Planning Forever After (Book 3, Lonstino & Greenwood Series)

Chapter 26 - Arcade

THOMAS

My heart races in my chest and I find it ridiculous that my body is reacting in this way. Marissa and I have gone on a couple of dates already, and yet, the anticipation almost kills me every time. Her company since the day Will got stabbed at a wedding has kept me together. In all these years, I never thought that any of us could be in danger at an event. So far, we've had to diffuse some drunken fights, but it never escalated to that level.

As always, I'm picking her up at her place, something I'm glad we agreed on since the first date, as I've been avoiding going by O'Brien's. I fear Papa O'Brien will do more to me than just chasing me with a broom. Marissa has reassured me he won't hurt me, but I'm not so sure, and I really don't want to find out. After parking my car, I ring the doorbell of her house. She opens the door and I finally calm down. After we kiss and hug, she closes the door behind me and returns to brush her hair. Her cat comes to greet me, and I lift him to caress his fur.

"Hey Almond, have you been taking good care of Marissa?" I ask him and he butts me softly on my jaw. "I'll take that as a yes. Well done, man," I take a few treats from my pocket and put them on the kitchen counter for him to enjoy.

"Still amazes me how well you two get along," Marissa hands me a lint roller to clean my shirt. "Even when my friends come around, he hides under the bed."

"I have five years of practice with the love of my life. We should introduce Rosita to Almond. I believe they would make a cute couple."

"Their latte babies will be beautiful. Maybe we can plan a wedding for them if they hit it off," she teases.

"Well... I'm planning a circus wedding, a wizards wedding, a super heroes wedding, among others. A cat wedding doesn't even sound far-fetched in comparison with everything we've been working on lately."

"You are joking about the wedding themes, right?" She grabs her purse and gives me a nod to sign that she's ready to leave. "All the cakes you've ordered lately had peculiar color schemes, but I picked nothing out of the ordinary."

"I'm not joking. We are trying to keep the wildest ideas controlled. Word has spread that we can make the whackiest of themes come true for a wedding without making it look ridiculous. I guess we did a good job with the one themed after the teen vampire novel and it just picked up from there. I'm glad Didier has got the back office so under control that he can help us brainstorm on these events. He has a natural talent for thinking outside the box, something that Abi and I lack at times. Next Saturday, we have the one with the Alice in Wonderland theme. Didier came up with most of the ideas and we encouraged him to manage this one on his own. Thirty guests should be manageable for him and he deserves all the credit."

"I saw that one in the planner and I'm glad it's a small order because I hate piping words with chocolate. I might even ask Luke to do it for me. He's more precise and I'm afraid that after a few, instead of them saying 'eat me', I'll write 'ate em'," she laughs at her own joke and I smile. "I'm glad you guys have an excellent assistant. Now that I have Luke, I don't know what I would do without him. Don't tell anyone, but I believe he would be a lot more successful having his own bakery. He's told me that his father owns a bakery at the fairgrounds in Lonstino and a candy store downtown. The entrepreneurial blood already runs in his veins."

"The best we can do is encourage them to practice their skills and follow their own path. When Abigail and I started, we were shitting bricks with the first events we worked on. It was other vendors, family and even the couples who kept giving us that support to be what we are now. I'm trying to do the same for Didier."

"You seem very fond of him."

"I am and now that he's dating Abigail, I can't be happier or feel more grateful. He's become an additional brother to us."