Wednesday at the Dragonfly
"Lorelai." Soft kisses were landing all over her face. She slowly came to, saying, "You're the best alarm clock ever." She pulled him on top of her and began running her hands down his back, squeezing his cheeks in an impudent manner.
Pulling away with difficulty, Luke growled, "God, this is harder than I thought it would be. But we both have to go to work, and I want to talk to you before you go home to get ready."
She wrapped herself around him, trying to prolong the inevitable. "One of us has to be strong here," he groaned. He slid his arms down to her hips, pulling her closer to his body.
"Four days to the test run." Lorelai saw the mountain of work ahead of her, no way to get it all done. "There's no time for sleep, much less time for us to, um, not sleep. It was nice knowing you, mister. "
"Lorelai, please. That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. You don't have time to do it all. That's why I'm going to arrange my schedule to give me some time to help out. That way, even if we can't have another night like last night, we can at least work together to get the inn ready."
Lorelai disentangled herself, sat up, put her legs over the edge of the bed and took Luke's hands in hers. "No, Luke, the inn isn't your problem, it's mine. I've got to get it ready, not you. You've got the diner to run."
"I might have let you get away with such nonsense when we were dating, but we're not dating anymore, right?" Luke was adamant.
"It's not nonsense! I made promises to my partners and my staff, not you. You don't have any obligation to do anything, Luke."
Luke sighed, "You do have a promise to me. Listen to me, Lorelai, I WANT you in my life, and I WANT to be in your life. That's what you want, too, right? That's the commitment we freely made to each other."
"Yes, but …"
"No buts. Are you in or not?"
"I'm in. I love you; I want our daily lives to be entwined. No doubts, no buts." Of this, Lorelai was certain.
"Good. When Uncle Louie died, you were there for me, do you remember? Now it's my turn to be there for you. Being entwined means it's our lives, our diner, our inn, our responsibilities. Not mine and yours - ours."
"Uncle Louie was easy, and Rory and I were both happy to be there for you. This is different. How will you manage the diner and help out at the inn? It's all so stressful, there's so much to do." Lorelai couldn't see any way through this problem and really hated burdening Luke with it.
"The diner is running normally, it's not stressful. There are no major problems, so I'm going to do the following: pull in the part-time staff as much as possible, which will give me some more time. If that isn't enough, I'll shorten the hours, maybe close for a day. You need more rest."
"No, no closing the diner, I can't cost you income due to my poor planning."
"My decision, Lorelai." Luke stood up, and crossed his arms, giving Lorelai his most stubborn look. He had practiced this stare over the years, and it had often worked to make her back down from her position. He was not backing down today.
Lorelai narrowed her eyes before she spoke. "Doesn't being entwined make it OUR decision, Luke? By the way, you don't look nearly so threatening when you're naked."
She closed the space between them in two steps, put her hands on his crossed arms and gently pulled them down to his sides. She held his wrists lightly and waited for him to calm down.
Luke continued to stare her down while she smiled sweetly at him. Eventually he cracked a smile, and the two of them dissolved in laughter.
"Compromise: How about if I arrange the diner schedule and pull in the employees, but don't close down unless we decide it's necessary?"
"Deal. Now get dressed – you're much more convincingly sullen when you're wearing your flannel."
Lorelai slipped into the house quietly, trying to make sure that Babette didn't see. Seeing Rory's door still closed, she decided to let her sleep. She ran upstairs, showered, dressed and headed out to the Dragonfly.
Rory and Jess heard Lorelai drive away.
"Do you have to leave today, Jess?" Rory asked. She wasn't looking forward to his departure. Worse than the departure itself was her worry that he might leave without telling her.
"Not really. I can probably stay a while longer. We can take some time to talk, make some plans." He was as reluctant to leave as she was to let him go. He didn't mention the chance that he'd lose his courier job if he didn't show up soon.
"Breakfast, then? I have to go to the Dragonfly sometime today to help out. Oh, shoot! I also promised Grandma that I'd have lunch with her today."
Jess made coffee while Rory pulled out the breakfast offerings, mostly Poptarts and juice. "I think I'll go back to Patty's for a while, then head over to Hartford to visit some book stores."
"Do you know what I think we ought to do? I'd like to drive over to Yale and show you the campus. You'll have a completely different impression of campus life after I've shown you all the important things."
"What about your grandmother's lunch?" Jess asked. The last thing he could imagine being interesting was a walk around an empty campus. This day was not really looking very hopeful for him.
"We've got plenty of time to go there this afternoon. Remember? You once looked up the distance between Yale and Stars Hollow. Let's take that little drive together." She melted his icy mood with a kiss, and their plans were set.
After Jess had gone, Rory got herself ready to spend the morning working at the Dragonfly.
She could hardly contain her excitement. She was finally in love, real love! She couldn't wait for her mother to hear about her happiness. "As soon as Mom sees me and Jess together, she'll see how much he's changed, and she'll be happy for me. This is good," she thought.
"We should celebrate. I'll take some coffee to her. Mom loves Luke's coffee best of all. Mom loves Luke. I love Jess. Could this get any better?"
She walked into Luke's, smiling. She stopped to say hi to Babette and Morey, and was subjected to Babette's usual form of overprotection.
"You were up late last night, honey," said Babette. "Everything OK?"
"Oh yes, Babette, no problems. I'm still stuck in my late-night study mode. I'm awake at all hours of the night sometimes." Rory hoped no one had seen Jess leave this morning. This relationship was too precious to be roasted in the Stars Hollow town square.
She went over to the counter as Luke came out of the kitchen.
"Hi Rory! I'll get to you in a second, OK?" Luke smiled a truly happy smile and headed off to deliver the plates to some customers.
When he got back to the counter, she asked, "Did you guys have a nice time last night? I didn't get a chance to talk to Mom yet."
Luke looked down for a moment, then answered, "Yeah, it was nice." He looked up at her and it occurred to her that she had never seen happiness really deep in his eyes before. That was a beautiful sight.
"Looks like more than 'nice,' Luke. You look really happy."
"I am, kid," he said. Luke stood up straight, still smiling. It was almost more than he could wish for, to have both Gilmore girls truly a part of his life. A real family of his own.
"You want coffee?" he asked, changing the subject. He was dangerously close to breaking out in an idiotic love song like in those damn musicals Lorelai and Rory liked to watch.
"Yeah, two please, I'm going to go help Mom out this morning, and I thought I'd surprise her with her favorite coffee from her favorite coffee guy," she teased.
"Great, I'll pack up some muffins for you as well. You know what, I'll fill a thermos instead of cups and it will stay warmer longer that way."
He put the muffins in a bag, closed it and handed it to her.
"Any secret messages that I should keep away from the construction crew?" Rory asked, her eyes sparkling with humor.
"No, I'm sending my messages via couriers like you now. No chance of them being found by the wrong person. Tell your mom that I'll be over this afternoon if there's a lull, or tonight if there isn't. Make sure she makes a list of things for me to work on."
Rory laughed gently. "Or you could use your cell phone, you know. Turns out cell phones work really well for conversations and private messages."
"Here's your coffee, now shoo! You're bothering me, kid!" He looked at her with his "Rory and Luke have a secret that no one else has" expression, like the time she caught him caving in to her mother's request to advertise the Stars Hollow rummage sale, or when he made her a birthday coffee cake.
Luke watched Rory leave, thinking what a good kid she was. Too bad more of her hadn't rubbed off on Jess. At least Jess had come a long way by himself, remembering his participation in Liz' wedding. Ah, well, that's life, he thought. Jess has gone his own way, no telling when or if he and Rory would meet again.
"Hi guys, here are fresh coffee and muffins from Luke's!" Rory said as she came into the Dragonfly's lobby. Michel and Lorelai were setting up the reception workspace, deciding where the printers and computers should go, how to run check-in and check-out, and a million other logistical decisions which needed to be made before the test run.
"Hi Rory, glad to see you're back from school. Are you here for the summer?" asked Michel. "We could use a couple more people on the cleaning crew. How do you feel about scrubbing bathrooms?"
"Hello daughter, did you sleep well?" asked Lorelai.
"Slept great, Mom, thanks for letting me sleep in. Michel, you know I'd do anything that needs to be done here. I've cleaned toilets at the Independence Inn; I'll do it here when you need me. What can I work on now? I've got a couple of hours until I have to leave for lunch with Grandma."
"Emily's got her clutches in you already? What kind of plans does she have for you this summer? At the last dinner all she could talk about were things for the two of you to do this summer. Now that she's separated from Dad, she's completely focused on you." Lorelai felt pity for Rory, even though Rory was perfectly fine with visiting her grandparents.
She also worried about what might happen if Rory were caught in the middle between the two of them. Rory was too nice for her own good sometimes. "Don't let Grandma take advantage of you," Lorelai added.
"Rory, we're deep cleaning all of the rooms, one at a time, then locking them up until the test run. Can you work on that?" asked Michel.
"Oh! Good idea, Michel," said Lorelai. "Rory, why don't we work in one room together? It'll give us a chance to talk while we work."
"Make sure you get the rooms spotless! This is the last time we'll look at them before the test run," said Michel.
Starting with Room 15, Lorelai and Rory got to work. Everything needed to be wiped clean of construction dust, the bathroom fixtures needed to be sanitized, then the floors vacuumed or mopped.
Lorelai worked high on the walls, Rory low. They took one wall at a time together, wiping down every bit of wood and every fixture. The water that they rinsed their cleaning cloths in quickly turned gray from the dust left behind by Tom's drywall crew.
The women worked hard, side by side, catching up on all the small talk they had missed over the past few days. The latest town information, what Paris was doing this summer, how finals actually turned out, they synced up on the tiniest details. It felt good to Lorelai to really understand what was on her daughter's mind; the past year had been harder for her than it was for Rory. Rory had gone through enormous changes in the first year at Yale, and Lorelai had no real understanding how much Rory had changed. She was already so much more poised, more confident, more sure of what she wanted for herself.
After the first room was finished, Rory stretched and sat down on the floor for a break.
"Luke was so cute this morning, Mom," Rory observed. "You must have had a great time last night. Spill. I want progeny-appropriate details."
Wiping her forehead, Lorelai came over to sit on the floor facing Rory. She rinsed her cleaning cloth out and squeezed the excess water back into the bucket.
"There's a big story to tell, but I want Luke to be there to give you his side of the story. How about dinner tonight with Luke? Something at home?"
"C'mon, Mom, what happened? You can't keep a big story from me for the whole day." At that moment it flashed through Rory's mind that she also had a big story to tell. Maybe that one would be better tonight as well.
"No, sweets, but here's a teaser: Emily, Digger, and a cigar."
"Mom! Ewwww! That sounds disgusting! Are you sure you can tell the story in front of Luke?"
"Honey, he was the prize at the center of the story, or maybe the prey is a better description. Just wait, you really need to hear his side." Lorelai laughed even at the memory of Drunk Emily.
"I'd almost forgotten, Luke asked me to tell you that he'll come by the Dragonfly in the afternoon if there's a lull, or tonight if there isn't. Is he helping out now?" Rory asked.
"Yes, last night we, um, came to an agreement on some things." Lorelai hadn't quite figured out how to describe this deepening relationship. What made perfect sense in the middle of the night, still made sense today, she just couldn't find the words. "Entwined" didn't seem to do the job.
"Use your words, Mom. What kind of agreement?" Rory was intrigued.
"Well, you remember Uncle Louie's funeral, how we helped out?" said Lorelai.
"Sure, we just jumped in and did whatever was needed. I had never seen you and Luke so close, at least not until recently. It felt really good to finally do something for him instead of him doing things for us."
"It's like that, only it's not temporary, it's kinda permanent. We're going to just 'jump in' for each other all the time, for everything. Like the Dragonfly - Luke's gonna see how much time he can free up from the diner in order to come here and help out. When things get tough for him somewhere, I'll do the same."
"Permanent!? That's big, Mom! Is there more?" Rory was getting excited and very happy for her mother.
"A little. He gave me a key to the apartment, and I'm giving him keys to our house tonight. You have to start expecting three for breakfast sometimes."
"I can handle that, don't worry. After roommate hell this past year, Luke will be an angel." She paused. "And?" Rory tried to draw the one last great thing she expected to hear from her mother.
"Yes," said Lorelai. "We're in love. I told him, he told me."
Rory knocked her mother over squealing and hugging her. The two rolled on the floor, laughing and hugging.
Lying on the floor, breathing hard, Rory asked her mother one last question.
"Mom, was that the first time you told a man you loved him?"
Lorelai looked off out the window and replied, "It's more than just the first time I said it, it's the first time I felt it."
They lay there on the floor, letting their thoughts sink in. Lorelai was still marveling about this amazing love. Rory was trying to find words to tell her story.
Rory half-whispered her truth. "It happened, Mom. I listened to my heart, and I knew."
Lorelai pulled herself away from her private thoughts.
"What happened, Rory? Oh! My gosh! 'It' happened? When? How?" Lorelai suddenly got very serious.
"My guy, yesterday, and 'how?' You really want to hear 'how?'" That was a topic Rory was NOT ready to discuss.
"No no, for god's sake, do NOT tell me how! Forget I ever said that."
Lorelai caught her breath, put on her 'best friend' hat, then continued, "Who is it? When do I get to meet him?" She hoped against hope that it wasn't Dean. She racked her brain, trying to think of any boy from Yale Rory had mentioned in the past. No one came to mind.
"You met him already, actually you know him already. It's Jess." Rory was relieved to get those words out. She looked at her mother cautiously, preparing herself for any reaction.
Lorelai leaned up on her elbow, facing Rory. "Jess? Our Jess? The Jess who took off without saying goodbye?"
"Yes, our Jess. He came to see me at Yale, and we started talking. He's changed so much, Mom, you won't believe it. He went with me to Lane's yesterday and he wasn't sullen and uncommunicative. He was actually talkative and sociable."
"You're serious about him? This is a serious relationship?"
"Yes, Mom, I wouldn't have done it with him unless I was serious. He is too. We are together."
"But he left Stars Hollow on Saturday. He's not at Luke's. Where is he staying? Oh! Is he staying with you?" Lorelai's concern grew deeper as she realized what she might have seen if she had gone into Rory's room this morning. That must have been Jess she saw the other night as well.
"He spent the last couple of nights at Patty's. They sit up until all hours of the night talking and telling stories. It's kind of sweet." Some of the Patty stories Jess had told Rory were more risqué than sweet, but Rory ignored that for the moment.
"Rory, let Mommy catch up here, my brain is getting confused. You and Jess are back together, you made up after he took off that time, and you say it's a serious relationship for you? Am I right?"
"Don't forget how much he's changed. Even you told me he'd changed and you could see it at his mom's wedding. Otherwise, yes, you have it right."
"Wow. That's big. Really big. Is he still in town? What's next?"
"I still have my lunch with Grandma today, then Jess will meet me in Hartford and we're going to drive over to Yale so I can show him around. After that, we haven't talked. He has to go back to New York soon."
"Rory, this is going to take a little getting used to. You have a serious boyfriend, that's big enough, but your boyfriend's name is Jess, Stars Hollow's Jess Mariano. That's a little weird, don't you think?"
Lorelai jumped as she realized something even bigger. "And your boyfriend's uncle is my boyfriend! We've gone way past weird. Does Luke know?"
Rory answered, "I don't think so. He didn't say anything this morning, and since Jess has been staying at Patty's, Luke probably hasn't seen him either."
"I think dinner tonight is a must, all four of us. I'll break the news to Luke when he comes here, so no one is blindsided. You do the same with Jess, OK?"
"OK. Do you think Luke will be good with this?"
"Honey, I don't know what he'll think today. When Jess was here before, he was really pretty happy with you two dating." Rory had a flash of relief. She was still worried that her mother would lose it somehow.
"What time for dinner tonight? We need to make sure we leave Yale on time."
"It will be late if Luke has to close, but otherwise maybe 8.30, I guess. I'll call you later if there's a big time change. C'mon, let's get one more room done before you go to Grandma's for lunch."
"Arrgh!" Lorelai tossed the long metal rod onto the floor. "These pieces just don't fit together!" As she sat on a sofa in the library of the Dragonfly, Lorelai contemplated the stack of boxes in front of her. Maybe the rooms didn't really need free-standing towel racks after all. The guests can just neatly fold their towels and place them on the bathtub.
She chuckled sarcastically at her own foolish thought. Twenty years in the hotel business had taught her that most guests need incentive to keep their towels orderly, otherwise the housecleaning staff would be changing out towels every day. These beautiful, easy to use towel racks were meant to be that incentive, but the damn things just wouldn't go together.
Her cell phone rang. Luke.
"Hi, Momo. It's good to talk to a person capable of rational thought, as opposed to those brain-dead idiots who wrote the assembly instructions for these towel racks," she ranted.
"Hey. Not going so well?" asked Luke.
"No actually it's going pretty well today, I'm getting lots done." His deep, sexy voice flipped a switch deep inside her. That's how he speaks all the time, she thought, and I never noticed it before. "Hi," she said again, this time in a much more intimate voice. "I miss you."
"Yeah? I like the way you say that. It's a much nicer voice to hear than my usual daytime phone calls. Somehow the delivery guys just don't have the 'oomph' that you put into it." Luke's voice deepened further.
Lorelai giggled. "I'd get worried if you found the bread guy's voice sexy, wouldn't you?"
"This conversation has taken a very strange turn. Let's get back to the point of my call."
"Point? Dirty, hehe."
"Oh geez. Do you have a minute to talk, or are we gonna spend our time on a bit?" asked Luke.
Lorelai laughed, saying, "OK, OK, what's up?"
"Just checking in to see what the plans are. Do you need me this afternoon or evening?"
"I need you right now, with that sexy deep voice. You can't believe how it makes me feel." She spoke in a meaningful tone.
"Yeah?" He paused, took a deep breath, then continued, "We have to change this conversation right now, or nothing will get done for the rest of the day. Help me out here, OK?"
She sighed. "Yes, I suppose it has to be. Plans have changed a little for tonight. Rory wants to have dinner with us. She's bringing her boyfriend."
"Boyfriend? She didn't say anything about a boyfriend this morning when she stopped by the diner."
"I know, and we should talk before the dinner. Can you come over this afternoon, or shall I come to the diner?"
"I'll come to the Dragonfly. The lunch crowd died down a little earlier than expected, so I've got an hour or so free. Do you need food?"
"No, Sookie brought food when she came. We've eaten already. Coffee is always welcome, of course."
"Never in doubt. See you soon."
"Bye."
Lorelai put renewed energy into the towel rack assembly, and by the time Luke arrived, she had one completely assembled. She stood up, looked the rack over, and thought, "Yep, just what I was looking for. Now to get the rest of them assembled."
At that moment Luke arrived, Bert and coffee in hand. Lorelai carried the rack over to him and showed him her accomplishment.
"Very nice," he said, taking the rack from her. "You figured out the instructions?"
"I figured out when to ignore the instructions, which made the assembly much easier." She took the coffee and the rack from Luke, set them aside, and wrapped her arms around him.
As they kissed, she slid her hands underneath his shirt, feeling his strong back, still covered by the dark T-shirt he wore. She probed his lips with her tongue, gained entry, tangling her tongue with his as Luke pulled her in close, pressing her up against his body. Lorelai moved her hips against him slowly, feeling his response almost immediately. She involuntarily arched her back, thrusting her hips against his as she grunted softly.
"Are you guys decent in there?" Sookie, who had heard Luke's voice, gave them sufficient warning before she entered the room.
They ended the kiss, but stayed in each other's arms as Sookie entered the room. Lorelai, her head on Luke's chest, turned a happy face to her. Luke, trying to compose himself, still had his face hidden by Lorelai's hair.
"Well, aren't you two just the cutest! It's like one of those fake couples in the photo frames. Hi Luke, having a good day, I see," said Sookie.
Luke was suddenly very grateful to have long shirttails in front, which prevented Sookie from seeing anything too revealing. He stepped behind Lorelai, picked up a box, and started unpacking the next towel rack.
"Hi Sookie," was pretty much all Luke could manage to say at that moment.
"I brought you some cookies, I baked them to test the oven temperature," Sookie said. "How's it going out here?"
"Just fine, Sookie. We're going to keep assembling these racks and talk a little. If you need anything, let me know." Lorelai gave Sookie a look which indicated the talking part was the most important part.
"Good, good, good. I'll be back in the kitchen, making sure I've got all the tools and ingredients for the test run. You holler if you need anything, OK? Luke, I used a new recipe for those cookies. Granola cookies, I think you might like them." She headed back towards the kitchen.
They started assembling the next towel rack in silence. Lorelai pointed out the occasional trick needed to put the thing together, and Luke caught on quickly.
"Hey, these cookies are good," said Luke after trying one of Sookie's cookies. "I wonder if she'll give me the recipe. Here, take a bite." He held out the rest of the cookie he'd started cupping a hand underneath to catch any crumbs as she bit.
"Mmmm, you're right. That's some tasty granola there." She took the rest of the cookie from him and nibbled further, taking a sip of the coffee he'd brought. "You two could start a pretty mean bakery or café if you wanted. Your coffee and pies, her cookies and cakes, yum."
"One of us would go to the penitentiary for murdering the other one, I suspect. Probably would take less than a week. We might never manage to open at all."
"Good point. I think I'll keep you both just where you are. My friend's restaurant during the day, my sweetie's diner at night. Best of both worlds."
"So tell me about Rory. This boyfriend thing must be pretty new, or you would have told me earlier, right?"
"Really new, she just told me today that she was serious about someone. She mentioned a couple of days ago that she thought something was happening, but she wasn't quite sure. Apparently it happened, like yesterday. She hadn't even told me his name."
"Do we know the guy? Please tell me it's not Dean. That would be a mess."
"It's not Dean, and we do know him." Lorelai looked directly into Luke's eyes, putting her hand on his knee for comfort. "It's Jess."
"Jess!? She's with Jess? How did this happen? He's not even in town. Jess didn't say anything at Liz' wedding. I don't get it." Luke stood up suddenly and started pacing.
Geez, Luke thought. This was complicated. He knew that Jess had loved Rory, but never thought it could have lasted this long. How in the world were Rory and Jess going to make this work?
Lorelai could see Luke going inside himself to process this news. She stood up and went over to him, breaking his train of thought when she put her hand on his arm.
"Luke, talk to me. We need to talk this through together. What are you thinking?"
Words were easier for Luke to think than they were to express. He stared at Lorelai for a moment before he spoke.
"Rory and Jess. I can't believe it. It's like we were thrown back in time," he said.
"That's exactly what I thought. There's one big difference, though, we can't tell them what to do. They're adults now. We can only watch and keep loving them."
He wrapped his arms around Lorelai's shoulders. "I hadn't thought about them being adults. Rory's still so young. I don't know what to think right now."
"Jess is almost exactly the same age, but they are both legally adults. This is not our decision. How about if we just take it at face value and see what happens tonight?"
"Yeah, I suppose so. We don't really have a choice, do we?" Luke brushed his hand over Lorelai's hair, sighing. They rocked back and forth slowly, eyes closed.
Suddenly Luke's eyes popped open and he looked at Lorelai. "Did you just say, 'keep loving THEM?' Have you changed your mind about Jess?"
"I'm pretty neutral about him. At least I was until I realized that the two people who I love and trust most in the world both love Jess. That tells me he has qualities I haven't seen yet. I'm counting on you to teach me. Think you can handle that?" She smiled as she saw Luke's face break into a smile as well.
"I've got Rory on my side, you don't stand a chance," he said.
"God, I love seeing you happy," said Lorelai. "Now get back to work. We've got an inn to open.
As they worked, they made a little small talk, but their minds were focused on the kids.
Luke had seen how Rory had gone on to Yale, struggled at first, but was coming into her own. He hadn't had a chance to find out if Jess had been successful at all, certainly his current apartment was a crack dump. Jess had finally reached out to his mother, so he had matured at least a little. Did he have a strong enough foundation to handle a relationship with Rory and all her associated baggage? Hell, was Jess prepared enough to do that with anyone?
Jess had that terrible ability to wound with words, to always hit the most painful emotions. What would happen to Rory the first time that Jess had an argument with her like the ones he'd had with Luke? How would Rory react when Jess said something unbelievably cruel? Would she be strong enough to argue back? To draw the line when it was needed?
To Lorelai, it didn't feel right. Something about Rory, about the very idea of Rory and Jess together, didn't feel right. She hadn't had a boyfriend all year, which worried Lorelai. Here she was now, just days out of school, deeply involved with Jess. That was the most difficult, frustrating relationship Rory had ever had.
She said Jess loved her. If he couldn't stay in Stars Hollow last time, how will he deal with Rory's crushing study schedule? Dean had been there for Rory every step of the way as she prepared for college, and he couldn't handle it. Was Jess more capable? If Rory can't find the time now to come home on the weekend, when will she find time to go to New York? Lorelai sighed. She still wanted to protect her daughter, even when she couldn't. Moreover, Lorelai was worried that Jess would get hurt again.