Thank you for all of your reviews! I can't say that enough, because they really do mean a lot!
I'm sorry for the delay, but it's been holidays and stuff and I had such a hard time writing the dinner-scenes with Emily and Richard – I'm still not completely pleased with how it turned out, but I can't keep rewriting it and keeping my lovely readers at suspense. I would love to know what you think about them. Emily Gilmore is terribly hard to write!
There's a tense silence hovering in the Gilmore house as they all sit in the living room, trying hard not to look as uncomfortable as they feel.
Lorelai spins her martini glass in her hand, watching the olive in it swirl in the current made by her spins. Her whole body is tense, she's ready to jump in and defend her daughter at any sign of struggle.
Rory traces a pattern on the wall-paper with her eyes, wishing and hoping with every bone in her body that the question of why she left her fiancé at the altar won't come up. Emily is watching her with an intent gaze, but doesn't utter a word.
Richard is still in his office, claiming he had to wait for an important phone call before joining them.
The room is quiet. Somewhere in the house you can even hear a clock ticking. The seconds seem to pass by slower than usual and Rory wonders if seconds were always this slow when you sat down and listened to them or if the clock was in desperate need to be wind up.
With a loud exhale of breath, Lorelai places her glass down on the coffee-table. "So, mom…" She starts, making Emily finally take her piercing stare off of Rory and turn it towards her daughter. "…what's new in the DAR? Anyone get kicked out lately? Made a scene at a fund-raiser? Served too hot tea at a luncheon?"
"You never asked about the DAR before" Emily states in a cold tone.
Lorelai sighs. "What's wrong with me being interested in the things you do? Can't I ask about the DAR only because I never have before?" She stops to take a breath and notices the look her mother is sending in Rory's way and then speaks up again, forcing her mother to shift her focus back to her once again. "That's an odd policy. I mean, if the conversation policy is to never ask about anything you haven't asked about before then you'll quickly run out of things to talk about. You'll just be repeating the same topics dinner after dinner after dinner"
"Fine!" Emily says and turns to Lorelai with held-back irritation seeping out of her every pore. "First of all, we don't serve tea at luncheons – we serve tea at tea-parties"
"Of course" Lorelai mutters under her breath while sharing an amused look with Rory.
"Second of all – we don't kick people out. We set the standards high to begin with and if someone feels they can no longer live up to the standards set, they will be asked to resign"
"But what if they don't want to resign?" Lorelai is starting to look intrigued by the discussion and when Emily answers, Rory tunes out and lets her mind drift to other things. Mainly, how to avoid telling them about Jess when the subject of the cancelled wedding comes up – which it's bound to do.
"So this is where teenage-Jess used to live?" Vanessa says as she spins on her heels and looks around the diner-apartment.
"Pretty much" Jess sighs. He hadn't intended for this to be part of the tour, but Vanessa was mesmerized by any place mentioned in his book and he knew better than to start an argument with her over something that didn't really matter anyway.
"A bit girly, don't you think?" Chris asks and chuckles.
"Yeah" Matt picks up. "What's up with the purple bedspread? You went through a phase in high school?"
"Shut up" Jess bites back.
"No, really" Chris continues, cheered on by Matt's smiling face. "The poster of…" He squints his eyes towards a poster hanging over the bed. "…that really cute boy over there – you must have missed it all these years"
"Yeah, and this…" Matt has walked over to the part of the apartment that used to be Jess' and holds up a large make-up brush. "…how did you survive without this?"
"My cousin has taken over the space after me" He explains with a glare in both their ways.
"Yeah, if that's your story" Matt raises his eyebrows and puts the brush down.
"It's a nice place" Vanessa chimes in, changing the focus from mocking Jess towards the apartment.
"It's small" Jess states.
"But still…." Vanessa smiles. "It's cozy"
Jess shrugs his shoulders, but there's a faint smile on his lips as he looks around the place. Yeah, it was cozy – mainly because of all the memories that surrounded it. Mainly memories of times he spent with Rory, pretending that they were studying.
"So…" Vanessa claps her hands together as to round things up. "…I could really go for a cup of that famous Luke's Diner's coffee"
"And a burger!" Matt chimes in with a grin on his face.
"Food's downstairs" Jess explains as he opens the door and holds it while his friends step out and start their way down the stairs.
"This was really good mum" Lorelai says and nods towards her plate, trying to break the tension that seemed to settle over them as soon as the conversation died out – which it seemed to a lot this particular evening. In fact; each time Lorelai stopped to breath or take a chew of her food the conversation came to a stop and everyone stared uncomfortably down at their plates.
"Thank you" Emily nods and then silence ensues yet again.
"Really great" Rory tries but looks down at her plate to examine the peas with her fork when Emily darts her head to look at her.
"What is it?" Lorelai continues, trying to act as if this was just any ordinary Friday night dinner and not the dinner following her daughter's cancelled wedding to a man both her parents seemed to have taken straight to heart.
"On the plate" She adds quickly, to avoid a misinterpretation that could lead to making the tension even worse.
"You know what it is" Emily states, her voice irritated at the questions that keeps interrupting her glaring at her granddaughter across the table.
"It looks like meat" Lorelai starts and hears her mother sigh. "But you can never be too sure these days. I mean there are a lot of vegetarian meat-substitutes that both looks like meat and taste like meat"
"It's veal" Emily deadpans and the room goes silent again.
"Veal, huh?" Lorelai starts, but to her surprise she's interrupter by her mother.
"Yes veal, Lorelai. It looks like veal and it tastes like veal, because it is veal. And even though calves may be cute this particular veal comes from a farm nearby and the calves lived a happy life before they died a very humane death" She stops for a breath and fixates her eyes with her daughter's. "Are we done discussing the topic of veal?"
"Yes mom" Lorelai looks down at her plate and the only sound heard in the dining room is that of cutlery against china.
A few minutes passes by in silence before Rory clears her throat. She takes a deep breath to gather the courage to say what she's about to say and straightens her back when she starts to speak. "I get it if you're mad about the wedding"
Immediately the tension in the room changes as Emily puts her knife and fork down. "I just don't understand it!" She exclaims and throws her hands about.
"Emily" Richard says in a warning tone and sends her a warning glare across the table.
"She brought it up" She quickly defends herself, pointing in Rory's direction. "And honestly I don't see how we're supposed to sit through an entire dinner and play pretend and waltz around a subject that is clearly on everybody's minds"
"Because it's none of your business" Lorelai chimes in, trying to help out the situation.
"None of my business?" Emily repeats, sounding terribly offended. "My granddaughter leaves her fiancé at the altar and you tell me it's none of my business?"
Lorelai cringes. "Well it isn't. It's Rory's life and Rory's decisions"
"You never liked him" Emily states, her eyes boring into Lorelai's. "What did you tell her?"
"What?" Lorelai's eyes widens at the accusation.
"You heard me" Emily nods knowingly in her direction. "What did you say to her to make her leave him like that?"
"She didn't say anything!" Rory interjects, almost shouting.
"Why don't you tell me then what on earth was going through your mind?" Emily turns in her seat and shifts her focus back to Rory.
Rory feels like she's literally shrinking in her seat. "I…I didn't want to marry him" She tries to explain.
"You didn't…" Emily scoffs. "You didn't want to marry him? You certainly didn't voice that concern when we were preparing for the wedding"
"I changed my mind" She tries to defend herself, her voice sounding very small.
"You changed your mind? Oh, that's just marvelous." Emily turns to her husband. "You hear that Richard? She changed her mind"
Rory shrinks even more in her seat when hearing her grandmother's agitated voice. Emily turns back to look at Rory again. "It's not a pair of shoes on sale – it's a marriage. It's a commitment. You don't just change your mind"
Irritated at the older woman's persistence and unwillingness to understand Rory steadies herself in her seat and meets her gaze. "So you would rather I made a commitment to a man I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with?"
"I'm just saying you're giving up too easy. First sign of doubt and you're out the door – much like your mother"
Lorelai opens her mouth to protest but is cut off as Rory takes tone to defend herself. "You don't know the first thing about why I changed my mind. It wasn't at the first sign of doubt, it was…it was…" Rory trails of, not sure how to explain what had happened without bringing Jess into the conversation and she certainly feels that it's way too early to do that.
"Go on" Her grandmother ushers. "Tell us what it was then? God knows, I'm intrigued" She turns to her husband. "Aren't you intrigued Richard?"
"I would appreciate if you left me out of this" Richard answers and goes back to shuffling food back and forth on his plate.
Emily sneers at him.
Seeing Rory's uneasiness at the direction the conversation seems to have taken Lorelai stands up from her seat. "Hey!" She exclaims, getting everybody's attention. "I have an announcement to make…" She digs through her pocket and picks up a ring and slides it on her finger and holds her hand up. "…Luke and I are engaged to be married"
"Oh, lord" Emily bent her head down, pinching her nose with her fingers.
Across the table Rory mouths a silent 'thank you' to her mother and Lorelai smiles in return.
"Is it like a competition between the two of you?" Emily lifts her head back up and looks from her daughter to her granddaughter. "Who can get engaged the most times without actually making it to the altar?"
"Mom!" Lorelai tries to interject, but her mother doesn't seem to take any notice as she continues on her rant.
"Oh my God!" Matt exclaims with his mouth full of burger. "This might very well be the best burger I've eaten" He takes another huge bite.
"I'll make sure to tell the chef" Jess says and puts a fry in his mouth.
"I can tell him myself" Matt says and holds the burger up and raises his voice. "Luke!" He gets the man's attention and points towards the burger. "Amazing burger!"
Luke nods and smiles towards the group, before turning around to keep attending his customers.
Jess chuckles and is joined by both Chris and Vanessa.
"Excuse me" A voice asks next to them and they all turn to face a funny looking man standing next to their table while casting nervous glances behind him.
"Hi Kirk" Jess says.
"Hi" He nods and clears his throat. "Visiting?" He asks, spitting the word out fast, almost too fast to be understandable.
"What?" Jess asks.
Kirk casts another glance behind his back and sighs before he turns his focus back to Jess. "Are you visiting?"
Jess smirks knowingly and leans back in his chair. "Maybe"
"Ehm…oh…okay" Kirk answers and starts walking away but doesn't get far before he turns around. "How long are you planning on staying?"
"Don't know" Jess answers, making Kirk look, if possible, even more uncomfortable.
"Hmm…" Kirk utters and then stands there in silence for a while before speaking up again. Are you here for the engagement party?"
"Among other things"
Kirk turns around and shrugs his shoulders towards a gray-haired man, watching them intently from behind a large window pane. They can't hear it through the glass, but it looks like the man is grunting before he turns around and walks away.
"Who was that?" Chris asks amused.
"That was Kirk" Jess explains and chuckles.
"And why were we being so rude?" Matt asks, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion.
"Because it annoys Taylor" Luke answers as he drops by to refill their coffees. A grin appears on his face as he waves to the man standing behind the counter in his shop on the other side of the glass window.
Matt nods and waves as well, placing a very confused look on the man's face.
"That was fun" Lorelai states, her voice dripping with irony as the girls settles themselves in the car outside the Gilmore house.
"Yeah" Rory agrees while staring blankly in front of her.
"I'm sorry honey" Lorelai lays her arm around Rory's shoulder and pulls her closer, kissing her forehead. "I tried to run interference by springing the Luke-engagement-news on her"
"That only seemed to agitate her" Rory's voice is tired and defeated.
"Yeah" Lorelai sighs. "I didn't not see that one coming"
Rory shakes her head and turns to face her mother. "Are we that bad with men? I mean all those things she said about broken engagements and running at any signs of trouble?"
"No" Lorelai shakes her head as well. "No" She turns to face her daughter. "She's just upset because she liked the thought of Logan as her grandson-in-law, just like they once dreamed of Christopher as their son-in-law"
"Yeah" Rory looks down at her lap as Lorelai starts pulling the car out of the driveway. "Do you think they'll ever get over it?"
Lorelai smirks. "Since I, as has just been proven and thrown in my face, have a habit of leaving men at the altar – take it from me: they'll get over it with time" She attempts a smile in her daughter's direction as she puts the car in gear and heads home towards Stars Hollow.
"Coffee!" Lorelai shouts as she throws her upper-body across the counter at Luke's.
"Rough night?" He asks while placing two cups on the counter and starting to fill them with coffee.
"You have no idea" Lorelai lifts her head up and he places a soft kiss on her lips.
"Hey" Jess appears behind them and Rory throws her arms around his neck and lets out a deep breath as she relaxes into his arms.
"I'm so glad you're here" She says and he kisses her cheek.
"Rough night?" He asks, without knowing he's repeating his uncle's question.
"You have no idea" Rory answers, knowingly repeating her mother's reply and she smiles wide as she kisses him softly.
"Hey!" Lorelai reaches her hand out and nudges Rory's arm. "If you're planning on keeping that up, I better take you to the Inn right away and show you your room!"
"Lorelai!" Luke protests at the same time that Rory exclaims "Mom!" with a distinct blush on her cheeks.
Quietly laughing Vanessa and the guys come up to them. "I could go for that room as well" Vanessa says and Matt winks in her way, which rewards him with a slap on the wrist.
"For showering, relaxing and getting some sleep after a long day" She explains with a stern look on her face.
"I know how to make you relaxed" Matt says, trying to sound seducing while wiggling his eyebrows. Vanessa shakes her head, but still places a quick kiss on his lips. He draws her closer and returns the kiss.
Looking a little lost, Chris stands surrounded by the three happy couples and sighs as he glances out the window.