Disclaimer: Just a fan, I don't own Gilmore Girls.
Lorelai's 21st birthday, as it might have been.

April 1989 Part II

There were only about three times too many candles on the cake, Lorelai observed from her post by the champagne fountain.

"Lorelai, didn't you see the cake come out? It's time!"

Oh, that was the cake? I thought someone had ignited themselves as part of the stage show.

Of course she'd seen the cake. The cake had nearly blinded her with its flaming radiance. And now a thunderous round of The Birthday Song threatened her hearing. Emily nearly pulled her wrist out of the socket, yanking her into the center of the expanding circle of guests. Who knew birthdays were such a hazard?

Lorelai took a deep breath and leaned forward to blow out the candles and make her wish, maybe I'll get something I actually asked for, but opened her eyes to find that the cake had wheeled out from under her nose to be cut behind the scenes.

"Gracious! What is that?" Emily pointed, horrified, at the scalloped neckline of Lorelai's peach colored cocktail dress.

Lorelai glanced down, just remembering the envelope from Dr. Martin; the corner was peeking out beneath the diamond choker that Emily had fastened too tightly around her throat. She'd slipped in into her dress, too lazy to make yet another trip to the gift table, where she was supposed to display each and every monogrammed envelope presented to her by a stranger throughout the evening. How did they all manage to hand off the concealed check so discreetly while simultaneously drawing the rapt attention of everyone within ten feet? The subtlety was polite, but the conspicuous nature of the envelope ritual was what most of these people had showed up for; watching each other push money around was practically an erotic experience for the Hartford society set. It was like foreplay, but with everyone watching like a haughty crowd of overdressed swingers. Come to think of it, Dr. Martin and his latest female companion had vanished soon after the fine gentleman had given Lorelai his gift, and he'd had a sort of strange glint in his eyes…Lorelai relished the idea of someone, other than herself, caught necking, as her father would say, on the settee in the library.

She handed the envelope off to her mother with an indifferent shrug. Emily glowered and stormed off, ordering her daughter to eat some cake in a tone that sounded more like Choke on it.

"Hey, birthday girl," Christopher sidled up to her from behind, slipping an arm around her waist and spinning her toward him, drawing her into a corner. "Sorry, I'm late. But I brought you something." He held up a silver flask, not at all unlike the silver flasks that probably lay on beds of velvet in the gift boxes on the table, engraved with her name or initials or birth date. Her father's business partners attempt to be tongue-in-cheek for the twenty-one-year-old's birthday. Well, with one tiny difference. Rows of pink plastic sequins glued in the shape of a heart on each side. Hand-made for me, Lorelai thought, taking it from Chris' hands, and booze included. She took a grateful sip, and then met her boyfriend's lips with her own, tasting cigarettes and smelling wet spring air from outside.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked sweetly. She just shook her head and slipped her hand into his, leading him off toward the library.