Hey it's update time!
First, I want to say sorry for taking longer to update… But it was Carnival week here and I just had to travel to the beach and party! I know, just terrible…
I was trying to think of something I could say that would express my profound liking of your reviews, so I came up with this:
I love it as much as I love coffee and chocolate! (now re-read my pen name…got it?) That's how much I appreciate your reviews!
I want to thank my betas, the best eva!
MrsDionysiosOGall : What would I do without you? For her knowledge of not just grammar, but everything! She's really fast too!
OzDust: This's girl's not only an awesome beta, but she also comes with a complementary pshychitrist kit… Thanks for keeping up w/ minute-mail!
On with the story….
Any questions at all; all you have to do is ask!
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Chapter 5 – Dart girl flying late!
Michel found it incredibly odd that Lorelai hadn't left her office yet, especially since she looked so eager to do so earlier that morning. Her shift had finished about thirty minutes ago, and he would not be surprised if she was sleeping at her desk and hadn't realized the time yet. He had seen her this morning and she looked like 'merde' if you would ask him… Her hair was a complete mess and she had bags under her eyes; he almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Maybe it would be better to check on her; she could have died of fatigue or something… Not that he cared or anything…
Michel opened her office door to find Lorelai sleeping at her desk, her back askew--that would probably hurt in the near future. Her curls, covering her face, looked like they wouldn't let air pass through, but Michel could see the rise and fall of her respiration, so he was pretty certain she was breathing. He nudged her shoulder trying to wake her, but she was no light sleeper…
"Lorrrelai…" He tried the combination of nudging with softly calling her name, but then again softly wasn't the right approach… "Lorrelai." He shook her a little; she showed no sign of waking up.
He took a few steps back; maybe he should just leave her there--she would eventually wake up. Although she had that thing she had been complaining about tonight, and she would probably be a bit mad if he didn't wake her up and she ended up being late for this event… But the truth was, Michel had had it with being nice, and he really could never wake someone, so he decided to try extreme measures, if it meant his job was at risk. He yelled her name, he yelled like never before, and forgetting about his classiness for a minute…and it worked. Lorelai suddenly jerked her head his way.
"Where's the fire?" She sounded annoyed, although that is very common with people who are so rudely awakened.
"No fire, just thought you would like to know that your shift is over and you can finally sleep at your hose." and his classiness was back.
"Oh thank God!" She grabbed her stuff and fixed her hair a little, she was going home! "We'll talk about your rude wake-up call later… I won't forget!" Chances were high that Michel could convince her that this had been just a dream…and she knew it.
Lorelai left the Inn and headed directly home, and to her so-beloved bed.
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She was flying over town, the view was beautiful and everything seemed so small so… unimportant from up there, high in the sky. She didn't know how she had gotten up there; the only thing she did know was that she was, without a doubt, flying; and she liked it. She also knew that she hadn't metamorphosed into a bird; she couldn't feel any feathers and she didn't need to move her arms to steady herself in the air. It was like she was gliding. She must have still had the same appearance because people on the ground still waved "hello" when she flew by. She felt the wind blow all around her, like a gentle caress; she hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time…
She had always wanted to be a super-hero as a kid; she even tried jumping off the roof of her house once; don't need to say that Emily hadn't appreciated her idea (especially since she broke her arm on said attempt, also interrupting a very important meeting with the D.A.R.) Emily thought that super-hero ideas were outrageous! Didn't she know she was supposed to behave like a girl?
But right now, all that seemed silly, stupid; and in some way, she could prove her mother wrong, she was flying after all! Then she heard a loud 'THUD!' that rudely interrupted her thoughts; but when she looked around in search of a thunderstorm, she only saw the beautiful-clear-bluest sky of Stars Hollow. Lorelai just ignored the weird sound; she probably had just imagined it… And since this flying situation was pretty unique, she decided to take some advantage of it, she flew to the highest point she could get, the view was breathtaking… She tried to focus on something on the ground, like a target (if she were a dart). Her plan was to catapult herself to the ground and at the last second go up again, she'd always wanted to know how that felt… After taking some encouraging breaths, she truly ignored her fears and dove into thin air in the direction of the ground. She was starting to feel complete freedom, when she heard it again, 'THUD!' followed by, 'THUD! THUUUD! THUD! THUD!'. That made her lose all concentration; she started to fall and instead of thinking of a reasonable solution, her brain was currently too busy panicking! It didn't get better as the seconds passed; she only started accepting her fate as a dead woman and even philosophized the existence of life after death; the cold-hard ground becoming a closer and closer reality… And then she heard the last 'THUD!'; she was certain she had died… Though she remembered the floor as being something more solid and way less…cozy. It was then that she opened her eyes and felt the warm, fluffy comforter all around her… But even though she was awake now, she still kept hearing those loud 'THUD!'s… And that's when she figured that the obnoxious, loud noise wasn't just inside her head; it was actually coming from downstairs…
She quickly ran downstairs, almost falling on the stairs a couple of times, due to her sleepy dizziness…
Lorelai opened her door to reveal a very well-dressed Luke Danes staring back at her, and he was ready to knock loudly at her door again, with his arm already raised and his fist closed.
"What took you so long?" Luke greeted her, obviously unaware of Lorelai's inappropriate attire that consisted of ocean-blue Finding Nemo jammies.
"Why are you here?" As soon as she said it, she noticed how Luke was dressed; she was late! "Am I late?" She looked at him horrified; he just nodded affirmatively. "I'm late! I'm late! I'm late! No, no, no, no! This can't be happening…" Her shoulders drooped in defeat. But she still didn't know what time it was… "What time is it?" She was prepared for the worst…
"It's 5:15…" he said in a low voice as a way to try to keep her from freaking out, which didn't happen….
"Oh no! There's no way I'm gonna be ready so fast!" She was starting to panic now. "How am I supposed to look pretty in less than an hour? I mean, look at me!" She stopped her frantic movement to look at her reflection in the foyer mirror, "Ohmygod! I look awful!" She hadn't imagined that she had 'obviously-just-outta-bed' face… "Not today… Of all the days to have puffy eyes!" She let out a low, prolonged moan.
But before she could resume lamenting her lateness, Luke interrupted with a loud: "Lorelai!" He said it firmly too. "Focus," he said in a calm and steady voice, looking reassuringly into her eyes. "Everything's gonna be fine." He landed a hand on her arm to stop her next hissy fit. "Why don't you just go upstairs and get ready?"
Her eyes grew wide at that. "But….but…I'll never get ready on time!" She was about to start another mini-rant when Luke grabbed her shoulders and guided her to the stairs.
"I'll be down here if you need anything." He pushed her gently up the first step. "Yell if you need anything!"
She quickly climbed the stairs, turning around at the last one.
"Thanks, Luke!" She smiled broadly at him.
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TEN MINUTES LATER, DOWNSTAIRS
Luke had already looked at all the pictures above her fireplace, had made a mental list of things he could fix for her, arranged the pillows on the sofa, had sat on the sofa and now, was repetitively walking from one end of the living room to the other. If he had been a cartoon, he would have made a hole in the floor by now, but then again, if he were a cartoon, he would have found something better to do… Luke checked his watch; it had only been ten minutes. He decided he would sit on the couch again… He was probably just bored, that was obviously the reason that he was feeling so uneasy; it had nothing to do with his nerves…
"Luuuuke!" yelled Lorelai from the upper part of the house.
Had Lorelai just yelled for him? Was he that nervous that he was imagining things now? He was just losing his mind, that was it; he sure hung out with a lot of basket cases in this town, maybe it was just now having some effect on him…
"Luuuke! Can you come here?" came the yelling again.
He felt relieved; he wasn't losing it after all… She had called him…umph…he swallowed dryly…she had called him upstairs. There was no need to feel nervous about it… She probably needed his help with… with…zipping her dress, yep, that was it. She needed help with that…
"Did you hear me?" came Lorelai's more exasperated voice.
"Yeah…I'm coming!" He just had to remember how to climb the stairs again… He tried to focus on it, but images of half-naked Lorelais kept rushing through his mind; of course, he knew she wouldn't be half-naked when he got upstairs… He then tried just to stare at the steps, expecting them to give him a solution, no luck there; apparently, steps can't talk. He took a few breaths and inwardly laughed at his previous ridiculous thoughts, and then he climbed the stairs with success.
He got upstairs to find a closed door in front of him, so he did what was logical, he knocked…
Lorelai jerked the door open at the first knock. She was just wearing just a towel; behind her there was chaos, clothes strewn all around the room.
"Luke, you have to help me! I have nothing to wear!" She said that as if the huge piles of clothes didn't exist. "I never got over the pre-selection of what to wear tonight! I was supposed to do it tonight, if I wasn't this late!"
Luke couldn't really hear what she was saying. He was too distracted with the Lorelai-is-in-just-a-towel-in-front-of-me thought that kept repeating in his head, so he was actually happy when she went to her bathroom; now he could recompose himself.
"You want me to pick something out for you to wear tonight?" He wasn't understanding where the logic was in that statement…
"Yeah, otherwise I'll never get ready on time!" She came out of the bathroom carrying a curling iron, and then plugged it. "I still have to do my hair!" she said, pointing at her head.
Lorelai started styling her hair with much practice, the way that she could do it with only one hand and without dropping her towel was truly a mystery to Luke… He decided to look over her clothes, a task he found easier to do than trying not to look at Lorelai in just a towel…
After several unsuccessful attempts of presenting the perfect outfit to Lorelai, and even more unsuccessful attempts of Lorelai trying to make Luke understand the true importance of THE right outfit, Luke had almost given up. Of course, he wouldn't do that; he had promised to help and he knew just how important this night was to her. He would never let a friend down. It was then that he saw the silky smooth black fabric from under an enormous pile of clothes. He pulled it out from under it really fast, not destroying the integrity of the pile (like a magician, when pulling a towel off of a table without moving the plates). The piece of clothing was actually a dress, plain black; he liked it. It was short, but not too short, it had some cleavage, but not enough to seem slutty, and it tied around the neck; Luke thought Lorelai would look really good in it.
"Lorelai, what do you think of this one?" He moved closer to her and showed her the wrinkled, black dress.
"Just a sec..." she answered, finishing her last curl. She looked up into the mirror and seemed satisfied; then she turned around and saw the dress Luke was holding. "Oh…that dress…I had forgotten all about it…" She pondered a bit. "Yeah, I guess it could do!" She smiled up at him. "But it is a little wrinkled…" She narrowed her eyes examining it.
"I could iron it for you." Luke knew her well enough to figure that she wanted him to answer her that way.
"Thanks Lukey!" she said enthusiastically. "Now hurry, I'm gonna be up here putting my makeup on!"
Lorelai was relieved that she finally had a dress; now she could settle on a color for eye shadow, lipstick, blush… She got to it right away; she was still planning to look fabulous tonight!
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6:10 P.M. - AT THE DRAGONFLY INN
Lorelai and Luke had rushed all the way from Lorelai's house; they had expected to arrive much later, but it turned out they were only ten minutes late. Quite an accomplishment if you asked Lorelai! It had been more than fifteen years since the last time she had gotten ready this fast, and the result had been satisfactory.
They decided to take only one car, no need to occupy guest parking spaces for no reason… Luke drove since Lorelai had still to put her shoes on when they left the house; he parked the green truck and they both quickly got out and went into the Dragonfly.
"Lorelai, you're late." Michel said when the two reached the reception desk.
"Yeah, yeah… Get over it…" Lorelai answered, not truly paying attention to Michel's comments. She had to focus all her attention into walking in these shoes, or just standing up straight…
Luke had come in with Lorelai, but was currently being ignored by the French attendant.
"Michel, give me my keys," Lorelai said before Michel could continue his unnecessary comments. She just wanted to drop her things off in her room and get this night over with.
"You have no work ethic at all, coming in late for an appointment… Do I have to do everything here?" He moved really slowly to grab the key, I'm talking snail's pace here!
"Give me the keys, Michel!" Ok, so maybe he had successfully accomplished his task of annoying the hell out of Lorelai, and Luke, who wasn't really participating, but was equally annoyed… That made Michel move even slower…
"Sometimes, Michel forgets who's the boss here…" Lorelai stage-whispered to Luke, who just smiled weakly. He too just wanted to drop off the bags (his and Lorelai's) that he had been holding.
"I do not. I, not like others, have work ethics very clear in my head!" Michel answered in his best snobby way; and, if possible, he moved slower.
"That's it! I'll get the freaking keys!" Lorelai moved behind the desk, typed a few things on the computer, and then grabbed a key with a big number 7 printed on a little leather card attached to it. "Here, Luke. You can go get comfy in your room." Lorelai handed him the key.
He grabbed the key, but before he went upstairs, he turned "What about your bag?" He pointed at one of the two bags he was carrying, the one that was bright pink with 'Penelope Pitstop' printed on it, his was green, army-style.
"Take it with you, I'll come grab it later…" She smiled warmly. "I need to have a little serious talk with Michel, now…" She looked coldly at Michel.
Luke felt it was better for his safety that he should just move far away from those two when they were having a fight; because if he had just witnessed them behaving in a friendly way with each other, well, he didn't want to see them argue… So he wisely marched upstairs to room number seven…
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Luke took his time in his room, not that he needed much time to organize himself. He just didn't deal very well with different, and tonight was about to become (more like continue…) to be a very different night. He didn't even know if he had already gotten over the initial shock of being invited to this thing, consequently, he hadn't even started to process the fact that he had seen Lorelai in just a towel. She was his best friend, and that just confused him more…
He figured he had already spent way too much time in his room, and that he should probably just suck it up, be a man; and not be nervous. He should just go downstairs and be a good reliable friend, be Lorelai's date, as a friend, of course…
Luke left the room (his sanctuary…) and went downstairs, where he could already hear the loud buzzing of a small crowd and a live band playing softly in the background. He took his time with the stairs and ever so slowly walked into the ballroom, which usually was just the dining room. But they had moved some tables around so that now there was a respectable dance floor in the center in front of the band; the place looked nice, very prom-like… He scanned the room trying to find Lorelai, but that was no good; he would have to actually walk around to be able see her in the middle of so many people…
Luke walked around trying to mingle with the crowd, trying to look like he belonged here, but the truth was that he was breaking out in a cold sweat now… People kept staring at him, probably just to see if they could recognize him, but, still, it made him nervous, uncomfortable and that just made him rush to find Lorelai, the only person he knew in the whole room. Then he saw her, laughing uneasily, totally trapped in the middle of loud laughing look-alike women. She looked like she could just run away anytime soon… He felt sorry for her; she was probably feeling as uncomfortable as he was, so he decided to help her. He approached her and rested his hand on her waist; she turned around surprised, but smiled when she saw whose hand it was. The other women stopped talking, waiting for introductions; Lorelai quickly understood that from all the sudden stares they received.
"Girls, this is Luke!" Lorelai pointed at Luke, who smiled politely. "Luke, these are…" she tried to remember their names, but had no luck, they all looked the same… "The girls!" she exclaimed, faking enthusiasm.
"Nice to meet you ladies." Luke smiled charmingly; they all nodded and smiled back, acknowledging the handsome man. "Would you excuse me and Lorelai for a moment?" He gave them a full-toothed smile now; charm will get you anywhere…
"Of course, be excused!" one of the women answered, and then laughed loudly at her not-so-funny joke; the others soon followed.
Luke took the little time they all seemed busy laughing loudly to gently push Lorelai forward and out of her trap; she seemed happy to do so. He guided her to an almost empty side of the ballroom and they both sat at a nearby table.
"Thank you!" Lorelai exclaimed as soon as she sat. "You saved me! You have no idea how bored I was…"
"I saw your face from across the room, it was screaming for help." He chuckled.
"It wasn't just my face, I was screaming on the inside too!" She laughed lightly.
"So, it looks like it's all going well," Luke said while noticing all the people that had showed up. "The place's packed."
"Yeah, these people just can't skip an event!" She looked around, also absorbing the crowd. "Did you just come from upstairs or were you looking for me for a while?" she said, changing the subject.
"Just came down." He saw that she wanted him to elaborate a little more. "I was afraid I would run into Michel if I came down too early."
"Riiiight…" she answered disbelievingly. "You were afraid of Michel…." Lorelai was clearly not buying it; she looked at him seriously, challenging him to tell the truth.
"Okay, so maybe that's not it…" He thought that maybe just admitting she was right would be enough to stop her staring, but it didn't; so he continued. "I wasn't looking forward to being surrounded by so many people, you know I'm not a very social guy…"
"You behaved like a true pro back there," she pointed at the women they had escaped from. "Those women were all fanning themselves when we left; they all been charmed by Luke Danes." She spoke the last part like a true Southern belle.
"Yeah right…" Luke said in disbelief.
Lorelai just smiled at his modesty.
"Really Luke, if you had told me you would feel this uncomfortable coming here, I wouldn't have asked you to." Lorelai smiled reassuringly, turning serious again.
"Like you would let me say no." Like he could ever say no to Lorelai.
Lorelai feigned offense. "I would have hesitated ever so slightly…" She smiled sweetly; he couldn't be mad at her, so he just had to smile back.
"But that French guy is a putz!"
"Oh yeah, he's very proud of it."
"So I never had the chance to…" And he was interrupted.
"Lorelai!" came the loud screechy sound of Lilly's voice from beside their table.
"Oh, hey Lilly!" Now Lorelai had already exceeded faking enthusiasm with the Nazis… She got up from her chair and gestured Luke to do the same.
"You look really nice! Love the dress… Armani, isn't it?" Lilly held a man close by the hand.
"I don't think so…" Lilly had no idea of the real world's financial reality… "You look nice too!" She tried to sound as excited as Lilly did.
"Oh, this old thing…" Lilly unwrinkled her wrinkleless dress, which was obviously brand new.
"Hi, I'm Frank. Lilly's husband." He offered his hand to Lorelai. "You probably don't remember me, but I was from Chilton too. I have to admit I used to have a crush on you…" He winked seductively at her, was she surprised or what? How could he do that in front of his wife? So Lorelai just laughed at his comment, it was possibly just a joke, right?
"Hi, I'm Luke." Luke had seen the way the married man looked at Lorelai, as if she was a piece of meat; he was no good; so he decided to intervene.
"Is that your escort?" Lilly asked approvingly. "He looks like a nice man," she stage-whispered.
"He is," Lorelai said, smiling at Luke; he blushed a little (in a manly way, of course).
"We ought to be going, lots of people to shake hands with!" Frank said, obviously not too happy about Luke's previous intervention. He took his wife's hand and started walking.
"See you around. Great job Lorelai!" Lilly said, turning around awkwardly in her husband's grip.
"What a dysfunctional couple, they were made for each other…" Lorelai said turning to Luke; now she felt pretty happy to have brought someone, she didn't look like a loser and she didn't have to talk too much with these people.
"Yep, you're right about that… Did you see that guy?" Luke still couldn't believe the audacity of the guy, hitting on someone who was obviously escorted and with his wife standing right next to him no less.
"Yes I saw him alright…" She knew she shouldn't stoke the fire of ranting Luke, this was not the right time or place for ranting Luke, although she had to admit that she liked it when he ranted.
"And with his wife…right there! Un-be-lie-va-ble."
"Just leave it... It's no big deal; these rich guys are all the same… Just ignore them, they'll go away."
Luke understood that she wanted him to stop worrying about that ass; so he did. She was a big girl and could take care of herself.
"So what I was trying to tell you before we were interrupted…"
And, unbelievably, they were interrupted again.
"Lorelai? Lorelai Gilmore, is that you?" came an excited voice from nearby.
"Yes?" Lorelai turned around from Luke to see a familiar face; she narrowed her eyes trying to find that face in the database in her brain… "Sandy?" she asked the very pregnant lady in front of her.
"That's me!" The charismatic lady smiled broadly.
"Oh my gosh!" Lorelai stood and hugged her. "Wow, it's been… forever! And you're pregnant! That's great!"
"I'm happily married too!" She pointed at the man standing next to her. "This's Danny, my husband!" The man shook hands with Lorelai.
"Sandy has mentioned you; she was hoping you would be here tonight."
"That's nice, you have matching movie names!" Lorelai smiled sweetly, Sandy giggled.
"Did you come with someone or…" Sandy asked, searching the room for a nice-looking man.
"Yeah, I came with Luke!" She pointed at the man sitting at the nearest table.
"Cool, they have matching names too!" Sandy whispered to Danny.
"Luuuuke! Come here!" she pouted when he turned around; she knew he wouldn't even try to resist the pout.
Luke stood slowly, pretending to think this was a pain, but was quickly beside Lorelai and the nice-looking couple.
"Luke, these are Sandy and Danny. Sandy was my best friend since kindergarten!" Lorelai explained, now truly excited; maybe this reunion wasn't so bad.
Luke just nodded in acknowledgement; he wasn't the talking kind after all…
"Yeah, we kept in touch even after Lore moved here, but then I went to Princeton…and we lost touch…" Sandy finished a little less thrilled. "Too bad… I didn't know you worked here!"
"I…" Lorelai started, but was interrupted by Luke.
"Actually, she owns the place…" He looked proudly at his friend; he went as far as squeezing her arm, and that in Luke-language was the same as a very proud hug, and Lorelai knew that. So she just smiled warmly at him.
'Luke's proud of me, Luke's proud of me!' was all Lorelai could think of at that moment. She felt so good about it; it's always nice to make a good friend proud! She didn't even know she had been smiling broadly at Luke the whole time…
"That's even better than great!" Sandy answered, almost jumping with excitement; the only thing stopping her was the huge stomach.
"I happen to think that myself." Lorelai tried not to jump up with Sandy, but it was getting harder and harder…
"And how's Rory? She must be a woman now!" Sandy said while holding her pregnant belly protectively.
"She's the best! And I like to think she'll never grow up…but she's nineteen…" Lorelai pouted a bit. "She's the smartest girl; she's at Yale now, far away from mommy…" She faked sadness.
"I'm a Yale man myself! You guys must be so proud!" Danny said, rejoining the conversation and hugging his wife to him.
"We all are! Yale is a great school!"
"We hope that Rizzo here…" Sandy pointed at her belly. "…Is going to be so smart!"
"Rizzo?" Lorelai had thought that the couple having the same name as the characters in 'Grease' was sweet, but naming their kid Rizzo was going a little too far…
"I'm kidding!" Sandy giggled, "You should have seen your face! My girl's name's gonna be Sabrina!"
"I like it! Very Audrey Hepburn of you!" They both giggled.
"I think they've officially begun girl talk, we should get ourselves a couple of drinks!" Danny offered Luke.
"I think that would be wise." Luke was amused by the guy's enthusiasm.
"Do you want me to get you a soda, honey?" Danny asked his wife sweetly.
"I can get it for myself, Daniel!" Sandy suddenly seemed to become moody; it was just a pregnant thing…
"She doesn't like the not drinking anything alcoholic part of being pregnant…" Danny explained to Lorelai and Luke, obviously accustomed to his wife's moods by now.
"Do you want anything, Lorelai? A martini?" Luke thought it was his turn to ask, although he feared he would receive the same answer Danny did…
"Nah… I'm good… Thanks!" Lorelai answered, and then turned to Sandy, "Solidarity, sista!"
"Ya-Ya!" They cheered with their glasses of soda.
"We're going… Don't you go missing me!" Danny said in a teasing voice, as he and Luke left them to their girl talk.
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As always I want to say thanks to all readers, even the ones that are too shy to leave a review…
But if you do feel the sudden urge to leave me a review, please don't hesitate!
THANK YOU!
Mocha D