Not too long after that, Lorelai comes into the diner. Once he hears Kirk babbling about his seat, Luke turns around and sees Lorelai sitting at the counter. Luke is a little surprised, but he's happy that she's there.
"Hey." Lorelai greets Luke.
"Hey… coffee?" Luke asks, pausing because he feels strange. It's weird to see her here again after so many months. But it's nice that she's back.
"Yes please." Lorelai replies.
Luke turns to get the coffee then stops, "Ah to stay or to go?" He asks her; worried that she only wants to get coffee and leave.
"Um… to stay." Lorelai responds with small smile.
"Good, okay." Luke says.
As he prepares Lorelai's coffee, Luke overhears Miss Patty and Babette telling Lorelai it's nice to see her back in the diner, Babette says that it's been a long time. Kirk states that he marked down the date of the last time Lorelai was here, but Luke doesn't want Lorelai to feel bad.
"Enough, Kirk." Luke says to get him to shut up. "Here you go." He sets Lorelai's coffee on the counter.
"Thank you." Lorelai says and Luke looks away and exhales loudly, suddenly feeling awkward.
"So, how's it going?" He asks Lorelai.
"Oh, really well, the Inn is really busy. "
"Yeah I'll bet." He replies, not knowing what else to say.
"And… so how are you doing?" She asks with a friendly grin.
"Me? Good, really good." He replies.
"Good." Lorelai looks down and nods.
"Yeah." He says softly, not looking her in the eye. This is awkward… I didn't think it would be this bad…
"Um, it sure is warm outside." Lorelai says, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"Yeah, you know when I opened the diner this morning; I remember thinking how warm it was." Nice. Going along with her subject change to the weather…
"Really?" Lorelai asks with a smile, like she can't believe it.
"Yeah." He looks away, feeling uncomfortable. Damn it. It wasn't supposed to be like this…
Lorelai breaks the silence once again, "You know what, um maybe I should take this to go. To get back to work and…"
"Yeah, okay let me just get you a cup." He responds immediately, wanting the awkwardness to end.
"It's been really busy at the Inn." She mentions again.
"Yeah. Yeah you said…" He hands her the to-go cup. "Alright there you go."
He watches her pour the coffee into the cup and he puts the lid on when she's done. She starts to reach into her purse for money, but he stops her. "Nah, I got it." He tells her.
"Thanks."
"Okay, so I'll see you around." He says, hoping that she won't avoid the diner again.
"Definitely, see you around. Okay." She replies and she gets up and walks out.
Once she's outside, Luke lets out a sigh, disappointed that her first time back in the diner didn't go so well. Well, maybe next time won't be so bad. He tells himself.
A few days later, Lorelai calls him. She asks for a favor, telling him that her car is shot and she doesn't know anything about it… he tells her he'll come with her to help pick out a new car, today. She says it doesn't have to be today, but he says it's no problem; the diner's hasn't been very busy today. They agree to meet later that day. Maybe this will help us get back to…us. Luke is happy that she asked for his help.
On the way to the car lot, they talk, but it's still awkward. Although the radio in the truck doesn't work very well, Luke turns it on and tries to find a station that isn't so static-y. He thought it would at least be a little less awkward without everyone in the diner around them, but he was wrong. But he doesn't bail on her or anything, he said he would help her and he will.
About an hour and a few cars later, it was clear to Luke that Lorelai had no idea what she wanted. He tells her that she should take her time, he doesn't want to scare her by telling her to hurry up and pick a car. Lorelai says that he's not rushing her.
"Good, because you know, I've got plenty of time." He tells her. It's true, but he wonders if it's a good thing that she taking so long to find a car. Maybe it will give them more time to feel more comfortable around each other, he thinks.
At the sale's man's suggestion, they walk across the lot to see other models. Luke sees a Jeep and tells Lorelai she should look at it. She spends a few minutes sitting in the Jeep.
"It's different." She claims.
"It's not different. It's just a new model." He tells her.
Lorelai lists the differences. Luke says that they're just improvements. Lorelai claims that they made some changes with the newer model. "Improvements." Luke says, a little angry.
"What exactly is bugging you?" He asks, wondering why she won't accept that the new Jeep is better than her older one.
"It's not bugging me per se. It's just different. I don't get that feeling." She tells him.
"Oh, for God's sake." Luke mutters, frustrated with her logic about buying a car based on a "feeling."
"You're being ridiculous." He tells her.
"Why?" She asks.
"You don't buy a car based on a feeling." He replies, annoyed.
"No you don't buy a car based on a feeling." Lorelai replies as she gets out of the Jeep.
"It's not just me; it's the whole rest of the population." He tells her, needing to tell that he's right.
Lorelai mocks him by asking if he took a poll to find out how everyone buys their car. He responds by telling her that he doesn't have to take a poll, he already knows what people are going to say. No one buys a car the Lorelai Gilmore way. He thinks.
"Well, I am the person buying the car, and so the only opinion that matters is mine." Lorelai tells him.
He glares at her, "Oh that is so like you. I mean this is bathroom tiles all over again." He says, frustrated, remembering how she claimed that the tile was too big for the bathroom.
"I was right about the tile." Lorelai answers.
"No, you weren't." He disagrees. I was definitely right about that.
"The tile was too big for the bathroom." She tells him.
He sets her straight, "Tiles are not too big for a bathroom. You buy the amount of tiles based on their size that fit into the room you are tiling!"
He continues on a rant about her opinion on cars, completely frustrated with her.
"You know what I think it is? That you're hungry." Lorelai says suddenly.
"What? No!" Luke responds, wondering how she came to that conclusion.
"Sometimes you get like this when you're hungry." She tells him.
"I'm not." He tells her.
"I think I have some cookies in here, some Oreos." She begins looking through her purse.
"I'm not, and besides, I wouldn't eat anything that came out of that bag." He mutters. Knowing her, she hasn't cleaned it out in a long time.
Lorelai pulls the Oreos out and tells him, "They're in a wrapper."
"I can't believe you still haven't cleaned that thing out." He says, gesturing to her purse.
"Please." Lorelai mutters.
"How much time do you lose a day looking through that thing? Five, ten minutes? Multiply that by year. I bet you'd gain a month if you just took an hour and cleaned it out, but no…" he stops and looks at her to see that she's smiling at him. "What?" He asks.
"Nothing." She says, giggling a little.
"You're smiling." He tells her.
"What? No. You've got low blood sugar." She looks back down at her bag.
"I do not have…" He stops himself before he can waste his time by yelling at her. "Okay, are you gonna buy a car or not?" He asks, lowering his voice.
She took a couple seconds to respond, "Not."
"Okay can we get out of here, then?" He asks, done with his patience with her.
"Gladly," She replies.
She starts walking away and he follows. "We're not listening to any of that crap on the radio." He tells her, so done with her.
She says it's not crap, it's Air Supply. He sighs and she tells him that he needs a milkshake.
"We're not stopping for a milkshake." He tells her
"Let's rock, paper scissors." She holds out her hand.
"No, no, no." He tells her.
"So, you forfeit?" She asks.
Luke ignores her and moves around her to open the door of the truck. He gently guides her in the truck, holding his hand to her back. "We're not stopping." He tells her repeatedly.
They end up stopping at a drive thru. After all this time, he still has a hard time saying no to her. He gets her a milkshake and gets himself a smoothie, as it's healthier. During the drive back to Stars Hollow, they talk, falling back into their normal banter.
Luke decides to try to find a car for her online to save the trouble of going to another car lot. He uses Kirk's computer and Zach shows him a website. After about a half hour, he finds a 1999 Jeep wrangler. He goes to see the owner and check out the Jeep. It seems like it's in good shape, so he runs the VIN number and it's got a clean history. He also takes it for a test ride to make sure it's okay. He tells the owner, Larry, that his friend should be interested in buying the Jeep. He negotiates a price with Larry and calls Gypsy to let her know that Lorelai will probably want her to move the engine from the new car to Lorelai's old car. Then he goes to Lorelai's house to tell her all this.
Lorelai seems pleased. Luke gives her Larry's number and tells her to call him and tell him that she's "Lorelai, Luke's friend." He says, sincerely, and it feels nice to be able to call her a friend again.
"It's still a completely ridiculous idea." He tells her.
"I know." She responds with a smile that made him feel at ease. He starts to walk away, and then remembers that she's been riding her bike around town for the past few days. He tells her to bring the bike to the diner so he can put air in the tires.
"I don't need air in my tires." She calls out after him.
He turns slightly and says "You need air, and you need a light so people know you're coming."
"What if I don't want people to know I'm coming?" She yells back as he gets to the truck.
"I'm putting on a bell!" He yells back.
"No you're not!" She shouts back.
Luke gets in to the truck and yells back: "What do you have against bells?"
"I don't like 'em." She tells him.
"You don't have to like them, they're a safety feature." He shakes his head. Unbelievable, I just want her to be safe.
"I want a horn!" She yells.
"Fine you want a horn; I'll get you a horn. Are you happy?" He asks. He can barely see her nod from so far away. "Jeez." He mutters. He looks at her one last time before starting the truck and backing out of the driveway.
Well, at least she's happy. And now, I think we can go back to being friends. He feels relieved to have her back in his daily life. Luke smiles to himself as memories of her smile flood his mind.