How Many Words ...?

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter Two: ...Will Explain Your Mood?

The chair squeaked as she slumped into it and leaned back, surveying the room with disdain. The day, no the week had been long and hard, and she was frustrated and tired and stressed. She wondered how her life had suddenly turned into an existence consisting only of work, food and sleep. She had no social life to speak of whatsoever. Sookie was almost as busy as she was, and when she wasn't working, she had Davey to care for. Rory was off gallivanting around Europe with her mother (she would have smirked at the idea of Emily gallivanting, but she was in too foul a mood to gather the strength), and Luke, of all people to be away from Stars Hollow, was somewhere far away, being the good man that he was to someone else.

Yet another week has passed since their last conversation, and though she quite honestly wouldn't have had the time to put into a decent conversation, she still would have liked to hear his voice. But because of her commitment to her business, they had agreed to talk once a week, on Sundays, when things were supposed to be calmer. But now it was almost seven, and she had yet to hear from him.

Fed up with being inside the office, she decided to go home and make an attempt at relaxing. Maybe she'd run a bubble bath, have a glass of wine, forget about the rest of the world for a couple of hours.

After dragging her feet across the threshold of her house, she checked the machine for messages. The automated voice told her a call had come in at 6:37pm, then Luke's message began.

"Lorelai, hey. Um, I guess you're not home yet, so I'll try your cell. Otherwise, I'll try again in about an hour. Ok, bye."

"Crap," she said, stomping her foot on the floor for emphasis. Rummaging through her bag, Lorelai pulled out her phone, and sure enough, the battery was dead. "Crap crap crap. Damn it!"

Grabbing the cordless phone and trudging up the stairs, she cursed the fact that Luke still refused to get himself a cell phone. She didn't care how hypocritical it would seem, she just wanted an easier way to get in contact with him. Now all she could do was wait for him to call. Deciding to follow through on her plan of soaking in the tub, she entered the bathroom and ran the water before rummaging through the cabinets for her favourite bubble bath.

It was barely three minutes into her soak when the phone rang. She grabbed it quickly, grunting a "hello?"

"Hey, where have you been? I tried calling you earlier," he sounded happy, but it did nothing to improve her own mood.

"Battery died."

"Are you ok?"

"Fine."

"You don't sound fine."

"Wow, excellent deductive skills," she snapped sarcastically.

"Seriously, did something happen?"

"No."

"Ok, you know what? There's no point talking to you if you're not gonna talk to me."

Lorelai remained silent, thinking over what her next words would be. It was hard to get out of this mood once she was in it. Usually it took a good night's sleep and an extra large cup of coffee the next morning to properly diminish any sign of it.

"Fine. I'm gonna go. I'll talk to you next week," his voice woke her from her daze, and the idea of surviving yet another week without a decent conversation reminded her how she'd gotten into her mood in the first place.

"Why did you have to go away?" she blurted out before he could hang up.

"What do you mean? You know why I'm here."

"I mean, how is it that after thinking this summer was going to be so great, I've ended up stuck here alone?"

"Ah, so that's what this is about."

"The two people I wanted to spend most of my time with are gone, and I'm going nuts!"

"What about Sookie?"

"She's as busy as I am, and she already has a family that takes precedence over me."

"It's only another six weeks."

"Don't do that. It doesn't help."

"Sorry."

She sighed regretfully. "No I'm sorry. I'm not the greatest company right now."

"It's ok, I understand. I think you need to get a good night's sleep, and take a day off from work."

"You know I can't."

"Why not? I thought Michel was there for a reason."

"Nevermind," she paused, sighing again. "Maybe you're right. I should just go to bed and hope I feel better tomorrow."

"Ok. I'll try to call you in a couple days. Things get pretty hectic during the week, but I'll try."

"Ok, good." She finally found a reason to smile for the first time that evening.

"Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight Luke."

"Bye."

--

TBC

Ok, so now that ep 1 has aired, and DAMN LUKE for being a big fat (ok, big sexy muscly) hypocrite and buying himself a cell phone, I had to go through the debate – change or not to change, that is the question? I decided to keep the story as is, otherwise, this story could go on for years. At least by limiting their phone access, I can keep the fic to a more manageable number of chapters, and can also maximise the tension. So there ya go, Luke will be payphoning it for the remainder of this story.