Rory was graduating from Yale. Luke couldn't believe it. He had watched her grow up for the past ten years. She wasn't his daughter, but she was going to be his stepdaughter. He felt proud of her and he felt like he should get her a simple graduation gift to show her that, to say congratulations. He decided to get her some earrings that Liz made. When he goes to pick out a pair, Liz mentions that she heard about Lorelai's karaoke "serenade."

"It wasn't a serenade." Luke tells her. He hasn't seen Lorelai since that night, and he isn't sure what the song meant to her. He didn't want the town to gossip about it if it meant nothing to Lorelai.

"So what have you done?" Liz asks.

"What do you mean, what have I done?" Luke is confused about what she's asking.

"About the love serenade," Liz replies.

"It wasn't a serenade, and I haven't done anything. I've worked real hard to try and get that stupid song out of my head." Luke tells her.

"Aren't you going to respond in some way?" Liz asks.

"Well there's nothing to respond to. She drank a truckload of tequila, and she sang a sappy song." Luke says, trying convincing himself that she only sang to him because she was drunk and not thinking straight.

"I will always love you is not a sappy song. It's classic Cyndi Lauper." Liz tells Luke.

"Whitney Houston." Luke replies, remembering the actual singer of the song.

"Doesn't matter, the point is, she will always love you." Liz says.

"I heard the song." Luke tells her, he wishes Liz would drop the topic.

"She's waiting for you to make a move." Liz tells him.

Luke knows he needs to set her straight, "Look if it had meant something, she would have come in, you know. What do you think of these?" He asks about a pair of earrings.

Liz says Rory will love those. He hands the earring to Liz, but she doesn't change the subject, "Look, all I'm saying is, from everything I've heard and know, Lorelai would like you to respond. I mean Crazy Carrie was there, and she said that Lorelai definitely gave you the love look."

"I wouldn't trust information coming from a woman who wears a cardboard hat. You got a box for those?" He adds, still wanting Liz to stop talking about Lorelai.

"I certainly do." Liz replies.

Luke looks at the other jewelry and spots a necklace. The color of it reminds him of Lorelai's eyes. "You like that?" Liz asks.

"Yeah, well it's nice." Luke responds, he doesn't want to tell Liz that he was thinking of Lorelai when he saw it.

"It is. It would really match Lorelai's eyes. In fact, I was actually thinking of Lorelai when I made that." Liz tells him.

"Well I wasn't thinking… it's a nice necklace, is all." Luke says, still not mentioning Lorelai.

Liz chuckles, she seems to be amused. "It is. All right. This is on me."

Luke doesn't want her to pay for it; he wants to help support his sister. But, then Liz says: "After everything T.J.'s put you though?" Luke agrees to let her pay. He tells her that the necklace can be a backup for Rory. Liz seems to have a hard time believing that, Luke says that Rory has blue eyes too. "Yes, she does." Is all Liz says.

Lorelai comes to the diner that afternoon. Luke is happy to see her, until he overhears her telling Patty and Babette: "No, no. It's just karaoke. You know I got swept up in the lyrics and the moment. It didn't mean anything." Luke sees the smile on her face; she seems to be happy with her statement that the song didn't mean anything.

Luke frowns and asks Lorelai, "What can I get for you?" He gets straight down to business; he doesn't want to hear her talk about the karaoke anymore.

Lorelai looks at him. "Hi. Um, a coffee," She says.

"To go, right?" He asks. He doesn't want her to stay because her feelings on the song hurt him. He wasn't sure what she felt, but now that he knows, he doesn't want to look at her and feel rejected.

"Okay?" Lorelai responds. Luke quickly pours her coffee into a to-go cup. "Hey, should I have a doughnut or a muffin?" She asks, sounding like her usual cheerful self.

Luke can't take that. Can't she see that he was hurt by what she said? "Whatever you want," He replies coldly.

"How about a donut with a side of muffin?" Lorelai replies. Luke just nods and walks over to get the donut and muffin. He quickly puts the food into a bag and drops it on the counter in front of Lorelai then walks away, headed upstairs.

In the apartment, Luke sits on his bed and sighs. If the song didn't mean anything, why did she stare at me while singing it? Didn't she think before she got drunk and sang a love song? What was she thinking when she saw me walk in, oh, there's Luke, maybe I can look at him and sing the song and pretend that it's meant for him when it's really not. Why do we always have to be so vulnerable around each other? He was too frustrated to go back downstairs until he was sure Lorelai was gone.

A couple nights later, when Luke takes the trash out, he sees Lorelai on the street.

"How's it going?" Luke asks casually.

"Hey." She greets him.

"What are you doing out here so late?" He asks her.

"I needed to take a walk to clear my head, and I wanted to see if Kirk was still in the box." Lorelai tells him.

"Yeah, apparently he is you know, I wouldn't know. I've decided to ignore him. Gawking only encourages his asinine behaviour. "Luke walks up to her and crosses his arms, almost as if to protect himself from what she might say.

"What about you? You're usually long gone by now." She says.

"The softball team's celebrating their first win. I couldn't get them out the door. Clearing your head about what?" He asks, curious.

Lorelai sighs and says; "Logan proposed to Rory." She sounds disappointed, Luke notices.

"No way, wow." He unfolds his arms and puts his hands in his back pockets, felling a bit at ease that she isn't talking about her feelings for him. "I guess you would need a walk for that. What did she say?" He asks.

"Well, she said she needed time to mull it over." Lorelai tells him.

"Good answer." Luke replies, relieved that Rory isn't jumping into marriage. She's too young.

"I thought so." Lorelai agrees.

"So, uh, did she ask you for your advice?" He wonders.

"She did, yeah." Lorelai replies.

"And?" He asks, curious to what she told Rory.

"I told her it was her decision. My mother's picking out china patterns."

"Oh, I bet she's all over that. So, you're leaning toward 'no'?'" Luke asks.

Lorelai shook her head, "Oh, uh I'm not really leaning. I'm kind of upright." She replies.

Luke looks away then looks back, but doesn't meet her eyes, "Oh, well I just, I could understand if you were leaning away from 'yes'"

"Why?" Lorelai asks, sounding a little upset.

"Well, I mean she's really young and it's the most important decision of your life—you know, her life." He still can't meet her eyes and he realizes he was just hinting at their failed engagement.

"Well, they love each other. He's been great. Maybe they got it together young some people do." She tells him, keeping her eyes on him.

"Right and others need time." He replies, implying that he needed more time after she gave him the ultimatum.

Lorelai seems picks up on his implication, "Sure or they're never ready." She says blatantly.

Luke looks away again. "Well I wouldn't say 'never'. Just they want to be a little more careful. They're a little slower, you know, just to make sure it's right." He says, looking at her at the end, even though it feels uncomfortable. He doesn't like that she accused him of not being ready.

Lorelai tells him that you can't always be one hundred percent right, sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.

He didn't want to elope because he wasn't sure what being married to her would be like, how it would affect his relationship with April. And he knew that she would actually want a real big wedding. "You got to know what you're leaping into." He tells her, he had to know that everything would be okay before they jumped into marriage.

"After all this time, how could you not know?" Lorelai asks.

"How could who not know?" He responds, wanting to know if she actually wants to talk about Rory or if she wants to discuss their failures.

"Rory," Lorelai replies with a small nod, glaring at Luke a little.

Luke nodded, "Right."

"Right." Lorelai repeated.

"Rory." Luke says, seeing that she wanted to stop talking about them.

Lorelai says she's going to head home. "Good enough," Luke replies and then he remembers the earrings for Rory and he tells Lorelai to hang on. He goes back into the diner and opens the drawer and takes out the box with the earrings. He stares at the box containing the necklace and debates whether or not to give it to Lorelai. He decides against it, thinking she wouldn't want it as she still seemed upset about his actions when they were engaged. And besides, the song didn't mean anything to her, she doesn't love you anymore. He reminded himself. He goes back outside and walks up to Lorelai and holds out the box to her. "I got this for Rory." He tells her.

Lorelai smiles and takes the box. "Yeah, I just thought it would be better if she got it on the day of her actual graduation." Luke says.

"Oh, that's-that's nice." Lorelai responds.

"Yeah, so..." Luke mutters, not knowing what else to say to her.

"Thoughtful… so goodnight," She says with a smile.

"Night." Luke replies with a nod.

Author's note: Thanks for reading. I never liked the fact that Lorelai said the song didn't mean anything just because Miss Patty and Babette were there. She should know that the town is going to talk no matter what she says. She should have talked to Luke in private… I hate that Luke and Lorelai didn't get back together until the last few minutes of the show. The next chapter will be the last one and it will include what I think happens after the kiss.