Chapter 16
"Mom, stop it!"
"I most certainly will not."
"For once, can't you just take me seriously and actually listen to me?!"
"I am listening to you. But what you're saying is not worth listening to – and lower your voice, the shouting is unnecessary."
"'Not worth listening to'? Gee, mom, nice maternal instinct you have there."
"Lorelai, please... you're giving me a headache."
"Well, if you had just acknowledged what I had said in the beginning none of this would be happening!"
"You're being absurd and oversensitive."
"And you're being ignorant and self-absorbed."
"Lorelai!"
"How could you possibly think, even for a second, that The Beetles are better than Elvis?"
Rory sighed heavily and dropped her head into her hands. Richard was already reading the paper, completely oblivious to what was going on. And Emily and Lorelai were just syllables away from jumping out of their seats and lunging for each other's throats – well, Lorelai was; Emily was far too dignified for that.
"Mom... Grandma... Could we please just drop this, call a truce and eat a peace-making slice of pie?" She suggested innocently.
Lorelai looked adoringly, bordering on sympathetically, at her daughter, who always seemed to have the best intentions.
"What?" Rory grimaced.
"Oh, sweetie," Lorelai smiled. "No."
Rory groaned and that 'no' resulted for the girl to go back to her previous position: head in hands.
"I believe Rory has a point, you two," Richard interrupted, not even bothering to glance up from his paper.
"Oh, so he speaks..." Emily says with a raised brow and poised lips.
"Does he sing? Dance, too?" Lorelai asked with a fake gasp.
Rory looked through gapped fingers to see the unspoken truce. She smiled happily, then stared across at her mother.
Richard sighed tiredly, closing his paper. "I would not bet my money on it."
Lorelai flashed a brow raise. "Hm. Bummer."
"Now..." Richard continued, placing the paper on the table and rising from his seat, "If you will all excuse me, I have some calls to make."
"With your boyfriend? Because he's so cute and dreamy?" Lorelai added an innocent smile up at her father who stared down narrowly at her. Richard buttoned up his suit in his regular dignified way.
"Lorelai, Rory, it was wonderful seeing you again. And I will see you next week," he said as tiredly as before. Richard walked off, his back straightened.
Lorelai titled her head and squinted as she watched him leave. "You know... his silhouette kinda looks like Alfred Hitchcock's," she slowly said, only partially joking.
Emily turned to her daughter and glared. "Lorelai!"
"What, mom, it's a compliment!" Lorelai pathetically defended.
Rory's head fell back into her hands.