Paris shoved her hands in her pockets and slowly started to walk across the Harvard Green. 'I knew it was too good to be true,' she shook her head, thinking about Tristan. But it had seemed so real, so genuine. The way that he had looked at her at Bricco's, the way he put his arm protectively around her, the way they laughed and talked..... Paris sat down under a tree in the dark. Her books fell in a pile next to her. "WHY?" She yelled in anguish. "Why doesn't Tristan like me?" She whispered softly as tears wet her face. "Why?"

************************

The next morning.....

"Yes! Five minutes early," Lorelai sang as she breezed into the hotel. She was wearing a plaid skirt and a collared shirt with a v-neck sweater.

"You look like that catholic school girl," Michel said.

"Britney Spears?" Lorelai asked.

"No, that Superstar girl," Michel replied curtly.

Lorelai shrugged. "As long as it's not Britney Spears. I read at www.michellovesbritney.com that she went to a public high school." Michel looked shocked.

"How did you know about that?" He whispered.

"You bookmarked it on the computer, duh," Lorelai rolled her eyes. "It's okay, Michel. I'll keep your Britney Spears webpage a secret."

"I'm going to take a walk," Michel said in a clipped tone.

"...from anyone who is deaf," Lorelai called after him.

Lorelai went to go find Sookie in the kitchen. "Sookie!"

Sookie dropped her spoon in the pot. "Oh, darn!" She tried to fetch the spoon back out.

"Sookie, forget the spoon. I'll get you a new spoon," Lorelai said and grabbed a random utensil from the counter.

"But this is a bread knife," Sookie answered, holding the utensil Lorelai handed her.

"Luke semi-asked me out," Lorelai announced smiling.

"This is a bread knife," Sookie replied calmly.

"SOokie! Concentrate here!" Lorelai said, rubbing her temples lightly. "Luke, possible date, lots of coffee!"

"Bread knife," Sookie said, dangerously waving the knife in front of Lorelai.

"Okay, if you must be that way, Ms. Bread Knife," Lorelai said and rolled her eyes. She grabbed a spoon from the drawer and handed it to Sookie.

Sookie smiled brightly. "He asked you out!?"

"Well, no," Lorelai blushed. "Semi-asked out. But we kissed and we held hands.."

Sookie hugged her friend. "This is so exciting!"

"You were right, Sookie," Lorelai said, smiling. "He is the one for me."

"Ah-ha!" Sookie said and clapped. She dropped the second spoon in the pot. "My spoon!"

"Oh, geez," Lorelai said and rolled her eyes.

*************************

Paris opened her eyes and rolled over in her bed. Rory's bed was already empty. She sat up and stretched. Paris slipped on her flipflops and padded over the mirror hanging on the door. Her eyes were all splotchy and red from crying. After she sat outside thinking last night, she had snuck in really late to find Rory already sleeping. Paris couldn't help but feel an ache in her heart as she had watched Rory sleeping with a smile on her face. Part of her wanted to hang onto to Tristan, but the other half of her wondered what the point was. No matter how hard she held on, Tristan would always go running back to Rory. If Rory and Paris fell simultaneously, Tristan would run over to catch Rory first. 'And Paris falls....,' She thought of the irony as she grabbed her history book.

*************************

"Hey, Luke," Lorelai said as she walked into the diner.

Luke smiled and waved at her from the counter where he was waiting on a customer.

Lorelai sauntered up to the counter and sat down. "Hi," She said.

"Hi, there," Luke smiled. "What can I get you?"

"You know what I noticed?" Lorelai said.

"What?"

"You don't grunt as much as you used to," Lorelai smiled sweetly. "When Rory and I first moved here, I couldn't understand what you were saying at all... and as the years went by, I started to catch words such as 'health risk' and 'painful' and 'death'. And just a couple of weeks ago, I made out the entire lecture." She beamed at Luke.

Luke rolled his eyes. "I'm proud of you... Hey, isn't that Michel?"

Lorelai turned around in her seat. "Oh my gosh, that is Michel!" The two watched as Michel walked past the diner with a woman.

"That explains it," Lorelai said, spinning around to face Luke. "He's been taking a lot of walks lately. I thought it was for his health, but obviously.."

"He got a girlfriend?" Luke asked.

".. he got a therapist of some sort. I've been recommending one for years!" Lorelai said.

"Yours?"

"Har, har. I think I liked you better when you could only grunt," Lorelai replied.

*************************

"Hi, I'm Lorelai and I'm an alcoholic... Leave a message!"

"Lorelai, when I said to change your message, I wanted a nice professional message. And did I ever tell you that I hate talking to machines? I hate talking to machines. And that alcoholic thing is not funny.. alcoholicism is a very serious illness. Well, I'm calling because I found this really nice young man for you. His name is Gerald Presley. He apparently invented the Tic-tac or the Post-It or something...."

Lorelai rolled her eyes as her mother babbled on. "Gerald? Uck.. I don't want to be forever known as Gerald and Lorelai.. maybe Luke and Lorelai..," She smiled as she thought of Luke. True, they didn't have a real date as of yet, but both of them had fallen into some type of weird semi-seeing-each-other relationship. It was like he had attempted to ask her out formally a couple of times, but things just kept getting in the way.

"Gerald," Lorelai said out loud and rolled her eyes. "Gerald, you are so sexy.... so sexy, too sexy, for your..." Lorelai stopped talking when the door bell rang.

"It's open," Lorelai yelled out from the couch.

Luke opened the door cautiously. "I could be a serial killer, you know."

"But you're not, so come in."

Luke stepped into the living room. "Hi," he said and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Hi," Lorelai said as her mother's voice started to fade away on the answering machine.

"I was.. you know, I kinda didn't have time to ask you today at the diner.. but uh.. are you free tomorrow?" Luke shuffled around nervously.

'He's so cute,' Lorelai thought looked at him fumbling. "I don't know.. I think I have an appointment with my therapist," She replied coyly. Luke looked a little crestfallen. "But, since she's seeing Michel now, I think I could squeeze you in."

Luke relaxed and smiled. "Great, and I'll try to grunt as much as possible."

Lorelai smiled back. "OOoga Booga...I'll see you then?"

He nodded and left.

Lorelai jumped when the phone rang again. She picked it up. "Lorelai, change your message on the answering machine." Lorelai groaned inwardly at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Hi, Mom."

"Lorelai, when I said to change your message, I didn't mean to change it like that! What are you going to do if someone calls your house to talk about business matters?"

"I don't give out my phone number," Lorelai said, bored, as she twirled the telephone wire around her finger.

"Lorelai.."

"Mom, is there a point to this call, because I'm kind of busy doing... stuff."

"You probably got my message but decided not to call back. So, I just decided to call you again. Gerald Presley is coming to town."

"You make him sound like Santa."

Emily ignored her. "I expect to see you at dinner tomorrow."

Lorelai grimaced and slapped herself on the forehead. 'Tomorrow is saved for Luke.' "Mom, I can't make it tomorrow."

"Why, are you sitting at home trying to think of a better phone message?"

"No, I'm .. busy." The last thing Lorelai wanted was for her mother to get involved with Luke and her. She wanted to keep it a secret for now. "I have a lot of things to do."

"I expect to see you tomorrow. Remember, we had deal, Lorelai."

Lorelai groaned loudly into the phone. "Mom... you wanted to help pay for the tuition. I didn't ask for it. And now you want me to show up at your doorstop wearing a pretty little dress and perfect makeup and make conversation with guys named after dead presidents who invented completely trivial things, such as the Tic-Tac and the heated toilet seat!"

"An agreement is an agreement. You're not...."

".. getting any younger?" Lorelai finished. "I know." 'Rory's tuition needs to be paid.'

"I'll see you tomorrow night at seven."

Lorelai hung up the phone and folded her arms across her chest. She didn't want to go back and turn Luke down, but it seemed that she had no choice. But how was she going to tell him that she had to go to her parents to have dinner with another man. Lorelai sighed and got up from the couch to grab her jacket. She'd figure something out on the way to the diner.