Chapter 8

Something's Gotta Give

Richard frowned and placed the insurance contract he'd been reading on his desk. He'd reread page 4, subsection 8, paragraph D at least three times, but it was no use; he just couldn't get the risk to premium numbers to make sense in his mind. On instinct, he reached for the phone and dialed.

"Hey, Dad," Lorelai answered, making a quick scan of the hallway and closing the door to her office. "Listen, I'm glad you called, I wanted to ask you about the menu for the party."

"Lorelai, I've been reconsidering this whole thing and I think perhaps we should call it off."

"What?" she exclaimed, the phone momentarily slipping from her hands. Catching it with her forearm against her stomach, she lifted it back up to her ear. "Dad, you can't."

"I think it's for the best," he replied resolutely. "I just don't know that now is the best time for a party." He removed his glasses and began twisting them in his hand.

"We can't just move Mom's birthday to a more convenient time, and the invitations are already out. How would it look to call it off now?"

"I'm sure you could think of some excuse," he reasoned.

"Me?" she demanded. "Dad, you can't do this. You know it would get back to Mom."

Richard sighed and dropped his glasses onto the desktop. "I suppose you're right."

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed quietly.

"It wouldn't do to call things off now that people have been invited, still…"

"Nope, wouldn't look right at all," Lorelai quickly reinforced. "We'll just have to go through with it. I'm sure everything will be fine, Dad."

Richard sighed again.

Not hearing any response, Lorelai prompted, "Dad?"

"Yes, Lorelai, go ahead with the plans. We'll just have to hope for the best."

Lorelai took a deep breath and tried to sound positive. "So, about that menu…"

"I don't know, Lorelai. Your mother usually handles those things."

"Well I can hardly ask her to plan the menu for her own surprise party," she argued.

"True," Richard agreed, putting his glasses back on and picking up the contract. "I'm confident you'll come up with something fabulous. I really must get back to work."

"Thanks for the help, Dad," she replied rolling her eyes.

"You're welcome," he answered already focusing on the contract and not the conversation. "Goodbye, Lorelai."

"Bye." She closed the phone and stared at it in disbelief. Was that really her voice that she'd just heard telling her father that something wouldn't look right? What was going on with her parents anyway? She wondered if they'd had a fight or something. Her mother had seemed like her usual upbeat self with the staff and guests today, perhaps a bit quieter than most days, but not upset or anything. Then again if Emily Gilmore was a master at anything, it was pretending things were okay, presenting the perfect image to the outside world when behind the façade it was all coming apart at the seams.

"Hello," Michel answered, slipping the cordless phone to his ear.

"I'm caullin' to confirm with a Ms. Gilmore," the caller spoke, his heavy northern accent making it almost impossible to understand him.

"Pardon me?" Michel asked.

The man on the phone repeated what he'd said before. "I'm caullin' to confirm with a Ms. Gilmore."

Michel still couldn't make out what was being said. "One more time?"

"I said, I'm caullin' to tauk to Ms. Gilmore," the man answered beginning to get frustrated.

"One moment," he instructed, pulling the phone from his ear and shoving it in Emily's direction. "They want a Gilmore."

"Who is it?" Emily asked.

"I don't know," he answered curtly.

Taking the phone with a sigh, Emily greeted the caller, "This is Emily Gilmore."

"Oh, I was caullin' for …"

"Lorelai?" Emily finished.

"Yeah," he replied shortly.

Emily shifted the phone in her hand, moving away from the music that was now coming from the speakers on the computer. It was hard enough to hear this man without Michel doing whatever it was that he was doing. "I can get her, if you'd like," she offered.

"No, ma'am. I'm just caullin' to confirm some details for next Friday," he stated.

"Well, I'd be glad to provide whatever assistance I can," Emily assured.

"I'm caullin' from Larry's Beef. We've got an order for the Gilmore party this Friday. My men are suppos'd to be deliverin' it today around 5pm. We got a big deal o'food and so we just wanna make sure someone is gonna be there, ya know? I know five o'clock is dinner time and the broad who ordered the food might notta realized that, you know."

"I'm sure that five o'clock is fine," Emily assured the man, jotting down a note on a piece of paper that rested near the phone. "The order will be delivered at five o'clock today for the Fritzen-Heimer party," she repeated, writing it down.

"The what?" the man asked, his confusion evident by his tone of voice.

"The party…" Emily repeated.

"Oh yeah, you said some kinda funky name," he laughed. "This is for the Gilmore party. Or at least that's what my papers say. I don't know what kinds of plans you people got there. I'm just makin' the delivery."

"All right, then," Emily spoke tentatively. "Is that all you need?"

"Yes, ma'am," he assured her. "We're good."

"Very well. Someone will be here to meet you this evening," she assured him before hanging up the phone.

Picking up the pad she had used, Emily looked at Michel for a moment, stopping in her tracks.

"Tell him, tell him that the sun and moon, rise in his eyes, reach out to him, and whisper tender words so soft and sweet, hold him close to feel his heart beat, love will be the gift you give yourself," he sang, swaying back and forth as he stood in front of the computer, typing away.

Unable to look at him any longer, Emily finally turned and walked away, moving quickly down the hallway.

"Hey, Mom," Lorelai greeted as she spotted her mother advancing down the hallway.

"Someone called from Larry's Beef," she informed Lorelai, stopping in the doorway to the small office. "They were confirming tonight's delivery."

"That's great. Andy will be here, so it'll be fine. They didn't have any problems or anything, did they?" she asked.

"No. They had the wrong name down, but that's just minor."

"The wrong name?" Lorelai asked.

"The man on the phone had no clue who Mrs. Fritzen-Heimer is but I suppose they just had everything under your name," Emily reasoned.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," Lorelai added, hoping she was playing it off casually. Emily didn't seem to be suspicious or notice that something was up, thankfully.

"Well, that was it," she stated, turning to walk away. As she was about to return to the front, she stopped and looked back at Lorelai. "You know … there is something off about this woman. Perhaps you don't see it but for some reason this party just strikes me as being very odd."

"Nothing is off, Mom. She's just a busy lady. Actually, she's really nice. You'd probably like her a lot. The two of you have quite a bit in common."

"We'll see, won't we?" Emily mused, finally turning around. "That is, if she actually shows up at her own party," she added, her back turned to Lorelai.

"I'm telling you, something is up," Lorelai insisted as Luke steered the jeep off the interstate.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" he asked.

"I'm not asking you to do anything, Luke. I'm just saying to see if you notice anything odd tonight," she shrugged.

"Your parents are always odd. How am I supposed to notice that something is different tonight?" he argued, puzzled.

Lorelai sighed, "Just pay attention to them. Something is up. I don't quite know what is going on but something is up. Mom has been acting really odd lately. And I know something happened the other day. Dad called and I had to talk him out of cancelling the party. He'd never do that for no reason. So, it has got to be something big."

"What could really be that big? I mean, it isn't like she has another man on the side and your father found out. These are your parents."

"Exactly," Lorelai agreed, "these are my parents. They have a routine and a set schedule. When something has messed up that schedule, they start acting odd."

"I just don't see why you are worrying about this," Luke stated.

"I …I…" Lorelai stammered. "The last time my parents were acting like this was when they were separated. And the fact that my Dad wanted to cancel the party means that whatever this is between them is not just nothing."

"Even if there is something going on between them, there's nothing you can do, you know that, right?" Luke turned onto a side road, switching on the high beams as he looked for the Gilmore driveway.

"I know. I just … oh, I don't know," she sighed as the car came to a stop in front of the house. "Just see if you notice anything out of the ordinary tonight," she instructed, getting out of the car.

"There would have to be something ordinary about them first," he mused to no one in particular, unbuckling his belt and pushing the car door open.

Lorelai glanced between her parents seated at either end of the dining room table. So far this had been the most uncomfortable Friday night dinner in months and it had nothing to do with her. Something was definitely going between them.

She tried again to fill the strained silence. "So, this is really great chicken, Mom. What's it called again?" Lorelai asked taking another bite.

"Chicken Marsala," Emily answered flatly with a sideways glance at her daughter. At first she was irritated by the question. Lorelai knew full well what Chicken Marsala was and she'd already asked that same question not ten minutes ago.

Lorelai looked imploringly across the table at Luke who raised his shoulders slightly, the barest expression of a shrug.

Realizing that Lorelai was just trying to make some sort of conversation, Emily gestured to her plate with her fork. "Normally it's served with rice, but I thought it would be nice to try it with pasta this time."

"Mmm… that's what's different," Lorelai replied happily. When another moment went by without anyone saying anything, she added, "The pasta is good with it, don't you think, Dad?"

Richard glanced up, clearly puzzled. "Hmmm?"

"The pasta, with the chicken," she explained. "It's a nice change isn't it?"

"Yes, quite," he agreed then returned his attention to meal.

Lorelai transferred her gaze back to her mother who was also closely examining the food on her plate. Looking back at Luke, she shot him a clear 'help me' expression.

Rolling his eyes, Luke turned to Richard and asked, "So, how's everything in the insurance world?"

"Fine, fine," Richard answered.

"Anything interesting happen lately, Dad?" Lorelai asked brightly. "Any cool dismemberments or maimings cost the company big bucks?"

Richard chuckled briefly while Emily quickly scolded, "Lorelai! We're eating."

"No, nothing recently," Richard answered, "just the usual fire damage and property loss." He took another bite of his chicken and then remembered. "You know, there was one interesting claim this month. A shipment of bananas destined for a cereal processing plant was hijacked by a Columbian drug cartel resulting in a production loss in excess of a million dollars."

"Wow, those are some expensive bananas," Lorelai said in awe.

"Indeed," Richard agreed with a nod. "Of course the underwriter took the brunt of it."

Luke commented, "I didn't know you could get insured against Columbian drug cartels."

"Well, it could hardly be classified an act of God," Richard explained.

"No. No, it couldn't," Lorelai agreed with an overly enthusiastic nod, but her relief was short lived when again the moments of silence stretched out tensely.

"Still think I'm reading too much into things?" she asked, the moment the front door closed.

"That was …" Luke began but couldn't think of a word to complete his thought.

"Yeah," Lorelai quickly agreed. "Something is up. They barely even looked at each other over dinner. And did you notice that they didn't actually speak to each other either? Dad was in his own world the whole time. And Mom just sat there staring at her food."

"Maybe they did have a fight," Luke suggested, opening the car door for Lorelai.

She waited to respond as he walked around the car and got in on the driver's side. "Maybe I should try and talk to Mom and see if everything is okay. What if something is wrong with one of them? You know, like medically or something. When Dad was sick, he was so difficult with her. What if something else is wrong and she's upset about how he's handling it?"

"Don't you think they'd tell you if something like that were wrong?" Luke asked, starting the car and shifting into reverse.

"I don't know. We have a nice habit in this family of shoving unpleasant things under the rug. Eventually it gets lumpy and you can't walk on the rug without noticing the bumps … but until then we just pretend that the ground isn't level and keep on walking."

"I don't know, Lorelai," Luke admitted. "Why don't you just wait and see how things play out? It might be nothing more than just some fight that is lingering between them."

"I guess," she agreed tentatively. "I don't know why I am so caught up on this. I just…" she shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I've kinda gotten used to them, you know? This is going to sound stupid."

"What?" he asked.

Lorelai was silent for a moment. "I want us to be like that forty years from now."

"You want us to be like your parents?" he asked, having to hold onto the steering wheel a bit tighter to reign in his surprise.

"No," Lorelai corrected, "not like them like them but … they've had their ups and downs yet they've shared a lifetime together. And at the end of the day there is no one more perfect for my father than my mother. I want our kids to say that about us one day."

"Kids…" Luke lingered on the idea.

"You don't want them?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, no, I do," he corrected himself. "I just … I hadn't really thought before about what it would be like that far into the future. It's a good thought," he added with a smile, glancing over at her.

"Yeah, it is," she agreed, smiling back at him as Luke reached for her hand, squeezing it gently.

Emily closed the door behind Luke and Lorelai muttering, "Well, that was awkward," she was surprised to see that her husband had already walked away. At the sound of ice being dropped into a cut crystal glass, Emily sighed on her way into the living room.

Richard stood at the drink cart pouring scotch into his glass and saw the disapproving look Emily gave him. Instead of saying anything to her, he simply poured more scotch into the glass. "I'll be in the study," he announced on his way out of the room.

"Fine," Emily replied. She walked to the bottom of the stairs and as an afterthought called out, "I'll be upstairs."

"Fine," he answered tersely before closing the study door.

Emily gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists as she stalked up the stairs. This Mexican stand off of theirs was becoming ridiculous. Neither of them had acknowledged the fight since it took place. Her hope that after a few days things would just go back to normal clearly wasn't working and tonight the tension between them had made their dinner with Lorelai incredibly unpleasant. What did he want? She was home now and where was he? Holed up in his study.

Many thanks to LorLukealways, Sandra, RiskaSG, Mary, Lilienprinzessin, and Tears4Chris for the reviews!