Chapter 7: Making Plans and Breaking Dates

As the days wore on, Evy would come up with other ideas for Jenny's wedding. Running them past her she found out that Jenny wasn't going to be a push over and was delighted that she had her own opinion about things. Some ideas were pushed aside by Jenny and some where improved by her. Evy had yet to come up with an idea that Jenny took and stayed with. Every idea was either bent to something else or thrown in the trash. Evy didn't care, she liked the fact that she wouldn't give in to every thing that Evy came up with.

"What color do you want the brides maid dresses? You could go with white or, as I would like for mine, a navy or dark blue."

"I like the blue idea but I don't think I'll go with navy or dark. I would rather have it either a baby or sky blue. I love light blues. Jonathan wants the men dressed in a white tux. Why, I don't know, but I think it's a bad idea seeing that we will have food at the reception. If anything gets on the tux it is us that will pay to get it clean. He wants the honeymoon in Hawaii but I would rather go to Jamaica or the Bahamas. We're not agreeing on very much right now but we did agree not to have it at a church but near the gardens."

Evy was thrilled with the fact that it was going to be near the gardens but didn't like the fact that her brother and soon to be sister-in-law were thinking about going on a honeymoon so far away. She knew that Jonathan didn't have the money to do that and she didn't want to spend too much on them for their wedding but she also thought that Rick would do anything for his sister. The only thing that Rick wasn't doing was helping to plan her wedding. He proved that he didn't want anything to do with the wedding one day when he asked Evy to go out on a dinner date with him.

"What do you mean? Jenny said that she needed my help with this whole thing."

"Please Evy. Do this for me. I need a day were I can spend some time with you and not around this wedding."

"Ok. I'm not making promises but I'll go on a dinner date with you. Let's say next Friday at eight."

"Ok. Friday night at eight. I won't be late in picking you up."

"Now that was just absurd to say because you know we live in the same house now." She laughed and it faded to a smile. He kissed her and then walked back to his car to go back home. Evy and Jenny were in the library looking up places in London to have the wedding. Jonathan had decided for them that a wedding in a garden was a bad idea because of all the pollen so they needed a new place for it.

"How about the Tower of London? History isn't to great but it is a beautiful place."

"What's the history about it?" Jenny didn't know to much about things in London so she had Evy explain most of them.

"Let's just say allot of people died there. They call it the 'Bloody Tower of London' because of all the death and gore that happened back in the dark days of London."

"Oh. That's ok as long as it's not said to be haunted. That wouldn't be a good place to get married with all those people going around scary people."

"Then we need to find another place. It's said to be haunted. You could always have it outside the tower which would be the best place because the tower itself is a museum."

They went over and over and found no place better than the Tower of London so they went with it. Other places you would have to be a cop or an employee to get into them or around them. Evy found that Friday rolled around fast and thought that she would be able to go with Rick but that all changed.

"Evy, you can't go with him today. I have to pick and fit the gowns for my brides maids. I thought you were going to be one but if you would rather go I understand." Jenny wasn't trying to put pressure on Evy and didn't want it to sound as if she was being selfish and wanted Evy to go with her more than her brother. Evy didn't think of it that way but didn't like the fact that she would have to choose between Rick and the wedding of her brother.

"I'll have to call Rick and tell him that I can't tonight. Give me a minute." She called Rick and told him about the fitting and he wasn't exactly happy but he understood that she was trying to help his sister.

After the fitting of the gowns for the brides maids, Evy tried to get back onto Rick's good side but found it really hard to do.

"Fine. Next Friday we will go to the London Café and celebrate our anniversary. Would that make you happier? I don't want us to grow apart just because you think that I am choosing your sister over you. I didn't want to go to the fitting but I didn't want to let your sister down at the same time. Please forgive me and let me make it up to you by going to lunch with you next Friday."

He looked at her for awhile then smiled, "Ok. But you have to promise this time that you will be there and won't cancel it. This is our anniversary that we're talking about. It may not be the anniversary of us being married but it is still important." He gave her a hug and went to bed. She stayed up late in her library on the 2nd floor looking up different types of flowers that might look good with the light color blue and the white that Jenny and Jonathan picked out. Jenny wasn't able to talk Jonathan out of the white but was happy enough when he said that he approved of the color of dress that she picked out.

She fell asleep with a book about different flowers that might be available through the downtown flower shop. Rick walked in and the way she was sleeping made him laugh. He picked her up and walked with her in his arms into their room. She slept most of the day and finally woke up at around 1. She went strait to Jenny to tell her about the flowers she found. They went to pick up the flowers only to run into Jonathan as he was buying flowers. Just to mess with him Jenny walked up looking furious.

"WHO ARE THOSE FOR MAY I ASK? GOING OUT AND CHEATING ON ME BEFORE WE'RE EVEN MARRIED ARE YOU?" Jonathan looked so terrified at the moment but caught the smile on Jenny's face.

"Don't joke like that. You nearly killed me." He was going to mess with her now, "TRYING TO COLLECT ON LIFE INSURANCE? THAT'T JUST TO BAD YOU WON'T GET IT! EVY WILL!" They both laughed and walked out together leaving Evy all alone. She walked back to the car and went back home.

Friday soon crept up on her. She was so busy with the flower arrangements that she didn't notice. However, Rick was there to remind her about there date. They met up at the library when he reminded her about that.

"Sorry, Rick, I can't. I have to get things straitened up here. I am truly sorry. Please forgive me." Rick walked out without a word.

"You're going to lose him, Evy. You need to stop worrying about my wedding and the library. I'm sure Jonathan and I can figure the wedding and I can look after the library. You need to be with Rick."

"Rick wouldn't want to see me now." Evy sat in her chair and started to cry. "Why would he want to go out to dinner so much. I understand the anniversary but why just all of a sudden ask to have din…" She thought hard then ran to her car and went to Rick. When she got to the house Rick had gone upstairs and was sitting on the bed looking at a picture of her murmuring to himself.

"Rick, can we talk?"

"Why? So you can come up with something else that you have to do and walk out on me."

"No. I want to talk to you about this dinner idea. I don't want to lose you and Jenny suggested that I talk to you before that happens. This whole time I was getting ready for your sister's wedding because I felt like it was my own. I got to thinking about what Jonathan said the night he proposed to Jenny and I came to the conclusion that he might be right about that. Why would anyone want to put up with me for the rest of their life? I'm clumsy and to busy really to have a life with anyone." She started to cry again but felt the comfort of Rick's arms around her.

"I want a life with you. No matter how clumsy you are or how busy you get. I don't care because I know that I would be there to help you if you fell or be there to help with work that you can't get down. I would be there to clean up a mess that you might have made because you lost balance and knocked a vase over. I would be there till twelve at night helping shelve books with you. You know the reason I wanted to go to dinner with you? It's because I thought I was going to lose that life. I wasn't spending time with you so I thought if you fell I wouldn't be there to catch you or help you with the books." He hugged her and kissed her forehead. She couldn't believe it. This was better than any dinner she had been to any trip she had gone on. It was even better to her then Egypt. They made another date for the next day and this time Evy wasn't going to miss it for anything. She told Jenny and she was very understanding about the whole thing. She even cried when Evy told her about why Rick had wanted to go to dinner.

"I have to go now Jenny so can you lock up the library when you get finished?"

"Just go you don't need to worry about anything but getting to that date." Jenny smiled at her and caught the keys as Evy walked out the door throwing the keys at her.

Evy got into her car and drove to the one café that she knew Rick would want to meet her at, London Café. She sat at an outside table waiting for Rick to show. Five minutes after she had arrived Rick showed and told her that he could stay for very long because he had to go to work on the road that led to Big Ben. Rick had quit his traveling job to go to construction. He did mostly underground pipes and some building construction. They wanted him to work on roads this time around. He had got the job hopping that he would have a chance to show of his building skills but the opportunity hasn't came. He did have the opportunity to give Evy the shock of her life.

"Evy I was wondering if you would like… I can't believe this… will you marry me?" Rick had reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvet box with a 14k gold ring with 4 diamonds on it.

"….Oh my god Rick! This is a beautiful ring but I don't know…"

"It's alright you don't have to marry me just think of the ring as an anniversary gift." Rick looked down at his coffee cup.

"No, I was going to say that I don't know where you got the money to get it from." She gave a cute giggle, "I have an answer if you want it."

"Well, I am starting to sweat a little. Please continue."

She leaned over to Rick's ear and whispered, "Of course I will."

Rick went to sleep that night with butterflies in his stomach and he wasn't the only one getting the jitters. Jenny had heard about the engagement and didn't want it to conflict with her wedding. She didn't know to many people so getting a new brides maid would be a hard thing to do. At the same time she did think that it would be awesome for her and Evy to get married at the same time. Jonathan, like Rick, didn't approve to much of the marriage to his sister. He was acting just like Rick, trying to get Evy set on other things and trying to stop the wedding from happening for at least another year because of his wedding, however it wasn't working. Evy was very persistent to use any suggestion that Jenny had and told Jonathan that Jenny wouldn't approve of having the wedding along time from now. She wanted to get married 2 months from now and Evy saw fit to wait for at least 1 month after to get married.