A/N: I was kidding last time. They're not really mine.

Sorry the update took so long, guys. I'll try and be more on top of it this week. And thanks to all of you who've reviewed so far :)

"Can I offer you a beverage?"

"Excuse me?"

"Something to drink, sir?"

"Oh, sure. Apple juice, if you have it."

"Of course."

Lorelai poked him in the arm. "You know they have alcohol, right?"

Luke looked at her, then back at the flight attendant. "Make that a beer." As he shifted to the right to get his wallet out of his back pocket, his shoulder pressed against Lorelai's. She made no effort to move. He felt his face flush. Again.

For Luke, the flight had been a series of awkward hand- and knee-brushes. The two of them were in such tight quarters that it was completely inevitable, but he still froze whenever they accidentally bumped one another. Comforting her when she was upset was one thing, but the inch separating their bodies over the course of six hours made him very jumpy.

The worst was when Lorelai had put Luke's tray table down for him, accidentally sweeping her hand across his jeans as she lowered it onto his lap. She'd jerked her hand away from his crotch, mumbled some sort of apology and turned away.

He hadn't really been able to think clearly since then.

"And for you, ma'am?"

"Right. Um, a bloody mary, please." Her face was rather flushed as well, but she was able to hide it by leaning down to get her purse.

As the flight attendant arranged their drinks, Luke strained to think about something else besides Lorelai. Though he had tried this tactic before by turning his thoughts to Mia, he found it made him feel incredibly guilty to juxtapose those two people and the emotions they came with.

He focused on the flight attendant instead, who was inserting the celery into Lorelai's drink. She was quite attractive, he noted, as she flashed him a big smile and handed him his beer.

She handed off Lorelai's as well, but kept her eyes trained on Luke. "Anything else I can get you?"

Luke just stared at her, lost in his thoughts. The flight attendant cocked her eyebrow in his direction.

"I think we're fine. Thanks," Lorelai snapped. She turned to face her seatmate. "Unless you want something else, Luke?"

"Oh, my god, is your name really Luke?" The flight attendant gushed, clasping her hands together like a cheerleader. "I was going to be named Luke if I was a boy. Instead though, I was a girl. I mean, obviously I was a girl, but my parents didn't know until I, like, came out in the hospital. So they named me Sandi instead!"

"Well, that's… nice." Luke said. "Sandi's a nice name."

Lorelai was watching the exchange intently. "Now, is that Sandi with an 'I' or a 'Y'?" she asked surreptitiously.

Sandi had been staring so intently at Luke that she seemed startled by Lorelai's presence. "With an 'I' at the end."

"An 'I,' huh? That's so cute! And do you dot the 'I' with a heart when you write your name?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, and the woman quickly caught on that she was being mocked.

"Um, no, I don't actually."

There was a pause, and Lorelai decided to wait it out. Sandi spoke again.

"Usually I dot it with a star."

Lorelai ducked her head and pursed her lips together, trying not to laugh. Luke, who could tell she was on the verge of another antagonizing question, jumped in. "That'll be enough, Sandi. That's fine. We're fine. Thank you."

"Ok! Great. Well, just press the button if you need anything." She gave Luke a last smile, tossed her hair over her shoulder and continued pushing her cart down the aisle.

"What is wrong with you," Luke hissed.

"What? She was a total airhead. And she was hitting on you, it was gross. I had to do something."

Luke started. "Why did you have to do something? She was harmless."

Lorelai scooted away from him so she could properly look him in the eye. "But she was flirting with you!"

"So?"

"So… what? So… I tried to save you."

"You. Tried to save me. From the perfectly nice, attractive stewardess who was flirting with me."

They just stared at one another while Lorelai grasped for an excuse.

"Well, I am going to have to share a room with you when we get to the hotel, and I didn't want to come home and find a tie hanging from the door or whatever."

"Right because, you know me, I just love sleeping around with random women."

"Don't you?"

"No." He paused. "What, did you think that I did?"

"Well, I don't know. I don't know what you do after you close down the diner. Your apartment could turn into some crazy brothel as soon as all the customers leave, for all I know. Maybe you're having trysts with women on your trips to Hartford for supplies. Or you could be sleeping with your vegetable supplier."

"My vegetable supplier is Jackson."

"Yeah, well, I don't know. Like I said, I don't know what you do after hours."

"Lorelai," he said, giving her an exasperated look, "you've known all the women I've slept with."

She turned to look at him. "I do?"

"Yes."

She wasn't sure whether to press the issue or not, but she was really curious.

"So you've only slept with two women?"

He sighed again. "Yes."

"Just Rachel and Nicole?"

"For god's sake, Lorelai, Yes."

She didn't really have a response to this, so she let her thoughts churn. She'd always just assumed that Luke had some sort of history beyond what she'd seen, that being a popular jock guy in high school would've afforded him a wide range of women, and that he would've taken advantage of that, like most guys. She mulled over her new piece of information for a few moments.

"So when did you meet Rachel?"

"In high school. We dated for two years, then she disappeared a few weeks after graduation. She came back almost three years later. I didn't feel like sleeping with anyone in the meantime"

He was being more forward with his information than usual, she observed, and decided to take advantage of it. "So you… so she was your first?"

"Yeah."

"How old were you?"

"A junior in high school."

"And was that… you know, also her…"

"No."

"Oh."

The conversation was making her relax for the first time since this morning, even if it was sort of uncomfortable, not to mention uncharted territory for them. They'd never really talked this frankly about sex before.

And it was good to talk to him about something completely unrelated to the day's events, to have something to take her mind off of Mia.

They sipped their drinks quietly for a bit, and Luke glanced down at his watch- another couple hours and they would arrive. His stomach wasn't very settled, and he felt almost nauseous, though that had less to do with the flight and more to do with the situation with Lorelai.

He was having a really hard time digesting the idea that they would be sleeping together for so many nights in a row. Questions were bouncing off the corners of his mind, questions that he didn't want to ask because he didn't want to seem concerned about the situation.

But seriously, would they be sharing a bed? What if, if they did share a bed, he accidentally cuddled up with her in his sleep? He'd be mortified if that happened. Would they stay up and talk in the dark? Was she going to come out of the shower in a towel? God, was she anxious about this situation too?

He closed his eyes, and then reflected back on what they had been talking about. He suddenly felt embarrassed. It wasn't like he wanted Lorelai to think he'd been with a lot of women, but he was pretty sure that she'd been with more people than he had. Anyway, if she's allowed to ask, then he should be able to, too.

"And you?"

"And me what?"

"How many people have you, you know, been with?"

She pitched into a high-pitched southern accent. "Why, Mr. Danes, I don't believe it's appropriate for a gentleman like you to be askin' a well-mannered Southern Belle like me such questions."

"Ok, ok." He should've known this was a bad idea. "And you started it."

He downed the last of his beer and looked out the window.

"Four."

"Four?"

"I've slept with four people."

"That's it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, you know, I just thought it had been more." He braced himself, realizing he'd just accidentally insinuated that he thought she was a whore. Luckily, she just laughed and slapped him on the arm. "Luke! I can't believe you thought that!"

He smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Then another thought struck him.

"And now?"

"Now what?"

"Are you seeing anyone now?"

"Me? No. Single."

His stomach turned over, and he couldn't restrain the smile that was spreading across his face. He faced the window to keep her from noticing.

Lorelai, oblivious to his goofy grin, glanced down at his empty beer bottle and said, "You want another?"

He toned it down to a smirk and turned back to face her. "If I do, are you going to assume it's because I want to talk to Sandi again?"

She looked at him straight with her clear, blue eyes. "No. I think you have better taste than that."

He smiled at her, rather sheepishly, trying to think of a response, when she interrupted his thoughts: "Well, except Nicole of course. Man."

"Hey!" He barked.

"Kidding!"

He scowled for a minute. Then he said, "At least Nicole dotted the 'I' in her name with a dot."

Lorelai was glad he wasn't upset at her comment, which she knew had been inordinately mean. But she looked forward to the day when he was over her to the point where she could give him the list of why Nicole had been such a terrible choice for him.

Instead, she fished in her bag until she came up with a deck of cards. "Poker?"

"Sure," he replied.

She smiled to herself. "Winner gets the bed?"

"Excuse me?"

"The bed. In the room," she said matter-of-factly.

Luke swallowed and tried to keep his eye from widening. "So you're saying... there's only one bed?"

Lorelai gave him a devilish grin. "'Fraid so, pardner. So you in or out?" She shuffled the cards on her tray table, maintaining eye contact with him.

Luke stared her down for a moment.

"I'm in. Deal the cards."