Chapter Text
Lorelai had been dreading this dinner since her graduation three weeks prior. She knew she was in a limited grace period and she had to decide what she wanted to do for herself before her mother tried to decide for her. If her mother had her way she knew she would be indoctrinated into the DAR and the lunch groups and be assigned the sole objective of finding a respectable husband to cater to for the rest of her life.
One thing she knew she didn’t want was that. She liked the idea of a husband, but someday, and she hoped she could get married because she loved him, not because it was advantageous for financial and social gain. Other than that aspect she truly didn’t know what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. There were so many possibilities and picking one thing was overwhelming to her. Since she graduated with her degree in business from Columbia she had gone to a few job interviews, but none felt like the right path for her. They all seemed to just be another boring corporate job where she feared she would get stuck for the rest of her life and end up miserable.
She had spent the two hour drive from her apartment in the city splitting her time between trying to figure out if there was anything else she could think of to narrow down the direction she wanted to go with her life and how she was going to get through this night without getting shoved too far in the direction of a husband.
She took a deep breath and finally knocked on the door to the formidable mansion before her. After a moment a woman Lorelai didn’t recognize opened the door, wearing the typical maid uniform.
“Hi, can I help you?” she said innocently.
“Hi, I’m Lorelai Gilmore, here for dinner with my parents.”
A shill voice cut in from the entry to the foyer, “Really Marta? You knew our daughter was coming to dinner tonight, could you not have used context clues?”
“Oh yes of course, sorry ma’am, may I take your jacket miss?”
“Sure,” Lorelai said, shrugging out of her jacket. “And mom it’s no big deal, she’s never met me before, how would she know if I was your daughter or a vampire looking for her next meal?”
“Really Lorelai, you’re too old for this nonsense. Come now for drinks, this is enough foolishness for a dinner to honor your father.”
Emily turned and headed towards the living room, with Lorelai reluctantly trailing behind her, muttering under her breath, “To you I’ve been too old for nonsense since I could speak.”
When entering the living room she threw on a bright smile to start the charade of the dotting daughter.
“Hi Dad,” Lorelai greeted, pulling Richard’s eyes from his newspaper.
“Ah Lorelai, you made it,” he said, lowering his paper somewhat, but not putting it away.
“Yes, yes I did,” she tried to respond as pleasantly as she could, not wanting to take the bait this early into the evening.
Emily cut in, “Only five minutes late this time Richard, we should record it, probably a record.”
Lorelai gritted her teeth, “It is a two hour drive mom, it’s hard to know how much traffic I’ll hit each time.”
“You know if you’d had gone to Yale you would have a much shorter drive to make”
“Well I’m finished with college now so that doesn’t really need to be a discussion anymore does it.”
Emily’s eyes sparked at that, “Why that’s true Lorelai, now tell us, what are your grand plans now that you've finished your degree in the big city?”
“I’m working on them. Hey dad, happy father’s day! I got you something.” She took the one out she had baked into the evening by handing the gift bag she brought to her father, who was jolted out of his reading for the second time since Lorelai arrived.
“Really Lorelai, there is a time for these things and it is not in the middle of us discussing your plans for your future.” Emily said, rolling her eyes.
“The time for discussing my future plans is probably not father’s day either.” Lorelai huffed frustratedly.
“What you do with your life reflects on your father, it is perfectly reasonable of us to discuss what you plan to do.” Emily replied coldly.
“We have plenty of time to discuss, but can we celebrate father’s day first?” Lorelai tried again, desperately trying to buy herself a little more time to avoid a conversation, which undoubtedly would turn into her mother trying to plan out the rest of her life for her, again.
“Fine, I suppose with it being your father’s day, we can save this conversation for dinner.”
Lorelai made it through the traditional father’s day presents and the rest of drinks with relative ease. Her mother continued on about the latest events they went to and were planning while filling in tid bits of gossip in between. Any time Lorelai felt there was an opening in the conversation where she could possibly become the subject she would ask her father about his work and the latest from his friends at the club.
Finally it came time for dinner, the one part of the evening Lorelai was actually looking forward to, her father’s favorite meal, Johnny Machete. Of course, this dish should only be served in the fall or early winter, but Richard was the one person Emily was willing to bend the rules for.
Lorelai had learned by now not to question it, that her mother had a different set of rules for Lorelai than she had for herself and Richard, but it still had her going into the meal with a sour taste in her mouth. She tried to focus on the food that was being brought out by the maid, but as soon as her dish was placed in front of her,
“Lorelai, do you find now to be a more appropriate time to discuss your future?” Emily asked with false innocence.
Lorelai sighed, she picked up her fork, if this night was going to turn sideways she wanted to at least get a taste of the Johnny Machete before she left. She knew her mother wasn’t really asking if it was acceptable to open the discussion, she had gotten as much of a delay as she could hope for and now had to give them something.
“I’m interviewing for jobs, I still have a few more to go. I want to really weigh my options before making any decisions.” Lorelai tried to make her response sound as confident as she could, maybe she could make them feel like she had control of the situation and let her have the time she needed to figure it out on her own. She should have known better.
“But you have heard back on some of the interviews?” Emily asked with suspicion.
“Yes, I have some offers, but none that I’m actually excited to take.”
Emily scoffed at that, “Well people aren’t usually excited to work, but it’s part of life. Of course, if you are not excited to work at a job you could always get married and manage the social life for both you and your husband.”
Richard decided this was the point to finally join in the conversation, “Yes Lorelai, working at a job is very intensive work, you have to have a good work ethic, and be reliable, and do things you don’t want to do. Maybe being a housewife is a better choice for you.”
Lorelai felt her temper slipping, “I don’t want to be a housewife!” she exclaimed.
Emily shot back, “Then what do you want to be Lorelai? Because currently it looks like you’re flailing, you can’t even pick a job, nevermind if you’ll be able to successfully keep it.” Emily looked like something horrifying just occurred to her, “Who are these employers that you are playing hard to get with? Did you use our contacts to get these interviews, just to slight our friends?”
Richard cut in before Lorelai could answer, “You can’t do that Lorelai, I’ve worked hard to build good relationships with these people, if you flake on them that will hurt my reputation and who is going to buy insurance from me if they don’t trust me.”
“Really Lorelai do you even think about anyone but yourself? Do you even think?” Emily added on.
Lorelai found herself taking deep breaths to prevent tears from coming, she quietly said, “No, I did not use any of your contacts to get any interviews, your reputation should be just as it’s always been.”
“Why wouldn’t you use our contacts? We worked hard to get them, we’ve given you everything Lorelai, you won’t be able to get a prestigious job without using our names.” Emily continued on her tirade.
Lorelai was losing her patience, “So now it’s wrong that I haven’t used your contacts? You can’t have it both ways!”
“You need to use our contacts to be successful, but you need to use them in the proper way, you aren’t doing either of these things. Your failures also reflect poorly on us, so let’s not add any more here. We’ve been able to pass off most of your faults as you just being young, but that’s not going to work for much longer.”
“I want to be able to get a job on my own, I don’t want to use connections.”
“That’s not how this works Lorelai, do you know anything?” Richard cut in.
“I know I can’t do anything right in your eyes apparently.” Lorelai muttered and gripped the napkin in her lap.
“Well you’ve done nothing right, if it takes you this long to decide on a job, how long is it going to take for you to decide on a husband? You’re not getting any younger you know. Maybe we should arrange a husband for you? Richard, the Barclays have a son that graduated a few years ago, I don’t think he has a girlfriend, we could call them, set up a dinner for all of us.”
“Mom! I don’t want you to pick a husband for me, I just want to make sure I’m making the right choice,” Lorelai said as she stood from the table, placing her napkin next to her still mostly full plate, “but since you’re making plans without me, I’ll leave you to it.”
Lorelai strode out of the dining room as her mother called after her, “What do you mean you’ll leave us to it, Lorelai you can’t just leave like this. We are in the middle of a discussion.”
Emily had followed her out of the dining room when it was clear she wasn’t coming back and caught up to her at the door as Lorelai was grabbing her jacket and purse.
“Lorelai!”
“What Mom? We weren’t in a discussion, you were telling me everything I was doing wrong and making plans I want no part in, I don’t need to be here for this.”
“So if I make plans for us to meet a suitable husband for you, you would accept?” Emily asked.
Lorelai crossed her arms and pretended to think for a moment, “You know Mom, because this meal was so enjoyable…NO!” with that Lorelai left, slamming the front door behind her.
Lorelai stomped over to her burgundy Mercedes-Benz, pulling her keys from her purse that she had looped over her shoulder. She was about to put her key in the door when she realized she was way too worked up to be starting her long drive home, she probably needed to get a clearer head so she would actually make it there. Instead of sitting in the car she turned and leaned against the side of the door, staring up into the sky.
‘Please let me find some direction to go from here.’ She thought to herself, just as she saw a small streak of white light across the sky, she gasped but immediately had her attention ripped away by the sound of squealing brakes from the end of her parents’ driveway.
A blonde woman got out of the driver’s seat of the jaguar now on the street directly in front of the driveway , leaving the car running, she crossed to the other side of the car. She opened the back door and said, “Get out.”
A girl who was maybe four years old cautiously stepped out of the car. Once on the edge of the driveway she glanced at the mansion in front of her and then returned her gaze to the woman.
“This is your father’s house, go knock on that door and give him this,” the woman said, thrusting a manilla envelope in the young girl’s hands, “Tell him that you’re his problem now.”
With that the woman got back in her car and sped away, leaving the dumbfounded child staring down the road after her.