Chapter Three
Lorelai heard something. She was mostly asleep, but there was a thumping, a muffled banging. And then someone was hollering. And she realized whoever it was, they were yelling her name.
As she fully woke up she realized it was Luke. He was knocking on her front door, and yelling for her. She looked at the clock, it was 9:35.
Then the knocking stopped and his voice was no longer muffled – he had come inside.
"Lorelai? Are you here? Hello?"
"Oh god," she mumbled. "I do NOT want to talk to him."
"Are you upstairs?"
"I'm here!" she yelled back, not wanting him to come up where she was.
"I was just about to get in the shower!" she lied. "How about if I see you later, at the diner?"
"No! Not later. Now! We have to talk now. Are you coming down?"
"Yes!" she yelled back. "I'll be down in a minute."
It was almost ten minutes before she worked up the courage to face him.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she could smell coffee. And she really needed some right now.
She walked into the kitchen and found a cup of the needed caffeine brew on the table. Luke was sitting on the opposite side, a cup of tea in front of him.
"Thanks," she mumbled as she sat and sipped. "It's good."
Luke sat and waited for her to speak first. When she didn't, he said, "I called you after you left last night – here, the Dragonfly, your cell phone. Where were you?"
"Here and there, nowhere. I just needed to get away, to think, to try to figure out . . . what went wrong."
"What went wrong? What are you talking about?"
"Come on, Luke. You can't be that clueless. Do you know it's been a year, a full YEAR, Luke, since you said you wanted to marry me? And we're no closer to it now than we were when I asked you. Sure, I didn't expect it to happen right away, but right now we should be making honeymoon plans, getting things arranged at the diner and at the inn so we can go away for a couple of weeks. We should be doing ALL those things, and more, but we're not. We're not doing anything but sitting here, not getting married."
"Lorelai, it will happen, I swear it will. But last night – 'Let's elope.' 'It's now or never.' I don't understand what the big rush is all about. We've been together for a year and a half, and we've been friends for almost six. You can't wait a little while longer?"
"That's the thing, Luke. I'm tired of waiting. I want to be married. I want another kid. I want to start the next phase of my life, with YOU. But I'm starting to think maybe that's not what you want."
"How can you say that? I bought the Twickham house because I thought it would be a great place to raise a family. I did that for us – you, me and … a kid, or two."
"Then why are we sitting here with no plans for a future together?"
"You keep saying that. But I'm trying to tell you, it's not that simple."
"Yes, Luke, it IS that simple. We get married, and soon, or we don't at all. A year is long enough to be engaged. We need to move forward. We need to take the next step. But it's like you don't want to do that.
"I do! I do want to get married. But I'm still trying to get things right with April. And when Anna found out you were at the party, it set things back. I feel like I'm almost back to square one."
"So, why didn't you tell her about me from the very beginning? If you had . . . ."
"I don't know why! Everything was coming at me all at once. I had to have time to figure it out."
"So how long is this going to take – this figuring things out? Another six months? A year? Two years?"
"I don't know. But we WILL get married, believe me."
Lorelai shook her head sadly.
"No, it won't happen. Not in six months; not in six years. Not ever."
"Don't say that. You just have to give me a little more time, that's all."
Lorelai didn't answer, but just looked at Luke, on the verge of tears.
Finally, she said, "It won't happen because . . . because . . . . "
"Because why?"
"Because . . . last night – after I left you – I went to Christopher's. I needed someone to talk to."
Luke didn't like the sound of that but held his tongue.
"And we talked, just like when his dad died. And we drank tequila. Seems like we just can't get away from it."
"Okay, you went to see him, you drank tequila and talked all night. I don't like it anymore now than I did then, but if you had to talk to someone, then fine. I mean that's all that happened, right? Just talk?"
Lorelai took a very tired and ragged breath. It was getting hard to speak.
"We . . . didn't just talk. We . . . ."
She didn't have to say anything more, the look in her eyes told Luke everything.
For almost a half a minute he didn't move, didn't say anything. Then he slowly stood up. Lorelai could see how hard it was for him to control his temper. And she could see the anger, and the hurt in his eyes.
"Luke, I am so, SO sorry."
But the last word was drowned out by the back door slamming shut as he left.
Lorelai stared at the door, hoping that after he cooled off he might come back in, but when she heard his truck roaring away, she knew he was gone, probably forever.
She crossed her arms on the table and laid her head down on them, facing to the right. In front of her eyes was the cup of coffee Luke had poured for her. As she looked at it, she remembered it was from the diner. Luke had let her take it with her several years ago, before they started dating, when he was out of 'to go' cups.
A short while later, she realized she was holding the third finger of her left hand with the fingers of her right hand; she washolding her engagement ring.
Lorelai sat up and slowly worked the ring off her finger and laid it down next to Luke's tea cup. She then laid her head back down on her arms.
She stared vacantly at the over-sized yellow cup unaware that her tears were making small puddles on the table.
T B C
