I don't envy you!" Sarah exclaimed. "I overheard the fight earlier," she whispered.
Celeste laughed politely, adding, "what's you gonna do," with a shrug.
"Is that little cute girl of yours around too?" she inquired.
"Oh, no - she's back home with Jess. It's just me this time," Celeste replied.
"Oh, I better not keep you, you look like you have a million things to do, but maybe if you feel up to it, me and some of the girls are going out for some drinks later, if you want, you could tag along? It would be fun to have someone new to hang out with," Sarah suggested friendlily.
It had been years and years since anyone had ever just casually invited her along somewhere, without seeming to have some ulterior motive. Sure, briefly she considered that maybe she had just been polite, but it wasn't like Sarah had casually mentioned going out and she'd referred to it sounding fun, making her inclined to invite her along. This seemed real.
"I just might," she replied. She knew she was not up for drinking as such, considering her meds, but still - going out sounded like fun.
"We're going to the secret bar after we put our kids to bed - so 9ish. It's just next to the Chamber of Commerce," she instructed.
"A secret bar? I'm intrigued," Celeste replied, curiously.
"I'll tell you all about it later," Sarah promised, seeing the caterer waiting wanting to speak to Celeste about something.