And another one! I'm going to aim for weekly update.
Thank you for all the feedback and love left on the last chapter, I really do appreciate all of it!
"Sookie?" Lorelai called out, poking her head into the kitchen at the inn and checking for any signs of her friend. "You here?"
"Right here!" Sookie popped out almost of out nowhere. She reached through the crack in the door and pulled Lorelai by the hand and into the kitchen. "He just went out for a smoke break so we have a few minutes."
Moving in tandem of a well-practiced routine, two stools were pushed up to the kitchen counter, two cups were pulled out and filled with coffee, and leftover breakfast pastries were dealt out onto plates. The 'he' they were referring to was the head chef at the inn, Alejandro, who had no respect for any one other than kitchen staff or Mia in his kitchen. And he barely tolerated Mia in there. Of course, in her years at the Independence Inn, Lorelai had found her way around his schedule for time with Sookie and to gather whatever leftovers Mia would let her keep and take back to their little home.
"He was in a mood this morning," Sookie complained, sitting down on the stool next to Lorelai and pulling one of the pastries towards her. "I made a suggestion for a new omelet he could serve and he nearly chopped my head off."
"He's always in a mood," Lorelai replied. "He's been in a mood since I got here. Once I came in here just to get Rory's sippy cup that I accidentally left behind and he went to Mia and told her to fire me."
"Jeez," Sookie groaned. "I don't see how Mia has put up with him for this long."
"He makes really great food, raved about food, food that gets talked about in magazines," she said while taking a bite out of one of the pastries. She talked around the bite in her mouth. "Plus, minus a few accidents, he's a different person around Mia."
"I just want to be able to make what I want to make instead of being bossed around. He's always 'chop this, stir that, no that's too much, I don't like cilantro, don't chop your hand off, back away from the stove, don't change my recipe, it's as old as me."
Lorelai laughed at Sookie's impression of the surly, bitter kill-joy of a chef. Her impression had been perfected over many of their bonding moments either here in the kitchen or out in the potting shed.
She squeezed her friend's hand, "Don't worry Sookie. One day, you and I will have a place of our own, an inn maybe, and you can create whatever menu you want. And I won't have to clean any more rooms. I don't even want to talk about what I found in room 2 today."
Sookie gave an involuntary shutter, numerous talks with Lorelai over what people left behind in rooms, had cautioned her against asking. "I can't wait for that. Then my food can be raved about in magazines."
"And it definitely will be."
"I can't wait."
Lorelai smiled. "Me either." She had just lifted her coffee cup to her lips when the incident from the day before popped into her mind and caused her to spill coffee down onto the countertop. "I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you what happened yesterday."
With Sookie's prompting, Lorelai launched into what she was now calling The Snowball Heard Around the World. After their hot chocolate and cookies at Weston's, the incident was almost wiped from Rory's memory. Only being brought up again when they decided their nightly reading would be that of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Lorelai was happy that the incident didn't really seem to bother Rory anymore, since she was now saying their Grinch just needed a little Christmas spirit like The Grinch in the book. But she was still upset over the whole issue. He had no right to yell at her and her kid in public.
"Honestly, who does that?" Lorelai finished her story. "Rory was with me, she's only six, it was an accident, and he was acting like it was the end of the world."
"And you have no idea who it was?" Sookie asked.
Lorelai shook her head. "I went through the short list of people I know in this town and it wasn't any of them."
"It sounds like something Taylor would do," Sookie pointed out. "But you know Taylor so you would've known if it was him."
"It wasn't Taylor," Lorelai confirmed. "This guy was younger."
"Definitely wasn't Kirk, he would still be crying. Wait, have you met Kirk?"
"A few times, unfortunately."
Before they could delve into the many residents that Lorelai had yet to meet on her few adventures into town, the unmistakable sounds of Alejandro coming in from his smoke break sent the two girls scurrying around the kitchen to hide the evidence of their morning break for chit-chat and coffee. As the kitchen door swung shut behind her, Lorelai popped the last bite of pastry into her mouth and busied herself with pretending to dust off a shelf just long enough to hide any sense that she had just been in the kitchen. When the coast was clear, she turned on her heel and headed towards the staircase, back towards the rooms that still needed to be cleaned.
Mia's voice stopped her before she could climb the stairs.
"Lorelai, come here for just a second."
With an excuse already on her tongue, Lorelai turned around. "No matter what he said, the kitchen is the same as he left it before he took his break. Sookie and I were just having coffee."
Mia dismissed the excuse with a wave of her hand. "Oh I'm not worried about him, he's a sourpuss. I wanted you to meet someone." She turned to the man on her right. "Lorelai, this is Lucas. Lucas, this is Lorelai."
"Luke," he corrected. "It's Luke."
Speak of the Devil. The Grinch finally had a name.
Lorelai fixed a smile on her face and extended her hand. "Nice to meet you."
She could see him trying to place her with his eyes as he reached for his hand. Trying to figure out how he knew her and where her knew her from. Her smile twisted itself into a smirk. After all, it wasn't like she could tell him to go to Hell in front of her boss.
"Nice to meet you too," he finally said before he released her hand.
Mia spoke again, "Lucas is here to fix that leak in Room 7, have you cleaned that one yet?"
"It was next on my list, I was just heading there now," Lorelai answered.
"Good," Mia replied with a smile. "Then you wouldn't mind showing Lucas here the problem. I have some business to attend to in my office and it would be a big help if you would show him what's wrong."
"No problem," Lorelai said a little too cheerfully.
"Wonderful dear." Mia turned her attention back to Luke. "Now you come see me before you leave because I'll have a little something for you."
"Mia, I've told you before that you don't have to pay me, I don't mind helping out," Luke said.
"Nonsense, I'm taking you away from your business to fix a problem for me, it's the least I could do."
Lorelai watched the exchange silently. Luke tried once again to refuse any money but Mia insisted that would see him after he was finished. Mia excused herself with a thank you to Lorelai and a hug to Luke. Once they were alone and Mia had shut herself in her office, the smirk disappeared from Lorelai's face.
"Room 7 is this way, follow me Lucas," she instructed.
"It's Luke," he said, taking a moment to pick up his toolbox before following her across the room and up the staircase. "Only Mia calls me Lucas."
She continued down the hallway. "Whatever you say Lucas."
"It's Luke."
She swiped the room key from her cart that was parked in the hallway. "I heard you the first time."
After unlocking the door, Lorelai led him inside and pointed him towards the bathroom.
"The leak is in there, sink is going drip-drip when it shouldn't be going drip-drip and Mia needs it checked out. She's also worried that the pipes are leaking underneath so you need to check that you too." She turned back to him. "Any questions?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Good."
Lorelai crossed the room, putting as much distance as she could manage between herself and the bathroom. She watched him in the mirror on the wall above the dresser and he turned the sink on and off a few times before kneeling down and checking underneath the sink. She watched him for a few minutes more as he began to work before she moved to the bed and stripped it of the old sheets.
With the mattress bare, she ran her hands underneath making sure nothing was tucked in before making a fabric ball of bed sheets and pillowcases. After exchanging the old sheets for fresh ones, Lorelai stopped to watch him again. He was silent while he worked, focused on fixing the sink for Mia. He hadn't once stopped to look back at her like she looked at him. Not that she expected him to but she was curious. He made no indication that he remembered her.
She forged on, making up the new bed with ease. A motion that she didn't even need to think about anymore, not after doing this almost every day since she arrived in Stars Hollow.
Curiosity got the better of her.
She moved to stand in the doorway to the bathroom. "Do you remember me?"
He set his wrench down beside the sink and turned to face her. "I'm not sure."
"I would be happy to remind you," Lorelai replied. "Just give me a minute to go find a little bit of snow and throw it in your face."
The corner of her lips turned up into a smirk when the realization washed over him.
"Oh, about that…"
She cut him off before he had a chance to think up a flimsy excuse. "You're an ass."
"I was having a bad day."
"You were having a bad day?" Lorelai parroted back. "That's your excuse for yelling at me and my kid?"
Luke watched her, her arms crossed over her chest and lips puckered into a pout. She looked young, hard to believe she had a kid. He hadn't meant to yell like he did, that kind of yelling was usually reserved for Taylor. And true, he wasn't a fan of kids but he didn't make it a habit to go around yelling at them. But after a morning of dealing with Taylor and the mess his sister was trying to drag him into, he just went off.
"I didn't see your kid at first," Luke admitted.
"But you still continued to yell when you did notice her?" Lorelai questioned, her brow arched.
"I wasn't yelling at her," Luke argued.
"But you did yell at me in front of her after I had already apologized for what was an innocent mistake," she replied.
He leaned back against the bathroom counter. "Are you looking for an apology?"
"Any decent person wouldn't have to ask, they would just apologize." She backtracked. "Actually any decent person wouldn't yell at someone and her kid, they would do what everyone else does and keep it to themselves."
"I'm sorry for yelling at you and your daughter," Luke apologized. He gestured back to the sink. "Can I get back to work now?"
Lorelai scoffed. "Unbelievable."
"What?" Luke asked. "I apologized for yelling at you for the snowball you threw in my face."
"On accident." Lorelai had to stop herself from raising her voice. "It wasn't maliciously done. I'm saving that one for Taylor."
"Well he deserves it."
She fought the smile that threatened her face. He wouldn't get to her just because they both agreed Taylor deserved a snow ball to the face. "You're still not off the hook."
He blew out a breath. "You're exhausting."
"Yeah, well so are you."
"I'm sorry," Luke apologized, his voice brimming with a sincerity that wasn't there before. "I'm sorry if I upset your kid."
"She thinks you're the Grinch but she's okay."
The corner of his lip lifted up into the beginning of what she swore was going to be a smile. "The Grinch?"
"She's six," Lorelai said. "I think you're an ass."
"Right." He picked back up his tools from earlier. "Can I get back to my work now?"
"Don't let me stop you."
She turned and left the bathroom, popping out in the hallway to grab her cleaning supplies so she could work on the rest of the room while he was still working in the bathroom. Something still gnawed on her mind. Before she could stop herself, she found herself being drawn back to the bathroom.
"One more thing," she said as she entered.
Luke sighed. "Here we go."
"I'm a good mother," Lorelai stated proudly. "We may not have a whole lot but I work hard to make sure that she has everything that she needs and that she is well taken care of. You don't get to decide what kind of mother I am."
This time when she turned away and left him alone once again, a smile crossed her face. She was still angry with him but it felt great to get it out. And now he had a name, something to discuss with Sookie when she could sneak into the kitchen again.
As she cleaned, her eyes flicked up to the mirror in the room and found a pair of blue eyes staring back at her. For a split second, they locked eyes before she averted her gaze and began to hum about the Grinch and the countless ways that he was terrible.
Later that night, Lorelai moved about the potting shed and hummed to herself. She was putting up a few hand-me-down decorations around their small space. In the corner sat a Christmas tree that rivaled that of Charlie Brown's but she and Rory had decorated with all of their creativity and handmade ornaments. It looked perfect.
Happy with her decorations for now, Lorelai sat down on the floor next to Rory. "Whatcha up to sweets?"
"Making some Christmas cards," Rory answered. She offered her mother a marker. "Want to help?
She smiled, grabbing the marker and a piece of construction paper. "Gladly. Now who are we making these for?"
Rory stretched her little arm and grabbed a piece of paper with her writing on it. "This is my list."
"Of course there's a list," Lorelai said as she took the paper in her hands and read over the names. She wasn't a bit surprised with everyone Rory had listed. The only real surprise came when she saw 'The Grinch' scribbled at the bottom of the list. "So this is everyone you want to make cards for?"
"Yep!" Rory grinned gleefully. "But when I make yours, you can't be with me, okay?"
"Okay," Lorelai agreed. "So am I making the cards too or am I just your helper?"
Rory thought about it for a minute. "You're my helper." She pushed an almost completed card towards her mother. "I think it needs some sparkles."
"And I think we have some."
Leaving Rory on the floor, Lorelai crossed the room and reached for the shoe-box underneath their bed where miscellaneous crafting and school supplies were hidden away. She grabbed the red glitter and a glue stick before she joined her daughter back on the floor. While Rory worked quietly and diligently, Lorelai was soon lost in her own little world, her mind occupied with thoughts of earlier and the guy that she definitely didn't need to be thinking about.
Christmas parade is coming up!
As always, reviews are appreciated!