Chapter 3 – The Uncomfortable Confrontation

-oOo-

Rory could barely sleep that night, thinking of Logan in London, and of her mom in New York, and of Luke, who was probably sulking around his apartment, furious that his fiancée cheated on him. Luke, whom she always thought would never ever hurt her mother, apparently was the one man who hurt her the most. Granted, what her mom did after the break-up was horrible, but that one act didn't just wipe out every single hurtful thing Luke put her through for the past few months.

Rory didn't leave the house all morning to wait for the checks from her grandparents, which she put in her purse. When it finally arrived, she put the cardboard boxes of Luke's things in her car, grabbed the engagement ring and another small box, and drove off to the diner.

Luke and TJ were arguing over something when Rory's car screeched to a stop in front of them. Luke instantly recognized the car and stood stock still. Rory got out without speaking and took the boxes from the trunk.

"Can I talk to you in private, Luke?" she said, her voice icy.

Luke was somewhat taken aback by her tone, but replied readily, "Let's go upstairs. TJ, you good here for a bit?" TJ nodded. Luke walked up to Rory and reached out for the boxes, asking, "Can I help you with these?"

Rory didn't even look at him and just shoved the boxes to his hands. Luke tried to maintain a neutral expression, even though this did not seem like Rory to him. He turned and led the way to his apartment upstairs.

He opened the door and waited for her to come in. When she did, he gestured to the sofa and said. "What would you like to drink? I have soda, or orange juice, or water…"

Rory remained standing, not even looking at him. "No, thank you. This won't take long." Pointing to the cardboard boxes that he put down near the door, she said, "Those are your things you left at our house. Mom asked me to return those to you."

Luke had no idea what to say. "Oh… Okay, thank you for bringing those over."

"At first I was surprised that there were only two boxes. I mean, you've completed the renovations months ago and I honestly thought you've already moved in by now, but I guess you never did, huh?"

Luke looked at her, not knowing how to respond. There was an undercurrent of anger in her tone which he couldn't understand.

"I hear you did the same to Nicole. Got an apartment with her but never moved in. But at least you married her, right?"

"Rory…"

"No Luke, I don't want to hear it. I'm just here to do a favor for my mom since she's not here to do it herself."

"What do you mean?"

"None of your business," Rory replied brusquely. "It's none of your business where she is, Luke. She can go live in another continent for all you care."

"Rory that's not fair…"

"Anyway, first order of business is to return your things. Done. Second, here's the engagement ring. Thanks for making my mom believe that you were going to marry her. Like you would ever commit."

Luke was speechless and refused to reach out for the ring, which she was trying to hand over. Finally, Rory slammed it on the table.

"Done. Next, here are two checks. One is for the Dragonfly loan, plus interest. Here's the calculation from the Inn's accountant. If you have any issues on this, you can talk to Sookie or the accountant."

"No, I can't take that. I didn't lend her the money expecting to get paid. I was investing in her business," Luke tried to explain.

"Well, she doesn't need your investment anymore. She wants to thank you for your generosity when she needed it, but she doesn't really want to owe you anything at this point."

A hurt look crossed Luke's eyes. "I helped her out because I know how much she hates having to ask her parents for money."

"Well, guess where this money is coming from, Luke. Looks like borrowing from my grandparents is better than owing you anything now." Rory paused slightly before she continued. "The other check is to cover the cost of renovations at our house. Mom called Tom yesterday and got the figures."

"Rory, no, I paid for that because I wanted to."

"Yeah, and mom let you pay for it because we all thought you'd live there. So paying for the renovations would make you feel like you own part of it. But you never did live there anyway, so why should you pay for it? At least if mom pays you off, the house will still be hers and mine. Just ours. Alone."

Again, Luke refused to reach out for the checks or the computer printout with lots of numbers, so Rory slammed them on the table, next to the engagement ring.

Finally, Rory reached for her purse and pulled out a small black jewelry box. Luke recognized it instantly. He watched as Rory took a deep breath and he could see the anger go from her eyes, replaced by something worse – pain.

"Luke, I need to return these to you," Rory said after a moment of silence as she tried to collect her thoughts. She placed the box containing Luke's mother's pearl necklace, which he gave her on her twenty-first birthday, on the table. "This doesn't belong to me; you should give them to April."

"Rory, no, I gave them to you for a reason…"

"Yes, because you thought we would be family soon. That I would be your daughter. But that's not gonna happen, right? I mean, April should get this. She's your daughter, your own flesh and blood. I'm just… I'm just the daughter of the woman you wouldn't marry." Her voice broke and a lone tear fell from her right eye, which she hurriedly wiped away.

Luke stood, stricken. The pain in Rory's eyes reminded him of the pain in Lorelei's eyes when he last spoke to her in the streets. He has always loved both Gilmore girls and swore under his breath every time some guy made them cry. And here, he realized that he was that guy after all.

"I don't understand Luke. Were you… were you just marking time with mom and me, pretending that the three of us were a family of some sorts, until you could get your own family?"

"No Rory, no, it's not like that…"

"Because I'm not sure if you know, but mom knows you've been having family dinners with Anna and April. She kept waiting for you to tell her about it, since you guys promised no secrets or something, but I guess that only applied to her, huh? She had to report back to you every single time my dad called. But you… you could go and meet with your ex anytime you wanted to without telling her."

Luke had no idea what to say. He thought he had been very discreet whenever he had dinner with Anna and April at Woodbridge. It wasn't like a regular thing, but there have been maybe three or four dinners so far. He closed his eyes in shame when he remembered that the last two dinners ended with Anna kissing him at her front porch. He didn't kiss her back, but it did take a minute before he pulled back. And he never did ask Anna not to kiss him again. And he never did say anything whenever Anna would whisper seductively to his ear, "Engaged isn't married, you know."

Rory looked at him and realized he had no explanation for this. "So yeah, that's all I wanted to say, I guess. Since Mom went out of town – thanks to you – I think I'll just head back to Yale for now. You won't be seeing either of us anytime soon."

With a last sad glance at the man she always thought as her main father figure, Rory quietly turned and headed down the stairs.