A/N You all are so nice to review like you have. Patience with Emily, it will be a bit before she find's out, but it will be worth it. Thank you to all the new reviewers it does make a difference to know that you appreciate the story. Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy.
I own nothing
Chapter 18 Better than Claude and Jacques
Luke was standing at the bottom of Lorelai's stairs Monday afternoon watching her struggle with her third suitcase. "Lorelai, what the hell are you doing? We are going to be gone three days and four nights. This means you have a suitcase for each day we are gone. Go back up there and condense this into one suitcase."
"Luke, we're going to be going to dinner with Liz and Jess tonight, right?"
"Yes."
"Then tomorrow Rory and I are going shopping and to a musical, right?"
"Yes."
"Then tomorrow night we're all going out to dinner, right?"
"Yes." Luke sighed, he was seeing he wasn't going to be winning this argument so he held up his hand. "Fine, I suppose I should be pleased that you aren't bringing more than three suitcases."
"Now you get the picture, babe. You should be proud of me that I only needed three." Lorelai grinned while Luke rolled his eyes.
Luke picked up two of Lorelai's suitcases and put them out side the door, then he came back for her other one and looked at Rory with his eyebrow raised, "How many suitcases do you have?"
Rory looked at him with Bambi eyes, "One."
"You are a perfect child," Luke said as he patted her on the head. Lorelai's eyes popped and her mouth dropped.
"Yeah, ask her how many empty satchels she has for all those books she is going to be carrying home from Strands!"
"Tattletale!" Rory stuck her tongue out at Lorelai.
"Good Lord let's just get the hell out of here please!" Luke groaned.
He picked up Rory's suitcase and Lorelai's last one and stepped out the door. There in front of them is a stretch limo and the driver had already loaded the other two suitcases in the trunk. "Wow," Lorelai said, "I guess I assumed we're taking the truck or the jeep."
"Do you know how expensive it is to park a car in the city for four days?" Luke said. "We'll spend less money on the limos and dinner then it would be to park a car. That's how they pick people clean in the city."
The limo driver looked at Luke and said, "Mr. Danes, Mr. Rhodes called while you were inside and asked if you could call him on the way to the city."
"Thanks Henry, and thanks for getting the luggage." Luke looked at Lorelai, "Thank Henry, he also stopped by the diner and filled up a thermos with coffee for you before we left."
Lorelai grinned, "Henry you are the best."
"You're welcome miss."
As they piled into the limo Lorelai looked at Luke, "This is your car isn't it?"
"No, it's the company's car. I use it when I'm in the city for an extended stay because as I told you, it's cheaper than parking."
"You own the company. Therefore it is your car."
"Fine, this car belongs to the company I own, so it is my responsibility and on occasion my privilege to use the car."
Rory had been watching this interchange very carefully and she quietly said to Luke, "Luke, are you rich?"
"Rory, I guess the only truthful answer would be yes, but as I've repeatedly told your mom, this is a job I've taken on that comes with a lot of responsibility. The people who work for B-D depend on the upper management to make sound deals and good decisions so that they can have security in their lives."
"I've a lot of good people who work for me, including Tom who you met Friday night. They take care of the day to day stuff. On occasion I go into the city and deal with long term decision making and attend meetings. When we buy another company, which we've only done three times since I've owned B-D, I'll have to go into the city for two to three days to finalize the paperwork. That's what we're doing this week."
"A lot of people depend on us and so I really don't feel rich, I just feel responsible. Do you understand?"
Rory thought for a bit, "I guess it's like Metropolis, huh?"
Luke smiled, "Yeah, you could say that. But I have to say that I'm happy that I get to share this time with you girls. The other two buy-outs were very boring and I probably got on a lot of the people's nerves because at the end of the day I just went back to my room and didn't have anything else to occupy my mind and I may've been a bit obsessed. But this time it'll be nice to go to dinner, and then I'm really looking forward to Thursday when we all get to go out together and enjoy New York."
"Huh," Rory was still trying to wrap her mind around what Luke had told her. He was really rich, but her grandparents didn't know did they?
"Do you two mind if I give Tom a call, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have requested I call unless it was really important?"
"Sure babe, this is a business trip after all, we're just along for the ride."
Luke picked up the limo's phone and dialed, "Hey Rick, it's Luke Danes, can I speak to Tom? Yeah Tom, what's up? You sure they found the right person? Is he still employed in any official capacity? Shit. No, I'll be at the office later tonight, OK? Yeah we're on our way to the suite and we'll have dinner with my sister and nephew then I could probably be there around nine tonight."
Luke laughed, "You know me too well, yes, if you're able to be there at five-thirty, tomorrow morning would be better for me. What time are they getting in? So we'll have about three hours? Well, it'll have to be enough. If there're any papers you want me to review have Paige or Rick run them over to the suite and I can look at them tonight. No, Tom, we aren't on vacation yet, don't worry about it. Thursday I may tell you to forget it, but tonight is fine. Thanks for the head's up. Bye."
Luke leaned his head back and sighed deeply. Lorelai had been watching him carefully, "Everything OK?"
Luke leaned over and cradled her in his arms. "I'm just REALLY glad you two came with me. I think this one is going to be more difficult then the others." He kissed her temple and leaned back still holding her, looking at Rory he said, "So tell me your day for tomorrow."
Rory got a big grin on her face and said, "Well, I think tomorrow we are going to Strand Bookstore."
"That's it? I thought you were going out to lunch, see a play, go shopping." Luke said,
"We are, but tomorrow is the bookstore and you can't rush that. I think we're planning on a play, but eighteen miles of books takes a lot of time."
"Good, Paige said she had gotten you tickets to two new musicals, tomorrow it is Jane Eyre she thought Rory would enjoy it."
Rory squealed and Lorelai looked at him, "OK, so tomorrow I am going to stay in a bookstore for five hours and then see a depressing play about a woman who pines for a married man and in the end gets him as he is going blind? Yippee."
Luke laughed and said, "Strand has a nice coffee shop, with really good pastry, I'm sure it won't be that much of a hardship for you, and then tomorrow you can pick the place we eat dinner. I think you might enjoy the musical Paige got tickets for on Wednesday."
Lorelai looked at him skeptically, "What?"
"Something about a singing cat and a doctor and an elephant, I don't really know, but it sounded right up your alley."
"Are you talking about Seussical the Musical?" Lorelai was the squealing one now. She jumped up and down in her seat and clapped her hands.
"We get to see the Cat in the Hat Rory! You are so my favorite boyfriend, I told Claude and Jacques that you win hands down, they tried to fight me, but I said, nope, Luke is my favorite one of you all."
Luke laughed and held her against him, "I'm glad, I was a bit worried about Claude."
Lorelai snuggled against his chest; he was wearing the navy cashmere jacket he had worn on their first date. She had found out that Annie and Tom had given it to him a couple of Christmas' ago, so she was pretty certain that it was a real good cashmere. She wished she knew what Tom had said that upset him, but he didn't want to talk about it. Maybe when Rory wasn't with them he might open up.
They reached the building that housed corporate suites and the concierge had their luggage taken up while Luke and Lorelai received the keys and Luke got the packet that Tom had sent over. When they walked into the suite Lorelai and Rory stopped just inside the door. The main living area had a fireplace and seating for eight and a large screen TV. Off to the side was a dining area also able to seat eight. Behind a small screen was a nice sized kitchen and off to one side were three doors and to the other was another door.
Luke said, "Rory, there are three rooms you may choose from on the left, Lorelai, if you would care to share a room with me the master bedroom is on the right."
Lorelai ran to the door and opened it up to see a king-sized bed with a fireplace and a bathroom off to the right and to the left there was a small balcony with a table and two chairs outside the sliding glass door.
"Wow," she said, "We're so coming back here in nice weather!"
Luke laughed at her enthusiasm and whispered in her ear, "We can come back anytime you want. None of this means anything to me without you beside me."
Lorelai turned around and kissed him deeply.
Rory poked her head in, "Hey now you two, there's enough time for that later, we have to get ready for dinner. Luke, what's your sister and nephew like?"
Luke let go of Lorelai and smiled, "Well, Liz is best described as being born in the wrong era. She reminds me of the hippies in the sixties. She works in a vintage clothing shop in the Village. Jess kind of reminds me of you in some ways. He always has his head in a book and whenever I come to visit I get suckered into taking him to Strand's as well."
"Which is how you know there is a good coffee shop in the bookstore, eh?" Lorelai laughed.
"Yep, they actually have about thirty different herbal teas and I have tried them all, I'm well acquainted with the coffee shop. Jess is also very smart, I think Liz has let him run a bit too much; he has a difficult time with authority at times. But he is a good kid and I try to see him at least once a month when I come down here."
"Hey Luke, do you think he would want to go to Strand with us tomorrow?" Rory asked.
"I would love if you asked him Rory, but I know this is also special time for you and your mom."
"Yep, real special time to trail behind the human library and then go to see a musical about a persecuted young woman in love with a man who is unable to marry her and all the horrid things that happens to her. Of course I wouldn't want to share that." Lorelai pouts.
"I don't know if Jess would want to see a musical but I'm sure he'd relish a chance to go to Strand. I will tell you though Rory, neither Jess nor Liz knows about the company."
"Liz & my mother's father left it to me, but I make sure that Jess and Liz have enough to live on and Jess is going to private school here, I'll also pay for any college he wants to go to. As you'll see from meeting Liz, she doesn't make the best decisions and some of the guys in her life OK, all the guys in her life have taken advantage of her, I set up a trust-fund that'll allow her to pay the rent and support Jess and herself for as long as they live."
Later Lorelai, Rory and Luke were leaving the suite.
"Are you going to be able to walk in those shoes?" Luke was looking at the heels that Lorelai was wearing.
"What, we're walking? Why?"
"Because Lorelai, we're in New York City! No one takes a car unless they have to. We're going to take the subway to the Village and meet Liz and Jess at Trattoria Paolina. No cars, no taxi's. Just walking." Luke was getting ready to rant so Lorelai leaned in and kissed him.
"Hon, I have run up and down stairs in these shoes, for ten hours a day. I was just kidding, I only brought with me shoes I've broken in. Now I may buy some on Wednesday that wouldn't be usable here, but I will just transport those home."
She flashed him a huge grin and Luke just shook his head.
"I should know better, and yet, I get sucked in each time."
"Just when I think that I'm out they pull me back in," Lorelai said dramatically.
"OK Michael, let's get a move on shall we?"
Luke looped an arm around Lorelai's shoulder and led her out the door as Rory followed.
As they were walking towards the subway Lorelai saw Tiffany's across the street and she turned to Rory, "Oh, we should reenact 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' tomorrow before we go to Strand's. What time do you think they open?"
"Mom, can we do that on Wednesday so we can get to Strand before the doors open, please? I would be in a much better mood if I wasn't concentrating on all the books I might be missing out on."
"You do realize that this is a sickness right?"
"Yes, but what a wonderful sickness to have, huh?"
About half and hour later they get to Trattoria Paolina and Luke heads towards a woman with strawberry blond hair and a boy with dark hair and dark eyes. During dinner Luke said very little since his sister talked more than Lorelai. Jess and Rory hit it off well; they shared stories about their private schools and favorite authors. Lorelai noticed that Luke was nodding and appeared to keep up with the conversation but his mind was somewhere else.
When they got back to the suite Lorelai got into bed, but Luke was sitting up at the desk going over the reports that Tom had dropped off.
"Hey babe, the phone call from Tom upset you today, was it something you can share with me?"
Luke sighed, "Yeah, the person who screwed up the compliance in California was Rory's dad."
"Christopher!?!"
"Yep, he had a business that was funded by his father that was supposed to file compliance reports for a few companies, Hayden being one. Within the year his company had forgotten to file five separate reports that caused millions of dollars of fines to these companies. Needless to say his business went under and was sued by everyone except his dad. The fault at Hayden is that they didn't have any quality assurance in place that would watchdog this sort of problem. We'll have to re-educate their managers and have some of our people follow-up to make sure we are in compliance."
"All of this would normally not be a problem except that Straub had hired Christopher for their Boston office before the merger, which is why he's suddenly here all the time. Now Tom and I have to figure out how to make sure Christopher doesn't screw up things that are now our responsibility without looking like we are targeting him."
Luke was really not looking forward to the morning meeting, because if it were anyone else they would've been fired, but since it is Straub's son, it would get tricky.
Lorelai was taking all this in and then she started laughing. Luke looked at her a bit irritated, "I really don't see the humor in this! Rory is going to be upset, Straub is going to be upset, Lorelai, this isn't funny!"
"Oh, babe, I'm sorry, but I just realized that you got the shortest end of the stick with this merger and you didn't even know it. Not only do you own Straub, but you also own Christopher! He'll just die when he finds out that he works for you!"
Lorelai couldn't control her laughter, the irony was too much.
Luke shook his head and smiled at her enjoyment.
"I wish I could find the same pleasure you do, all I can think about is that Rory will be upset if I fire her dad and he isn't making it easy to do anything else."
Lorelai got up and pulled Luke out of his chair and wrapped her arms around him.
"Luke, you do what's best for your company, whatever Christopher did is his own fault. Rory knows that you try to do the best with all situations you're in and that you'd only do this if there isn't another way. Since I've found out the problem is Christopher, I refuse to let him take away any time that I have with you. Leave the reports and snuggle with your beeeauuuuteeefull girlfriend before you have to face those nasty accountants tomorrow."
Luke grinned as he followed her back to the king-size bed and started to remove the satin pajamas she had put on.
"You know it is so warm in here I think you have way too many clothes on."
"Think so eh? Well, perhaps you would also like to remove a few of yours'?" Laughing they fell onto the bed.