Lorelai walked slowly towards the living room, stopping in the hallway to take in the seating arrangements. Rachel and Luke were next to each other on the couch. Jackson was in the armchair by the stairs, and Sookie was in the armchair by the fireplace. There was an open seat next to Luke on the couch, which Lorelai thought would be good, since then she wouldn't have to look at Rachel, hence avoiding further embarrassment.

She walked into the living room, where Sookie was telling Luke and Rachel about the accident that had caused her latest injury, a cut across her lower forearm. Lorelai sat down next to Luke, poured herself some more Sangria, then placed the pitcher on the table.

Lorelai could hear Sookie's story but wasn't really listening to it. She was staring at the fireplace, trying to avoid looking in Rachel's direction. She sipped her Sangria as Sookie finished her story. Jackson had started passing around a plate of cookies. Lorelai took one and passed it on to Luke.

"So, Rory's with Lane tonight?" Sookie asked Lorelai.

Lorelai nodded. "Yup. Movies, dinner, hanging out, robbing the liquor store. The usual teenager stuff."

Sookie laughed. "Oh my God, could you even picture Rory robbing a liquor store?"

Lorelai smiled at the thought. "Excuse me, my daughter would be the politest robber in the world." Lorelai stood up, put her drink down, and walked over to Jackson. "Um, excuse me sir? Could you please assist me as I attempt to burglarize your establishment? I'm in desperate need of some monetary funds, and I'd really appreciate your cooperation in this matter. And if you try to impede me, I will... uhh, read to you from my extensive Gertrude Stein collection and fill your head with large amounts of vocabulary. Thank you for your time." She bowed to Jackson as everyone laughed.

Luke was smiling as he said, "I can't even see Rory borrowing a penny from the little 'Take some, leave some' tray at 7-11, there's no way I could see her robbing anything."

Lorelai grabbed another cookie from the table and walked back to her seat next to Luke. They continued remarking about Rory's unlikely future thievery attempts. As that topic died down, Rachel leaned forward to look past Luke and said, "Lorelai, you have a great place here. This house is beautiful."

Lorelai gave an uncomfortable smile as she glanced in Rachel's direction, but did not look her in the eyes. "Thank you. Yeah, we love it here." She picked up her drink and finished it as if it were water instead of alcohol. She was overwhelmed with feelings of embarrassment and nervousness, and she sunk back against the cushions, deciding to lay low for the rest of the night.

An hour later, she shut the front door, officially bringing her get together to a close. She's not sure how she managed to get through the rest of the evening. It probably had something to do with consuming more than half the pitcher of Sangria herself. She had avoided Rachel as best as she could, escaping to the kitchen as often as possible to avoid awkward glances and conversations. 'Well, it's not exactly how I planned it... but it certainly was an unforgettable night,' she thought, sighing.

She went to Rory's bedroom. Rory had come home just a few minutes earlier and had gone to her room to change. Lorelai found her setting out her Chilton uniform on her desk. "Hey," Lorelai said, flopping on the bed.

"Hey. You all right?" Rory asked, sitting next to her.

"Ugh, I feel ill." Lorelai closed her eyes.

"Too much pizza?" Rory asked.

"Nope."

"Too many cookies?"

Lorelai sighed. "Too much Sangria," she mumbled.

"Ah. Well, you'll feel better after some sleep. Uh, in your own room."

"Aww, please, I can't move. Let me stay here." Lorelai said, her eyes still closed.

"Mom, come on." Rory tapped her on the shoulder repeatedly.

Lorelai opened her eyes. "Okay, okay. Give me a second."

Rory stopped tapping her and helped her up. "Come on, let's go." Rory walked her up the stairs and helped her into bed.

* * * * *

The next morning, as Sookie was preparing to make some banana muffins, Lorelai slowly walked into the Independence Inn kitchen and poured herself some coffee. "Hey Sook."

"Hey sweetie. Ooh, we had fun last night," Sookie said. Noticing Lorelai's dejected look, she asked, "You feeling all right? You had quite a bit of that Sangria."

Lorelai took a sip of coffee. "Ugh, I know. And I'm paying for it this morning with this pounding headache."

"Aww." Sookie looked at her sympathetically. "Anything I can do?"

"Yeah, could you possibly try to create some sort of unsanitary health hazard in here so that the inn can be closed down and I can go home and sleep?"

Sookie giggled. "I'll get right on that." Sookie started slicing some bananas. "So, what happened last night?"

Lorelai swallowed hard. "Uhh, what do you mean?" she asked, looking down at the floor.

"I mean that you don't usually drink that much on a Sunday unless something's wrong." Sookie stared at her pointedly. "So what's wrong?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just... thinking about a lot of things."

Sookie paused. "So there's nothing you want to talk about?"

Lorelai shook her head.

Sookie shrugged. "Okay, well I'm here if you do."

Lorelai smiled. "Thank you." Lorelai poured more coffee into her cup and walked out to the front desk. After a few hours of working, and the headache refusing to go away, Lorelai decided to take a half- day. She drove home, and as she rode past the diner, her headache seemed to get even worse as if it knew that the diner was going to be off limits for awhile. She had decided to avoid Rachel for a few days; she would just feel too uncomfortable being around her.

A few minutes later, Lorelai pulled up to her house. She sulked her way inside and up to her room, collapsing on the bed. She tried to fall asleep but her mind kept punishing herself for that stupid kiss. While she was first just embarrassed about what Rachel thought about her, she also prayed silently that Rachel hadn't, and wouldn't, tell Luke about what happened. She would never be able to face him again if he found out. Just by those five seconds in the kitchen, everything had fallen apart, so many bad things could come out of this. The brief feeling of Rachel's lips against her own was the only bright spot Lorelai could muster out of the whole incident. However, even that thought was doused by the realization that Rachel would never think the same of her again; that they would never again be as close as they had been getting. She lay on her back staring at the ceiling for what seemed like hours, thinking things over while tears slowly ran down her cheeks.

* * * * *

The next day, Lorelai avoided the diner once again, and found herself going through Luke's-coffee withdrawal. Sookie's coffee was keeping her solvent, but it just wasn't as good as Luke's. Sadly, coffee wasn't the only thing Lorelai missed; she really missed Rachel. It had only been two days since she'd seen her last, but a pit had formed at the bottom of her stomach. It was a feeling that could only be cured by being reunited with that one person you felt so strongly about. Lorelai needed to be around her or talk to her; just even seeing her from afar would've made Lorelai feel a little better. Still, Tuesday came and went with Lorelai still successfully avoiding the diner. Unfortunately, Rory had noticed and commented on Lorelai's lack of diner visits, so Lorelai decided that maybe she'd better drop by before other people started getting suspicious also.

On Wednesday morning, she and Rory went to the diner. As Lorelai pulled open the door, she glanced around quickly to look for Rachel. Part of her was excited that she would finally be able to see her, while the other part was still mortified from the incident. Lorelai didn't see her in the diner, though, which made her end up feeling part relieved and part disappointed.

Lorelai and Rory walked up to Luke at the counter. She approached him cautiously, hoping his expression would indicate whether he knew about the kiss or not.

"Hey Luke," Lorelai said.

Luke smiled. "Hey. Where have you been?"

Lorelai felt relieved as she assumed that Rachel hadn't told him. "Oh, you know - just been busy."

"You? Too busy for coffee?" Luke asked, amazed. He looked at Rory. "Is she sick?"

Rory shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think she just needed a few days to recover from her Sangria overdose."

Luke smirked. "Oh yeah, you sure did enjoy that. Great party, by the way. We had a good time."

Lorelai smiled. Thanks, I'm glad."

Rory said, "Okay, coffee and blueberry muffins to go, in separate bags please."

"You got it," Luke said. He started filling their order as Lorelai glanced around the diner, finally concluding that Rachel must still be sleeping, or at least still upstairs in the apartment. Luke placed two bags in front of them along with two cups of coffee. Lorelai paid him, and as they walked out of the diner, she quietly exhaled as her nervousness melted away. She kissed Rory goodbye as she headed for the bus stop, and Lorelai slowly walked towards the inn.

Later that afternoon, as Lorelai walked home from work, she had an urge to return to the diner. She walked towards it slowly, stopping in front of the picture window and staring inside. She saw Rachel serving tables, and smiled as excitement filled her. After three long days of not seeing her, she suddenly felt content again. She watched her for a few minutes, but decided not to go in since she still had no idea what to say to her about...everything. She wasn't sure if she should bring it up and apologize, or just forget about it and hope Rachel did too. Lorelai had gotten herself into quite the quandary; just as she was getting close to Rachel, she had to go do something stupid and screw it all up. She finally broke her gaze of Rachel and started walking home.

Lorelai hadn't been home for more than ten minutes when the doorbell rang. She pulled open the front door, and Rachel was standing there.

"Hey," Rachel said.

To say that Lorelai was shocked would be an understatement. Part of her was thrilled, the other part was overwhelmed by embarrassment. "Uhh, hi," she said. "Um, what's up?" She looked down at her shoes.

"Um... I need to talk to you," Rachel said.

"Oh sure. About what?" Lorelai asked. In her head she repeated, 'please don't say the kiss, please don't say the kiss.'

"The kiss," Rachel said.

Dammit, Lorelai thought. She sighed. "Rachel, I'm so sorry about that. I don't..."

"Did it mean anything?" Rachel interrupted. "Just tell me, did it mean anything?"

Lorelai stared at her, not only because she was surprised at the question, but because she didn't know how to answer her. It did mean something to her, but she wasn't sure if she should tell Rachel that for fear of her reaction. Still, in her heart, she didn't want to lie about something that she felt so strongly about. Lorelai exhaled, but said nothing. Rachel stared at her, waiting for an answer...

To be continued...