CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The next morning Jody woke up next to Charlie and smiled. She rolled over and kissed him. He woke up and smiled warmly at her.

"Good-morning beautiful." He mumbled.

Jody smiled and rolled back over to her side. "Morning."

Charlie rolled over and put his arm around her. "What should we do today? We haven't had fun in so long. Let's go out and have some fun."

"We're going out tonight…" She kissed him again.

Charlie smiled and kissed her back. "Hmmm… or we could just do this the whole day… this is fun!"

Jody giggled and rolled out of the hotel bed. "Come on! We have to get back over to Sergei's!"

Charlie hopped out of the bed and wrapped Jody in a hug. "I love you."

Jody grinned. "I love you too…" Jody checked her watch. "Oh! Hurry up! We're gonna be late!"

"What are you talking about? We didn't have a time we were supposed to be there… we don't even really have to go." Charlie smiled at Jody.

Jody laughed. "I know… I just don't wanna be the last ones there, everyone else is already probably eating breakfast there."

"Exactly! Breakfast! It's so early! They aren't really expecting us to be there this early, Jody. Can't we wait a while??" Charlie gave her a cute pleading look.

Jody caved. "You look so cute doing that!"

Charlie exaggerated the face and stuck his face right in hers. She laughed and he kissed her some more. A while later Jody ducked down to get out of his grip.

"Come on! Now we have to go! You've had your fun!" She teased.

Charlie playfully pouted, but grabbed some clothes and changed. "What are we doing today anyway?"

Jody shrugged as she pulled her tee shirt over her head. "I'm not sure. Galina was saying something about making sure the dresses and tuxes were good, and that they fit… but she might have been talking about tomorrow."

"Oh. So, what about breakfast?"

Jody shrugged and put on her shoes. "What time is it?"

"A little after 10."

"Whoa! I haven't woken up this late in forever! Everyone else probably ate… we can stop and get something on the way I guess."

"Yum." Charlie mumbled as he fell back on the bed.

Jody looked at him and rolled her eyes. Grabbing his arms she pulled him up. "Come on you lazy bum, let's go!"

Charlie laughed and stuffed his wallet in his back pocket before leaving the hotel room. Jody followed and locked the door. They walked down the hallway hand-in-hand and went to their car. Stopping to get breakfast on the way, they reached Sergei and Galina's around 11. They knocked on the door and Sergei opened it a crack and yanked them in hurriedly.

"Whoa! Sergei, what was that?" Charlie asked after Sergei slammed the door.

"It's a game! Go hide!"

Charlie looked at Jody and shrugged.

"Hurry!" Sergei commanded as he rushed into his room to hide.

Charlie smiled and dragged Jody into the guestroom. No one else was in there, as far as they could tell. Charlie and Jody ran into the small closet and squished up against each other so they could close the door. Jody giggled.

"Shh!" Charlie smiled, trying not to laugh.

"What exactly are we doing??" Jody whispered.

"I have NO idea." Charlie smiled. "Shhh."

Jody smiled and rested her head on Charlie's shoulder. A few minutes later Sergei could be heard shouting from the main room.

"EVERYBODY COME OUT!! WE WON!!"

Charlie kissed Jody and pushed open the closet door. He grabbed her hand and held it loosely as they went out to where their friends were standing. Sergei, Josh, Dirk, Jake, Erik, and Jim were all out there. Jody felt surrounded and Charlie tightened his grip on her hand.

"What did we win??" Charlie asked.

"See, everyone else is hiding in Dirk's apartment down the hall, and Erik was trying to find them. Anna was trying to find us all, but she only found Jim. But Erik found 3 people, so we won!" Sergei explained.

"We being… who?"

"Um… our team… everyone in this room, I guess."

"Cool… I guess. How did this start? And are they coming back to here??" Jody asked.

"Uh… we were just bored. And, they should be on their way over here I-" Sergei started but was interrupted by everyone else bursting through the door.

After everyone was settled on the furniture and floor, they started discussing what they would do that day. Jim, Maureen, Anna, and Emily were on the couch. Erik, Eva, Galina, and Sergei were sitting on the kitchen table chairs. Dirk, Kellie, and Josh were sitting on metal folding chairs. Jake was sitting on the floor next to the couch and Charlie was sitting on the other side of the couch and Jody was sitting in his lap. They had tried to make one huge circle, but it was defiantly lop-sided.

After a while of talking, the girls all went off to have lunch and do dresses. The guys stayed and had lunch at the apartment, but then went to get the tuxes.

Galina showed everyone the few dresses she had picked out and they spent hours trying on hundreds of dresses. Eva and Kellie (the Bridesmaids) ended up with these very light lavender dresses. They flared out at the bottom and had lots of thin straps going across the back. Jody had a similar dress as well. After a few more hours Galina finally chose a beautiful white dress with flowers embedded around the bottom. The top glittered in the light and she looked wonderful.

"Do you think Sergei will like it?" Galina asked, concerned, as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Jody made a face. "He IS a guy… and he's not gay…"

Galina smiled and twirled around. "I just LOVE this dress! It's just too bad I only get to wear it once…"

"Yeah… that does suck." Eva noted.

Meanwhile… Charlie sat in a chair as Sergei thumbed through his final choices. He couldn't believe how long this was taking. A He was glad, at least, for the fact that Sergei and Galina had already gone around to all the shops in within 1000 miles (at least that's what it felt like). He didn't want to keep going back and forth. But this had taken several hours, and they still hadn't finalized anything. Charlie excused himself and went behind a bunch of clothes. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the familiar number.

"Hello??" Jody answered after a few rings.

"Hey, it's me."

"Oh hi Charlie!" Jody walked away from her friends. "What's up?"

"Not much at all. This is sorta boring. Have you girls found anything yet?"

"Yep. I think we're all set… finally!"

"Humph! I know what you mean. Except… we haven't chosen anything yet. Well, I think we've found everything but Sergei's suit. Man… never let a bunch of guys go shopping, I'm telling you!"

Jody laughed. "Why? What have you guys been doing this whole time?"

"You know, guy stuff. Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, but we're never gonna get this done… oh wait. I think Sergei just found the right suit… no wait… nevermind. Here we go again…" Charlie groaned as Sergei pulled out another tux and walked off slowly to the dressing room.

Jody smiled. "Well, I have to go, Galina's shouting for me."

"Ok, I love you."

"I love you too, bye now."

"Bye.

"Bye Charlie." She hung up the phone and sighed happily.

"JODY!!" Galina called.

"Coming!!" And with that, Jody rushed off.