pages stained with coffee and ink • j. mariano

xi. teach me tonight

"yeah?" 

"well, you probably have a diner full of people who would love these brownies, plus, I bet they'd pay you for them." lorelai tells the man, confused why the brownies are being offered to her.

"well, i accidentally dropped triple the amount of cocoa powder in the batter so i either had to dump the batch or find someone with some sort of superhuman chocolate tolerance. only one name came to mind." luke explains to the hyper woman.

"god, i love being special. what?" lorelai quips before realizing that luke is still awkwardly standing in her kitchen. 

"nothing. i just...hey, uh, is em here by any chance?" luke asks.

"yeah, she's in her room."

"can i talk to her for a sec?"

"sure, go right ahead."

"hey, thanks." luke heads up the stairs and knocks on emilia's door. "em, it's luke. can i come in for a minute?"

emilia opens the door "hey boss, what's up?"

"not much. can i...?" luke awkwardly gestures to the door. 

"uh, yeah, come on in."

"so i see you're studying." luke points out. 

"yup." emilia awkwardly nods.

"that's good. studying is very, very good. what you're doing right there with the books, very good." luke rambles.

"thank you?"

"okay, look, i wanted to ask you a favor. oh. uh. I was wondering if you could tutor jess."

"what?" 

"he's not doing too well in school. the principal said he's not gonna let him move on unless something changes. i was wondering if you could help."

"that doesn't make any sense, he's smart enough to pass any subject." emilia defends the boy.

"i don't think it's his lack of smarts, more like his lack of proximity to the actual classes that's the problem."

"ah. yes, i have noticed the absences but we don't have all the same classes so I didn't know it was bad."

"yes." 

"okay, what subject does he need help in?"

"i'd say all of them, probably."

"huh."

"look, i don't expect you to work miracles and it doesn't have to be a full time everyday thing. if you could just get him through a couple of his next tests, maybe make the school see that he can do it, that would probably help out a lot."

"sure." emilia agrees. 

"great, tonight?"

"tonight."

"i really appreciate this. ah, okay, you should get back to your studying, otherwise you're completely useless to me." emilia laughs as luke heads out of her room and down the stairs. He walks into kitchen, "okay, so i'll see you guys at dinner probably." 

"wait, hold on, what was that all about?" lorelai asks the man, curiously.

"oh, emilia's gonna tutor jess."

"she is?"  lorelai can't tell if she's more concerned or surprised or confused for that matter. 

"yeah, just for a little while, help get him on the right track." luke confirms.

"wow."

"okay, i should be getting back. enjoy the brownies, i'll see if i can screw up a cake for you later on."