Lorelai rolled out of bed the next day, she didn't have to be at the Dragonfly until later so she decided to hit Luke's.
"Good morning," she called to Lane as she entered and walked to the counter.
"If you say so," Lane grumbled back.
"My aren't we buoyant this morning." Lane waved her hand impatiently at Lorelai and walked away. "Thanks for taking my order babe!" Lorelai called after her.
"I wouldn't test her. She's on the war path this morning," Luke informed Lorelai as he walked up. "All morning she's been telling customers what to order, telling Caeser how to cook it, and one time she even told me to go upstairs and clean, and I quote, at least then I'd been useful." Lorelai laughed.
"So she's going the Ben Hur rowing scene route this pregnancy then." The two of them watched Lane for a bit as she told a little girl not to get married or she'd end up fat like her. "Row, row, row," Lorelai chanted under her breath.
"So can I get you something to eat," Luke asked Lorelai, breaking her stare.
"Umm yeah," Rory's words still echoed in her head. "I'll have an omelet, jack cheese with a side of bacon." Luke turned to begin preparing the food. "And Luke."
"Yeah," he said as he turned back around.
"I'd also like to know what you were trying to say earlier. I know I kept cutting you off earlier, but I promise know I'm as focused as a Nikon."
"Oh, well…" Luke was a little flustered being put on the spot like this. "I was just wondering, if you weren't doing anything tonight maybe you and I could go get dinner somewhere. And then maybe go to the movies." Lorelai had been expecting this, she smiled.
"Dinner and a movie sounds great."
"Really? Great." Luke chuckled nervously. He stood in front of her, bobbing his head up and down. "So your food should be ready soon."
"Umm Luke, you haven't even put in the order yet."
"Right." Luke shook himself out of his daze and walked away. Lorelai smiled to herself and then pulled a magazine out of her bag.
Lorelai threw another skirt on the bed. It sat atop the mountain of other rejected clothing. She picked up the phone and dialed.
"Hello?" Rory answered.
"Do you think going naked on a first date is too forward?" Lorelai asked her.
"It depends, are you going out with Luke or Hugh Hefner?"
"Why Hugh of course." Lorelai held another shirt up to herself and looked in the mirror.
"Then no. Of course if you were going out with Luke I would say yes it is a bit forward."
"But I have nothing to wear."
"Ok we really need to work on your definitions of no one and nothing."
"What?"
"Well first you say you have no one to date and then the next day you have a date with Luke and then today you say that you have nothing to wear when I know for a fact that…"
"Ok this is so not helping."
"I know for a fact that you are going to wear your stretchy black pants with the light blue, drapey neck thing you have. I'll hold while you get it out." Lorelai put down the phone and picked out the outfit. Being extremely critical she looked at herself in the mirror, it was perfect.
"Great but now I don't…"
"You're not going to wear a necklace or earrings, but you will wear your circle bracelet." Lorelai pulled the bracelet out.
"Wow I sure know how to pick out an outfit."
"Bye mom."
"Bye." Lorelai hung up the phone and smiled. Then she carefully slipped into her outfit and applied makeup.
Lorelai flipped, absentmindedly, through a magazine. She looked at the clock, eight o clock. Luke had said he would pick her up at eight. She shouldn't get worried, yet. She looked back at her magazine, flipped a few pages, then looked at the clock again. Eight o two. The clock must be broken. Lorelai got up and walked to the kitchen. She looked at the cow clock on the wall. Eight o five. Lorelai opened the fridge and reached for a water. The door bell rang. As if she had been burned, Lorelai pulled her hand back and walked quickly to the front door. Skidding a bit, she stopped right inside the door and smoothed her hair. "Hey," she breathed as she opened the door.
"Hey," Luke said. Luke stood on the porch. He looked nicer than normal in a gray shirt with a black leather jacket. "Am I late?"
"No." Lorelai smiled. "I just finished getting ready." Luke smiled at that.
"Well you look nice."
"Thank you." It was quiet for a moment and the two of them looked down. "So I'll just get my coat and then…"
"Yeah, yeah." Lorelai grabbed a coat and Luke helped her into it. She picked up her purse and then the two of them walked out. "You're not going to lock up?" Luke asked as Lorelai walked off the porch.
"No. Babette hates it when she can't get in to steal my Crisco oil."
"Crisco oil?" Luke held the car door open for her.
"You don't want to know." Lorelai got in.
"So how long had you been planning on asking me out?" Lorelai asked Luke. Their food had arrived a couple minutes ago and the conversation was starting to get a little "deeper".
"Well…" Luke pulled at his collar. "To tell you the truth, I've been meaning to ask you out since the day I met you."
"Wow." Luke reached across the table and put his hand on Lorelai's. "You've been pining for me."
"I have not been pining for you."
"Yes you have. Pining like a big piece of furniture."
"Topic change. How's Rory doing?"
"She's doing great. Excelling at school."
"Still with that Logan guy?"
"Yeah."
"I don't really like that guy, he's just a stuck-up rich kid."
"Luke, that's not true. He's actually a great guy." Luke pulled his hand back.
"Ok topic change again. How's your dad?"
"He's doing great. He's back at home and he might start teaching again by the end of the week."
"Good, good." Luke nodded. The conversation lulled as the two of them ate.
Luke held Lorelai's hand as they walked into the theater. Kirk stood in the town square doing what appeared to be ballet. "This town is crazy. They should all be locked up." Lorelai laughed. They sat down and the movie started. Luke and Lorelai enjoyed the movie more than anyone else, joking and laughing the whole time.
"Well I had a good time tonight," Lorelai said to Luke as they walked to her porch.
"Yeah I had a great time too. Maybe we should do it again sometime."
"Yeah maybe." They stepped up onto her porch. Luke leaned in and kissed her cheek. He smiled at her and then walked back to car. She stood on her porch for a moment before going inside. She threw her purse on a side table and kicked off her shoes before sitting on the couch. Despite what Luke seemed to think, and what she herself wanted to think, she hadn't felt it. She did have a great time, but she still thought of Luke as just friend. But he had made it clear that he thought of her as much more. Lorelai exhaled sharply and rubbed her temple. How would she tell him? She couldn't think about this much longer, so she turned on the TV. And that's how she fell asleep.
The next morning she got up early with a huge headache, partially because of the pain in her neck due to the way she had slept the previous night and partly because of what she had to do. She couldn't drag this out much longer. It was wrong to string him along. First things first though, she had to get a shower. The warm water trickled down her back and Lorelai ran her hands through her hair, thinking how to tell him. All too soon Lorelai was standing outside of Luke's diner. She saw him inside, bustling around filling people's coffee. He seemed to be smiling more today than he normally did. How could she do this to him? Lorelai took a deep breath and put her shoe sale face on before she charged into the diner.
"Lorelai!" Lane smiled at her.
"What no comment about how fat you are?"
"No I'm actually in a good mood today. I think it's because of Luke. I heard you two went out last night and I think he had a really good time."
"Oh really?" Lorelai's stomach dropped.
"Yeah, he didn't even yell at Kirk when he sent his eggs back because they were touching."
"He sends it back if his eggs touch his bacon?"
"No. He orders two eggs and sends them back if they touch each other." Lorelai smiled. "Well have a seat and I'll take your order, or actually I'll let Luke do it." Lorelai faked another smile and then sat down. She pulled a menu out, even though she didn't need it, she needed something to do.
"Can I get you something?" Lorelai jumped. "Sorry," Luke told her. "I didn't mean to scare you. I was just going to take your order."
"No it's just…nothing."
"Well ok."
"So you told Lane about our date?"
"Actually she got it out of me."
"Oh." There was silence.
"So can I get you something to eat?"
"Yeah I'll have pancakes, side of bacon." Luke nodded. He went to go get her order. "Come on Lorelai you can do this. He deserves to know." Lorelai tried to psych herself up. Luke came back with her order and put it on the counter in front of Lorelai.
"So I was thinking that maybe we could go out next Friday, you know, if you wanted to." Lorelai picked up her fork and stabbed it into her pancake, but didn't say anything. "Did you hear me?"
"Luke there's really no way to reach me, I'm already gone."
"What?" Lorelai put down her fork and shook her head.
"Ok that didn't go well. You see I've been wracking my brain trying to figure how best to tell you this without giving you a line so I thought song lyrics might be good. Then I tried to think of a song, but the only one I could think of was a Fray song that I've had stuck in my head for like a month."
"What?"
Lorelai looked down at her plate. "I don't think we should see each other anymore,"
"Wow that was…" Luke searched for a word. "…terse." Lorelai's head shot up so that she was facing him, she was a bit confused by his lack of reaction.
"I'm sorry would you have preferred that I drew it out, because I can do that. I could even add a little puppet show to go with it," she said sardonically.
"No I think I get the picture." Luke ripped her receipt out of his order book and put it next to her plate before walking off. Lorelai watched him walk away and then shook her head, paid, and walked out.