Irene was running around the apartment she and Michael shared, giggling like a child as he attempted to catch her. She tried to defend herself from the threat of being tickled, with a pillow. She was of course overcome. He was by no means small or weak.
He picked her up and threw her unto the bed and began to tickle her until she screamed for mercy. If his friends ever saw him like this their jaws might drop in shock. No one else shared this part of him.
He had decided to leave his work in the office where it belonged for the weekend, in order to spend more time with his fiancée. He had seen neither hide nor hair of Nick since he'd told him to leave, once again leaving him with a lot of work he'd decided to forget until Monday.
When they'd finally run out of energy breathing heavily as they lay together side by side on their large bed, Michael asked: "So have you and Serena come up with a good date for the wedding yet?"
"No not yet. We haven't really spoken much about it. I don't think she's really ready yet. "
"I'm not quite sure I can be as patient as Darien. I want to get this out of the way as soon as possible. Like say, this weekend?"
"You have to be kidding!" Serena would have my head on a platter. She'd moon blast me into outer space."
"Oh come on. She can't stay mad forever. Once it's over there won't
be anything she can do about it. Besides, I'm not very into his double
wedding idea."
She sat up and glared at him. "Don't you think you could have said
something to me before I suggested the idea to her? Now, if we back out
she's going to be upset."
"Oh come on sweetheart," Mike began in his most pathetic pleading voice, "she'll forgive you. Marry me, today."
"I can't believe this," she muttered. "Worst yet, I can't believe I want to do this."
"You won't regret this!" Michael almost yelled, grabbing her face in
his hands planting a big kiss on her forehead. He jumped off the bed and
ran to the closet.
"I already do," she muttered. "I can just see Serena's face when I
tell her we're eloping. My parents won't be happy either."
"Irene," Michael said exasperatedly, "the whole concept behind eloping
is not to tell anyone until after the wedding. He looked down at her from
his position on the bed before sighing and picking her up. I can't wait
another moment. Get dressed already!"
Mina sat down to the wonderful breakfast Andrew had prepared for them both. She took a bite and realized it tasted as wonderful as it smelled. "It's a good thing you can cook because I've been living off Ramen and Cheesy Mac. We all used to tease Serena about her cooking abilities but I never realized how little I knew about cooking until I had to live on my own."
"Well considering how much Serena's changed I'm sure there's hope for you yet." He grinned at her, the type of wide faced, sparkling grin that made her stomach feel like Jell-O.
"Have you decided on what it is you have to tell me just yet?"
She had thought he had forgotten about her earlier hysterics. Obviously
she'd been wrong. It was just as well however, she was prepared to tell
him everything.
"I've been wondering if and when I'd actually have to tell you about
this since the first day you came here with Rita. I love you very much,
and I want you to know everything about me. I don't think there should
be any secrets between us.
"And what could this big secret you have be?" Andrew asked, intrigued
and humored at the possibility of Mina keeping a secret.
"Well you see, I'm a Sailor Venus of the Sailor Scouts and I protect
Princess Serenity of the Moon and the planet." She waited a bit for his
reaction, watching him go from bug-eyed to skeptical.
"What!"
"I'm not insane Andrew, " she said seeing his shocked, confused and
completely disbelieving expression. "When I say princess I mean Serena."
He looked even more confused. "Ok maybe I'm going about this all wrong.
You see, a thousand years ago…
Nick and Lita were standing in line somewhat impatiently.
"You know this was definitely not what I had in mind when I thought of my wedding." She glared at the dreary white walls of the City Hall.
"I know, but think of the honeymoon," Nick whispered in her air, his arms wrapped around her waist.
"There's a honeymoon?" She questioned in mock surprise.
"Of course there's a honeymoon! I'm not sure where to just yet, but I'm sure we can arrange something."
"But what about our jobs? I haven't even told my boss about this yet. I can't just take off! Maybe we should have thought this through."
"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," Nick said but couldn't help sounding a little disappointed.
"Are you kidding? We're getting married today, no question about it! I just need to come up with an excuse for running out on my job."
"I think getting married is an excuse within itself Lita. I'm sure he'll give you time off for a honeymoon."
"Still I wish I could have told him the good news."
"Why don't you?" She looked at him oddly only to have him pull his cell phone from his jacket and hand it to her.
She kissed him on the cheek causing him to blush as the many people around watched and smiled at the young couple in love. "That is so cute!" She grinned at him.
"What?" He looked around attempting to find what she had been looking at; a small child? An old woman?
"You, silly! You're blushing again." He returned her smile as she began
to dial Anthony's number.
Raye sat at her desk sighing hopelessly. Could this job get any more boring? It's not like Davis had much of a chance anymore. She played with her pencil as she drank the remnants of her luke-warm coffee. She drifted off a vision of a barely clothed Jason Scott giving her provocative glances, playing through her mind. He looked just like that guy on the cover of that romance novel next to Serena's on the shelf at…
"This is something I haven't seen before," said a voice breaking through her daydream.
"Huh?" she muttered somewhat flustered.
"It seems you were off in la la land for a second there," a short, plump redhead said, smiling at her. "What are you in love or something?" She asked cynically knowing that love was probably the last thing on the ice-queen's list of things to do in life.
"Something like that," Raye said dreamily. Emily stared at Raye in shock.
"I guess miracles do happen," she muttered under her breath.
"What was that Emily?" Raye asked.
"Oh, nothing. I just came over to tell you Jack wants to see all the senior staff in his office. I think he's finally decided to drop out of the campaign.
"Took him long enough," Raye whispered quietly to herself.
"I'd like you all to know I really appreciate everything you guys have done and all the hard work you've put into this campaign," Davis began. "I'm definitely going to miss working with you all. …
Raye was slowly getting very annoyed. Could his speech possibly get any longer and more boring? What was it with politicians and their ability to drag the simplest of things on for hours without end?
As he finally came to an end, the group began filing out of his office, knowing it was time to start looking for a new job if they hadn't yet begun, as this one had just come to an end. As she turned to join the group, Davis called out to her to prevent her from leaving.
"Yes? What can I do for you?" She asked politely.
"Actually, Raye, it is a question of what I can do for you. You see you've done such a wonderful job on this campaign that I recommended you to a friend of my mind. Her name is Julianne Fordham. She is currently a representative for the State of California but she'll be campaigning for a republican seat in the senate." He handed her a business card with the congresswoman's information on it. good job managing her campaign. I hope you do this she is a wonderful woman. But if you chose not to I'd be happy to give you a recommendation for whatever else you choose to do. It was a pleasure working with you. " He reached out and shook her hand."
"I'll definitely think about your offer, Jack. Thank you so much." Raye was very surprised. This was definitely unexpected and she was very grateful and said as much. The day was suddenly not so dragging, but her thoughts still wandered to Jason and what he was doing right now.
Jay slumped on the couch of his hotel room, and sighed. He had been looking over Mr. Hino's account records and what he had been thinking to be an easy job was quickly turning into a real job. Whoever the man's former accountant had been had obviously been a complete ass.
The vast amounts of money Hino had were basically sitting around in accounts doing nothing instead of making money of their own. He was in the middle of making a new investment plan for his client when he decided to take a break and think about the love of his life and his plans for this evening.
With that in mind he reached in his jacket and flipped over the small
black velvet box. He had gone ring shopping yesterday and had picked
up the ring this morning. It was absolutely beautiful, as well it should
be considering how much he'd spent on it. A large ruby was set in
the midst of tiny diamonds on the gold band. It was perfect and engraved
with words of love. He desperately hoped she'd say yes at dinner tonight.
If she didn't, he just might choke and die.
"I can't believe this! I must have been out of my mind when I agreed
to do this."
"Oh come on. It's not that bad!"
"Not that bad?" She just about screamed at him; a dramatic contrast to her usually calm temperament. He was sweating under the collar just listening to her. The heat didn't help any either.
"That dirty little man pinched my butt! He looks like a fat drunken blonde Elvis and to top it off he claims to be Elvis' long lost twin! Do not tell me to calm down! I refuse to be married by that… that flea-ridden... elf!"
"He couldn't remember her being this upset before. Something told him he'd be lucky if they spent the night in the same hotel room. Eloping to Vegas was obviously not one of his better ideas.
"Sweetheart, look. Why don't you just calm down and we'll go somewhere
else ok," Mike said in his calmest voice, attempting to placate his fiancée.
Irene sighed in exasperation. She was hot miserable and the white
heels she had chosen to wear with the short white silk dress were not comfortable
and she was getting cramps.
"Can we just go back to the hotel please," she asked tiredly. I'm tired, hot and miserable. I just want to go home."
Michael put his arm around his fiancée and led her out of the gaudy chapel, leaving behind the short fat blonde man with missing teeth to preside over his other weddings. This had not been the best of days for either of them.
"I'm sorry sweetheart. I guess this didn't work out quite the way we planned." Even as he said the words, a bright streak of lightening flashed across the sky and the Thunder rumbled loudly and the clouds burst open, pouring down on them.
She smiled wryly. "It most certainly didn't." She stood in the rain twirling around in the downpour for a few moments as her fiancée watched, enchanted by her beauty.
"Figures," she grinned, "The one time we're in this desert city, it rains! If that's not a sign I don't know what is! The good news is though, we'll never have to tell Serena we eloped.
He gave her a quirky grin of his own. "That is a good thing. Although this idea was mine, I wasn't really looking forward to her temper. I've seen her mad. It's not pretty," he winced at the thought. "She's almost as bad as Princess Raye."
They walked back to their rented car and drove the rest of the way to
the hotel in comfortable silence.