ARNM7 Brunch
Lorelai stood outside and stared at her phone. What was Mom up to? She flipped the phone shut, then opened it again, then closed it again, unable to decide if she should call Emily back.
Luke watched her, wondering why she hadn't tripped happily back inside, like she usually did, with a quip or a teasing comment for him. "Everything OK?" he asked, beginning to worry about what new trouble was coming down from Mt. Gilmore.
Lorelai flipped her phone closed for the final time and asked, "Do you still have that newspaper inside?"
"I guess so," he said, "It may be over by the donuts."
"Ooh a donut would taste great about now."
"I'll get you a plate." Evidently the interchange with Emily hadn't done any damage to her hunger.
Lorelai settled down at the far end of the counter and flipped through the sections of the Hartford newspaper. Frustrated, she muttered, "Where is the sports section?"
"I've got it, and no you can't have it." Luke poured out the rest of the cold coffee in Lorelai's cup and gave her fresh.
"Why not?" She grinned at him before she sipped the hot coffee carefully. "God, I love your coffee. And you, too, mister, don't forget that."
"Because I haven't seen the scores yet, and you don't need another paper hat."
"I don't want a paper hat, I want to read the sports section," insisted Lorelai.
"Uh-Huh," he said, leaning on the counter to get a better look at her face. He could see she wasn't lying, but he still couldn't believe what she was saying. "You never read the sports section. You barely read the front page news."
"Well tonight I want to read about sports. I'm actually very interested in it."
"Them. Sports are 'them,' not 'it,' and uh, no you're not."
"I'm very interested in them," she said primly, holding her hand out. "Pass the sports section please."
"Name one sport that's in this section tonight and you can have it." He smirked, knowing he'd successfully called her bluff.
"Um, how about …" She wrinkled her nose as she tried to remember the advertisement she'd seen. "How about midnight baseball?" she exclaimed triumphantly.
Luke snapped open the paper condescendingly. "Let's see… midnight baseball… looking… huh? Well, I'll be damned, here it is." Shaking his head in disbelief, he handed her the sports section. "Try not to destroy the pro baseball scores. And don't make a hat."
"Ah, here we go, midnight baseball. The Hartford Hooligans against the Springfield Sprouts. Let's go." She wriggled happily in her seat.
"You're suggesting we go to a baseball game?" Disbelief transformed into open-jawed confusion. She had never even discussed the possibility of visiting a baseball game. He optimistically filed the information away in his memory, hoping to take her to a game sometime in the near future.
"Yes, they're playing tonight. Let's go! It'll be fun. You like baseball. It's about time we did something you like." Lorelai's eyes glittered happily, although the glitter struck Luke as a little artificial.
"Well, it does sound like fun. I've got most of the day off tomorrow, so we can sleep in," he said, warming up to the idea. "Let me close the diner and we can go, maybe have a drink beforehand."
"Ooh! I can wear my Bangles baseball cap! It's got rhinestones and the pink is a perfect match for my Bull Durham outfit." Lorelai pulled the shoulder of her shirt down to mimic the off-the-shoulder look of her sweater and sashayed to Luke, wrapping her arms around him Susan Sarandon style.
He growled his pleasure, pulling her to him for as hot a make-out session as he dared while the diner was officially open. Lorelai responded enthusiastically, then broke away and clapped her hands.
"We should take Rory! She absolutely needs to see this!"
Luke stopped cold and looked at her. There it was. She didn't want to go to a baseball game, he could see that now. She wanted to protect Rory from whatever Emily had said to her on the phone a short time ago. "Lorelai, what is this really about?"
"Midnight baseball! We're going to midnight baseball!" This time when she looked hopefully at Luke, he could see desperation in her eyes.
No matter what he said or did, she had to play this out in her mind, so he crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter. It tore at his gut to have to wait to find out what the trouble was, but something inside of her needed to process this a little further.
Lorelai continued her optimistic chatter for a few seconds more, but her face fell and her shoulders slumped as she recognized that he wasn't buying it. The pain in his gut dissipated as he wrapped his arms around her tightly and whispered tenderly, "Lorelai, it's alright. Don't worry."
She pressed her face into his shoulder. "Luke, I'm …"
"I know." He took her by the hand and led her to a chair and sat across from her, engulfing her cold hands in his large warm ones.
"You raised Rory right. You can trust her. She has good instincts; if she needs you she'll call."
"I know, but Emily's up to something. I just know it, I can sense the evil flying monkeys turning through her brain as we speak."
"Your mother loves Rory. She'll take care of her, right?"
Lorelai laughed bitterly. "Do you know how my mother wants to take care of me? If she had her way, I'd be at that dinner watching them plan my wedding to Christopher. She told me as much tonight when she called."
Luke cursed the day he put up the No Cell Phones sign. If he'd overheard the conversation, he'd never have let Lorelai fall into this pit of despair and baseball. Incensed, he jumped to his feet and paced, grabbing his cap and slamming it to the floor. "What is she thinking? She knows about us! She knows we're together! Doesn't she realize you're happy with the way your life is?"
"Emily's like the Romanovs. Her world is all that matters. What I want, or what Rory wants, or what you want, means nothing!" She kicked Luke's chair angrily and watched it slide across the floor, finally tilting wildly until Luke stopped and righted it again.
He stalked back across the room and braced her shoulders with his hands, staring intently at her until his proximity registered in her brain. "OK. Let's go pick up Rory and bring her home. Screw the baseball game. We can't let Emily manipulate our lives like this."
"Yes! Great idea!" agreed Lorelai. "Except…"
"Except what?" asked Luke.
"Except you're right about needing to trust Rory. I need to show her that I trust her. Then there's Francine. She's really the sweetest person, and this might be the only chance for Rory to get to know her. Straub will never let her do that when he's at home." Lorelai hesitated, a moment that was not lost on Luke, before adding, "and we certainly don't need Christopher hanging around here instead. He's just trouble."
Luke was torn. Part of him wanted to bring Rory home and lock her up to protect her from the petty arguments and jealousies; he didn't want her used as pawn in Emily's vendetta of what she called 'Lorelai's bad choices in life', but the rest of him knew that they could do nothing but delay the inevitable.
Putting his hand on her shoulder, he said, "I'll do whatever you want, Lorelai, but you're probably right. Maybe we should let her have this evening. Tomorrow we can rethink this, make changes as needed, and get Rory's opinion."
She didn't answer, so he knelt down at her side, squeezing her knee. Turning her face to his, he kissed her tenderly, pouring his love into the kiss, offering comfort as he ran his fingers through her hair.
"Lorelai." He pressed his forehead against hers. "It will be alright. We'll make it alright."
She pulled back and he watched, fascinated, as she gathered her strength, made her decision, and changed like a chameleon into the strong single mother that he knew and loved. Lorelai trusted Rory and she trusted their bond. A bond that had survived poverty, survived the adjustments they had to make for Rory to go to Chilton, even survived the expansion of their private club to include Luke and Dean.
"Tomorrow," she said. "Tomorrow things will go back to normal. Christopher never lasts more than a couple of days and Emily won't see her again until next Friday."
The Lorelai-chameleon changed color again as the stress drained out of her and his sexy, loving, sparkling Lorelai returned. She rose to her feet and sauntered closer to Luke.
Looking through veiled eyes, she said, "I suppose, since we're not going to the baseball game and there's nothing on TV, we might as well go home and" she pretended to sigh resignedly, "have sex."
"I suppose I could, if I have to," he shrugged as he turned back toward the counter. Smiling, he counted down 3, 2, 1 waiting for her response.
Lorelai shrieked her disapproval but laughed when he playfully reached for her and kissed her passionately, promising far more than boredom sex.
-oooooooooooooooo-
Mid-morning on Sunday the Crap Shack was quiet. Christopher pulled the Jeep into the driveway, music blaring on the stereo as he and Rory danced in their seats until the song was finished. Laughing, they climbed the steps. When Rory pulled out her keys to unlock the door, Christopher scoffed, saying, "When did your mom start locking the door?"
"Luke loves us and makes sure we're safe. He's good that way," she said nonchalantly. Christopher frowned. This guy is starting to bug me.
Rory closed the door quietly and made her way into the living room. She smiled when she saw her mom and Luke fast asleep on the sofa, and she put a finger to her mouth cautioning Christopher to stay quiet.
Lorelai was curled up on top of Luke as he lay sprawled on the lumpy sofa. A colorful afghan covered them both. She lay between his legs, her head resting on his chest and his arms were wrapped around her, his hands clasped together at her back. They were a picture of happiness.
"They do this every Sunday," smiled Rory. "They make plans for a busy day, but by the time they've had breakfast, they end up here and don't move for a couple of hours."
Even more bugged now, Christopher accidentally on purpose bumped noisily into the telephone table as Rory led him to the kitchen.
"Rory?" called her mother after Rory shushed her father. Rory turned around and went back into the living room, followed by Christopher, who sported his most winning 'who me?' smile.
Lorelai reached up to kiss Luke awake, scratching the stubble on his cheek to warn him of incoming smooches. He pulled her up without opening his eyes and kissed her hair, burying his fingers in the thick curly locks. She kissed his cheek, brushing her fingertips across his thick, dark lashes.
He cracked his eyes open and said, "Hey, Rory," when he noticed her standing at the end of the sofa.
"Hi Luke," she replied, tickling her mother's foot, eliciting a squeal from Lorelai. "Mom?" she said, "Grandma invited me to brunch at the club, so Dad and I are here so I can change."
"Hi Lorelai," smirked Christopher.
Both Lorelai and Luke reacted to his voice, raising themselves to sitting positions. "Hi, Christopher," said Lorelai guardedly. Luke only groaned, sleepily trying to make sense of the sound of another man's voice in the house. God, I wish this guy wasn't here, but he's Rory's father, he has a right to be with her, to visit her, to be part of her life. I'm part of Lorelai's life and part of Rory's life, too. I can make this work. I have to make this work.
"Mom, can you help me find an outfit?" Rory asked, tugging on her T-shirt.
"Sure," she replied, absently rubbing the inside of Luke's knee. "Hey, hon, how about some coffee?" she asked Luke, as she stood and followed Rory to her room, Christopher close on their heels.
Lorelai and Rory disappeared into Rory's room, leaving Christopher standing alone near the kitchen. He glanced back at the living room where Luke was finally waking up. Luke stood and stretched, his softest, oldest jeans clinging to his narrow hips and muscular thighs almost as comfortably as sweat pants. A flash of jealousy combined with embarrassment passed through Christopher as he compared his own relatively soft metrosexual body with Luke's broad shoulders and large biceps, accented by the faded khaki t-shirt which stretched to cover his upper torso, leaving an expanse of muscles at his abdomen which more than a little resembled a six-pack.
Luke padded through the house to the kitchen in his bare feet, utterly ignoring the visitor.
Christopher noted how much at home Luke was in Lorelai's house as he watched him start the coffee and pour himself a glass of orange juice. God, I wish this guy wasn't here, that he wasn't a part of Lorelai's life.
More awake now, Luke leaned comfortably against the counter and looked at Christopher. "Coffee?" He offered, taking on his role as host while Lorelai was busy with Rory.
"Do you think there'll be any left after they get theirs?" Christopher replied jokingly.
Luke made a manly half-laugh, half-grunt in response. "I'll run interference for you," he offered, which only pissed Christopher off more as he watched Luke own Christopher's rightful place in Lorelai's life.
Lorelai had nearly completely closed the door to Rory's bedroom, leaving it open enough to listen to the men's conversation. She shrugged as Rory raised her eyebrows in response to the words just spoken.
In the kitchen there was no sound other than the bubbling and dripping of the heated water on the coffee grounds in the machine. The two men had taken their standard positions as men who don't know each other often do—facing the same direction, doing everything in their power to not look at each other.
"You're working in California?" Luke asked reluctantly, trying to be friendlier for Rory's sake.
"Yeah, I was at an Internet startup in San Jose until recently. Now I'm testing the waters, trying to find the next big thing." He carefully glossed over the fact that the startup had failed, at least partially to his bad decision-making.
After pondering Christopher's words, Luke responded sympathetically, "Too bad, man, you'll find something else soon. They're always coming up with new ideas."
"Yeah, networking and social media is really hot right now," the other man answered uncomfortably. "Something will come along."
Now it was Lorelai's turn to raise her eyebrows at Christopher's admission that he was out of work again. No longer paying attention, Rory pulled more outfits from the closet, debating which one would most please her grandmother.
"So, the Giants are looking pretty good this year," said Luke, figuring baseball was the most neutral topic to release the tension in the room. Even though he normally refused to make small talk in the diner, it was worth the effort here to make Rory happy.
"Yeah, too bad about Boston," commiserated Christopher. "I did get to a couple of Giants games last summer. The company had season tickets, and I took some customers there for schmoozing."
Christopher continued, "Is your softball game a regular thing?"
"Nah, only when we get enough people together," replied Luke briefly. He could manage small talk, maybe, but no way was he going to respond to Christopher's obvious hint for an invitation to play.
He silently cursed the coffee maker, which had clearly been caught in a time warp, and he resolved to replace it with one of those new extra-fast makers he'd seen in the restaurant catalog. The sooner they could get this guy out of the house the better.
"I'd offer to join, but my sports are limited to a little tennis and one very bad afternoon in a college polo match." Looking sideways at Luke, Christopher was assessing his chances at doing some damage with his tennis volley. Luke's large muscular body was definitely not suited for the fast back-and-forth of tennis, and a few accidental smashes that hit him would take him down a notch. Now that would be a great afternoon, whipping Luke's ass in tennis while Lorelai, Rory and Emily looked on approvingly.
Luke breathed a sigh of relief when the coffeemaker finally finished. He pulled the carafe from the still-dripping filter and poured Christopher a cup, placing it strategically on the table so he would be seated facing away from Rory's door. "Milk's in the fridge," he grunted.
Carrying the girls' cups, he pushed open the door to Rory's room just as Lorelai was saying, "Run upstairs and get that pink sweater. That will be perfect with this skirt." Giving Luke a smile of thanks for her coffee as he set it down on her desk, Rory ran off to fetch the frilly floral knitwear.
"Kiss. Now." Luke breathed the words into Lorelai's ear, using his free hand to pull her close to him.
"Mmm, another page out of the Clint Eastwood romance manual," she mumbled softly against his lips as she gave the door a slight push to close it almost completely.
"Man, is this good coffee!" came an overly-enthusiastic voice from the kitchen.
Lorelai thumped her head on Luke's chest. "Looks like someone wants attention. He is never going to grow up," she whispered.
Rory bounced into the kitchen, showing off the pretty pink floral sweater to her dad as Lorelai and Luke joined them.
"How does it look, Dad?" she asked. "Will Grandma approve?"
Lorelai snapped her fingers. "Headband!" she cried and went into the downstairs bathroom. A moment later she brought a few headbands out and tried each one. Christopher immediately joined them, offering advice and sidling up next to Lorelai as they admired their daughter.
Luke turned to the counter, grateful to have something to do so he didn't have to stand there like a third wheel. He picked up the coffee cups and other miscellaneous dirty dishes. A slow burn started in side as Christopher used the phrase "our daughter" so many times that even Rory got a clue.
When he reached out familiarly to take Lorelai's elbow, she stepped away like she'd been bitten by a spider. Retreating to Luke's side, she noticed the death grip he had on the coffee cup Christopher had used, although his facial expression betrayed nothing.
Turning back to Rory but keeping a hand on Luke, Lorelai said, "Try to survive brunch, kid. The second knife from the left is the best one when you're ready to commit hara-kiri."
"You'll drop me off at my bike?" confirmed Christopher. Rory nodded.
"Sure. Let's go," she said. "Mom?" she added, tilting her head to indicate that Lorelai should walk out with them.
Lorelai and Luke exchanged a look that said plenty. Christopher had no reason to come to the house this morning. Rory could have dropped him off at his motorcycle on her way home.
She walked her daughter to the door, making sure Christopher was out the door first and Rory was in-between them. She ignored Christopher's attempts to drag her outside with them and went straight to the kitchen after she closed the door.
"What in the hell was he doing here?" she complained. "He ruined our whole morning."
"I know what he was doing. He was counting on you being alone." Luke stood there rolling the coffee cup in his hands, wondering whether he'd prefer to throw it through the wall or just smash it on the floor.
Lorelai arched an eyebrow when she noticed his white knuckles. "It's just a coffee cup, Luke."
"I know," he sighed. "We've got to find a way to get along, for Rory's sake."
"Well you were great today. All that sports talk, it sounded almost like Luke Danes was making small talk." She patted him on the cheek, pulling him down for a thorough kiss.
The front door slammed and Rory came dashing through the kitchen. "Keys, keys, keys. Cars go faster when you start the engine," she muttered as she ran into her room.
A touch calmer when she came back out, keys in hand, she looked at her mother and Luke. "I won't be too late," she said, "I still have some homework to do."
She looked shyly at Luke, then blurted, "Thanks for being nice today, Luke, I know Dad can be a jerk." She stepped over to him and gave him a quick hug before running out the door.
"And there you have it – approval from the highest source. Do you feel better now?" asked Lorelai.
Both embarrassed and humbled by Rory's words, he looked down, not knowing what to say. That she and Lorelai both stood up for him and their relationship warmed his heart.
"C'mon, you, give me that cup before you crush it in your rugged he-man hands," she said, peeling back his fingers to pry the cup from his hands.
As she pulled him into her embrace, the cup accidentally on purpose slipped out of her fingers and landed on the floor several feet away, smashing into bits.
"Oops," she giggled as she crashed her lips onto his.
-oooooooooooooooo-
How this house had become an echo chamber, she never figured out. All she knew was the warmth and happiness she had this morning sleeping on the sofa with Luke was gone. Rory had woken them like she usually did, but instead of mocking them for being attached at the hip (right before she realized she'd grossed herself out at that thought), Christopher's voice shattered their joy. Now, with Luke at work and Rory gone, every step Lorelai took echoed coldly in the furthest corners of the Crap Shack.
She missed Rory deeply, but she knew she would have hated going to the club with her. Even though it sounded hoity-toity, Lorelai knew that brunch at the club was a soul-draining experience that left one dazed and blubbering, wondering how so many supposedly intelligent adults could waste their lives on the gossip and back-biting that was omnipresent. She expected Rory to rush home as soon as her well-mannered soul would allow her to make her excuses to her grandparents. Two hours tops, Lorelai calculated.
Two hours later Lorelai was getting Chris' voicemail on his cell phone and he hadn't respond to any of the messages she'd left. No one else had a cell. In desperation Lorelai called the country club, only to find out that the group had gone a while earlier.
At the diner Lorelai knew she would be able to see Rory returning from Hartford, and if Rory had any sense left after a day at the club, she'd look to see if her mother were there, because Luke's had become their home away from home. Outside of work and school hours, if Luke was there, at least one Gilmore girl was there as well.
"Hi Patty," said Lorelai as she walked by the dance studio as she glanced up at the five year olds doing a flower dance.
Miss Patty sighed a little at the now-common sight of Lorelai Gilmore going to visit Luke Danes. It was much more fun when they weren't together, she thought. Plenty to gossip about. Now it was, well, boring.
"Floppy tulip!" called Lorelai, pointing to the girl whose face had been completely covered by the flower on her head.
"Floppy tulip?" echoed Patty, then rushed over to the girl as she realized what had happened.
"Hey doll," greeted Babette as she came out of the diner. "Where's that cutie pie of yours today?"
Lorelai tried to act as if she hadn't been obsessing all morning. "She's having brunch with her dad today," she said, her eyes darting about only a little. This whole thing with Christopher taking Rory off to do their thing was very new, and she wasn't sure she liked it, no she knew she didn't like it, but the only thing worse would be if half the town decided it needed to "help" her.
"He's that hottie who was driving her around on that motorcycle yesterday?" Babette asked. "Of course, he's nothing compared to Luke, ya know what I mean?"
"Oh, I definitely know what you mean," replied Lorelai. "Luke is the best." She smiled warmly, confident that Christopher belonged to her past, a playmate that she had outgrown.
"Two days in a row is a lot for Christopher, ain't it?" continued Babette. "He ain't got the best staying power, if I remember right. Hey, don't you usually go with them when he comes?"
Lorelai nervously tucked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, but Rory's 16. It's time she learned to deal with him by herself." And not spend his time chasing after me.
"Oh gawd, Lorelai, I forgot he's always following you around like a hound dog, ain't he? Oh I bet Luke hated that! What happened? Did they get into a fight? He wouldn't stand a chance against Luke, but he doesn't look too smart, does he?"
With a giggle, Lorelai agreed with her sometimes too-observant neighbor. "He's definitely not smart, but Luke was an angel. He made coffee and they talked about sports. I wish I could trust Christopher as much as I trust Luke."
They both turned at the same time and looked inside the diner as Luke was cleaning a table near the window. Feeling their stare, he looked up, a doubtful expression on his face. Lorelai looked at Babette, and they simultaneously blew him a big kiss. Even through the glass they could see him turn pink as he shook his head, spread his arms in a sacrificial gesture, yet went back to work with the corners of his mouth turned up, sneaking one mischievous glance at Lorelai.
"Forget about Christopher, the one you need to trust is Rory. She's grown up and you gotta let her do her thing. Did I ever tell you Morey almost left me because I didn't trust him?"
"No, Babette, Morey loves you! What happened?" Crazy as her neighbor was, Lorelai envied her the deep love shared by Babette and Morey. Frisky and fun-loving, Lorelai found it hard to believe that they had ever had relationship problems, much less trust issues.
"You know how hot my Morey is, and we had just gotten together when he got a big gig in New York City. Really big!" she cried, stretching her arms and her body as large as possible.
"There was no way I could go to every event. The band was in a tiny van. Poor Morey had to take off his legs and put 'em in the trunk, he said." She laughed uproariously at his joke. "Did I tell you the other band members were all girls? Girls! I was so jealous I could bust!"
"Gawd, I followed him around like a stalker. Every time he mentioned one of the girls, I accused him of cheating. He got so mad."
"Oh, Babette, that's horrible. How did you fix it?" Babette was always so chipper and happy, Lorelai found it difficult to believe that she and Morey ever had problems.
"One of the girls taught me. She had a boyfriend and he was traveling in another band, so she had the same feelings I did. They even broke up for a while and she focused on her music. Trust is like jazz." Babette nodded her head with a determined smile, confident that Lorelai got it.
"I don't get it," said Lorelai. "How is trust like jazz?"
"It's like playing jazz. You can't just say, 'I can play jazz,' you have to practice and practice until you know how to play deep in your soul. You have to practice trust until it's deep in your soul, like jazz."
"Practice trust. I thought trust was just something that you have, like love." Lorelai blew out a long breath while she processed this thought.
"Lorelai, darlin', ya gotta work at both love and trust. They take skills, ya know? So I started practicin' trust."
"What did you do? Where did you start?"
"First I reminded myself how much Morey loved me. I wrote it down, all the ways he loved me. I made sure he could contact me whenever he wanted, and I made sure I wasn't always accusing him of stuff. I just turned off all those alarms in my brain that were screaming lies, and before I knew it, the alarms stopped."
"Stopped? Now you have trust like jazz?"
"Oh yeah! It's like Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald."
"Oscar and Ella?"
"Exactly, honey. That's what you and Rory will be. Oscar and Ella." Babette patted Lorelai's hand, then added, "I gotta go. Morey's going to New York tonight, and I'm going with him. No girl bands tonight!" She chortled as she waved and ran off homeward.
A little dazed after Babette's soliloquy, Lorelai entered the diner, only to be confronted by Luke as she tried to sit at the counter. "What? Can't I sit and look at your pretty face?"
"Nope."
"What, 'nope?' Do you have this place reserved for a new girlfriend?"
"Nope."
"Well, what is it then? In whole sentences using multiple syllables, please."
"If you sit by the window, you can see when Rory drives by."
"But someone's already sitting there. There's coffee and pie." Said Lorelai, confused. Surely Luke wasn't allowing her to bump a paying customer from a prime spot. He'd certainly given her enough grief on previous occasions about the very same thing.
"There's coffee because you like coffee. There's pie because lookouts need pie when they're on their stakeout."
"Well thanks, Starsky."
"Anytime, Hutch," Luke replied. "Gimme a kiss."
"Whoa, what a way to bring the show into the 21st century," giggled Lorelai.
"Geez," was all he said as he walked back to the counter.
He continued recreating order in the diner after the Sunday lunch crowd had gone, enjoying the view out the picture window; more correctly enjoying the view on this side of the picture window. She looked up at him occasionally, flashing her brilliant smile before she turned her eyes to the street.
What bothered him was that she was flipping that phone open and closed again. This waiting was bugging her. What the hell was Christopher thinking, anyway? He should know that crossing Lorelai when it came to Rory was big trouble. All the guy would have to do is call and tell her they're alright and when Rory would be coming home. Just one phone call was all it would take. If Rory only had a cell, she'd do it herself.
Wiping down the counter one last time, he went into the back and spoke briefly with Caesar. A moment later he went to Lorelai and sat down.
"Hi," he began. To Lorelai's ears, he sounded serious. Serious was not something she could handle from Luke at the moment, not with this Rory thing still going on.
"Um, hi back. You did know I was here right?" she teased.
"What? Huh? Of course I knew you were here." He rolled his eyes when she laughed out loud, both of them pleased that she'd confused him as a way to lighten her stress.
Knowing there was no way to get her to a serious conversation at the moment, he blurted, "Let's go to the mall."
Lorelai had begun mindlessly flipping her phone open and closed again, not even looking anymore to see if someone had left a message or had called. He reached over and took the phone out of her hands. "Lorelai."
She raised herself and reached for the phone, but he pulled it back against his shoulder. Frustrated, she plopped back onto her chair. "Is this payback for midnight baseball? Are you trying to get me all excited and then back down?"
"When have I ever backed down once I started getting you uh, um …" He really should have thought that sentence through before moving his mouth.
She laughed as she took his hands, subtly trying to pry the phone from his fingers. "Do you really want to go shopping with me?" she asked cautiously. Got to be careful not to scare him back into his burrow.
"For Rory, sure," he said. "I was kind thinking that if she had a cell phone, maybe you could call her or she could call you, you know, on days like this."
"Cell phones are indeed a way for me to call Rory, and for her to call me," she agreed tenderly. There was her precious, caring Luke, his face softening as he explained how he thought of a way to relieve her stress. That he was willing to go to the mall; no, that he SUGGESTED going to the mall, was almost beyond belief. She was pretty sure that going to the mall ranked below Luke kissing Taylor full on the lips.
She tugged again on the phone, but he wouldn't release it. "You know what you'd be getting yourself into, right? Going to the mall with me, I mean. There's the traffic and the parking and the stores and the people and the deciding."
"But there's you, right? And we'd find a phone for Rory, so you can call her when you're worried about it, right? And you promise to decide quickly? I do need to get back here before the dinner rush." He knew that getting her to the mall with him was a no-brainer. Getting them back out again, that would be a different story altogether.
Knowing not to press her luck, she agreed and they left quickly, Lorelai promising to make it fast. Using her best caveman voice, she proclaimed, "We go into mall. Kill cell phone. Leave mall." The eye roll he gave her in return had enough of a smile in it that she added, "Kill skirt too. Maybe shoes." He pushed her out the door with a caveman grunt.