FG 3 - The Wedding Blitz (17 page)

“Wow,” Riley whispered in awe behind us, apparently finished with making his phone calls. 

Warren and Hawkins looked at each other in astonishment, before Warren grunted, “Well it was only a matter of time.”

“
Sure
Warren.”

If one thing was clear, it was that we were all out of steam as everyone took a seat and sat down taking in what we had accomplished.

“Now that we brought it down—” Warren went to say.

“You mean Harlow brought it down,” Hawkins coughed causing Warren to playfully shove his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah but now what do we do with what’s left of it?”

“Carry it out to the dumpster.”

“What dumpster?”

“The one I’m going to have to call to get,” Hawkins shrugged.

“While you’re making that call,” Lizzie held up a finger. “Can you also hire a crew to finish fixing this house?”

“Okay,” Warren gently jerked Lizzie up into his arms. “Let’s head back to the bus for a little Lizzie time.”

“We haven’t had Lizzie time in a
long
time,” she looked at him in wonderment as if she could barely believe what she had heard.

“Let’s just say being distracted by all these manly endeavors,” he said with a glance around the room.
“Brings out the beast, I mean best in me.”

“Oh in that case, don’t you think a tin roof would really compliment the rustic look of the house?” she quickly added as they headed outside in the direction of the tour bus. Riley and Harlow headed out behind them snickering something about ‘
Riri
time.’

“Why don’t we sleep here tonight?” I tugged Hawkins’ arm before he could get up. “It’s our first night in the house together.”

“You really like it, don’t you?” his eyes twinkled in the firelight as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to his chest. “As long as we stay close to the fire, we should be fine.”

“I don’t think that should be a problem,” I assured him.

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I woke up in Hawkins strong, warm arms as we snuggled in a red and navy blue plaid sleeping bag he found on the bus. The more the fire dwindled down throughout the night, the closer we huddled together for warmth. I laid there and pulled a leaf out of my hair smiling as I twirled it around between my thumb and finger. This was my home too now. 

Soon a loud, building sound of a diesel engine drew close to the house and I nudged Hawkins in the side.

“That would be the dumpster,” he grunted. “Wait a minute that means—” he quickly unzipped the bag to retrieve his white Calvin Klein boxer briefs and I searched for my bra that I must have discarded somewhere in the sleeping bag.

“Morning,” Warren sauntered in causing me to cry out as I pulled the sleeping bag over my head. Even Hawkins looked caught off guard as he stood hunched over with his t-shirt over the goods.

“What are you doing up at this hour anyway?” Hawkins asked accusingly.

“I don’t drink anymore, my friend.”

“Is that going to be your excuse for everything from now on?” Hawkins snickered.

“If the shoe fits,” he shrugged as he continued to stand there looking like he wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. So I grabbed up what I could of the sleeping bag and sort of skated my way toward the door because I wasn’t going to search for my clothes while half naked in front of Warren. 

“That is one hell of a walk a shame, Joie,” Warren nodded approvingly, making my face turn as red as the unflattering and bulky sleeping bag. I moved as quickly as I could across the front porch without making eye contact, not wanting to see the reaction on the faces of the men delivering the dumpster. Though that didn’t stop me from feeling like this was an all-time low for me as I climbed awkwardly up the steps to the bus parked beside the house. Inside Riley was busy scrolling down images on his laptop, but one look at me said it all. Riley just raised his eyebrows and smiled down at the screen.

I grabbed up my trusty white tank top and pink rolled up sweats, which looked like I had shrunk them in the dryer now that my bump was growing, and quickly got dressed in the privacy of the back bedroom. Once I was decent again, I walked back out to the kitchen with my head held up a fraction higher than normal. Hey it wasn’t like we were the only ones ‘enjoying’ ourselves.

With my appetite back I found a plastic jar of peanut butter and a spoon to serve as my breakfast as I dug into the creamy stuff and sat down across from Riley at the computer.

“How do you feel about the color pearl?” he asked me like the walk of shame was a distant memory which was both relieving and a bit disturbing.

“I don’t have a feeling about it either way, actually,” I dug the spoon into the peanut butter again.

“I know I used to think wine would make a great color for your wedding but it would compete with the colorful
Chihuly
stained glass sculptures, which I plan to place around the marshy area where you come in off the lake and in the surrounding wild flowers. Now I’m thinking of a more subdued color scheme for inside the tent like white and black instead. What do you think?” he looked at me intently.

“Then white it is,” I agreed as I sucked on the end of the spoon.

“Having white on white with silver accents for the decorations could look very decadent.”

“Even better,” I nodded.

“Joie, can you at least pretend to care?”

“I care Riley,” I insisted. “So what’s next?”

“I’m picking out wedding invitations. I hope you don’t mind but I’ve set your wedding date for Saturday September the 22nd because it’s the first day of fall and the romantic in me likes that. Plus it should give me enough time to get everything done, hopefully.”

“I like it,” I dug into the peanut butter again but Riley just blinked at me so I added, “I like it
a lot
.”

“Your hopeless,” he cracked a smile. “Anyway, I found this website that’ll create your wedding invitations and then mail them out to the guests so that you don’t have to. You just pick out a template and then fill in all the contact information.”

“That’s really creative and efficient.”

“That’s a gay man for you,” he jokingly winked.

“So what’s caught your eye so far?” I motioned for the laptop and he turned it to show me.

“I like that one,” I instantly pointed to a white invitation with monograms of the couple’s married name in fancy black cursive writing at the header and a geometrical print of circles intertwined along the border.

“I know I like that one too but it’s too masculine for your wedding,” he explained. “Now for you I like the white one with the black border that’s embossed with dandelion puffs positioned across the front as if they’re flying through the sky since it’s an outside wedding.”    

“It’s beautiful too.”

“I also like this one with the two white outlines of flowers positioned asymmetrically on either edge on the black background but it’s not my favorite,” he sighed. “I’m torn. I don’t know which one I’m going to pick. There’s just so much to do,” he motioned for the laptop but I pulled it closer to my chest. 

“It’s been brought to my attention that I don’t
care
enough,” I rolled my eyes with fake sincerity. “If you don’t mind I’d like to do something, I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t contribute somehow.”

“If you insist,” his lip curled up. “I’ll let you do it but be prepared, it may take you some time to complete,” he threw an address book across the table.

“I think I can manage,” I murmured as I sifted through the pages of addresses.

“Good,” he yawned. “I could go back to bed anyway.”

“Ah Riley,” I looked up from guest list. “Why is Jake on here?” I called after him since Jake was an ex-boyfriend of mine who had thrown me out of a party while filming it for YouTube. 

“That’s strictly for fun,” Riley smirked before turning to head to his bunk in the back.

“This can’t be that hard,” I blew my hair out of my face. “Contact information,” I mumbled under my breath as I typed, “Mr. and Mrs. Taylor at 119
Donnan
Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15122. You are cordially invited…”

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“Joie wake up,” someone nudged me in the side.

“Huh?” I pulled my head off of the keyboard where I must have fallen asleep and looked up at Riley.

“Not as easy as it looks, huh?” he smiled down at me.

“I managed to get it done,” I closed the laptop and added, “for your information.”

“So you just decided to take a little cat nap?”

“I do that now, embarrassingly enough,” I widened my eyes.

“Hawkins was asking for you, come on,” he waved for me to hurry up.

“What does that slave driver want now?” I joked as I got up and followed behind him down the aisle.

“Someone slept in,” Lizzie smiled when I stepped off the bus. I did a double take in her direction as I watched her carry over her shoulder what looked like a two by four that still had a chunk of plaster attached to it out to the dumpster.

“Someone’s happy to be drinking Warren’s ‘Kool-Aid’,” I laughed as Riley and I headed into the house. 

“Hey, they have an arrangement and it’s working,” Riley cracked a smile. “There’s no shame in that.”

I didn’t know what I noticed first, the man dressed in a white double breasted chef jacket and checkered pants or the desserts to the right that covered every inch of the counter space and the island in the kitchen area.

“It smells like confectionary heaven,” I took in a deep breath.

“Joie, this is pastry chef extraordinaire
Francoeur
Romanoff,” the man looked distinguished with white hair pulled back in a ponytail and a trimmed beard. He extended his hand for me to shake as Riley explained, “He’s going to be making your wedding cake.” 

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Joie,”
Francoeur
said in a European accent I couldn’t quite place.

“Why don’t we sit down to talk first?” Riley extended his arm to the window seat that overlooked the lake. Hawkins winked at me as I passed by him, Harlow, Warren, and Lizzie who were busy collecting what they could of the demolished wall so they could chuck it in the dumpster outside. Riley quickly dusted off a place for the pastry chef, me, and himself.  

“So tell me Joie,”
Francoeur
pulled out a small notepad from his pants pocket. “What’s your dream wedding cake?”

“I’m thinking five tiers,” Riley quickly began to list, “Possibly six because I want the cake to make a statement. I’d like them to be square not round…are you getting this?” Riley looked down at the blank notepad in
Francouer’s
hand.

I gave a little nod letting the chef know this was my dream wedding cake too. “Ah, but of course,”
Francouer
started to scribble down the notes.

“I want fondant instead of buttercream,” Riley continued to describe the cake and honestly I was grateful because they both lost me at how many tiers. “For the outside of the cake, I want the fondant to be white but sprayed with a shimmer. I want the cake to reflect the beauty of the
Chihuly
stained glass we’ll be using in the surrounding wild flowers and marsh by creating small clear glass balls with blown sugar work so that it appears to be overflowing down the cake.”

“Okay,”
Francouer
nodded as he continued to scribble away.

“For the topping, I want the sugar work to twist up and out of the top of the cake in a shimmering pearl that also gives off the effect of clear glass. Oh, I have a drawing, if that would be helpful?”

Hawkins glanced over at me probably because I found myself drooling over him instead of paying attention to Riley and the pastry chef. It wasn’t totally my fault that I became distracted when Hawkins had stripped off his t-shirt two minutes ago revealing his tight tan abdomen and defined pecks. He checked to see if everything was going according to plan by giving me the thumbs up or down and I quickly gave him the thumbs up.

“Don’t you agree Joie?” Riley turned to ask me.

“Ah…yes,” I cleared my throat.
“A hundred percent.”

“Now for the inside of the cake,”
Francouer
asked expectantly.

“I think Joie, would actually enjoy this part,” Riley turned to smile warmly at me.

“I get to try the desserts?” my mouth watered at just the thought of taste testing every one of them.