____
They stand at the mall directory, looking at the
restaurant listings. "Ok," says Luke. "It looks like our restaurant
choices are Ruby Tuesday or the Cheesecake Factory. But I'll understand
if you're overwhelmed by the lure of the food court."
"You know, in some cultures, Chick-Fil-A is the word for God."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Well, we probably can't get alcohol at the food court, so that's out. And since only one of these restaurants is named after a dessert, I think we know which one has my vote."
So they go to the Cheesecake Factory, and it's still early enough that they have beaten the dinner rush. They are whisked to their table by the frighteningly efficient, black-clad wait staff, who all seem to have walkie-talkie headsets dangling from their ears.
"So, you think this place is actually part of the Secret Service, or a separate government agency unto itself?" asks Lorelai.
"I'm voting Borg," Luke says. "Because, you know, the electronics attached to their heads and all."
"Right! And you do have that Star Trek problem."
"Shut up. What do you want to drink?"
"Well, the nervousness rating is still at DefCon One, so I think I'll start with a Long Island Iced Tea." She giggles. "Did you hear that? DefCon One - I made a spooky government agency joke."
"Do me a favor and act like you don't know me when they come to take you away."
When their waitress comes, Luke orders Lorelai's drink and a beer for
himself. Only after half of Luke's beer and one-third of Lorelai's
drink disappear do they finally begin to relax.
"I can't believe we're really here," Lorelai says abruptly, after more small talk.
"At the mall?"
"No, silly, on a date. You and me. Isn't it kind of weird? After all this time?"
Luke thinks about it; he thinks about giving a noncommittal answer. But the beer is buzzing around in his head, and so he tells her the truth.
"I think it's weird that it took so long," he says, and smiles at her
so it doesn't sound like an accusation. "But yeah, I know what you
mean."
"Exactly." And then Luke asks a question that's been nagging at him: "Did you really quit drinking coffee all that time?"
"Sadly, it is true."
"Why?" This is the one he really can't figure.
Lorelai looks like she's thinking about it for the first time. "I guess, because... I wanted to prove that I could live without it."
Luke realizes that she also means without you. "How did that work out?" he asks softly.
"I can honestly say that, other than the stretch of time right before I told my parents I was pregnant, it was the worst six weeks of my entire life."
"I'm sorry," he says.
"So am I," she says, and they have this silent moment that is much more honest than their flurry of apologies at Lorelai's house a week ago, and just when Luke is thinking that he might reach out across the table and hold her hand, they are interrupted by their waitress.
"Are you all ready to order?"
"Um," says Luke.
"We sort of forgot to look at the menu," says Lorelai.
"No problem, I'll get you another round of drinks."
And so the moment is over; they look at their menus.
***
They chat over dinner; and since they've had two drinks each they're pretty relaxed; and while they're waiting for dessert, Lorelai says "By the way. Not that I'm even in the least bit complaining? But I thought you were morally opposed to malls."
"I am. I'm making an exception. Don't get used to it."
"Does that mean we get to actually go out into the rest of the mall so I can show you all the cool stuff that you'll probably never see again? You don't have to buy me anything and I promise I won't make you stand there while I try on clothes." Her face is all lit up and she's clearly excited. "Come on, it'll be great."
Luke feigns indecision, even though this was pretty much his plan all along. "I suppose," he says. "But what if I want you try on clothes for me?"
Lorelai gasps. "Why, Mr. Danes, are you suggesting that I go into, say, bebe, and try on a hundred-dollar dress that I have no intention of buying and parade around in it for you?"
"Well, I wasn't specifically, no, but now that you mention it..."
And then the waitress comes and sets down a huge slice of chocolate mousse cheesecake in front of Lorelai, and she gasps again and actually makes a little squeaking noise in delight. The waitress looks amused and sets down Luke's key lime pie.
"Mmmm," says Lorelai, taking a huge forkful of cheesecake and whipped
cream and inhaling it. "Best date ever."
Luke watches her eat for a few minutes and then remembers his own
dessert.
***
Luke pays the check and they get up from their booth. On the way out of the restaurant, Lorelai stops at the to-go counter and buys another slice of cheesecake.
"For Rory?" Luke asks as they leave the restaurant and exit into the rest of the mall.
Lorelai laughs. "You're funny."
"What?"
"This is for me to eat an hour from now in the food court, as I gloat at the people who are stuck with Sbarro."
Luke looks at her.
"What? I'll get Rory a piece when we're leaving, so it stays cold."
"There's something wrong with you, you know this, right?"
"Be that as it may, I hope you don't think I'm sharing."
"Thank god for small favors."
And then Lorelai takes him on a walking tour of the alleged "cool" spots in the mall.
"How do you know all this?" he asks as Lorelai explains the hidden significance of the Discovery Channel Store. "I thought this place was brand new."
"Oh, all malls are pretty much the same. Although the West Farms mall doesn't have a Cheesecake Factory, so your instincts were dead on. Ooh, the Nature Company!" Lorelai leads him into the little store.
"Do you realize how ridiculous this is?" Luke asks. "Coming into a huge concrete shopping mall just to shop at a corporate retail outlet that specializes in selling you "nature", instead of just freakin' going outside?"
"Yes, dear," says Lorelai, patting his arm. "Try not to frighten the other customers."
They wander around, looking. Luke has to admit, some of the stuff is
pretty cool, like the big telescopes in the back and the fossils
that you can evidently purchase for your own home enjoyment. And the
nature "music" is sort of relaxing. Luke has always liked the sound of
rain.
He's still looking at the telescopes when Lorelai comes over to him a few minutes later and says "Hey, anti-capitalism boy, I bought you something!" She is grinning hugely and her eyes are shining, and Luke is reminded of the time he came into the diner one morning to find she had broken in and repainted it.
She takes his left hand and spreads open his palm, and places a small, silvery-black stone in the center of it.
"It's um, some kind of stone that I can't remember the name of--" she begins.
"Hematite," Luke offers.
"Right! See, I kept thinking "hermaphrodite" and I knew that was all wrong. Well, anyway, it's for you, as a reminder of our first date."
"You bought me a rock?" he asks, stupidly, because he's actually rather overwhelmed and he can't think of anything else to say.
Lorelai sighs. "It's supposed to be an emotionally symbolic gift, Luke. You know, something you carry around in your pocket for years and put on your nightstand next to your wallet every night, and..."
Luke is still rolling the smooth stone around in his palm, and when he looks up he realizes that Lorelai looks crushed, that's he's screwed it up.
"Sorry," he says quickly. "No one's ever really given me anything like
this. I don't know what to say." On impulse, he leans in and kisses
her.
And so their third kiss ever is a soft, lingering kiss in the middle of a mall, and the touch of her lips makes weird tingles go up and down Luke's skin. After a moment he breaks the kiss and says "Thank you," looking down at the stone again.
She smiles at him. "Better."
As they leave the store, Luke pockets the hematite; takes Lorelai's hand and laces his fingers with hers.
***
Lorelai has shown Luke a bunch of stores,
eaten her second slice of cheesecake and had an Orange Julius and two
bottles of water, and bought another piece of cheesecake for Rory.
Now they're in a store called Sanrio, where Lorelai is explaining the
traits of the rest of the Hello Kitty characters. Luke didn't even
know there were other characters besides Hello Kitty.
"See, Badtz-Maru is the rebel of the whole group," Lorelai says. "He's
got a bad attitude." She looks thoughtful. "Kind of like the Jess of
the Hello Kitty universe."
"You're hysterical. What is it supposed to be, anyway? A crow?"
Lorelai looks shocked. "He is a penguin, Luke. You know, Badtz-Maru
could kill you for saying such a thing." She
shakes a stuffed Badtz-Maru at him threateningly.
"Right. What's this seal character?"
"Hana-Maru. That's Badtz-Maru's girlfriend."
"Uh-huh." Luke can't believe it, but he's actually getting into
this. He wonders, as he has many times over the years, how it is that
Lorelai has the power to make anything seem interesting.
Lorelai buys some Badtz-Maru pencils ("For Rory,"
she insists), and they're on their way, holding hands again.
Lorelai spots the next store before Luke does, suddenly shoves her
packages and her purse into Luke's hands, says "Guess what time it
is!" and runs off. Luke looks up at the sign: bebe
"Wait, Lorelai, I was just kidding about that..."
He sighs and follows her.
Inside the store, a saleswoman takes pity on Luke and shows him to some
chairs near the dressing rooms. Luke piles Lorelai's stuff onto an
empty chair, and sits down and just relaxes for a few minutes.
So far things are going pretty well. Lorelai seems to be having a good
time, which is causing Luke to have a good time; even if he is getting a
little tired of talking and faintly wishes they could be alone so could
just show her how he feels. But he guesses this is part of the
whole point of dating; the anticipation of whatever comes at the end
of the night.
And the whole "end of the night" thing is an
interesting, scary subject to ponder. Luke is not inexperienced;
sleeping with Nicole was fairly by-the-book, but Rachel was wild. And
instructive. But for all the years he's been aching for Lorelai, he
never really let himself go too far in thinking of her in a sexual
way. It didn't seem right, somehow. He's a man, sure, and he's got the
standard urges which he takes care of in the standard way; and
sometimes he thinks of her, at the end. Never anything explicit.
But he's also, somehow, always had a very basic gut-level awareness
that Lorelai is probably as gregarious and enthusiatic about sex as she
is about everything else. He can just tell, by her body
language and her confidence; and the way she eats; and the way she
used to hug him, or touch him to get his attention, a long time ago
before things got weird between them. And she's spent the week
torturing him with it, with the clothes and the looks and it's
pretty much pushed him over the edge into thinking of her in, well, that
way. Frequently. Years of emotional tension have been replaced by
a near-tangible physical tension.
Well, at least it's a hell of a lot less
angst-ridden.
And then he's just drifting, not thinking about much, when he hears
Lorelai say, "Hi, honey," in a voice that should charge by the
minute. "Don't you think this would be perfect
for our cruise to Barbados?"
Luke sits up and gets a good look: Lorelai has emerged from a dressing
room in the shortest little black dress he's ever seen her wear, and
she's got on these black sandals with laces criss-crossing up her
ankles, and the net effect is to make her legs seem about eight miles
long. The dress only has thin straps and she's still wearing her black
stone choker, and all that sets off the luminescent skin of her
arms and shoulders.
As a couple of salespeople look on, she walks around in front of him a
few times like she's walking a catwalk, then she comes and leans over
him so they're face-to-face, incidentally giving him a pretty nice
view, and winks at him and says "Well? What do you think?"
Luke's mouth has gone dry and he has to swallow a few times before he
can come up with an intelligent response, which is, "Um."
***
"Luke," Lorelai is saying. "I know it was on clearance and all,
but you didn't have to buy me the dress."
"I know."
"I wasn't trying to get you to buy me anything. I
was just being, y'know, me."
"I know."
"Where are we going?" she asks, as Luke leads her by the hand down one
of the side corridors of the mall.
They pass some restrooms and payphones and such until Luke sees what
he's looking for. He points to the ELEVATOR sign.
"Here," he says.
Her eyes
are wide. She's playing innocent. "Am I in trouble?"
"Yes."
It takes forever for the elevator door to open. Empty. They go inside
and Luke jabs the CLOSE DOOR button, takes Lorelai's bags from her and
drops them on the ground.
Lorelai may not be surprised; but somewhere in the cognizant corners of his mind, Luke is. He's not sure when he became the type of person who would do this kind of thing. But there's really no time to think about this right now, because Lorelai has just bitten his lower lip lightly and dug her nails in harder, and the combination of pleasure and mild pain pretty much wipes out any linear thought he had left.
And she's still making those little noises.
After a few minutes, the elevator starts moving; someone must have
called it from the other floor. So they separate, reluctantly;
gather up the packages, smooth out their clothes. Try to catch their
breath. Lorelai's face looks flushed, the way Luke's feels. The
elevator stops and the door opens on a couple of women with strollers;
Luke and Lorelai make their way out. Luke's heart is still pounding.
"The competition was too stiff," he says, and then winces.
"I noticed." She smiles and takes his hand.
He knew there was no way in hell she was going to let that one go.
So they find their exit to the parking lot. Luke takes the bags from Lorelai, holds them by their handles with one hand and puts the other arm around her shoulders. She leans into him. They're both quiet as they walk.
When they get to the Jeep, Luke puts the bags in the back. Then he
leans against the Jeep, and pulls Lorelai up against him. She
cooperates; and then they're kissing again, and now Luke is starting
to lose count of how many times they've kissed. After a minute or
two, he breaks the kiss and brushes his lips against the smooth curve
of her neck. She moans very, very softly.
But then she suddenly pulls away, looks at him, takes a deep breath and
another.
"Sorry," Luke says. "Too much?"
"Don't apologize," she says. "It's just, the parking lot and the car
thing and it's a little too, you know, sixteen."
Luke smiles at her. "When did you become the
queen of maturity?"
"Hartford?" he asks.
"Hartford," she agrees.
Trouble is, thinks Luke, they don't really have anywhere to go in Stars Hollow, either. There's no way of knowing where Rory and Jess are.
"I can't exactly tell Rory to just stay at your place with Jess," says Lorelai, apparently thinking the same thing. "That would just get too weird."
"Yeah."
She walks back to him, and reaches her arms up around his neck, so he just hugs her. And he can't help thinking: This is their first intimate, uncomplicated hug.
It's almost better than the kissing.
She laughs, suddenly, against his collarbone. "You know, it's funny, Jess and Rory are probably having this same conversation, trying to figure out whose house we're going to go back to. I never really thought about how to handle this part."
"I didn't either."
"A motel would be sort of seedy," she says.
"Plus, it could get expensive."
She looks at him and her eyes glint. "Very expensive," she says, and kisses him. But she stops before things get intense again, and pulls back, holding on to his hands.
"Well," she says. "Sounds like we're just going to have to wait until Rory moves out and go to college." She laughs at the expression on Luke's face. "Come on, after all this, what's another couple of months?"
***
Continued in Chapter Eight.