I Like When You Miss Me

On Saturday morning when my alarm went off, Brody rolled over and wrapped his arm around me.  "You should call in sick," he suggested.  I almost laughed.  He suggested the same thing every morning after the day he got back from traveling.

"You know I'd love to," I replied.  I laid there with him until I couldn't put off getting up any longer, then I untangled myself from him and stood.

He rolled onto his back and stretched.  "Want breakfast?" he asked as I searched through my closet for clothes.

"Thanks, but I don't have time to sit and eat because I spent all my extra time cuddling with you," I teased him.

"I'll figure something out."  He sat up and stretched again, then pulled a pair of shorts on.  He walked over to my closet and kissed me on the cheek before he left the room and walked downstairs.

By the time I made it downstairs, he certainly had figured it out.  He handed me a tumbler of iced coffee and a breakfast sandwich in a Ziploc bag.  "I feel bad for other women," I said, kissing him and taking my breakfast.

"Oh yeah?  And why's that?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow and leaning against the counter, looking every bit the cocky bastard that I had initially been so drawn to.

"Because they don't get to marry you," I replied.  "And you're clearly the best.  Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied.  He slid an arm around my waist and pulled me over to him.  "You should see what I'd do for you if you called in sick."

I snorted.  "You're so full of yourself."

He smirked and said, "I prefer it when you're full of me."

"You are filthy, and it's too early for your dirty jokes.  At least I know that means you're in a good mood!"    He grinned at me and kissed me lightly.  "Are you going into the office today?"

"Yeah, I probably should," he grumbled.  "I'll be home in time for dinner, then did you want to go out with Alex and Lauren tonight?"

"Works for me," I said.  I looked at the clock on the microwave and had a moment of panic.  "Shit, now I really have to go, I'll see you tonight.  I love you."  I kissed him and took off.

After work I went to the gym then home.  Brody got home in time to help me make dinner and seduce me on the couch.  "I like when you miss me," I joked, bending down to pick up my underwear from the floor where it had been discarded.

"I hate missing you," he countered, reaching up and wrapping his arms around my waist.  He pulled me back down onto the couch and kissed my cheek.

"Well, I don't like missing you either," I amended.  "But I like when you come home."   We stayed on the couch for about 10 more minutes but then had to get up to get going back into town.

By the time we got to the bar where we were meeting our friends, Lauren, Alex, Kendra, Christian, and Kinsley were already there.  I was surprised to see Kinsley, since she had not been responding to our texts, but she was definitely there, and definitely standing away from our table, very close to a guy I didn't recognize.  Brody headed up to the bar to get us drinks, and Lauren nodded to Kinsley and whispered, "They broke up."

"Oh, shit," I muttered.  "How's she doing?"  Lauren gestured to Kinsley as if to say, "You can see what she's doing, how do you think?"  Lauren narrowed her eyes slightly as Kinsley laughed and leaned against the guy.

"Don't look at her like that," Alex said, nudging Lauren with his shoulder.  "You used to do the exact same thing."

"I did not!  Not like that, anyway," Lauren retorted.

"Don't pretend like I haven't been jealously watching you do it for years.  Trust me...you used to do the exact same thing."  At that, Lauren blushed, which is not a thing Lauren does often.  Kendra and I cracked up, and were still laughing when Brody came back and put a drink down in front of me.

 We stayed for a few hours, but things quickly got a little weird.  Kinsley disappeared with the guy she was talking to, then reappeared about 45 minutes later.  She chatted with us again for a little while, then told us she had to go.  She was pretty drunk and when Brody gently asked if she needed a ride, she said a friend was picking her up.

"What are we going to do with her?" Lauren asked after Kinsley had left.

I gave her a weird look.  "What do you mean?"

"She can't keep running around and sleeping with every guy that smiles at her!" Lauren exclaimed with exasperation.

"Why not?" I asked.

Now it was Lauren's turn to give me a weird look.  "I think she's making a mistake," she said after a long pause.  "Or several."

"She's hurting," I said.

"I'm not so sure," Lauren replied.  I got a little frustrated with the conversation.  Of course I was worried about Kinsley, but judging her wasn't going to help.  Shortly after, Brody complained of being exhausted from traveling and we took off.

"So, that got weird," he said, once we were on the way home.

I snorted.  "You weren't there when Alex called Lauren out and told her she used to do the exact same thing.

"I bet that went well," Brody replied wryly.

"Better than you'd imagine, but it was a little awkward.  Things are going to be weird for awhile, I think."

"I'm too old for this shit," he said, shaking his head.

I laughed.  "So am I."  It was going to be an interesting few weeks, at least.

Early Sunday morning, I woke up to Brody wrapping his arm around me and snuggling against me.  I shifted a little and settled more comfortably against him.  We laid there for a few minutes, and then he kissed my shoulder and said, "I'm going to get up and get a little work done.  We'll do some wedding stuff this afternoon?"

"Yeah," I agreed sleepily.  "What time are we having dinner with your mom?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, sorry.  I called her and she said she meant next weekend.  So not tonight."  I nodded and burrowed further into the blankets as he got up.  I fell back asleep quickly and slept for a few more hours.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I made myself breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and settled myself on the couch with my Kindle until lunchtime.  I decided to make the homemade barbecue chicken pizza I'd been planning to make on Friday until I came home and discovered Brody already home and making dinner.  Brody came out while I was in the middle of prepping it and asked if I needed help.  I shook my head.  "Want me to turn the oven on?" he asked.

"No, because I'm cooking it on the grill," I replied.  He gave me a weird look, and I realized he had been deprived of grilled pizza so far in his life.  "Trust me," I assured him.

He ended up enjoying the grilled pizza and agreeing that it was a good choice.  I let him clean up after and went to get my wedding stuff on my laptop ready to show him.  When he joined me, I talked him through what Kendra and Lauren had helped me with on Thursday.  "Our main priority right now should be figuring out timelines, guest list, and addresses, because invitations need to go out really soon," I informed him.  "Then we need to get our other services booked--photographer, flowers, music, and of course someone to actually marry us."

We talked through timelines, and I stubbornly insisted on wanting some photos done around sunset. After talking through numerous options that would allow us to do that, we decided on a timeline that had photos first, a cocktail hour that started while we were taking photos, an evening ceremony followed immediately by dinner, then the rest of the reception.  I sent an email to Leigh to get her advice on actual times and make sure this was possible, then we set to work doing some research on the other things we'd need.

I'd sent an email to Kendra's photographer, who was unsurprisingly already booked for that day, but said there was a talented photographer with a very similar style that was just getting started that he'd worked with a few times that might be a good option.  I'd contacted her and she was available and priced reasonably.  Brody and I went through the photos on her site and emailed her again asking to meet with her.  We sent a ton of emails and made some appointments, booking up most of the next Saturday with them.

After that, we moved onto the guest list.  I pulled up the original list we'd made, and we bickered a little about some of the people on it.  "We have enough space, and not all those people will come anyway," Brody said, after I shook my head at his addition of a friend he hadn't talked to in 3 years.

"That's the not point," I snapped back.  "I don't want our wedding day to be a three-ring circus of people we barely know!"

"There are several people you have on the list that I've never met," he pointed out.

"They're family members that I see every year!"  I was getting frustrated, and I cursed myself as my eyes started to well up.  I hate that I'm a frustrated crier.

"Whoa," Brody said, his tone softer.  "What's going on?"

I took a deep, shaky breath and tried to get myself together.  "Getting married in front of a ton of people scares the shit out of me," I admitted.

He looked puzzled.  "Okay..." he said, considering his next words carefully.  "Do you know why?"

I nodded, and I furiously brushed loose pieces of hair out of my face.  "It's hard enough to talk about my feelings with you, the idea of having feelings in front of a ton of people, some of which I'm bound to not know, or not know well, is absolutely terrifying.  I cry at the drop of a hat, so I'll probably sob through the ceremony, and everyone is going to want to hug me, and that all kind of sounds like my worst nightmare."

Brody took my laptop out of my lap and gently closed it, setting it aside.  He put his arm around me and I leaned against his should.  "That makes sense," he said.  "We could always scrap the plans and get married on a beach somewhere, just the two of us."

"You are perfect," I said.  "But I really do want our close friends and family to be there.  I'm just worried about it getting too big, and I'll be nervous no matter what.  I'm sorry I tried to uninvite your friend."

"Well, technically he's not invited yet, so you're good," he joked.  "I know we need to get this list done and get the addresses really soon, but maybe we should stop for today.  We can finish it on Tuesday and then we can get addresses after that, and try to have everything to Lauren's mom by next weekend."

"Okay," I agreed.  I was overwhelmed and tired of wedding planning anyway.  "I can still send her the timeline and she can work on the invitations this week at least."  Lauren's mom had offered to design our invitations and address all the envelopes.  She planned to bring them with her when she came out to visit so that we could mail them right away the first week in August.  In the meantime, we were sending out emails to all the people that we felt really strongly about having there to make sure they had as much notice as possible.

Brody looked at his watch, and I craned my neck to see it.  It was 4:30.  We'd been doing this for close to 4 hours without a break, no wonder I was over it.  "It's been awhile since we've been out on an actual date," Brody commented.  "Do you want to go out tonight?  We can go have dinner and maybe find something else to do."

"Yes!" I agreed enthusiastically.  "That sounds great."

I went upstairs to shower and shave.  After my shower, I pulled on my robe and dried and curled my hair and put on makeup.  I picked out a dress I hadn't worn since last summer and pulled it on.  When Brody came out of the bathroom, he zipped it up for me, and then let out a low whistle.  "You look amazing," he said appreciatively.

"Thanks," I replied, eyeing him up as he stood there in just a towel.  "So do you."

"Save it for later, perv," he said, smirking at me as he pulled open his closet door.

Once we were both dressed and ready, we headed into town, discussing restaurant choices on the way.  When we were settled at a table at our chosen restaurant, Brody said, "We haven't gotten to the fun part of wedding planning yet."

"Which is?" I asked.

"Planning the honeymoon."

"Oh no," I said.  Brody gave me a weird look.  "That's not on my list.  I forgot that there's something else to plan!"

Brody couldn't help but laugh at me.  "Well, since you planned Mexico, and you've done most of the legwork for the wedding planning so far, what if I planned the honeymoon?"

"I would love if you planned the honeymoon," I said, relieved.  I couldn't fathom adding one more thing to the list at this point.

"One condition," he said, holding up a finger.  I nodded at him to continue.  "I want free rein to plan, which means I get to spend however much I want."

I narrowed my eyes at him, then remembered the amount of newly acquired money we'd talked about just two days earlier.  "Deal," I agreed.  "I don't even want to know how much you spent.  Then my brain won't implode if it's too much."

"Done," he said,  holding his hand out to shake on it.  I rolled my eyes, but laughed and shook.  I had a feeling I just agreed to having one hell of an over-the-top honeymoon.