___
Sunday night, upstairs, Jess says: "So, I hear you have a date with Lorelai."
Luke smiles. "Yeah. Got something to say about it?"
"Nope, just asking. Congratulations. Glad you finally did it."
"Thanks."
"Uh huh. So, where are you taking her?"
Oh, hell. Luke stops folding his laundry, stares off into space.
"Don't tell me you haven't even thought about it yet?" Jess smirks.
Luke hasn't. He didn't even know for sure he was going to ask her until
just before the words came out of his mouth.
He looks at Jess. "Uh, well..."
"Good luck with that," says Jess, and goes back to his book.
***
The week leading up to Luke and Lorelai's first date is a good sort of weird.
Specifically, things are weird whenever Lorelai comes into the diner. They don't seem quite sure how to act around each other. There is a sense of newness to the whole thing, like they've just met. Sure, they have known each other for a number of years; but they also have spent nearly the last two months apart -- aside from the small matter of a couple of tension-fraught kisses.
She comes in first thing Monday morning, alone, and walks up to the counter and sits.
"Hi," he says, when he sees her, feeling his pulse pick up a little
"Hi," Lorelai says.
There is an awkward silence. "Well, glad we got that out of the way," she says. "Can I have some coffee?"
Luke realizes he has just been standing there staring at her, because after her long absence from the diner he's still adjusting to the idea that she's really there. "Oh, uh, yeah, of course."
They chat for a moment, and then he goes to wait on some other customers. When he comes back she says "I missed you," which catches him off-guard and he says "I missed you too," simply and sincerely, without really thinking about it.
Lorelai looks at him a little oddly.
"Oh," he says. "You mean just then while I was gone for five minutes."
"Yeah," says Lorelai.
"So you were joking."
"Yeah," she says. "But you can take it as one of those jokes people make in order to thinly disguise the truth." And while Luke is still thinking that over, she finishes her coffee and says, "Have to get to work now. See you later." She smiles and is gone.
***
In addition to the other weirdness, there is this bizarre clothes thing happening. Luke doesn't even notice he's doing it at first; but by Wednesday he is suspiciously clean-shaven and the flannels have been replaced by denim workshirts. By Thursday the baseball cap is gone. Somehow it just happens.
And he is hardly the only one; every single day Lorelai has on an outfit he's never seen before. And if it isn't a long slit skirt with strappy high heels, then it's a glimpse of bare midriff or a top cut so low that Luke is in serious danger of injuring himself through distraction. And there are none of her usual running-late, rumpled, makeupless mornings; and she's always got a hint of perfume about her; and her hair is always down, long and glossy; and she's always smiling at him and accidentally brushing his hand or his arm with her own, and what is this all about?
They're both nervous and awkward and stuttering and flirting, that's what. Flirting to the point that Rory rolls her eyes and gets up and leaves on more than one occasion. "Because, ewww?" she says.
But it is not Luke's fault; Lorelai is doing all this body-language stuff, stuff Luke never really noticed before. She leans over the counter seductively. She traces circles with a fingertip around the rim of her coffee cup seductively. She smiles and she stretches out her long legs and twirls her hair around her fingers seductively. She eats her donuts seductively.
Ok, maybe Luke is projecting a little, but still, he could sit and watch her eat those damned donuts all day. He can't keep his eyes off her, and he has to stop himself from pulling her into the storeroom whenever she comes in alone and sits at the counter and leans over in her low-cut top and looks at him with... that look.
It makes him realize just how tame his repertoire of Lorelai fantasies over the years has been.
And there is the matter of the date, overshadowing the whole thing. I am going on a date with Lorelai, thinks Luke two, three thousand times a day.
It takes him most of the week to figure out where to take her. This would be such an easy thing to mess up. Obviously, anything even remotely resembling fishing is out. He could take her to a fancy, expensive restaurant, but he knows that Lorelai has had plenty of fancy and expensive in her life, and all it would do is make them both nervous and uncomfortable.
He considers cooking her dinner at her place. He's got a couple of pretty good recipes down now that are too complicated for the diner. But he's also been cooking for her for years, so the novelty is sort of gone. And, (he can't quite keep himself from hoping), there's plenty of time for romantic candlelit dinners in the future.
He could do something corny like pack a picnic and go to a park, but he can't get out of the diner until late afternoon at the earliest and it's getting warm enough for bugs. Plus it's, well, corny.
But he finally comes up with a plan.
It's not perfect, but it's a plan.
***
Friday afternoon, Lorelai comes in for coffee before her weekly parental dinner.
"So, we still on for tomorrow?" she asks.
Luke smiles at her. Smiling at Lorelai is starting to feel natural. "Unless you've changed your mind."
"It was touch and go there for a while, but Jude's going to try to manage without me."
"Good to hear."
"You haven't told me where we're going or anything. What should I wear?"
"Comfortable shoes."
"Huh? We're not doing something outdoorsy, are we?"
"I said comfortable shoes, not hiking boots."
She looks relieved. "Ok! No six-inch heels, check." But then she licks her lips and leans over. Damn her. "Is that all I should wear, or should I toss in a raincoat?"
Luke starts to drift, has to push the visual out of his mind. He clears his throat, ignores her question. "Casual is fine. Also, I think we should take your Jeep. I know my truck's a chick magnet and all, but it's kind of rough for a ride all the way to Hartford."
"Excuse me? Hartford? We're going to Hartford? Did Emily put you up to this?"
"Yes, your mother and I chat all the time. We thought we'd get the whole awkward first-dinner-with-the-parents thing out of the way up front," Luke stops rearranging the muffin display, pauses as if in thought. "You know, she was a little worried that you wouldn't want to go there two nights in a row, but I assured her that you always tell me how much you enjoy your Friday night dinners with them."
Lorelai stares at him, horrified.
After a moment, Luke says "Uh, all that? Was a joke."
"Don't do that!" shrieks Lorelai. "My life just flashed before my eyes. Oh, wait, that was your life, because I was going to kill you with your own muffin-tong-thingies. What the hell are those called anyway?"
"I see you're back in full caffeine addiction."
"Speaking of which, refill please."
Miss Patty comes in at that moment, and walks up to the counter next to them. "Luke! Lorelai! How are you, darlings? It's so nice to see you kids getting along again."
"Yes," says Lorelai, "Luke finally realized he couldn't live without seeing me here in the diner, and he begged me to come back. I was reluctant, but I decided that it would be cruel of me to deny him such a simple request."
Luke glares at her. She smiles at him. His glare melts.
"In fact," says Miss Patty, as though she hasn't really been listening, "I don't think I've ever seen you two getting along so well."
"Lorelai finally started taking her medication," says Luke, which earns him a glare in return from Lorelai. He grins at her, but she gives him a You'll pay for that later look.
"You two are really adorable," says Miss Patty.
"Ain't we just," says Lorelai, and she smiles her real smile at Luke.
Luke smiles back.
Really, his face is starting to hurt from all the smiling. And he
doesn't care.
***
Saturday afternoon, Luke has showered, and shaved (it's getting to be habitual), but he's having a hard time deciding what to wear. He doesn't want to wear any of his diner clothes, but he doesn't want to go all out with the stuff he used to wear for his more upscale dates with Nicole. He compromises with newish jeans and a long-sleeved dress shirt of dark blue cotton. He tosses his black leather jacket over one arm in case the temperature drops.
He drives to Lorelai's house, and then the nervousness really kicks in. He didn't feel this way before his first date with Nicole; he's pretty sure he hasn't felt like this since high school. This is absurd; he's known Lorelai for years, but there it is. He's fidgety and his stomach feels unmoored, like it's going to just float away. He taps the steering wheel with his fingers as he drives, listens to the radio. None of it helps.
The nervousness hits a peak when he has to do the walk to her front door. But then it's over and Rory has answered the door. "Hey Luke!" she says. "You look nice. Mom's almost ready, but you know how that goes."
"I can only imagine," Luke says. "So, are you and Jess hanging out tonight?"
"Yeah," she says. "I think we'll go see a movie or something." She looks a little sad. "We're sort of trying to spend as much time together as possible, before... you know..."
"Before graduation, and your trip to Europe, and college and all that?"
"Exactly." She smiles in a brittle way. He can see she really doesn't want to talk about it. "So, I can't believe you and Mom are finally going on a date!"
"Finally?"
"Well, you know... Everyone thought this would happen a lot sooner."
"I guess your mother and I are just a little slow-witted sometimes."
"Speak for yourself!" says Lorelai, coming down the stairs. Then she stops when she sees Luke. "Oh god," she says.
"What?" Luke asks. But then he sees it too. She's wearing jeans and a dark blue cotton long-sleeved shirt, a black jacket draped over her arm. Granted, her jeans are a lot tighter than his, and her shirt is low-cut and long and tailored and girly, with carved black buttons and black stitching on the collar, but the shade of blue is almost the same as Luke's.
"This," says Rory, "Is the cutest thing I've ever seen in my entire life." She looks thoughtful. "I guess cotton really is the fabric of our lives."
"Oh, god," repeats Lorelai. Luke smiles.
Rory is giggling now, and says "Wait, let me get the camera!"
"Don't you dare," says Lorelai. "I should go change."
"Why?" ask Rory and Luke at the same time.
"Because, hello, twins?"
"You look great," says Luke. And she does. Her hair is done up in ringlets, and her face is glowing but not obviously made up. She's wearing a choker-type necklace with black stones that sort of match the buttons of the shirt.
"It's fine," says Rory. "No one's gonna notice who isn't us."
"You sure?" she asks.
"Positive."
"All right." Lorelai turns her attention to Luke. "You do look nice," she says, smiling. "Very nice."
"Thank you. Ready?"
***
They make painful, nervous small talk during the drive, stuff that is so pointless Luke can barely remember it five minutes later. They chat about the weather. They chat about the diner. They chat about the Inn.
Finally, as they get into Hartford proper and are stopped at a red light, Lorelai says, "That's it, I can't take this nervous chatter thing any more, this is exhausting. And this is me talking. We need alcohol, stat. Where are you taking me?"
Luke points at the sign on the other side of the intersection: HARTFORD MILLS MALL. Underneath it hangs a banner that reads: GRAND OPENING.
Lorelai looks at the sign, gasps; looks at Luke, looks back at the sign.
Then she turns to Luke and says: "Did I ever tell you you're my hero?"
***
Continued in Chapter Seven