Disclaimer:  I don't own the characters, just the story idea.

Luke stood at the diner's counter bent at the waist, elbows and forearms resting on the countertop, fingers loosely threaded together.  His right foot was to the left of his left food and standing on its end, just the toe of his boot touching the ground. 

Business was slow.  There were no more tables to wipe down.  No irritating customers to yell at.  Nothing to fill, nothing to empty, nothing to do.  Luke was board.  But in a good way.  As he absently gazed around at the two tables of tourists eating their late lunches, he smiled at the thought of going to Lorelai's that night.

He was amazed at how right the monotony of domesticity felt.  It was Sunday, meaning they had first spent their night together three days ago – on Thursday.  Other than the cat poo incident, which neither had brought up again, things were going very well. 

He usually arrived as soon as he could get away.  Sometimes this meant he'd get there before the diner was closed, others, he'd have to wait until he closed it himself.  Last night he'd gone to her place after closing up.  She'd greeted him at the door with a kiss.  They'd walked with they're arms around each other's waists into the living room where they'd sat and watched the evening news.  Lorelai had complained about it, no big surprise there, and she'd eventually been able to talk him into going upstairs.

He marveled at her spirit.  She was so outgoing and confident in the real world that he had always expected (but never really thought he'd get to find out for himself) that those characteristics would carry over into the bedroom.  She was someone who couldn't get enough life. 

With Nicole, the sex had been just that: sex.  No real emotion one way or the other for either of them.  Not that that meant the sex was bad.  It wasn't, it was good.  But it was cool and detached.  Neither invested enough into the other to make a real connection or to make it a real loss when they'd finally ended it. 

With Lorelai there was nothing but connection.  Gone was the aloof, clean and polite sex with Nicole.  Lorelai made love to him.  And he made love to her.  He'd committed to memory the shape and curve of her entire body.  She had done the same.  Foreplay became less of a means to an end and more of a way to worship each other.  He found that he wanted nothing more than to lie next to her for the rest of his life, learning everything there was to know about her. 

In spite of all this, though, he worried.  She had not confided in him the reasons for her upset on Friday night.  He knew something had happened at her parent's house, but couldn't know what, couldn't force it out of her, and couldn't understand why she wasn't telling him about it.  But he was a patient man.  He could wait for her to tell him. 

Luke looked around the diner again and toyed with the idea of hiring extra help.  Fall and the holiday season always brought an increase in the tourists who came through and it would make sense to get additional serving staff.  He could make Caesar assistant manager, and he, Luke, could get away more.  Be with Lorelai more.  He wondered what she would think of that.  He wondered what Rory would think of that. 

Rory was definitely something to consider.  What if all this was too much for her?  What if she refused to accept it?  Luke sighed and unfolded his hands as one table came up to pay their bill.  He guessed he'd have to cross that bridge when he came to it.  Wasn't her birthday coming up?