A/N: This is another idea I've had in my head for quite a while now. I just didn't know if it was the time for it now or later in the story. However, my wonderful beta, Niamh, pushed me to write it NOW, because she couldn't wait any longer, lol. Hope I didn't let you down, girl.

As for the rest: ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY and please review!

Chapter 5: The Other Man

It's been two weeks since Luke and I shared that kiss. I was so nervous going into the diner the next morning, but it was tradition. I had the girls that day and we always go in for Luke's breakfast before I drop them off at school and get to work myself. That day was no different, except that I was nervous, that is.

Luke however, was no different than usual. He was glad to see the kids, and they were happy to see him, he was his gruffly self towards me, he took our orders and he was off. Of course, he brought my coffee and the girls' orange juice quickly after that and later brought us our breakfast. There was no avoidance of eye contact, there were no stolen glances either; there was nothing in his attitude; there was nothing in his words.

Luke had acted like nothing had happened the night before and he continued that way. I wanted to bring it up, I wanted to talk to him about it, but, after all, nothing really happened. It could have been more, would have been more if Elly hadn't walked in, but she had and so; nothing had happened.

I dropped the subject. I decided not to bring it up and went back to trying to forget about Luke. I had a few more successful dates with Max, but I never invited him in. Not that I didn't want him to come in, trust me I did. I do. There's just something that's holding me back and of course, that all comes back to Luke.

Today I walk into the diner right after the lunch rush, in search of a good burger and in need of a cup of Luke's famous black liquid. There's the usual after-lunch lull right now. There's only one other customer and I catch a glimpse of Caesar cooking in the kitchen. I don't see Luke. He must be in the back, somewhere.

As I sit down at the empty table in the middle of the diner with a sigh, I finally have a little time to myself, to think. This morning I had to get the girls ready for school and it's a really busy day at the Dragonfly today. Now, I finally have time to mope.

I place my head in my hands, my elbows on the table, with another sigh and stare straight ahead. I don't even notice Luke coming back from behind the curtain and walking over to me, grabbing the coffeepot on his way.

"Coffee?" he asks, but I don't hear him.

"Lorelai!" I finally hear Luke call and I feel his hand on my shoulder.

I look up a bit shocked. "Oh, hey!" I say with a smile.

Luke stares at me for a little while and eventually takes out the empty chair next to me, turns it around, and sits down backwards, facing me.

"Everything okay?" he asks me, a bit concerned.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I lie. "Coffee please."

"Lorelai…" Luke says with a sigh.

"Really, I'm good!" I say, my voice rising a bit in the hope that he will let it go and just serve my coffee. I look nervously around me to see if we're not drawing the attention from the one customer in the back or from Caesar, but they are both busy. Luke notices and also looks around. He takes a deep sigh, stands up again and puts the chair back in its rightful place. I'm relieved. I think he has gotten the hint and is going to pour me some of his magical coffee that, no doubt, will make me feel better.

However, I am wrong. Instead of taking out a cup, he puts down the half-full coffeepot and grabs my arm.

"C'mon," he mumbles as he pulls me up from the chair.

"W-What are you doing?" I ask confused as he pushes me softly towards the curtain, one hand still around my arm and the other on my back. I let him.

"You're going to talk to me," Luke says as we arrive at the curtain. "Caesar! I'm going upstairs for a while. Call me if you need help down here," Luke yells.

"Sure thing, Boss," Caesar calls back.

We pass the curtain and it falls closed behind us, taking away the view of the diner. Luke finally lets go of me and holds out his hand in the direction of the stairs, motioning me to walk upstairs.

When I don't immediately do as I'm told, Luke explains with a sigh, "You have been distracted and pouting all week. You are going to talk to me about it, because I'm your friend and I don't want to see you like this anymore."

I stare at him for a little while. He is the last person I would like to talk to about this, but his little rant touches me. I smile at him and walk up the familiar stairs of what used to be Luke's apartment, with Luke closely behind me.

Reaching the top, Luke unlocks the door and lets me in. I scan the room and everything looks exactly the same as when we started dating, apart from the double bed that Luke got about a month after when I mocked him mercilessly about the single bed and the rest of his bachelor pad.

I notice the dirty dishes in the sink and the rumpled cover of the bed. I see a few flannels in the open drawer of his closet and a half-full glass of water on the nightstand on 'his side' of the bed.

"I didn't know you still use this place," I tell him, taking one more look around before I face him.

Luke closes the refrigerator and comes out with two beers. As he walks towards me, he shrugs his shoulders, "When the girls are with you I often sleep here. It's just easier." He hands me a beer and I take it. I know it's the middle of the day, but I take it anyhow, knowing that I probably need it.

I nod understandably at him, "Thanks."

We are standing awkwardly across from each other, both holding a beer as if we're about to clink our bottles to celebrate something, but unless Luke suddenly decides he wants to get back together, I don't see any reason for a celebration.

I walk over to the couch and sit down. "I get it, you know," I tell him, referring to our earlier conversation, "If I could stay at the inn, I probably would. It's just so quiet at home without them."

"Yeah," Luke agrees as he sits down next to me, takes a big gulp of his beer and sighs contently. I take his example, bring the bottle to my mouth and let the cold liquid flow down my throat. As I lower my beer again, I look over at Luke, who just takes another gulp. I watch closely as his Adam's apple moves up and down when he swallows and then stare at his lips as he licks them clean with his tongue. When Luke turns his head and looks at me, I quickly refocus my eyes on his dark-blue ones. "So, are you going to speak, or are we just going to sit here?" he asks me, and although his words sound like he's pushing me, he's patiently waiting for my response.

I let out a deep breath. "Look, I really don't want to talk about it," I tell him.

"Yes, you do. I know you. Talking about certain things makes you feel better," Luke says with confidence, followed by another sip.

"Let me rephrase," I tell him as I know that he is right; I do want to talk to someone, "I really don't want to talk about it with you."

"O-kay…" Luke says slowly, looking a little hurt, "Whatever that means." I take a few big gulps of my beer, but I keep my eyes on Luke. I then see a change in his expression. "If this is about the other night…" he starts, but I quickly interrupt him.

"It's not about that kiss."

Luke nods, but doesn't say anything else. I take another deep breath as I decide to tell him. "I started dating again," I throw out as if I should be ashamed.

Luke, who had just taken another gulp of his beer, doesn't swallow. He just stares at me for a little while, his eyes big. Clearly he didn't expect this. Finally, he swallows his beer and says, "Ah," to acknowledge he heard me.

"You know the guy, actually," I tell him, still talking even faster than I usually do and barely breathing.

"I do?" Luke asks, but he doesn't really try to think of who it could be.

"Yes. It's Max. Medina. Max Medina… Mr. Medina, Rory's old Chilton teacher? Remember him?" I stumble over my words, trying to make myself clear. I know he remembers Max though. We had a big fight about him once.

"He's into you, Lorelai!" Luke finally yells at me, making his point clear, his hands in his hair as if he can't believe how ignorant and blind I am.

I stare at him for a little while as he angrily puts on his white undershirt. When he takes out clean jeans to put on over his boxers, I start to laugh hysterically, not able to stop.

Luke lets his jeans dangle from one hand and spins around to face me, "You think this is funny?!" he asks incredulously, his face red and his eyebrows frowned in anger.

I immediately stop laughing, but can't help but hiccup. "He's not," hiccup, "into me," hiccup, "Luke," hiccup, hiccup.

"He is," Luke says more calmly now that I stopped laughing like the Mad-Hatter—a female version, that is. "I can see it."

"Luke… He is just worried about Rory. She's the new kid. It's hard. He's just trying to help her. He's interested in his students like that. He's devoted. Do you know how mean sixteen year old girls can be? He can help her."

Luke shakes his head and bends down to put his legs through his trousers. "You're blind, Lorelai. Of course he wants you to think that, but at that parents-teacher conference, he was ogling you right in front of me!" He stretches himself and closes the button on his jeans. He walks over to the closet again and takes out a clean flannel-shirt. I shake my head behind his back, but somehow it seems like he has eyes in the back of his head, because he continues, "Just believe me on this one."

I sigh loudly. "Okay," I say, a bit sharply.

"Okay," Luke repeats explicitly as he turns around. "Then please tell me you won't go this afternoon."

"I have to go, Luke. This is for Rory, whether the man likes me or not."

"Fine," Luke grumbles unhappy and he turns himself away from me again to close the buttons on his flannel.

"Why don't you just come with me?" I ask him sweetly, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"I told you, I can't," Luke says through gritted teeth, while finishing the last of the buttons, as he faces me again, causing my hand to drop back to my side, "I have a meeting with my bread-supplier."

"Look, Luke," I say, placing my hand soothingly on his arm and rubbing it gently, "So what if he fancies me? It doesn't matter. I'm married. We know that and he knows that. I would never do something like that, Luke. I would never cheat on you. Never. Please, trust me on that."

"I do," Luke whispers as he looks shamefully at his own feet.

"We have an almost two year old toddler sleeping over there," I continue, pointing at the wall to Elly's room, "I would never do anything that would hurt her, or Rory."

"I know," Luke sighs, still not looking at me.

"Besides," I keep going, smiling now, "we have this new one to think about."

Luke suddenly looks up, questioningly. He first stares at my smiling face and then at my hands that lay lovingly on my belly. He looks at my face again and my smile becomes even brighter. "You're pregnant?" he asks softly.

"I'm pregnant," I confirm beamingly.

Luke's face immediately changes. All the anger and confusion from before disappear and happiness takes their places. He puts one hand on my hand on my belly and then leans forward to kiss me.

"I remember," Luke says, not looking at me. "So, what's the problem then?" he asks, but I can see he finds it difficult to talk about.

"Well…" I start uncomfortably, "He's nice and handsome and all. He treats me well and is really… patient…"

"But?" Luke pushes, finally looking at me again.

"It's just…" I swallow, "I'm not really into him. Not like I was with you when we started dating, you know?" Luke nods and I continue, "I don't think it's going anywhere."

"Then end it," Luke says with a shrug of his shoulders, as if it's that simple, "If you're not into him, break up with the jerk."

"Luke," I say strictly.

"Sorry," he mumbles unconvincingly.

"I really like him though. He's one of those guys a girl should be lucky to be with," I say more to myself than to Luke, "Maybe I should give him another chance. Maybe I could eventually grow to love him."

"That's absurd," Luke snickers.

"Why?"

"There's the gut. I can tell if I'm comfortable with someone within seconds of meeting them. I feel it here," Luke points quickly at his stomach, "I felt it with Rachel, I felt it with Anna, I felt it with you. I was immediately relaxed."

"You've got the gut thing," I repeat, nodding my head in interest.

"Well, just someone who will let you be. That's a gut thing."

I sigh deeply. "You're right," I tell him, "He will probably never become my second husband. The real reason is…" I bite my lower lip, doubting if I should really tell him.

"Ye-es," Luke says slowly.

"I just miss it, you know?" I whisper, staring at the beer-bottle in my hand.

"Miss what?"

"Just, having someone around. An adult someone, I mean. Not feeling so lonely all the time," Luke looks away from me when I look back at him, as if he feels guilty for my loneliness, while really, I should feel guilty for his loneliness. "Not to mention, the physical part," I continue and Luke's head shoots back up. He stares into my eyes, not just with shock, but also with interest. "I just really wanna be kissed again; one that I can feel through my entire body. And, Oh my God, how much I miss sex." I see Luke's eyebrow shoot up as I say that last part of my speech. "You know what I mean?" I ask him.

He quickly recovers, scrapes his throat and says, "I do. I miss it too."

"It's been over a year," I whisper, my eyes back on my lap. "Of course," I continue louder, "Max can help me with that part, but that just doesn't seem fair. Like I'm using him."

Luke lets out a single laugh, "He probably wouldn't mind, Lorelai. No guy does."

"Right, 'cause all guys are pigs," I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"Are you seriously considering this?" Luke asks me, suddenly serious again, "Don't you want commitment… love?"

I shrug my shoulders, "Right now, I'd take anything, but no, I guess not, 'cause I seriously believe that Max isn't looking for a one night stand. He also isn't the youngest anymore. I honestly think he's searching for love."

"Aren't we all," Luke replies, half-laughing at my ignorance, "But that doesn't mean he wouldn't like a one night stand in between his search. Seriously, Lorelai, I thought you knew guys."

"Yeah, I knew guys, about ten years ago. Now, I don't anymore."

"They are still the same," Luke explains with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You seriously think every guy is like that?" I ask with a snicker, while shaking my head.

"Yep," Luke simply answers, "You're hot. Ask any single guy to sleep with you, no strings attached, he'll do it."

I get a mischievous grin on my face. "Really? " I ask and Luke nods. "So, if I'd ask you, you would sleep with me?"

"Yes," Luke answers without thinking. My mouth drops open at his answer and Luke also seems to become aware of what he has just said. His eyes grow wide and his cheeks turn bright pink.

I quickly make up my mind. I place my half empty bottle of beer on the coffee table, stand up and walk over to the double bed that Luke once bought for the two of us.

Luke follows my every move with his eyes, but remains seated on the safety of the couch, his empty beer clutched useless in his hand and his mouth slightly ajar.

As I take off the jacket I was wearing as decoration and drape it carelessly over the chair, I call to him, "Are you coming or not?"

It may seem stupid, but I know exactly what I'm doing. I can't lose in this one. Either he says 'no' and I can tell him he just proved that his own statement about guys just wanting one thing, was wrong; or he says 'yes' and I get to sleep with Luke one. last. time. Our last time, during the difficult April-time, wasn't exactly memorable. I could use a good closure of my Luke era.

I cross my arms over my stomach, grab the hem of my shirt and pull it over my head. Standing in my khaki-pants, high heels and lacy, black push-up bra, I place my hands defiantly on my hips, waiting to see what Luke will do.

We stare at each other for a little while, neither of us saying anything. Suddenly, Luke closes his mouth and I can see him swallow. He has made up his mind. He stands up, bends down to place his bottle next to mine and walks over to me. He looks very serious and for a small second, I think he will pick up my shirt from the floor and hold it out for me to put on. Instead, he wraps one arm expertly around my neck and the other, he pokes through the triangle shaped hole my shoulder, elbow and hand form with my side, and he wraps it tightly around my naked back, roughly pulling me close to him. I can already feel the bulge in his pants and I wrap my arms around his back also. He presses his mouth urgently on mine and immediately seeks for my tongue, which I happily supply.

After a few minutes of this, I feel the clasp of my bra come loose. I break the kiss I had been talking about earlier—one that I can feel through my entire body—and I drop my hands down bij my sides, so the black, lacy bra falls to the ground.

As I start working on the buttons of his flannel, he opens my pants and soon all our clothes are shed and we hold each other tightly for a little while, simply enjoying the joy of being so close together again, before we fall to the bed and do what we've become experts at over the years together, and what has given us two beautiful daughters.

A/N: Sorry it's been taking a bit longer than before for me to write. I started college again, so my time is limited. I did already start writing chapter 6 though. However, I have an idea for next chapter that will be rather challenging for me, so 1) I will have to be able to write it and 2) I will have to like it. The chapter is going to be very important for me, because I have to write a short story for school and this chapter is going to be my test-run. Please, be patient with me. In the meantime, if you haven't done so already, you can always read "Teens on Coffee" by Nemo-LL: a Luke and Lorelai Fanfiction written by Niamh and I. Thank you, as always.