OK so I lied. This chapter wasn't released on Wednesday if you go by the clock but on my personal clock I'm still considering it Wednesday even if it is almost 1 in the morning. I did a real quick proofreading on this so if you see a lot of spelling errors or grammar errors my apologies but I've spent the last 6 hours typing this chapter and like I said it's 1 in the morning. Remember to review! I love them!
God, shopping is exhausting! That whole trip lasted like 8 hours and my feet feel like they're ready to fall off. I don't know how the hell we're going to go look at places for the wedding when we go out tomorrow. I guess I should count myself lucky because no matter how badly my body feels Colin's has to feel 10 times worse. When I saw him and Steph come back, I counted 32 bags between them. Rory's amount was more modest at 15. We did go to all 12 stores but she didn't average more than 1 bag per store except when we got to DKNY where she got 3.
We're all now congregating in Colin and Steph's room where I am stretched out on the couch and Colin and Finn are residing in the two recliners. Rory and Steph come back in from the bedroom after comparing notes on what they bought.
"So guys…did we learn a lesson today?" Rory asks.
"Yes." We all mumble.
"God you're horrible to shop with Steph." Colin groans. "Why the hell did you have to buy so many damn clothes?"
"Ask that again Colin and you won't be getting sex for the rest of this trip." She threatens.
The rest of us break out in quiet laughter. I glance at the clock. Wow! It's already 7:30. My feet hurt like hell but I must admit that the day seemed to go pretty fast. Thank God too.
"Do you guys want to get supper?" Colin asks.
"I don't think so." I shake my head. "I think we'll just go back to our room and order room service. Rory and I are spending tomorrow scouting wedding and reception locations." That is, if I can even walk.
"What are you three going to do?" Rory asks the other 3.
"I don't know yet." Steph answers.
"Well, for me, the night is still young." Finn informs us. "What I do tomorrow will be because of what I do tonight." He smirks. He reaches in his pocket and produces a wad of phone numbers.
"And which one of the 20 odd numbers that you got are you going to call?" Rory asks him.
"I'm thinking the first one I got."
"Really? Kelly?" I answer and I can tell everyone, including my fiancée, is surprised that I remember her name. "What?"
"You know the names of all the women he got numbers from?" Colin asks.
"No I remember the first 3 mainly because Rory felt the need to introduce us to them. She gave up after 3." I explain.
"Smart girl." Steph comments. "There's no way in hell you'd ever be able to keep them all straight."
"That's what I realized." Rory answers.
I sigh as I sit up. "OK come on Ace. You owe me a foot massage and a striptease." I stand up and start to pull her to the door.
"Hey I never agreed to the foot massage." Rory reminds me.
"See you guys later." I tell them.
"Bye guys." Rory tells them.
We hear various goodbyes as we head back to our room. We walk in the door and see all 15 bags sitting scattered in the living room. We could have had them dropped off by one of the bellmen but we just decided that we'd do it before we stopped in Colin and Steph's room.
"I don't remember the last time I bought so much stuff." She admits to me. "I don't think I ever have in a single trip."
"Is this your way of telling me that you're not going to be doing any shopping when we get to Palo Alto?"
Rory's giving me this look like I must be out of my mind crazy to suggest such a thing.
I start to laugh. "So that's a no?"
"Good God no."
I pretty much figured that one shopping trip would last her awhile. I pity Colin because I have no doubt that Steph will drag him out and do more shopping tomorrow. He looked like he was about ready to die from today.
"Are you hungry?" Rory asks, breaking me out of my trance.
"Yeah. Are you?" I plop down on the bed.
"I'm famished. What sounds good?" She takes a seat next to me, grabs my feet and puts them on her lap.
I stare at her curiously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm being a nice fiancée." She advises as she starts to give me the best foot massage I've ever had. "So what kind of food sounds good?"
I'm enjoying this foot massage to no end. "I'm thinking Chinese."
"Yeah, Chinese does sound excellent right about now. Why don't you get out your cell phone and order?"
I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and hit #9 on the speed dial. I still do have a few restaurants on my speed dial from when I lived in Manhattan. I order spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, fried rice and crab rangoon. I somehow think we'll be eating leftovers tomorrow.
"So how long?" She asks. She's still massaging my feet. I'm telling you; I got damn lucky with having Rory as my fiancée.
"Around half an hour." I tell her. She stops rubbing my feet then. I have to admit; my feet are feeling 10 times better. "Thank you, Ace." I move my feet off of her lap and then lean over and kiss her. "I appreciate it."
"You're welcome." She kicks her shoes off and props her feet onto my lap. "My turn." She declares.
"Seriously?" I'm terrible at giving foot massages and she knows it. There's only been one time that I've given her one and I think she was in more pain afterward than when I started.
Rory smirks. "No, I'm kidding." She put her feet on the floor. "No, actually what I'm going to go do is soak in the bathtub." She stands up and heads into the bathroom. I hear the water start to run and she comes back into the bedroom to get her pajamas I'm assuming.
"I hope you're planning on wearing one of those nightgowns I bought you at La Perla." I grin at her and she smirks back at me. Let me tell you, Finn had a field day in La Perla. We literally had to push him out of the store. That was the place that he got the most amount of phone numbers from what he tells me. He claims that at least one of them was an assistant manager's. I haven't told Rory this just yet but last night after I put her to bed and Finn had went back to his room, Colin and I made a bet as to when Finn would finally settle down with someone. I said within the next year but Colin thinks it's going to be longer than that. Now, after hearing the conversation from this afternoon, I'm thinking that Colin may be right. I hope he's not though. "You still owe me a dance."
"You're really not going to forget that, are you Huntzberger?" She sighs but I see her carrying a burgundy nightgown into the bathroom with her. It's one I bought her. It's actually one of a few I bought her. It still amazes me just how timid she is when she's in lingerie even though she knows that it's only me that sees her in it. I must admit that I had some fun picking out what she should try on. Granted we only bought a fraction of what she tried on but, to me, getting her to agree to buy even 1 piece was a victory.
"Not on your life, Ace." I answer. "Why did you suggest it if you're not planning on following through on it?"
"To get Finn off the subject." She answers and then adds. "I told you I would do it though and I never go back on my word. You know that." She peeks her head out of the bathroom. "Let me know when the food gets here." She then closes the door.
I flip the TV on. There's virtually nothing on. I settle for Sportscenter for the time being. If I wasn't waiting for the food, I'd honestly consider joining Rory in the bathtub. It's been awhile since we've taken a bath together. It's a rarity but I do enjoy it when we do.
Twenty minutes later, there's a knock on the door and I spring up from the bed to answer it. I grab my wallet from my back pocket and look in the peephole before I open the door. Yep, it's the delivery guy. After I pay for the food and tip the guy, I close the door and set the food on the breakfast bar. I wander into the bedroom and knock on the bathroom door. I stick my head in.
"Hey, food's here." I tell her.
"OK." She nods. "I'll be out in a minute."
"What do you want to drink?"
"Coke is fine."
"OK." I nod and close the door. I start setting all of the cartons out when Rory makes her entrance. She's wearing that burgundy nightgown and she's thrown her hair up into a twist. She looks like she's completely relaxed.
"So how do you feel?" I ask as I grab a Coke from the fridge for her.
"Rejuvenated." She admits with a smile.
"Good. I'm glad." I tell her as I set the Coke down in front of her and give her a paper plate. "What time do you want to leave tomorrow?"
She's thinking as I head back to the bar and grab my scotch. I take a seat next to her at the table. "I'm not sure. How about 10ish? I don't want to go too early."
"That'll be good." I grab a paper plate for myself.
Rory's looking over all the food and groans. "Good God, Logan. Why did you order so much?"
"Yeah I know. I realized that after I ordered. We'll just have leftovers tomorrow." I tell her as I grab some of the kung pao chicken. "What areas are you thinking of looking at?"
"City wise?"
I nod.
"I was thinking we'd probably stick to Manhattan or Brooklyn. I don't want to go any further than that. Where do you think we should have the guests stay?"
"I'm liking here personally."
"I am too. I think the Plaza is a beautiful hotel. We should talk to the hotel manager about this before we leave for California." She says as she has some of the sweet and sour pork.
"OK. We'll make a note of that."
"Very good food." She grins. "I'm seriously going to miss New York food."
"I told you to quit doing that. It's not as if we're not going to be back here often. The Chinese food in California isn't bad." I reveal as I drink my scotch.
"No, you're right. I'm sure California has excellent food."
"Just keep your mind open, OK?"
She nods. "I will. I promise."
We spend the rest of the meal eating in a comfortable silence. As expected we still have a fair amount of food left over. I am half tempted to offer it to the other 3 but I don't. Mainly because I now have a distraction in front of me…and she's now showing me just how pretty those long legs of hers are. When given enough coaxing…or enough alcohol Rory can do a hell of a striptease. What's surprising is that it didn't take either one to get her to do it this time. She does an amazing job and I greatly reward her after.
We go to bed around 11:30 and get up at just after 8 o'clock. Rory wants to leave at 10 and I know she would greatly appreciate us sticking to the schedule for once. We almost never do and we're always running late. A lot of the time it's because of me but every once in awhile it is because of her. I know she has a lot of ground she wants to cover today. I get done taking my shower and change. When I come out, Rory's sitting at the breakfast bar typing at a ridiculous speed and jotting down notes on a notepad. I creep closer and she's researching churches and reception halls. There's 5 churches she has down that she wants to see but right now I'm only seeing one place mentioned for the reception.
"Is your heart that set on the Grand Prospect Hall?" I ask her as I lean over her shoulder and glance between the notepad and her laptop.
"I'm trying to find more places but I have very high expectations when it comes to places for the reception."
"Like what?"
"Like, first of all, it needs to be within 15 minutes of the church. It also needs to a huge ballroom so it can accommodate at least 300 people. And finally it's got to be beautiful."
"Oh, well that should be easy enough to find." I tease her and she frowns.
"Do not mock me Huntzberger. This is our wedding. I want it to be perfect."
"It will be Ace." I wrap my arms around her waist. "It's getting late. Aren't you going to go take a shower?"
"Ooo…Chelsea Piers. That would be really pretty." I see her write that on her list.
"Rory…"
"I heard you, Logan. I'm going. I see it's 9:15. I'm just running behind." She sets her notepad down beside her laptop and sprints into the bathroom. I hear the water start to run so I take a seat on the barstool and decide to research more places for us to visit for the reception. It's definitely not easy to meet Rory's criteria. I did find one though. I think she'll really like it. The Gotham Hall looks really amazing from what I can tell with the pictures that the website shows.
Rory comes back out wearing one of the dresses that she tried on yesterday. I glance at the time. It's quarter to 10.
"What are you doing?" She asks as she sits on the barstool next to me.
"I was looking for more places that we could hold the reception." I explain as I finish writing down the Gotham Hall's address on her notepad.
"Did you find any?"
"Yeah, I found one." I review her list. "So it looks like we have 5 churches and 4 places for reception to visit then."
"Looks like it."
"You know what would be really shocking?"
"What's that?"
"If instead of leaving on time or leaving late if we actually left early once." I grin at her.
"This will go down in the record books for us." She grins back as she grabs her purse from the couch.
We leave the hotel just before 10 and the first church we go to the Central Presbyterian Church. It's the closest one to the hotel so we just walk there and it takes about 7 or 8 minutes. It looks huge from the outside. We spend about 15 minutes meeting with the minister as we get taken on a tour of the church. As soon as we leave, I see Rory making notes on her notepad.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"Just making notes of what I thought of the place." She explains.
"Care to share them with me?"
"I will; once we get back to the room."
The next one we see if the All Souls Church. It's a pretty historic one…it's been open since 1819. It is big too. It's a good thing considering there will probably be at least 250 people coming just from my side for this wedding. The way it sounds though Rory's not going to be too far behind with her invite list.
Grace Church is next on her list and I must admit this one is probably my favorite so far. It looks amazing from the outside. After we get the tour inside, I'm sold. This is where I want the wedding to be held and I tell that to Rory as soon as we get back outside.
"I still have like 2 more places that I wanted to look at."
"We still can but you know where my vote is going on this."
"I know. I really really want to see the next place though."
"Which one is it?"
"It's Saint Paul's Chapel. It's like straight down the road a couple miles."
We decide it's now time to start taking a cab where we're going. Especially since if we're going to go visit Chelsea Piers later.
We arrive outside Saint Paul's Chapel ten minutes later. Ten minutes. It took ten minutes to go two miles. There's terrible traffic right now. I stare at Rory who's staring at the building in awe. I'm having a hard time telling if she's still breathing.
"Ace…you ok?" I put my hand on the back of her neck and start to rub it.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you know the story behind this chapel?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's the only church that is near ground zero that escaped having any physical damage done to it. There were buildings right across the street from the World Trade Center that collapsed."
"That's incredible." I admit as we walk inside. I keep watching Rory as we tour and I can tell she's sold on this place. I can't deny that I like the chapel but I really like the Grace church more.
We come out about 15 minutes later after meeting with the minister and she declares to me that she wants to get married here. Now we have an issue. I look at my watch and see that it's around 12:30. We decide to grab lunch and review. We conclude that there's no need to see the last place she wanted to go to see since we know which churches we like. This should be interesting how we decide, though. We try to reach this amicably however it's tending to get a little hard. Rory's so sold on the chapel.
"Come on, Logan." She tries to coax me. "Don't you want to get married in someplace historical?"
"Are you saying that the Grace church doesn't have that?"
"It doesn't have the history that the chapel does, no. It was built over 240 years ago and the fact that it withstood the destruction known as 9/11 means something."
I sigh. OK so she's winning this. It would be amazing to get married there. "How about we take a look at reception halls then decide?" I try to compromise.
"OK." She nods. "That's fair. We're not done so this conversation is still premature."
"Right."
We grab a quick lunch then head to Chelsea Piers. We take a look at the Lighthouse and also Pier 60. Both are nice but I don't think either of us are completely sold just yet. We take a cab from there to the Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn. It is a very beautiful place. I can see why Rory likes it. It's got the huge ballroom to fit everyone in and it is just a short distance from Manhattan. We ride back to Manhattan to take a look at the last place which is the Gotham Hall. As soon as we enter the main ballroom, I see the same reaction on Rory's face as I did when we were at the chapel. I think I have her sold on this place.
"I love it." She murmurs and glances over at me. "What do you think?"
"I think it's amazing." I smile as I give her a quick kiss. We walk around the room taking in the huge chandelier in the middle of the room and the large columns that are scattered throughout. It takes me about half an hour before I can pry Rory away. I honestly think she fell in love with the place.
By the time we get back to our room it's almost 5. All in all we have had a very productive day. We crash on the couch and Rory puts her legs across my lap.
"OK so about how we compromise?" She suggests.
"OK. Let's hear it."
"How about we have the wedding at Saint Paul's Chapel and the reception at the Gotham Hall?"
I think for a moment. I can live with that. I would have really liked that to have had the wedding in the Grace Church but as long as we have the reception at the Gotham Hall I'll be happy. I really did like the Gotham Hall as much as Rory did. It's enormous and has lots of character to it…kind of like us.
"Yeah. OK. That sounds good."
Her eyes light up. I think she thought I would say no because we're not using the Grace Church. "Really?"
"Yeah. I think it's great. And you're right. It would be amazing to get married in the chapel too. It does have an impressive history."
She smiles. "Thank you, Logan."
"You're welcome Ace." I lean over and give her a quick kiss.
"You just wait and see. Our wedding is going to spectacular." She declares.
"I have absolutely no doubt about that at all, Ace." I grin as I kiss her again.
OK so there's chapter 10. A few notes about this. I have read different information about whether or not St. Paul's Chapel is actually open and having services. I've read that they are and then one of the reviewers told me that she didn't think they were. For the sake of the story they are. Also I literally did research and took a look at the websites on all of these churches and of the reception places. I really did fall in love with the Gotham Hall. It's so pretty. Anyway, remember to review. I'm still going to try my hardest to get Chapter 11 out by next Wednesday. Oh, also I'm taking opinions of what Rory and Logan's Wedding Song should be. I already have it written as one thing but depending on what people come up with I might change it. Let me know what you think would be a good wedding song for them to have.