TITLE: Timing
CHARACTERS: Lorelai, Luke, Rory, Dean, Ect. Oh, and my fictitious character Alyssa.
SETTING: Mid season 4, Think: "Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom!"
DISCLAIMER: I -sadly- own nothing but the… Nothing actually… It's not even my story idea (You can thank Ronata for that)… Wow… That's just pathetic…
Chapter Four
Lorelai pulled on a sweater on top of her dress and flipped open her phone, speed dialing Rory.
"Hey, you've reached Rory. Talk please."
"Hey, Ror. It's me," Lorelai broke off and looked at herself in the mirror. "I'm heading to Liz's wedding now, and I just thought I'd check in before I did. I guess I missed you, though. Ah… Call me later? Alright, bye!"
Lorelai tossed her phone on the bed and inhaled deeply. "Tonight," she said. "I'll tell him tonight." She looked in the mirror and saw how pale and nervous she was, and then said, "Maybe… Tomorrow's good, too."
CUT TO: IN FRONT OF LUKE'S DINER
Luke waited nervously for his date to arrive, and he fidgeted with his suit for a moment.
Lorelai skipped up to him and said, "Greetings, my lord. Your lady hath arrived to be escorted forthwith."
Luke smiled, "That's pretty good. I didn't know you spoke Renaissance."
"Oh, yeah. I'm quite fluent in Renaissance. You look nice." Lorelai reached out and touched his tie, "I'm lovin' the tie."
Luke's smiled widened, and he looked her over, "Thanks. You look beautiful."
Lorelai's smile softened, "Flattery will get you everywhere, my friend. Shall we?"
"Actually, --" Luke broke off as pigeon poop landed on is shoulder's. "I have to go up and change, do you want to meet me there?"
"Nah, that's Okay, I'll wait if you want?"
"Sure, come on."
CUT TO: LUKE'S APARTMENT
"I'll, uh, just be a second," Luke said as he started to take the jacket off while he headed into the bathroom.
"It's no problem," Lorelai called over her shoulder for the umpteenth time, and walked into Luke's kitchen. She heard some water running in the bathroom and figured he was probably washing it off before it could leave a stain of sorts.
She sighed and looked around Luke's kitchen, something catching her eye. She cocked her head to the side, and as if in a dream she stood and walked trance-like over to the fridge.
Her heart stopped as she realized what it was. "No… It… It's not possible…" she reached out with hesitant fingers. Slowly and unsurely she reached across the empty space to the magnet. Holding the magnet in her left hand, she caught the scrap of newsprint in her right hand.
Hope created a thick lump in her throat as she read what it said: "Scorpio: You will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee and she will go away."
FLASHBACK
Lorelai looked around at the front of the diner, and barely pausing for a breath she pushed the door open, screeching, "Coffee-Coffee-Coffee!" while doing a little dance.
The man in a scruffy blue backwards baseball cap turned toward her, rolled her eyes, and went back to helping his current customer, "Those eggs were sunny side up?"
"Please!" she said, interrupting him when she walked over. "Coffee! Pleeeeeeease!"
"I'll be right with you," he said through clenched teeth and turned back to his customer, "Yeah, I'll have that for you in just a few minuets." He ignored Lorelai's pleas and started to walk toward the counter.
"No, you don't seem to understand, Mr. Backwards-Baseball-Cap Man! I need coffee, it is pretty and magical and if I don't din k it I may not be able to stand or talk or walk or breath or sing and dance along with the Bangles or watch Willy Wonka with my daughter tonight or-" when Lorelai finally stopped for a breath, Luke interrupted.
"Luke, not 'Mr. Backwards-Baseball-Cap Man'. Now, stop following me."
Lorelai paused, "Or drive or-"
"Sit down and shut up! I'll get to you when I get to you!"
Lorelai continued to follow him. "See, you still don't seem to get that I'm not kidding. Me without coffee… It's bad, I mean really bad. I'm talking Apocalypse now, baby!" Luke groaned, but she continued to follow him. "Ooo, I know! What's your birthday?"
"I'm not telling you that."
"See, if you tell me your birthday, I'll give you a present. "
"I'm not telling you my birthday," he growled as he leaned across the counter.
"Uh, please! I need coffee or your birthday and if you think that I'll go away before I have one of those, you are sorely mistaken, sir. And I think-"
"Fine!" he cried, and told her his birthday.
"And that would make you a…" Lorelai trailed off and flipped through her paper, a pen in hand. Quickly she wrote down the first thing that came to mind, ripped it out, and handed it to him.
Luke read the scrap of paper, barely held back a smirk, and poured her a cup of coffee.
"Thanks," she smiled and held the coffee to her lips inhaling the deep scent. Luke held the slip of paper in his hand and was about to throw it away when Lorelai swallowed and said, "Hey. (Luke looked at her.) Keep that in your wallet, someday it'll bring you good luck."
Luke stared at her a moment later and pulled out his wallet, probably to keep her shut up, and then put it back in his jeans.
END FLASHBACK
"Well, man," Lorelai muttered, "I will say anything for a cup of coffee."
"What did you say?" Luke asked, coming out of the bathroom.
"Nothing," Lorelai said, clasping paper and magnet behind her back guiltily.
"Why are you standing so weird?" Luke asked when he looked up from adjusting his cuffs.
Luckily the phone rang before she had to answer, and as he turned around to answer it, Lorelai hastened to stick it back on the fridge.
She heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back against the fridge. "Who was that?" she asked when he turned around after hanging up.
"Hmm? That? Uh, no one."
Lorelai's brow crinkled in confusion, but she let it slide knowing that all would be explained in time.
CUT TO: TOWN SQUARE, NIGHT. LIZ'S WEDDING RECEPTION
"Sure, I'd love another glass of punch, Luke." Lorelai smiled until Luke walked away.
Christ, she thought, I'm never going to work up the nerve to tell him, am I?
Luke walked back up a moment later, and whatever ground she had been making in the fight to tell Luke that she loved him, and probably had for at least five years, was knocked right out of her head. Damn, she smiled, and he sat next to her.
"Liz and T.J. wouldst enjoy others to join them in their modest wriggles," Kirk said over the PA system.
"Oh, hey, so your food's probably cold. You want to go get some more?"
"Sure, or we can...you know," Luke gestured to the dance floor.
Lorelai's heart stopped. "We can...do what?"
"You want to dance?"
"Really?" No way!
"Yeah."
"Um," Lorelai still couldn't believe it. "You said before you don't dance."
"Well, I'm a compulsive liar."
"Um, okay, yeah, let's dance." What could go wrong now she thought as they walked over to the dance floor and joined the other dancing couples. Lorelai couldn't even keep the smile off her face as Luke led her in a slow waltz.
When the song was over, she was reluctant to release him, but she pulled back and looked up at him.
"You can waltz…" She studied his face, and realized that he was looking over her shoulder. "What," she asked and then turned around.
The wind was knocked out of her. Alyssa.
FLASHBACK
Lorelai grabbed her mail from her inn mailbox and walked back out to the potting shed. Yay! There was a letter from her best friend!
Lorelai checked to make sure that Rory was asleep then she hungrily pulled the envelope open.
"Lorelai," it read.
"We all still miss you hear! It's wicked boring without you doll!
"Ok, I can't do it anymore… I can't lie to you any more…
"Remember how I told you that Chris moved on? And how I said that I didn't know the girl?
"Well, I lied. Chris asked me not to tell, but I just I have to…
"Chris and I are dating now." Lorelai dropped the sheet, her vision blurred with unshed tears. It wasn't the fact that Alyssa was dating him; it was more the fact that they hadn't told her. And that hurt. A lot.
Lorelai stifled her tears and looked at Rory, and then folded the letter into its envelope to keep forever as a memory with the others.
She never finished reading it, and she never read or replied to the other letters she or Chris sent.
END FLASHBACK
Luke looked at them both. "You know each other."
"Oh, yeah." Lorelai said sarcastically. "Great history."
