Lorelai grabbed the familiar door handle and pushed. The bells announced her entrance into the empty diner.

"I'll be right there, sit anywhere," Luke called from the storage room.

Instead Lorelai turned, locked the door and flipped the sign to 'Closed', and headed to the back. She knocked on the doorframe of the storage room, "Luke?"

Luke's attention was immediately pulled from the shelves and looked at her,

"Hey," he smiled. For a second he had forgotten the last few months had happened and he was happy to see the woman he loved in front of him. But just as quickly as he smiled she watched it fade with his pain and he settled with a friendly smirk. "What are you doing here?" He asked gently.

Lorelai slowly wandered into the storage room and leaned against a shelf. She was looking off into space and sighed, "I know I hurt you."

"I hurt you too," he admitted immediately.

She laughed and shook her head, "Yup, we certainly both hurt the other. Clearly we can do that." She exhaled, her face becoming serious, in a way he had never seen her. "Luke, I know we both hurt each other and I'm sure that neither of us are ready to completely move past this, but I need a friend. I need to talk to you and I need you as my friend. If it is all too much, if you're still too mad at me, I'll go. I just always did my best thinking, my best problem solving after talking to you. Can I please talk to you tonight and we can figure out the rest of our relationship tomorrow?"

Luke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. How far has this gone? How badly did he screw up that not only did she think he didn't want to marry her, but that he wouldn't be there for her anymore? He opened his eyes and looked at her, while she still had her eyes locked onto a random poster on the wall. "Let's go upstairs. Sounds like you need privacy." He handed her the key to his apartment, "I locked the door earlier. Go on up and I'll shut things down in the restaurant, I'll be up in a minute."

When Luke made his way up to the apartment he had a large mug of coffee. She was on the couch, flipping through the TV channels, clearly nervous. Luke placed the coffee on the table in front of her and went to the fridge to grab two beers, set them down beside the coffee and sat beside her. She clicked off the TV and dropped the remote beside her on the couch.

"God, I missed this place," she said as she exhaled.

He just smiled.

"Hey," she changed her tone and sounded more like herself. "How's April?"

The last time the two of them talked was when he had called her in a panic over April not feeling well. That's when she surprised him by showing up at the hospital and being there for him. Standing there in the waiting room looking into her eyes, he could feel the love that he always had for her resurfacing and then he saw the ring. It was like someone punched him in the gut and he knew he couldn't hide the pain from her.

"April's good. I'm not happy about the fact that I needed to get a lawyer to make sure I'll have a future with her. But I'm eternally grateful to you for that letter."

"I guess if Anna wasn't my biggest fan before this didn't help the situation," Lorelai laughed, not wanting to talk about the letter.

"She hasn't said much about you, so don't worry. But she still calls April 'HER daughter' and thinks I'm going to bail."

"What is up with this bitch?"

Luke turned to look at her with a bit of shock, "Since when do you use that language?"

"You've heard me say worse," she smiled. "You've definitely heard me say dirtier things," she smirked and added a wink.

Luke shook his head but couldn't hide his smile. He settled back into a more comfortable position and took a pull from his beer, "We can talk about me later or another time. You obviously came here with something to talk about so let's get to it. I mean, if you still want to talk to me about it."

Lorelai took a gulp of her coffee and made sure she had a good view of his face, "I'm not married." She blurted out and waited for his reaction. It turns out that Luke could probably win the World Series of Poker because he remained frozen. So she went on. "Not only am I not married, but it turns out that Chris knew the ceremony wasn't legal. Which is making me wonder if my Mom knows because when I finally agreed to let her throw a wedding reception for us she surprised me with the idea that she expects us to exchange vows at this party. But I can't think about my Mom and Chris working together again, so I just have to focus on the fact that Chris has been lying to me for weeks."

Now Luke was slightly squinting and his nostrils were flaring, the hand that wasn't wrapped around the neck of his beer bottle was clenched in a tight fist.

"You want to kill him," she said more than asked.

"How did you find this out?" he whispered through his teeth.

"That doesn't matter."

"Are you one hundred percent sure that you're not married?"

She nodded, "I talked to the guy who supposedly married us in France. This is for sure."

"So he wants you to have this ceremony for your Mom but it's actually so he can trick you into legally marrying him?"

She wanted to tell him more, she was hoping to have a conversation where she was emotional and he talked her down, she wanted him to get her in touch with her logic. But he was taking it as bad as she was.

"You know why he did this, right?" Luke now got off the couch and started to pace, "He knew that he was lucky to talk you into marrying him in Paris. You were swept up in all the excitement of travelling and being in the 'City of Love'. You were away from Rory and Sookie, who would get you to slow down and think about it. That's how he managed to get you to say yes. But he knew the minute you spoke to Rory or Sookie, the minute you got back to this town and to your normal life, a life he has never tried to fit into, he knew that you would have second thoughts. ESPECIALLY since you got married without even telling Rory, I mean come on Lorelai, that was so NOT you! Anyone who really knows you or loved you would never expect or even ask you to have a major life moment without Rory in attendance. For god sake you wouldn't set a date with me because you weren't talking to her and yet you just up and married this guy without telling her!"

"How did you know that?" she whispered full of shame.

"What do you mean? You know this town. They were all talking about it in my diner. They were worried about you and Rory. Worried because it didn't sound like you, worried because we hadn't been broken up that long and worried that it would cause another rift between you and Rory." He was so upset, he finally stopped pacing and took his spot on the couch beside her again. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm not marrying him, that's for sure."

Hearing that made him slightly relax, "When did you find this out?"

"Earlier today"

"Why did you come to me?"

"Sookie is pregnant and doesn't need this type of stress. This is Rory's father, I can't say everything I want to say or give her even more reason to not trust the guy."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"And for some as soon as I knew I wasn't married there was something in me that told me I had to tell you."

"For some reason?" He asked skeptically.

"Yeah," she shrugged.

"You don't know why?"

"I have my suspicions," she admitted.

"You still love me," he stated.

"Do I?" She smiled.

"Yes."

"Do you still love me?" Her voice was light and playful but he could see the fear in her eyes.

"With every fibre in me," he confessed while looking into her eyes longingly.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

"You can stay forever."

She smiled, her eyes filled with unshed tears, "We still have so much to talk about."

"Not tonight. It's late. Let's go to sleep."

They got up from the couch and she pointed her thumb over her shoulder, "I'll take April's bed?"

He grinned and shook his head, "Lorelai, it's been over six months since we were in a room alone together. I'm not saying that we need to have sex, but there is no way that you are spending the night here and not sharing my bed. Oh, unless you don't want to."

"Do you still have my favourite shirt?"

"Go to the washroom, your toothbrush is in the bottom drawer. I'll find the shirt and leave it on the bed for you."

"Do you mind if I shower?"

"Of course not. The towels are in the same place, I have some cerulean ones now."

"Excuse me? Cerulean? Where did you learn that word?"

"It's April's favourite colour. We did some shopping at Target or Tar-jay as she calls it."

Lorelai smiled, "Kid's got good taste. It's a great colour."
The two shared a loving smile and then she disappeared behind the bathroom door.