During that dinner, weeks ago, she thought her parents were just being their ridiculously paranoid selves, filling both hers and Luke's heads with disturbing, unnecessary thoughts, and figured it was better to just forget about the whole thing. But as time passed, thoughts about Luke lead to thoughts about April, and thoughts about April lead to thoughts about this. Once the idea sunk in, she knew she had to do something. Not that she honestly thought Anna was a con artist, or greedy, or worse -- an insurance salesperson, but she knew she simply had to meet that woman, just to know what she was really up against.

So after pestering Luke for some details, and then making him feel guilty for asking what's with all the questions, explaining that she was just doing her job as the loving fiancée and caring about what was going on in her man's life, she was standing in front of a blue door to a red house, reminding herself what she was doing there.

She shouldn't be doing this, a voice in the back of her head interjects. She should have told Luke. She should have called first. But no. She knows what she's doing here. This is something she has to do, and it is something she has to do alone, without him. However this is gonna turn out -- she wouldn't want him to bear the consequences. She took a deep breath out of the chilly, middle of March air, and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" a female voice came from deep inside the house. "I'll be with you in a minute!"

'There's no going back now,' she sighed heavily and walked through the door. Her eyes skimmed her surroundings, looking for the owner of that voice, to no avail. Instead, her eyes were overwhelmed by the colorful clatter that seemed to govern the place. She took a few steps deeper inside (the house? The store? The warehouse? Who could tell) and allowed herself to wonder around, checking the contents of all the shelves, boxes, and random displays that were absolutely everywhere, trying her best not to knock anything over or to fall down herself. Her hand traced the pattern of a brightly colored oriental pillow when her attention was diverted by babushka looking… somethings. Candles? Figurines? They were too tiny to have any more babushkas in them… or were they? She picked one up and tried to rattle it. Nothing. She put the object back down, and moved to a pile of soft, light colored towels; she fingered them while she kept looking around. Her eyes caught a familiar object -- a dragonfly table lamp, completely identical to the one they had at the inn. Her heart skipped a beat. This had to mean something. This was a sign.

"Can I help you?"

Was it a good sign? A bad sign? What did it mean? She wasn't sure. But she was certain that it was one.

"Do you like my lamp?"

Startled, she realized someone was talking to her. "What?"

"It is a thing of beauty, isn't it?" That someone said in what could only be described as a loving tone. "Would you like to buy it?"

"What? Oh, uh… no…" She almost dropped the lamp trying to put it back where it was, nervous and shaking "I, no… I actually already have a lamp just like that… so, no, I'll just put it back here, easy… there." She sighed with relief, the lamp finally standing stably on the crowded table.

She finally looked up, meeting the gaze of a blue eyed pleasant woman, a little older than her, who was looking at her at what seemed like the combination of amusement, confusion and politeness.

"Would you like me to point you to anything with a similar style?"

"You're Anna?"

"Yes."

"Anna Nardini?"

"That's right."

"April Nardini's mom?"

"That's me…" she admitted, half proudly, half apologetically. "Are you her teacher?"

"No, I'm..."

"Are you from her school?"

"Actually, I came here to…"

"Did she win some award? She's always getting into science contests without telling me, it's driving me crazy…"

"I'm not from her school or from any committee, I'm just…"

"Here about April?"

"Yes."

"Are you a strangler?"

"No! What is it with…"

"So, who are you?"

Taking a deep breath she straightened up and stuck out her hand "I'm Lorelai Gilmore."

Anna gave her hand a small shake, a confused, apologetic smile on her face. "Lorelai Gilmore…?"

"I'm Luke's fiancée."

"Luke's fian… Ow."

"Yeah."

TBC