It's a Deal

After work on Tuesday, I headed for the gym.  I hadn't been going as regularly again, but really I was looking to procrastinate completing the wedding planning items on the list Lauren had helped me make.  I stayed there for an hour, then headed home.  Once home, I took a quick shower, threw together a quick dinner of chicken breasts, rice, and a salad, then pulled out the list.

Brody came home as I was working on calling and emailing the short list of people we hadn't received RSVPs from.  Because we were doing tableside ordering, we didn't need to get a catering number in for dinner, but we still needed to know numbers for appetizers, dessert, tables, and chairs.  Luckily, all but 8 RSVPs had been returned, which seemed like a pretty good number.  

"What are you doing?" Brody asked, kissing me on the forehead before opening the fridge and pulling out the plate I'd made him.  I told him, and he frowned.  I handed him the paper where I'd written down the names of people on his side he needed to contact.  He only had 3.  He agreed to call or email them this week.  

"We need to figure out music and the rehearsal dinner this week," I informed him.

He groaned.  "How about we do whatever you want.  Just let me know how much to make the check out for."

I pressed my lips together and took a breath before I answered.  "I'd really like to know what you want, too."

"I really don't care," he replied.  "Seriously.  Whatever you want."  

"What I want is for you to help me with this," I snapped back.

He raised his eyebrows and said, "I took half a day off work to go meet with officiants.  I've spent time I could have been working driving back and forth between here and there, meeting with people.  I've worked my ass off so I can write checks to cover everything without batting an eye.  Don't pretend that I've done nothing."

"Oh, so because you're paying, you don't have to do anything else to help?  That's perfect.  That's an amazing attitude to have.  So you should never have to do things around the house either, I suppose?"

"Seriously, Liv?" I was surprised at his tone.  I expected him to be angry.  Instead, he sounded hurt.  "That's not even close to what I meant.  I hope you know me better than that."

I stood abruptly and walked over to the sliding glass door that led to the deck.  In my mind I saw this conversation easily spiraling out of control.  I pressed my forehead against the glass and took several deep breaths before I turned around again.  I leaned against the door, the coolness of it grounding me. 

"I'm sorry," I said finally.  "That was shitty.  I know that's not what you meant.  But sometimes it's felt that way when it comes to this wedding.  I don't ask you for your input on everything.  I know some of the stuff matters more to me than you.  And I appreciate you taking off work, driving back and forth, and all the things you have done to help.  But I want this to reflect both of us, and when I ask for your help, it's because I want or need your opinion too.  I don't want to make all these decisions on my own and have it look like my wedding.  I know you're busy, so I try to choose what I ask for help with carefully."

He frowned, considering, then said, "I guess I don't actually know what you've done so far."

"Because you've brushed me off 9 times out of 10 when I ask for help with some of the smaller stuff," I pointed out.  At his request, I rattled off a list of all the things I'd done on my own so far, either because he'd said up front he didn't care about them or because he'd told me to do whatever I wanted when I asked him.  

When I was finished, he looked sheepishly at me.  "I had no idea, Liv.  I guess I haven't been paying attention.  I'm really sorry."

"I'm not upset about doing a lot on my own.  I expected it--hell, I decreased my hours at work partially to account for doing a lot of it on my own, which is why it hasn't really bothered me before today.  It just gets frustrating when I do ask for your help and I get brushed off."

He nodded.  "I understand," he replied.  "I want to help, but I just can't tonight.  Can we pick a night this week to sit down and work on it, and I'll give wedding planning my undivided attention then?"  That seemed reasonable to me, and we decided on Thursday night.  In the meantime, I sat down to work on some of the things that I didn't need his input on, like researching some of the hair places Lauren had found and deciding which ones I wanted to call.  

On Wednesday, I met Lauren after work to go shoe shopping.  After trying on roughly 17 thousand pairs of shoes, I finally settled on a pair.  I had never spent so much on a pair of shoes in my life, but they were ridiculously comfortable and perfectly matched the deep purple of Lauren and Lynn's dresses.  Lauren easily talked me out of my sticker shock by reminding how awful my feet would feel if I bought cheap shoes.  "And you can't go barefoot, because gross," she finished.  

I laughed and rolled my eyes at her dramatic speech and decided to buy the shoes.  On the way to the register, Lauren listed a few items in my closet that I could wear the shoes with after the wedding too.  "I'm concerned at how well you know my wardrobe," I said.  

"How many times have I gone through your closet and picked out outfits for you?" she asked pointedly.  

"Fair enough," I replied, laughing.  It was true.  

"It's a good thing you're marrying rich," she continued.  "Once you put expensive shoes on your feet, you'll never go back."  

"Lauren!" I exclaimed, embarrassed at her mentioning Brody's bank account in front of the associate who was ringing up the shoes for me. 

"It's true," the sales associate said with a shrug.  

"I can't take you anywhere," I muttered.  Lauren just laughed.  

After the shoes were paid for, we headed out to get dinner.  We were close to one of our favorite places so we went there and enjoyed dinner and a couple drinks before going our separate ways for the evening.  

I got home around 8:30 and Brody's car was there, but I didn't see him.  As I went upstairs, I heard the shower running.  I quickly slipped out of my clothes, leaving them in a pile on the bedroom floor, and went into the bathroom.  I slid back the shower curtain, and a surprised Brody spun around.  "Hi," I said, smiling as I stepped into the shower.  

"Hi," he murmured, returning my smile and reaching for me.  I moved into his embrace and tipped my head up to kiss him.  "Did you find shoes?" he asked, his lips moving against mine.

"Mmhmm," I replied, pushing my fingers into his hair.  

Brody shifted and slammed his elbow into the wall, knocking a container of body wash down.  "Damn it," he muttered.  "We need a better shower."  I stifled a giggle and took his arm, kissing down his biceps to his elbow.  He groaned as I sucked gently on his wet skin, then he gently took my chin between his fingers and tipped my head back up so he could kiss me.  His hands slipped down my back to my ass and he squeezed and pulled me closer to him.  

Eventually we made our way out of the shower to the bathroom vanity.  Brody lifted me onto it and I wrapped my legs around his back as he pushed into me.  We spent the rest of the evening in bed, shirking our adult responsibilities, just cuddling and talking about our days.  It was a nice change after arguing the night before.  

On Thursday, my last day of work for this blissfully short week, I surprised when Josh walked past my office muttering something rude-sounding under his breath.  He'd been out of work a lot lately, and when he'd been around he'd been polite but not overly friendly.  Curiosity got the best of me and I wandered down to his office.  "Everything okay?" I asked, leaning against the doorframe.

He snorted.  "What do you care?"

I blinked in surprise.  I shouldn't have been surprised, but he had been polite or friendly lately and I didn't expect the hostility.  "Never mind, then," I said, turning and heading back to my office.  He didn't follow, and I got back to work.  

I ended up staying a little late at work, then heading to the gym for a quick workout.  I figured I had until at least 7:30 before Brody was home to work on wedding stuff.  

I realized I was wrong when I pulled into the garage a little after 7 and saw his SUV already parked.  "Brody?" I called, as I came in through the garage.  

"Kitchen!" he yelled back.  I could see half the kitchen from the garage door.  I wandered in, smelling something delicious.  He was in the part of the kitchen I couldn't see from the door, opening a bottle of wine.  

"Are you making dinner?" I asked, eyeing the stove hungrily.  

"I am," he replied, grinning at me.  "I also went grocery shopping.  And picked up a bottle of your favorite white.  And got something to decorate the table." he motioned with his head towards the table, where a pretty late summer bouquet of flowers sat cheerfully in a vase.  

"What'd you do?" I teased him.  He laughed and looped an arm around my waist, kissing my forehead before releasing me and giving me a gentle push towards the stairs.  

"Nothing," he replied, smirking.  "That was the problem.  Go take a shower.  Dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes.  After we eat, we can do wedding stuff for as long as you want."  

I showered quickly and pulled on a pair of leggings and a comfy, fitted v-neck t-shirt.  When I came back downstairs, Brody handed me a glass of wine and turned down my offer to help.  So I sat at the table, admiring the flowers and enjoying my wine.  A few minutes later, Brody set a plate of pasta with chicken and veggies and some sort of garlicky, lemony sauce down in front of me.  "This looks amazing," I said, picking up my fork and twirling a little pasta onto it.  It tasted as good as it looked and went perfectly with the wine.  

We enjoyed our dinner leisurely, neither of us in a particular hurry to get to wedding planning.  As happy as I was with our decision to do a small wedding and get married soon, I wouldn't have minded a little more time.  But I reminded myself that it would be all done soon and then we could focus on evenings like this without having to choose music and do seating arrangements after.   

We spent about an hour and a half doing various wedding planning related things before I decided I'd had enough.  As promised after our argument the other night, Brody helped good-naturedly the entire time--though he looked relieved when I announced I was done for the night.  We got a lot done and I was happy with our progress, especially since it meant we could relax and not have to do much this weekend.

Later that night, when we were curled up together in bed, Brody said, "I promise I'll help you with anything else you need help with, as long as we pick a day that works for both of us to sit down and do it, like we did tonight.  How does that sound?"

"It's a deal," I replied.  "We're actually in pretty good shape, though.  We got a lot done tonight."

"We'd better be," Brody said with laugh, "Because the wedding is now in 3 weeks."

"Don't remind me," I groaned.

Brody nuzzled his face gently against my shoulder, then teasingly said, "Don't sound so excited about marrying me."

I laughed softly and wiggled out of his grasp, turning to face him.  "You know that's not what I meant.  I couldn't be happier to be marrying you."  I looked at him, barely able to make out the outline of his features in the dark room.  "But I'm still mildly terrified to do it in front of 50 people."

"There's still time to cancel it and get married on a remote island somewhere," Brody said.  His tone was only partly joking, and he gently brushed hair out of my face as he spoke.

I smiled, though he probably couldn't see it.  "My parents would kill me.  So would Lynn.  So would your sister."

"That's true," he agreed.  "Okay, so remote island wedding is out.  Maybe next time."

"Next time?" I asked, chuckling and shaking my head.

"It's never too soon to start planning for the future," he replied solemnly.

I snorted.  "I might kill you," I warned him.

"Then you'll definitely need to plan another wedding to someone else," he responded, laughing.  I hit him playfully in the arm and he grabbed my hand and tugged it to his lips, kissing the knuckles lightly.  I scooted closer to him and pressed my face against his chest, breathing in deeply and relaxing a little.   Brody wrapped his arms around me and stroked the back of my neck with his thumb and I relaxed further, melting against him.

"Don't think about the actual process of the wedding...just think that by this time next month, we'll be married.  And on a kickass honeymoon."  I perked up at that.  I had pushed the surprise honeymoon to the back of my mind.  "And no, I won't tell you yet," he followed up.  "Just think about how awesome it will be to be my wife."

I shook my head.  "You mean how awesome it will be for you to be my husband," I retorted.

"That too," he said, and I could almost hear him grinning.  "I love you, Liv."

"I love you too," I replied, shifting back to my other side into a more comfortable sleeping position.  Brody pushed himself up on one elbow and dropped a gentle kiss on my cheek.  "Goodnight," I said sleepily, fighting a yawn.

"Goodnight," Brody replied, kissing my shoulder before settling next to me.