Thorne looked up from the countless pieces of papers and notes across his couch table when the doorbell rang.
He gave Boots a questioning look. "You expecting someone?"
The kitten only meowed and snuggled itself deeper into the cushion.
Thorne made his way to the door and checked the spyhole. He could only spot a big, blonde bun of messy curls and grinned. Opening the door, he wasn't surprised to find Cress even though the spyhole had been too high up to spot the short woman in full. "Good evening. Long-time no see," he said with a grin but not without some reproach.
They had hardly seen each other in the last three days, as they had divided the tasks evenly between them. Thorne had been surprised when noticed that he missed her. Cress had been a constant presence in the last few weeks and one he had come to cherish.
"I know." Cress smiled, before holding up a bottle of wine. "I come bearing gifts."
"I love gifts." He opened the door a bit wider to let her in. There was a faint scent of berries as she passed him to take off her shoes. "Especially the ones that you only get if you're over the age of twenty-one."
"Oh, hello!" Cress started to coo as Boots approached her, the kitten curious to know who had disturbed its early evening nap. Patting the head and scratching it affectionately behind its ears, Cress babbled a lot of cute nonsense before pulling out something from her bag. "Look how big you've gotten. Such a big kitty you are! And look, I've got a present for you too. Yes, I do. See, baby kitten snackies for beautiful baby kittens like you," she angled a little bag of cat snacks as if the kitten could read its content and give its approval. She still seemed pleased when the kitten meowed agreeably.
"Aw, and here I thought you came to see me," Thorne said with a pout. "Lonely as I am."
Cress nudged his shoulders. "Oh, poor you. I'm sure you were miserable."
"I was!" He cried, only half-lying.
Cress ignored him and held up the little tin foil with cat snacks. "Is that okay? The girl at the store recommended it because that's what she buys for her cat."
"It's perfect. Boots will love you forever." Thorne usually tried not to spoil his kitten with too many snacks but an exception wouldn't hurt. The way Boots followed Cress into the living room, weaving between her legs making Cress giggle, Thorne knew he made the right decision. He proceeded into the kitchen, looking for a bottle opener. "How was your day?"
"Good. Cinder came by and together we counted the presents for the gifts," she told him, as she sat herself cross-legged down the floor with Boots immediately climbing all over her lap.
"Cinder helped with wedding stuff? That's new."
Cress opened the tin foil which was easier said than done with the kitten tapping her hand with its little paws and tail whipping in excitement. "That's what I-Boots, I can't open it faster, no matter how loud you meow at me- that's what I thought, but it was just counting and folding everything. We actually finished everything pretty fast and Cinder was really happy with the presents we picked. Everything is ready to go-no, Boots, my thumb is not the snack-on the big day."
"Awesome," he said absent-mindedly, checking the drawers under the counter for the bottle opener. He had seen it just the other day. "What did she think about the cookies?"
"She was so happy when she realized you asked Scarlet to make them. They're really good, by the way."
He glanced at her, as she fed Boots a mouse-shaped snack. "Ah, so you tried them."
She glanced at him with a shy smile. "A few were broken. It would have been a shame to throw them away."
Thorne finally found the bottle opener and removed the cork from the bottle. "True. That's why I asked Scarlet to bake a few extra ... and sneaked them for myself."
"You serious?" Thorne raised an eyebrow at her. "Of course you are." she said with a smile. "I can't blame you, they're delicious. Do you think I can ask her for the recipe because-" she trailed off when she looked over his couch table, her eyes squinting.
Uh-oh. He quickly poured two glasses. "Ah, yes. Sure. Scarlet is not secretive when it comes to recipes. She probably knows none of us really is going-"
"Thorne."
"Yes?"
"Are those the seating arrangements?"
He pretended to look over to the couch table Cress was pointing at. "You mean on the table? I mean, I have lots of wedding arrangements at the moment-
She gave him a deadpan look. "Are those the unfinished seating arrangements for Kai and Cinder's wedding? The ones you told me you finished two days ago?"
He gave her his best smile, holding up two glasses. "Wine?"
"Thorne!" She cried and Boots joined in with a dismayed meow.
"It's not my fault." He moved over to where she was sitting, setting down the glasses before helping her up. "Really, it's not. Blame Kai."
Cress sighed but didn't sound surprised as she settled down on the couch next to him. "More guests he forgot on his guest list?"
Sometimes he forgot that Cress wasn't just an excellent wedding planner but a childhood friend of Kai's. She knew him longer than any of them did. "Yeah. I mean once I remind him, he was shocked he forgot to mention them."
Taking a sip from her wine, Cress eyed the seating arrangement chart. "I was surprised when he didn't put his dad's housekeeper on the list. She took care of him when his mom-" She took a sip. "I just mean, Nainsi was always important to the family. I just think it was too many names and he was too busy to double-check."
Thorne sat next to her. "I know. But it's all taken care of. Don't worry, Nainsi won't hear about it and Kai gave her the invitation personally."
She smiled at him and he was surprised that her cheeks were tainted a faint red. "Good."
They turned around startled when Boots gave a loud meow as she jumped on the package of the snacks as if she were expecting more to come out. The kitten wrestled with the tin bag, crying in dismay when it stayed empty.
They laughed at the kitten's antics. "If that goes on the whole night, you better be prepared to take Boots with you tonight," Thorne admonished her.
Cress clapped her hands in delight. "Ooh, I would so love to." She swooped up the kitten onto her lap, showering it with affection. "Do you want to come with me? Should we have a little sleepover? Oh, I'll buy a pyjama with little kittens just like you all over it. And then we'll have a kitten pyjama party, what do you think? Doesn't that sound like fun?"
Thorne wasn't sure if he should be charmed or weirded out by her babbling. "You've never met Winter, right? If you go for some weirdly-themed pyjama party, you should invite her. She loves everything crazy." He didn't have many chances to meet the beautiful friend of Cinder's but when Thorne wasn't too taken aback by her flawless appearance, he usually had trouble following whatever it was she was saying in her sing-song voice. Only her boyfriend Jacin seemed able to make sense of it. But she was kind and friends with Cinder so that was enough in Thorne's opinion to like her.
Even though she was almost a bit too beautiful and always brought those strange sour apple petits he only pretended to eat.
She whipped around to face him, eyes intense. "Don't try to distract me. You told me you already finished the seating arrangements."
He held up his hands. "I know, Cress and I'm sor-"
She shook her head. "Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped you if there was a problem. Why lie?"
Thorne gulped when she looked at him with those beautiful blue eyes. There was no accusation in them, no anger. Just a hint of disappointment as if he had purposefully left her out. "Cress, I didn't want to lie. But you took on so much and since you wanted to divide the tasks between us ... I thought it was your way of saying that ... I don't know, this was enough work for you without me piling on more." He wanted to reach over and take her hand in a comforting gesture. But there was a reasonable part of his brain that reminded him that she was engaged. There was a less reasonable and infinitely less honorable part that whispered that she wasn't. Not yet.
He shook his head and nudged her playfully instead. "You know, I would be lost without you. So if you would like to help me out, I would be eternally grateful." Thorne accompanied his words with an exaggerated begging gesture which made her giggle.
"Of course. You know I'm happy to help."
"I know. But as I told you, you should also relax and enjoy your time here and not just think of work."
Cress picked up her wine glass. "I think I can do both. Work for me is relaxing and fun." As if to prove her point, she took a big gulp.
Thorne laughed. "That is something we do have to tackle at some point but for now I'm glad." He picked up his own wine glass and clinked it against hers. "To a relaxing evening full of fun then."
As he sipped on his wine, surprised by how heavy it was, Cress eyed the table with the notes and paper snippets strewn over it. "You know, I can't believe you're still using paper notes." She giggled. "You cut out the tables and all those little notes with the guests' names on it. It looks like a boardgame! It's cute-"
"Cute?!"
"-but messy and doesn't it take more time? I use a program for that which works pretty well. You can quickly change things and visualize everything, zoom in, delete stuff. It's more comfortable."
Thorne shrugged. "I guess. I know those programs but somehow I visualize things better when I can actually touch them." He waggled his eyebrows at her, even though he hadn't meant it to be an innuendo but she was engrossed in the notes. "I pick up a name, switch it around until it fits and that way I can also memorize the name of the guest."
"I guess I can see that. When I first started in a small wedding and event planning company, that's how we did it as well. With notes and whiteboards. For me, I feel better about it when I do it virtually." Thoughtfully, she took another sip and Thorne was slightly alarmed to see it was already half empty. "But as I said, it's like a boardgame. Now we just have to win it." She gave him a brilliant smile.
"A game, eh? The Great Wedding Planner's Game? Fun for the whole family ... except for children and divorcees."
Cress giggled but not without slapping his shoulder lightly in mock indignation. "I would buy it."
He tapped her nose. "Of course you would." He did like the idea of a game though. He had always been a gambler at heart. "So, how do we play it?"
Maybe she had only been joking about the game idea but he could tell she was getting excited about it. "Maybe ... we divide the guests and tables between us and try to seat them and who does it better wins?"
"We still need to plan a real wedding though. We shouldn't compete by only using half of our options."
"Right." Her fingernail clinked against the glass, making Boots' ear twitch next to her. "Okay, then, we each get a table and whoever does the arrangements first and correctly, wins that round. And so on, until they're all done. Oh, and if we need to change a table we already finished, we lose a point."
It wasn't the most thought-out game, but it sounded way more fun than how he usually went about it. "What is the prize?"
Cress looked around his apartment - she better not present him with something he already owned - before giving him a mischievous grin. It was a rare look from her and he licked his lips unconsciously. He knew he would agree to anything she said right now. She could hand him his own toothbrush with that look and he would be happy. "For every finished table, the winner gets a shot." She pointed to the shelf in his kitchen where his liquor bottles were stored.
"Ah, a girl after my own heart." He stood up and made his way towards his kitchen while Cress proceeded to arrange the guests' names and tables. "Any wishes, milady?"
She was already engrossed in the table set-up. "Something that doesn't burn away half my throat would be nice."
That certainly limited his choices, but he just grabbed a few bottles, as well as some juice from the fridge and two shot glasses and went back to the couch. She could pick and mix whatever she liked that way.
Cress had already laid out the tables in front of them like they had previously discussed in an U-shaped form that left the space in the middle free for dancing and placed the table for the Cinder and Kai and their group of friends at the top. She held two names in her hands with a thoughtful expression. "I didn't know Cinder's stepfamily would be there."
He didn't need to see whose names she was holding. While Thorne had advised her against it, he hadn't judged Cinder for inviting them. That's just how she was, but he had hoped the two women who had made her life hell had the tact to stay away from the wedding. Adri and Pearl Linh were the main reason he struggled so much with the seating arrangement.
He couldn't help the small frown. "It was on short notice." They had replied after the date, after every other table had been already done.
Cress nodded. "Does Cinder know?"
"Yeah." He hadn't been able to tell how Cinder had felt about it. It had been a mistake to invite them in the first place, even Kai had agreed but now it was too late. "So, let's find them a nice spot." He snatched the papers from her fingers and threw them to the floor. "The pits of hell will do nicely, don't you think?"
If Thorne had liked her mischievous grin, it was nothing to the soft smile she gave him now. He couldn't really tell what she feeling -gratefulness? pride? something else? - but it warmed him more than any shot ever could.
"Let's keep them as jokers. Whoever manages to place them on a table, wins."
"I like that. The winner gets ... a nice dinner of their choice." He gave a clap with his hands. "Okay, first round."
A/N: I ... kinda forgot that I had another chapter written and betaread by the amazing kiminicricket. I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear what you think about it. :)