Part 3

"Come on, Sookie," Lorelai said. "I have to meet with the contractor this afternoon." She slid into one of the booths and waited for Sookie to do the same.

Sookie remained standing. She looked nervously over her shoulder. "Did we have to come here? We should have gone to Al's."

Lorelai shook her head. "No, Al's having Japanese Week. Do you really want to see his interpretation of sushi?"

Sookie looked slightly green at the thought. "You have a point," she said. "I just…" She fidgeted. "I just didn't really want to come here."

"Why?" Lorelai asked. She looked around. Luke was debating something with Kirk. This could take awhile. She sighed and tried to will Luke to come over to their table. She closed her eyes and tried to communicate with him telepathically. She opened her eyes to see him still at Kirk's table. Damn. She resigned herself to the fact that she might have to get a to-go order and focused her attention on Sookie who was still standing.

"Sweetie, maybe you should sit down," Lorelai said. "You don't look so good."

Sookie bit her lip and sat down. "This is my first time seeing Luke since…"

Lorelai tried not to smile. "Since you sexually harassed him?"

"It's not funny," Sookie said looking embarrassed. "Oh no. I just thought of something. He could sue me. He's dating a lawyer you know."

"I know. But he's not going to sue you, Sookie. I'm going to sue him though if I die of hunger while waiting for him. Do you think I'd have a case?" she asked Sookie.

"No," Sookie said. "And besides you'd be dead so someone else would have to sue on your behalf."

"Would you sue for me?" Lorelai asked. She grinned mischievously. "It would give you a chance to go through Luke's briefs."

"Stop it," Sookie hissed. "Someone might hear you."

"Sorry," Lorelai said. She looked up and saw Luke approaching their table, pad in hand, looking grim.

"Do you know how long we've been waiting?" she asked him.

"How long?" he asked.

"Too long. Did you know that while we've been waiting for someone to serve us, Rory graduated from college?"

"No, I didn't know that," Luke said. "Send her my congratulations."

"I will," Lorelai said. "But enough about her, I would love a cheeseburger and onion rings."

"Alright," he said. "What about you?" His eyes remained on the pad, not on Sookie.

"Soup," she said. "Lots of crackers. And a banana."

"Right," Luke said. "Because bananas are…"

"Yeah. And my stomach's been…"

Luke looked up from his pad. "Do you want the crackers now?"

"No," Sookie said looking down at the table. "With the soup. Thanks."

He nodded in their general direction and practically ran from their table. Lorelai waited until he was out-of-earshot before she turned to her friend.

"He hates me," Sookie said miserably.

"He doesn't hate you," Lorelai said. "Why are you so worried all of a sudden? We all joked about it afterward. Remember?"

"You and I joked about it," Sookie emphasized. "Not him. He didn't play along. It might have made things worse."

"You two need to talk about this," Lorelai said.

"No," she said shaking her head. "It's too uncomfortable."

"So what's going to happen?" she asked. "You'll never come in here again? You're going to ignore him?" You're going to avoid any social function that might include Luke?

"Maybe," Sookie said weakly.

"Well that's going to be a lot of fun for me," Lorelai said. "Seeing as I'm usually the one throwing the social functions. Are you guys going to alternate which functions you go to? Cause I'll need to plan ahead. This could get confusing."

"Are you joking?" Sookie asked her. She played with her napkin.

"Sort of," Lorelai said. "I'm just saying that I hope you two sort this out, because I…"

"It's not always about you, Lorelai," Sookie interrupted.

Lorelai opened her mouth and then quickly shut it. That was harsh.

"I know that," she said sharply, defensively. "What I meant was…"

At that moment, Luke came by with the food. He placed the plates in front of them and opened his pad. "Anything else?"

Lorelai grabbed onto his arm. "Are you busy?"

He gave her a look. "No," he said. "I was just going upstairs to change for my three o'clock tee time."

"Funny," Lorelai said. She got up from the booth and picked up her plate and drink.

"I'm going to sit in another booth and you two are going to talk."

"About what?" Luke asked.

"About what? About who's going to win. Personally I'm rooting for the clowns, but Rory kind of likes Chip and Reichen."

"We're going to talk about what?" Luke asked impatiently. "I have people to serve and as usual I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. What exactly is a Reichen?"

"She's talking about `The Amazing Race,'" Sookie volunteered quietly. "And I'm rooting for the clowns too." Her eyes met Lorelai's. "Sorry," she mouthed.

Lorelai nodded, accepting the apology. "Forget about the clowns for a second," she said.

"Gladly," Luke said. "Can I go back to work now?"

"No. Obviously you two had a…an incident…and it might be good to talk about it. Clear the air."

"I'm working," Luke said.

"Really Lorelai," Sookie said. "It's okay." She looked at Luke. "I can't eat this soup. There are carrots in it."

"There are always carrots in it," he said sounding exhausted.

"I can't look at them," Sookie said. "Can I get some onion rings instead?"

"I'll trade you," Lorelai said. "Your soup for my onion rings. Vegetable for a vegetable?"

Luke snorted. "Onion rings aren't a vegetable."

"They are in my world, pal. What do you say, Sook?"

"Sure, thanks. Jackson would flip if he saw me eating this," Sookie said greedily taking the rings.

"We won't tell him," Lorelai said. "And speaking of things we're not telling Jackson," she began, "You two are going to talk about what happened."

Lorelai didn't let him argue. She walked without a backwards glance and sat down at a nearby table with her burger and soup. Curiosity got the best of her and she looked over to their table. Sookie was sitting alone. She sighed and went back to scarfing her burger.

She looked up again when Luke put the bill on her table. "So," she began. "Did you talk to her?"

"No," Luke said. "I'm busy and there's nothing to talk about."

"Um, yeah there is," she pointed out. "She's embarrassed."

"I'm embarrassed too," he said. "We'll get over it."

She sighed. "So get over it now rather than later. Scoot scoot, mister." She gestured toward Sookie's table. "The place is pretty dead right now."

He frowned, but walked over to Sookie. Lorelai changed positions so she would be able to hear the conversation, but wouldn't look too obvious.

"Can I sit down for a second?" Lorelai heard Luke say.

"Sure," Sookie said. "Let me start. I'm sorry. It was an accident."

He took a deep breath. "I know," he said.

"And I'm sorry that I told Lorelai," Sookie admitted.

Lorelai jumped at the sound of her name. Fortunately they didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah," Luke said. He fiddled with his hat. "I wish you hadn't done that."

"And then we were teasing you. I shouldn't have done that either," Sookie said, shaking her head. "Forgive me?"

"It wasn't that big of a deal," he said. "But I forgive you."

"Good," Sookie said. "Friends?" She stuck out her hand.

"It wasn't that big of a deal," he repeated, but shook her hand. "Friends."

"You know," Sookie said. "It was nice having you there. It was a nice change from the quiet. I liked talking to you."

"Yeah," he said. "I liked it too." The door to the diner opened. "I should get back to work," he said.

"Okay," Sookie said. "Hey, Luke," she said.

"What?"

"We'll do it again sometime. The talking," she said.

He nodded. "Sure."

Sookie giggled, relieved. "This time without the inappropriate fondling."

Luke looked mortified. "Jeez," he muttered. He walked over to a customer.

"That went well," Sookie said as she walked back over to where Lorelai was sitting.

"Did it?" Lorelai asked innocently.

Sookie smiled. "Like you weren't eavesdropping."

"Never," Lorelai said. "Ready?"

"Ready," she said.

"Bye Luke," Lorelai called.

"Bye Luke," Sookie called.

He nodded at both of them and went back to the customer.

"Everything back to normal?" Lorelai asked Sookie as they left.

Sookie nodded. "Yep."

"Good," Lorelai said. She looked over at Sookie. She was grinning.

"Why are you grinning?" Lorelai asked. "You're thinking of his butt, aren't you?"

Sookie didn't answer, just smiled a secretive smile and walked ahead.

Lorelai smiled too and skipped to catch up to her.

The End