Later that evening, Lorelai stood in front of her closet in a towel, frowning at its contents, when her phone rang.

"I have nothing to wear," said Lorelai by way of greeting.

"Oh please," said Rory, "like you even have to bother. You're probably going to take it off anyway."

"Hey!" exclaimed Lorelai, "but you do have a point. However, we're actually going to a restaurant, so I think the waiters might not look so kindly on my current towel dress."

"Wow. A real restaurant, huh? Are you sure you can stay awake through dinner?"

"Doubtful, but for Luke, I'll try anything."

"Awww. You crazy kids."

"Can I borrow something to wear?"

"All my good clothes are at school, but if you can find something in my closet, be my guest."

Lorelai wandered downstairs, and stared at Rory's closet with the same frown on her face.

"You have nothing to wear either," whined Lorelai.

"That's because I took my clothes with me to my current residence."

"I need to go shopping."

"Well, shop in your own closet, because I don't think store employees would like your towel dress either."

"Don't make fun of mommy," joked Lorelai as she surveyed Rory's closet once again. "Hey!"

"What?"

"This is my Strawberry Shortcake T shirt. What's it doing in your closet?"

"That is so not your T shirt."

"Yes it is. I remember when I bought this."

"Oh yeah? When?"

"Uh… well.. it was.. with the store, in the mall, with the stuff, and the… so Rory what's new in your life?"

"Well, actually, I was hoping I could talk to you about—" she started, but was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Shoot, that's Luke. I have to go. Can we talk about this later?"

"But mom, I just –"

"—well, if you hadn't spent all that time arguing with me over my T shirt, we would've had time to talk."

"You're the one who – never mind. I'll just, get advice from Paris or something. Then I'll have to kill myself."

"That's my self sufficient college student," said Lorelai as she clicked off the phone. She knew she was avoiding the issue, and being a not-so-great mom while she was at it, but she just didn't have the time or energy to deal with the trials and tribulations of college non-romance at that moment.

She opened the door, forgetting that she was still wearing her towel as a dress.

"Hey," said Luke, "is that what you're wearing? Cause I like it," he teased as he pulled her in for a kiss that distracted them both enough to forget that they were supposed to be leaving. As Luke's hands began to wander, Lorelai's towel began to fall.

Lorelai pulled away quickly. "Luke!" she exclaimed, "stop that!"

"Well, you answer the door naked, what do you expect?"

"I am not naked. I am wearing a towel. And now, I'm going to get dressed."

"Ok, I'll come back in an hour."

"Funny. Give me five minutes." Lorelai kissed him again and flew up the stairs, losing the battle with the towel about half way up, much to Luke's enjoyment.

An hour later, they were seated at Marino's, and Lorelai was already on her second glass of wine, just starting to feel the stress of the day melt away. With that, however, came the exhaustion, and her eyelids started to feel heavy. Luke noticed.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, in typical Luke fashion.

Lorelai tried to perk up. "Of course. I'm just really really tired. I've been working so much, and Rory's being weird, and believe it or not, avoiding my mother takes a lot more energy than you'd think."

After a long pause, Lorelai added, "I hung up on her today."

"Who? Your mother? That happens every day."

"No, Rory. I told her I didn't have time to talk to her. I don't think I've ever done that. Does that make me a horrible mother?"

"No, it makes you human. She's in college. She can figure these things out."

"I hope so. You know, I don't even know anymore. She used to be so – I don't know, determined, focused, independent. I hope that's what I taught her to be anyway. But lately, she's been acting so… so… not Rory. 'Friends with benefits?' That's not her."

"What the hell is that?"

"It's what you say when the guy you're sleeping with is also sleeping with several other women."

"Wow. This night is very educational."

"And," continued Lorelai, "she's blowing off classes to hang out with this guy and his friends while they go bungee jumping, or whatever it is they do? Also not Rory. Meanwhile, she's killing herself because she likes him, and he can't be bothered to call her back or pick her up when he says he's going to, or even defend her to his family. And I don't know what to do, or say, because she won't listen to me, and I'm not convinced she's going to come out of this ok."

"Lorelai," said Luke reassuringly, "take it from someone who worries unnecessarily about the people he loves… she will be fine. I may have to kick that Logan kid's butt, but in the end, Rory will be fine."

"I know," said Lorelai, Luke's offer to get involved flying right over her head, "But I don't even have the energy to talk to her anymore, because every time we do, we get into an argument, and it just breaks my heart to listen to her complaining about this guy."

Luke noticed that she had no response to his offering to kill Logan, and even though he was semi-joking, he knew she was doing it again – pretending like she could handle it all herself, more out of supposed necessity than anything else. He could not, for the life of him, figure out how to make her understand that he was going to help her, probably for the rest of her life, whether she wanted him to or not. The only thing he could do was keep offering, and hope that someday his services would be useful beyond fixing railings and cooking food. Unbeknownst to her, she had already done so much for him, and he hoped to return the favor, if only she would let him.

They sat in contemplative silence for a few moments.

"So… new topic. I met with Mike Armstrong today," said Lorelai.

"Who?"

"You know, the guy who wants to buy the inn."

"You actually met with him?"

"You told me to!"

"So what happened?"

"Not much."

"Are you actually thinking about selling your inn?"

"I don't know. If I did, I would get to travel all around the world and be a consultant for his company. I've always thought it would be cool to have a job like that, you know?"

"And you're actually considering this?"

"I don't know, I'm mulling. That's why I wanted to talk to you. I didn't want to go any further with this until I talked to you about it."

"Me? Why?"

"Luke, do I really have to spell it out for you?"

Luke looked down at his plate, both flattered that she considered him important enough to consult, and flabbergasted that she would even think about leaving him. When he didn't answer right away, Lorelai started to worry.

"So… what do you think?" she asked tentatively.

"Lorelai," he started, "I would love to beg you to stay, tell you that I would be absolutely broken hearted if you left. But you know that's not my style. If this is your dream, then you should do it. If this traveling thing is what you really want, then I can't stop you, and I won't try, because I've already tried that once in my life and I can guarantee you that it doesn't work."

Secretly, this was not the answer Lorelai was hoping for. She knew it was a little selfish and a little bit like fishing for compliments, but she kind of wanted Luke to beg her to stay, to pledge his undying love for her and tell her how much he would miss her if she left, and that therefore, she can't leave, ever. But Luke was right. She knew that was not his style, it was not in him to keep her from her supposed dreams, however damaging they may be. She knew he would cheer her on if she decided to become a professional fire eater, if she asked. He was the best guy she had ever known, and here she was practically trying to manipulate him into begging her to stay. The thought brought tears to her eyes, so she excused herself to the ladies' room to pull herself together.

Luke sighed when he thought about the prospect of Lorelai constantly being on the other side of the world from him. He had no idea how to even fathom that idea, so he did the only thing he could think of – he ordered dessert.

When Lorelai returned to the table, freshly mascara'd and lip glossed (Luke wasn't fooled though – he knew she'd been crying, but decided to let it go for now), she was overly delighted to find a huge piece of chocolate cake waiting for her.

"What did you do?" she marveled.

"I slaved over this all day," Luke teased. "It's just dessert, Lorelai."

"I know, but you hate it when I eat tons and tons of sweets, and now you're encouraging it?"

"You would've ordered it anyway. I just saved us some time."

"Oh I see, so this all part of your ploy to get me into bed."

"I wasn't aware that I needed a ploy."

"Why Luke Danes," Lorelai drawled, in her best Southern Belle, "I am appalled that you would think of me in that manner."

Luke chuckled, glad that the banter was back and they could stop thinking about the prospect of being away from each other for a couple of minutes.

"You know, I ran into Dean the other day," Luke stated as Lorelai gobbled her cake.

"Really? What happened?"

"Man, that guy hates me."

"Why?"

"Would you believe he's still stuck on Rory?"

"God, she's like a mythological creature or something. Every man she meets fall in debilitating love with her for ever and ever. I wish I had that power."

"You do."

"I do not."

"Believe me, you do."

"You're only saying that because you're in love with me and you don't know any better."

"Who said I was in love with you?"

"Shut up. And what does Dean being stuck on Rory have to do with you?"

"I don't know, but that kid really has it in for me."

"What did he say to you?"

"Nothing important."

"So that's it? That's the whole story? You just brought that up to inform me that Dean supposedly hates you?"

"Yeah, whatever, it's no big deal. He's like, nineteen. What do I care what he thinks of me? You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I guess," responded Lorelai. She knew there was more to the story, but frankly, she didn't have the energy to inquire. She would get it out of Luke eventually (probably when it wasn't even important anymore), and decided she'd rather worry about her own problems than something Dean had said. She would never admit this, especially after all of her efforts to be accepting of his relationship with Rory, but she really didn't have a whole lot of respect for the kid, and if he had messed with Luke, well, that would give her one more reason to dislike him, and she really didn't need that right now.

What she needed was to get home and go to bed so she could spend the next day figuring out how to train Sookie's replacement so that he and Michel wouldn't kill each other. She cringed thinking about it, knowing full well that Sookie should have done it two months ago. And while she understood not wanting to face the idea that someone would be able to replace you, it now looked like just one more thing she was going to have to do on her own.

Much later, Luke was still awake when he realized that his ploy, as Lorelai had called it, had not worked at all, because she had fallen asleep the second she got home. He felt badly that she was so tired, but found that he had been having the opposite problem lately. He had gotten himself so excited about buying the house and possibly starting a family with the woman of his dreams, that he was having trouble sleeping at all. He had started formulating plans for when and how to tell her, but none of them seemed good enough. He had to make sure she wanted the same thing as him, but he didn't know how to do that without flat out asking her, and that simply wouldn't do. He knew he was being ridiculous – this very problem is what kept him from asking her out for eight years, and look where they had ended up. But there was no way he could wait another eight years. In fact, he didn't think he could wait another eight minutes.

Now, he reflected on their conversation from earlier, and started to panic. What if she doesn't want the same things as him? What if she's actually serious about taking this job, and traveling four days out of every week? Not that they couldn't make their relationship work, but having kids was definitely out of the question, and maybe she wanted to get away from him. After all, this is the first time in her life when she's able to be an independent adult, with no kid to depend on her, and maybe she wanted to get away and be single for a while. Luke was definitely not going to stop her from doing that.

His mind racing, Luke got up, went downstairs, and started pacing around the living room. He had to waste his energy somewhere, and he didn't want to wake Lorelai up.

Several minutes later, Lorelai woke up to an empty bed. Luke didn't know this, but since their breakup, she always woke up when he left, worrying for a split second that he had changed his mind about her and was not coming back. She didn't hear sounds coming from the bathroom, and wondered where Luke had gone. The unfounded panic got to her when she realized that, as damsel in distress as it may sound, she had gotten used to having Luke there, and wasn't really a fan of waking up without him. Hmm, she thought, something to think about when considering Mike Armstrong's job offer.