Author's Note: Thank you once again for all of the wonderful reviews! And I also want to thank my fabulous beta xphilehb. This story would have gone nowhere without her.
Previously in "A New Beginning": For Christmas, Luke gave Lorelai a gift of 5 hours of service.
"I could use a bookcase," Rory told her mother.
"Got it," Lorelai replied, writing it on her list. She and her daughter were currently planning out how Luke's Christmas gift of service could best be used. Lorelai had already scribbled out a pretty hefty list on her notepad. Looking at her requests, she hoped that Luke wouldn't think she was trying to take advantage of his generous offer. She could always cross things off. This was just a preliminary list, she assured herself.
She was skimming over the list, trying to decide if there was anything she could already take off, when the phone rang. Grabbing the receiver, she answered, "Hello?"
"Hello, Lorelai."
She almost dropped the phone when she heard the voice. "-Mom," she stuttered, shock evident in her voice.
"Is that anyway to greet your mother? You can barely stand to call me mom, and then you cannot even manage to put a 'how are you?' in there?" Emily questioned. "I know you must have some sort of proper etiquette stored somewhere in that mind of yours. Of all the rude-"
Knowing that her mother would never stop, Lorelai interrupted, "Sorry, Mom. How are you?"
"I'm fine, Lorelai. Thanks for asking," Emily said. "And how are you and Rory?"
"Ahh... let's see... Rory got her very first tattoo the other day. I am so proud." Lorelai watched her daughter's eyes grow wide. "And I met someone really nice. His parole will be up in a year!"
"Lorelai, for God's sake!" Emily warned.
"We're both fine, Mom," Lorelai sighed. "Why are you calling?" she asked, wanting to get straight to the point.
"Can't a mother call her daughter to simply check in?" Lorelai snorted. Luckily Emily didn't seem to hear her, for she continued, "What are you and Rory doing on Saturday?"
Lorelai had known her mother had something up her sleeve. "This Saturday?" She looked at Rory, hoping she would offer an excuse. Rory simply shrugged. "We're umm..."
"Wonderful!" Emily exclaimed. "Your father and I would like to come over for dinner. We haven't seen your house yet."
"I don't know, Mom." Lorelai said. "It's not exactly the best-"
Emily didn't pay any mind to her daughter. "We will be there at seven o'clock. Don't even think about pretending you're not home. I will sit on your porch all night if I have to, and then you can explain to your neighbors why there's a frozen corpse outside of your house."
Realizing that she probably couldn't avoid her first encounter after the divorce with her parents for much longer, Lorelai agreed. "Fine, Mom. Seven o'clock."
"We'll see you then."
Lorelai clicked off the phone, and flopped down onto the couch before shouting. "Argh! I cannot believe that woman."
"What's going on?" Rory inquired. "What's at seven o'clock?"
"That's when your grandparents are coming over for dinner on Saturday," Lorelai said to her daughter.
"Dinner? Here? Mom, you can't cook," Rory reminded her mother.
"Crap. I know that. She knows that. It's like she wants to make my life a living hell."
"Mom, I think you're exaggerating just a little."
"Your grandmother will never let me live this down if this evening goes horribly." Lorelai looked at the notepad sitting in her lap. An idea coming to her, she ripped off her list and bunched it up into a ball. "Luke. He can cook us dinner."
Rory thought for a moment. "That just might work," she said in agreement.
Luke knew that he was in some kind of trouble the moment Lorelai rushed through the diner door. She wore her look of determination, and she didn't appear to be heading anywhere other than straight towards him. He grabbed a mug and filled it with coffee as she arrived at the counter. If there was any way to distract Lorelai, it was with coffee.
However, this time she ignored the steaming cup before her. "Luke." He looked at her, waiting for her to continue. She held a piece of paper out to him. It was the paper on which he'd written the gift of service. "I'm ready to redeem some of this time."
Luke breathed a sigh of relief. He had been trying to fathom what kind of news Lorelai had for him that was so bad as to keep her from drinking coffee. So he certainly was not expecting her to tell him she was ready to collect her gift. She probably just needed him to fix something for her. "What can I do for you?"
"Can you cook?" she asked.
"Lorelai, you're standing in my diner," he pointed out.
"No, I mean, can you cook non-diner food? Like something kind of fancy?" she questioned again.
He nodded. "Why?"
"Benito and Donna Rachele Mussolini, a.k.a. Richard and Emily, are coming to dinner at my house."
"I can't believe you'd compare your own father to Mussolini."
"Oh, I'm not," she told him. "Emily is more like Benito than my father is." He was looking at her like she was crazy. Did I mention that this dinner was her idea? She invited herself and my father over. Because believe me, mister, this is not my idea of a good time. I think it's safe to say that dinner with the actual Mussolini would be less uncomfortable than this dinner with my mother is bound to be. So... what do you say? Can you help me out?"
"You want me to cook dinner for your parents?"
Lorelai nodded eagerly. "And for me and Rory. You know, I can't cook, Luke. Remember the other day, when you had to come over, because I couldn't make my toaster stop smoking? And I was only trying to cook a pop-tart then! I really don't want to give Emily another thing to add onto her list of my disappointments. Believe me, it's long enough."
"I'll take care of it," he assured her. "When's the dinner?"
"This Saturday at seven o'clock," she informed him, a bright smile beginning to grace her face. "So you'll do it?"
"I'll come over Saturday after the lunch rush."
She leaned over the counter and placed a quick kiss on his cheek, causing Luke to blush. "Thanks, Luke."
"Yeah. Well, I did say unquestioned service," Luke said, hoping his face wasn't as red as it felt. "Just sticking to that promise," he reminded her.
"I have a feeling that you would have helped me no matter what. You're not very good at saying 'no' to me, Luke," she teased, playfully swatting his arm.
"Just do me one favor?"
"Is it dirty?" she questioned, eliciting an eye roll from Luke.
"Make sure that there are no articles of clothing-" Luke began.
"Ooh! It is dirty!" Lorelai exclaimed.
"In the oven," he finished.
"I like warm socks!" she tried to justify. "The oven makes them feel nice and toasty."
"An oven is for cooking food, not your socks," Luke stated, disgust written on his face.
"Fine," she conceded. "My footsies will just have to go cold for a day." She finally took a sip from the coffee Luke had poured for her. "You know, I'm kind of hungry right now..." Lorelai pouted.
"Your usual?" Luke asked. She nodded consensus, before he walked into the kitchen. He was already trying to plan out what he wanted to make Saturday night for dinner. He wanted Lorelai to be able to impress her parents with a delicious meal, and he could help her accomplish that.
To be continued. I promise to update again in the next few days. Yay Spring Break! I really really love reviews! And I changed it so you can leave anonymous reviews. I had no idea that the default setting forbade it.
La prochaine fois: Dinner with the elder Gilmores!