The Deepest Love

story


Sookie rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and padded down to her
door. “Coming,” she said grumpily. Opening the door, her eyes widened as
she saw Lorelai there, crying her heart out. “Honey, what is it? What happened?”
She put her arm around her and took her inside. Grabbing some tissues she
dabbed at her friend’s tears. “Talk to me?”
“I did something really stupid, Sookie,” Lorelai said, between her
tears.
“What? What can be that bad?”
“I slept with Luke.”
Sookie was speechless. “What?”
“We made love. Four times. And I’m engaged to another man! I’ve really
screwed up this time,” Lorelai blubbered.
“Four times?”
“Sookie,” Lorelai growled.
“Honey, I’m sorry. It’s just that I know you two have had feelings
for each other but then you got engaged to Max and I presumed that I was
wrong. But this changes everything. What did Luke say?”
“He told me that he loved me. But I haven’t spoken to him since last
night. I crept out this morning before he woke up.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t face him. He doesn’t know I’m engaged and it would
just hurt him if I told him.”
“Don’t you think that it’s going to hurt him that you just up and left
after what was a wonderful night?”
“How do you know it was wonderful?”
“Wasn’t it?”
Lorelai’s eyes hit the floor. “It was amazing Sookie. He was so gentle
and loving and he was more worried about what I was feeling than himself.”
She stood up and cursed at herself. “What am I saying? I’m engaged!”
“Lorelai, calm down.”
“Oh God,” she said, starting to pace.
“What?” Sookie asked, looking worried.
“Rory’s coming home today. What if she finds out? What’s she going
to think? She’ll hate me.”
“She could never hate you,” Sookie assured her.
“Sookie, I cheated on my fiancé. Four times!”
Sookie made her sit down again. “Honey, how about you go and get some
sleep.”
“I can’t,” Lorelai mumbled.
“Why not?”
“Because I’ll think about last night.”
“Then maybe you need to go and talk to Luke,” she suggested.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ll hurt him and then I’ll want to kiss him and kissing was
what got me into this mess in the first place!”
“Let’s look at this logically. First of all, you’re going to have to
tell Max. And Luke should know that you’re engaged. But most important,
you have to go get some sleep.”
And reluctantly, Lorelai let her friend lead her into a bedroom to
sleep.
*****************************************************
“Hi, Luke,” Rory smiled, sitting down in the diner.
“Hi, Rory,” Luke said glumly. He poured her a cup of coffee into a
Styrofoam cup and gave her change.
Rory frowned and went down the street to Sookie’s. Sookie had rung
her a while ago and said that her mother was at her house.
“Okay, I’m here,” Rory said, coming in the front door.
Sookie smiled and hugged her. “Hey sugar.”
“What’s wrong with Luke? He seems depressed.”
“I’m not surprised,” Sookie said, staring at Lorelai who had just comn.
n.
“Hey Mum.” The two hugged and Rory looked at her mother oddly. “Mum,
are you alright? You look terrible.”
“I’m fine,” Lorelai answered. “We better get home.”
*****************************************************
Lorelai opened the door to the diner, relieved to find it was empty,
apart from a very despondent Luke who was wiping down a counter.
“Hey,” she said quietly.
Luke looked up, glanced at her and looked down again. “Hey.”
“I’m sorry,” she told him.
He looked up again. “For what? For last night or for leaving after
last night.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You managed a good job of it all the same,” he replied, concentrating
on the counter.
Lorelai sighed and sat down. “Last night…was probably the most amazing
night of my life. But it shouldn’t have happened Luke.”
Luke focussed on her. “Why not Lorelai? Last night…Lorelai, I’ve never
made love like that to anybody. I love you more than anything. What is
so wrong about that?”
“I’m engaged to Max,” Lorelai murmured.
Luke looked at her, his eyes widening. “What?”
“I’m sorry. He asked me to marry him a few days ago and I said yes.”
“I think you should leave,” Luke said, looking down at the counter
again.
Lorelai, with tears streaming down her face, left the diner. Luke watched
her disappearing form and flung the cloth down. He wiped a stray tear from
his eye and went out the back.
********************************************
Rory went into the kitchen at the Inn, where Sookie was cooking something.
“What’s going on?”
“This meringue isn’t working,” Sookie answered.
“No, I mean with mum. Ever since I came home, she’s been acting really
weird. And so’s Luke. What did I miss?”
“Let your mum tell you,” Sookie told her firmly.
Rory thought to herself then realised what had happened.
*************************************************
“Max!” Lorelai said, surprised as she opened the door.
“Hey. Did you forget we had a date tonight?”
Lorelai put her hand over her mouth. “Oh God. I totally forgot.”
“I feel special,” Max said, pouting.
“I’m so sorry,” Lorelai said, opening the door and letting him in.
“It’s just been a really hectic couple of days.”
“Wedding planning?” Max asked, with a sly smile.
“Not really,” Lorelai said, shuffling her feet. “Uh, Max, I need to
talk to you.”
“What about?” Max asked, as he sat down on the couch next to her.
“Well, you know Luke?” Lorelai began.
“Ah, the man whose coffee you can’t live without? Yes, I believe I
do.”
“Okay. Well, last night, we played poker together. And then we played
truth or dare.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “Okay, well I’m glad you had fun last night.”
“I slept with Luke,” Lorelai said, cursing herself for doing another
fine job of blurting that information out.
Max was silent for a couple of minutes, almost as if he was trying
to digest the information she had just given him. “You did what?” he asked,
incensed.
Lorelai looked down at her hands, discovering that she was getting
very good at hurting people. “It jusppenppened, Max. I can’t explain it.”
“It just happened,” Max mocked, standing up and starting to pace. “You
said you weren’t ever involved with him, that you were just friends.”
“We were, are,” Lorelai insisted. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“You’re wrong Lorelai,” Max said, pointing a finger at her. “It changes
everything. You slept with another man while we were engaged! I thought
that diner man would know better than to meddle with an engaged woman!”
“Don’t blame Luke for this,” Lorelai said sternly. “He didn’t even
know we were engaged.”
Max’s eyes narrowed. “He didn’t?” Max’s tone changed slightly. “Who
else have you told, apart from Rory?”
Lorelai’s eyes hit the floor again. Max had his answer.
“I’m going to go now,” Max said. “You call me when you have this all
figured out and I’m going to go away and think about it too.”
Lorelai didn’t move as Max left, slamming the door shut.
“You slept with Luke?” Rory said, coming in.
Lorelai looked up sharply. “You listened in?”
“s was walking past and I heard that part,” Rory told her. “Is that
why you’re so upset?”
“Rory, honey, my life is kind of really screwed up at the moment and
I just need to be left alone to work this out, okay?”
Rory nodded. “I’m going over to Lane’s anyway. But if you need me,
just buzz.”
Lorelai smiled wanly and kissed her daughter on the cheek. “What did
I do to deserve you?”
“Labour?” Rory supplied.
“Okay, so that was good. Are you mad at me?”
Rory shrugged. “No. I just want you to be happy.”
Lorelai nodded. “Thankyou.”
“No problem,” Rory replied, heading off.
Lorelai sat in the room, alone, thinking.