Abby thought that she would meet the families at the wedding but when she and Lydia drove over to the studio to bring in the wine and the champagne, she saw a man and a woman hanging around the building.
"Crap." Lydia made when she spotted them. "That's Derek's parents."
"What do they want here?" Abby wondered. The man was trying the door but it was locked. Derek had given out keys to his friends because everybody was coming and going with the things they got ready for the wedding like Lydia and Abby right now with the trunk full of crates of wine, but for sure his parents didn't have a key.
"Let's see what they want," Lydia decided and opened the door of the car but Abby held her back.
"Shouldn't we wait until they leave? They might want to come in." Because obviously, that was what they were currently trying to do here. Since the door was locked, the woman, Derek's mother, was now peering through a window. She wouldn't be able to see much from there, that window only led into the front hall with the mailboxes and the stairs to the units above Derek's studio.
"Someone might let them in," Lydia pointed out. "And Boyd should be in there, he wanted to work on the lights."
So the door to the studio was most likely not locked. If somebody buzzed them in, Derek's parents could just wander around.
Abby didn't like it but Lydia had a point there.
"The party is in two days." Lydia approached the couple. "You're too early."
Talia, who had still been trying to peek into the building, swirled around when Lydia spoke up behind her.
"You might not remember me, we met at the gallery. I'm Lydia, a friend of Stiles and Derek," Lydia introduced herself which seemed to ring a bell at least for Derek's father. Talia was still looking at her in confusion. "And this is my girlfriend Abby."
They were just testing out that term, it still made Abby giddily all over, but the way Talia was looking at them now sobered her up instantly.
"We wanted to have a look at Derek's studio," the man said with a lame gesture at the closed door. "We heard that one of his friends should be here but nobody opens."
"Or was he talking about you?" Talia narrowed her eyes on them. They had left the crates in the trunk for now so it was not obvious that they were here on an errand.
"Why don't you ask Derek to give you a tour?" Lydia asked in her sweetest tone.
Talia tried to kill her with a glare but Lydia just kept smiling at her.
"He's busy with all the preparations," the dad spoke up. "We were just curious. We had his sister's wedding in our summer house back in Beacon Hills and we wanted to see if this is going to be such as lovely." He tried to defuse the situation, Abby got that, but one look at his wife's face told her that bringing up the other wedding was not a good idea.
"He didn't even invite Cora," Talia muttered but she quickly composed herself and tried for a smile. "Mind if we come in with you? We just want to have a quick look around."
"Sorry, but we can't just do that." Lydia shook her head. "You really should ask Derek."
"He said it's okay," Talia hurried to say.
Abby highly doubted that.
"I'm not sure." Lydia played dumb. "You sure it's okay?"
"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"
"You think it's okay?" Lydia turned to Abby who had been happy with staying out of this but now the attention was on her.
"I don't know," Abby said in an uncertain tone, playing along. There was no way that they were letting them into the building. "Maybe we should ask Derek?"
"That's an excellent idea." Lydia lit up with that and got her phone out.
"You know what?" Talia looked close to snatching the phone out of her hand. "Don't bother." With that, she turned on her heel and marched away. After a second her husband followed her.
"I expected more of an argument," Lydia said with a shrug. They waited until Derek's parents had left before they got the crates of wine.
They did find Boyd in the studio where he was fixing a light.
"You didn't let in Derek's parents," Lydia scolded him on her way to the office in the back where they would store the drinks for now.
"Derek expected something like that and told me to not open the door for anybody." Boyd didn't even bother with looking at them. "He isn't expecting any deliveries today and everybody else has a key." He had a satisfied look at his work before he came down the ladder. "Besides, there are people I really don't want to meet."
Abby was only listening with half an ear, the pictures had caught her eye.
There were seven of them. They were huge but Abby didn't have the feeling that they were looming over her.
"These are beautiful." Abby was almost choking with emotions from just looking at them.
"Derek has to adjust the lights but yeah …" Boyd trailed off with a look around. He'd seen them before, he'd just worked here for quite a while to get the lights up, and he still seemed to be overwhelmed by them.
"He's good, really good." Lydia joined them.
The centerpiece was a picture of Derek kneeling with his head in Stiles' lap. It felt so private, so intimate, Abby felt like she shouldn't even be looking at it but at the same time, she couldn't look away. And the others weren't less emotional.
Derek sitting with his back against the side of Stiles' chair. That one should be just a simple picture but the way Stiles' arm was hanging loosely at the side, his fingertips barely brushing over Derek's chest, it gave the photo just the right little extra.
Every pose was different but every photo screamed out to the world how much these two loved each other.
"He should make a living with his photography," Boyd responded to Lydia's comment which got him an elbow to the ribs.
"Everything ready here?" Lydia turned away from the photos to inspect the studio. The tables took up one corner of the room, leaving enough space for the DJ to set up his equipment at the other end and even a dance floor in between.
Abby had heard Stiles say that he intended to dance the whole night. She had no idea how that would work but she did not doubt that he would do exactly that. There had been determination in his voice as if it was something he just had to do. For whatever reason.
"I'm going to pick up the flowers right that morning," Abby answered the ready question. "But otherwise ..." She had a look around. "I think we're all set."
Even the cards were already on the tables. Curious she had a closer look. For a wedding, they weren't that many people but they had split them into three tables. Abby found her name next to Lydia's on one side and Haley's on the other.
They would share the table with Boyd and Erica and two guys named Scott and Isaac which was fine with her. She didn't know them but she knew that they were friends of Stiles', Stiles was priding himself on getting them together. Abby had kind of feared that she would have to sit next to somebody from Derek's or Stiles' family. Small talk with strangers was not her thing.
The main table was for Stiles and Derek with their parents and the rest of their family would take the third table. What caught her eye were the little drawings on the cards. They were in the same style as the invitations with a little picture under the name. And just like with the invitations, there was an individual drawing for each card.
"It's going to be a lovely party." Lydia sneaked a hand in hers.
"Let's hope." Abby held on to her hand.
Abby didn't see Stiles or Derek the next two days, they were too busy with having both their families around. However, Stiles did keep them informed via group chat. Mainly to keep himself sane and to not strangle Derek's mother, Abby guessed.
He shared pictures of a cute little girl and a serious-looking boy, Derek's niece and nephew, most of the time Jack was in the picture as well. And there was one of two men kissing which was titled "never guessed I'd live long enough to ever see this". Scott and Isaac, Abby assumed.
And Stiles was venting about Derek's mom.
Derek was in the group chat as well so he saw what Stiles was sharing with the rest of them but he only occasionally tried to defend his mom. Most of the time he didn't say anything. As far as Abby knew they kept the contact with Talia to a minimum but Derek wanted to see his sister and the kids and Talia more often than not found a reason to tag along.
Nobody from the families did see the studio beforehand, though. Derek would have kept it a secret from his friends as well but with all of them helping, it was impossible. Abby was kind of looking forward to seeing their reaction to the pictures. And she knew she was not the only one.
On the morning of the wedding, Abby headed out early to get the flowers. She still had to set them up and then come back to get ready for the party herself but she declined Lydia's offer to come along. She only had to decorate three tables, it should just take a few minutes to carry the arrangements in and set them up.
Abby was more worried that the flowers wouldn't ready or not the right color. And what if they didn't look fresh?
She arrived at the flower shop with all the worst-case scenarios swirling in her head. Everything else was ready. If anything was going to go wrong it had to be the flowers.
But she didn't have to wait long, the arrangements looked just lovely, they had exactly the shade of violet she had wanted and the clerk helped her, getting everything into her car. She even managed to not destroy them on her way over to the studio.
Abby brought them in two at a time, she didn't want to drop one just to spare herself the walking, and set them down on the tables. She pushed the arrangements around a bit until she was satisfied and then with one last look around to make sure that everything was ready for the party later, Abby locked up and walked back out to her car.
"Those flowers are pretty." Suddenly Rick was standing on the other side of the car.
Abby stopped dead in her tracks. This was not happening. Rick was not standing right there. But he was. He was standing right there with not a care in the world.
"Something to celebrate?" He asked. "Those looked like they were for a wedding."
"I'm calling the police." Abby wanted to reach for her phone but then she realized that she'd left her purse in the car. With her phone and the pepper spray.
"You like to do that, don't you?" Rick's voice had a sharp edge now. "Calling the police on me. But it's you they should arrest. You're the one who stole everything from me."
"It was never your money," Abby shot back. Why was nobody else out here? There wasn't even a car coming down the street.
"And now what?" Rick gestured at the building. "You're going to marry your new lover? You've already forgotten my brother?"
Abby didn't bother to correct him.
"I told Marvin that he shouldn't marry a slut like you but did he listen? No. He even made a kid with you. Is that kid even his?" Rick was coming around the car. "How many guys did you fuck while Marv was rising your little brat? Hm?"
Abby took a step back but Rick followed her.
"You didn't waste time, did you?" He tilted his head with a cold smile. "My brother isn't even dead a year and you're marrying the next guy."
"Leave me alone." Abby took another step back.
"I don't think so." Rick closed the gap between them. "First you stole my brother, then you stole my money. And now you stole my wife as well. She wants a divorce, you know? And that's all your fault."
Abby felt his breath on her cheek.
