Saturday February 4th 2022

It was around 9pm, Joe and Taylor were both relaxing in the living room doing there own things. Joe worked today and Taylor spent the day grocery shopping and deep cleaning the apartment.

"This is so dumb!" She slams her laptop shut and tossed it on the couch beside her.

"What?" Joe wonders and pauses the show he was watching.

"Every god damn venue I look at needs a down payment of like 4,000 fucking dollars." She shouts angrily and gets up to go pour another glass of wine.

Joe rubs the back of his neck. This has been the only thing on her mind lately and he was already sick of it. While he was glad she came around to having a small traditional wedding, this planning was not for either of them. She gets too pissed off about the cost of things and Joe doesn't care much. He knows they're expensive and it's just one of those things you come to terms with in life.

"Okay well then how much more do you pay?" He wonders.

"I don't know! But it's like 60 a person for the meal they provide!"

"Damn." He says.

"Fuck it. I'll just settle for the church wedding and skip the reception part." She states, throwing the now empty bottle of wine in the trash before coming back to the couch.

"Oh c'mon Tay, the reception's the fun part. Don't be like that." He says playful, trying to lighten her mood.

"Well you can't have a reception without a wedding!" She tells him as if he didn't know.

"You don't have to yell at me, I'm just trying to help." He argues as nice as he can back.

"You wanna help? Fine. You plan it then." She took her laptop and got up to drop it on Joes lap before leaving the living room.

"Babe." He says calmly.

"I'm not blowing thousands of dollars on things I don't even care about or want! I've been saving everything I earn to put towards something I really want. Which is children! So if you want a big grand wedding so damn bad you can pay for it!" She shouted.

"Taylor once were married we'll have a joint bank account anyway, it doesn't matter in the long run." He points out.

"Well until that happens it matters to me." She said and walked off to go to bed for the night.

"Babe seriously?" He called out but she didn't stop. Joe sighed and took a drink, no way he was planning their entire wedding. Maybe she needed to reach out to Eddie, Erin and his mom for their help.

—

The next day at family dinner everything was going well until the family decided to pull a code blue on not just Taylor but Joe too. He'd never been apart of one so he got the privilege of the full experience as well.

"You guys pick a date yet?" Danny started it off.

"No we-" Taylor said but got cut off by Eddie.

"Better pick one and pencil it in, everything around here goes fast." She told them sipping her water.

"Yeah we've learned that." Joe states.

"Just don't pick the winter time, it's too cold." Henry says.

"Agreed, besides you don't want to ruin you're dress that you spend a couple grand on." Erin states.

"A couple grand?" Taylor's eye widen.

"You might wanna wait at least a couple months though so that your flower girl is a little older." Eddie said rubbing her belly, insinuating it would be her baby. She's due this week with their daughter.

"Well that puts you in summertime, hopefully it doesn't rain with it being outside and all." Frank tells them.

"Um." Taylor swallows hard.

"Outside?" Joe questions quietly looking at Taylor, did she tell them she wanted an outside wedding? Cause he missed that detail.

"We haven't talked about any of this yet." Taylor says nicely with a laugh and looking at Joe.

"Well better get to it, I got a busy schedule this summer." Sean tells them. Joe looks at him blankly.

"I'm not worried about my schedule, but all us singles gotta find dates before then, right?" Danny says looking at Erin, Frank and Sean.

"Absolutely." Erin says.

"Uh…" Taylor looks at Joe with eyes that cry out for help.

"We never-" Joe starts.

"You get the wedding bands yet? Hers could take a while to get in, should get on that." Jamie tells Joe.

"No we haven't even looked…" Joe rubs his face stressed. He can only imagine how much stress Taylor feels if he feels the way he does.

"Plus gotta start thinking about your bachelor party, you cool with a stripper or no?" Danny asks Joe but also glances at Taylor, her eyes go wide and she can't even speak she's caught of guard.

"Woah." Henry says in disapproval.

"Uh! If they're doing that we're going to see magic mike!" Erin tells her with raised brows.

"No, I can't…no. This is too much. I need air." She gets up panicked.

"Taylor." Joe calls out to her and watches her leave the room.

"You guys really did it now." He puts his napkin down on the table and gets up. The family exchanges looks but no one budges yet.

"She's already stressed out about it all, just don't say crap like that okay?" He says and goes to get her.

She's pacing around the foyer trying to calm down, her nerves are spiraling and she's starting to sweat from the stress.

"Babe you okay?" He asks clearly a stupid question.

"No! I don't like this, I don't want to talk about any of this with them! I didn't even ask!" She says.

"I know, I told them they gotta stop." He comforts her with a hand on her lower back.

"What did they say?"

"Nothing, I came out to check on you."

"Okay well then I will tell them why." She says and marched back into the dining room. Joe was a little nervous at how this was gonna go, remembering there conversation last night and all.

When they came back they were expecting Taylor to look upset but she looked angry actually.

"All good?" Frank presses, she glances at him.

"Just don't ask about our wedding again. It's very heavy on my mind already and I don't need you all up my butt about it too. It's very stressful." She says not being able to even look at them but needing to stand her ground. Joe runs his hand across her thigh under the table in comfort.

"Listen we're glad to have you all in our lives to hear all your suggestions and advice but we'll let you know if we have questions." He says calmly. The family exchanges looks trying not to smile and then a round of applause builds.

"Good job you two." Danny says laughing.

"That's how it's done." Henry added. Joe and Taylor exchanged confused looks at everyone as the clapping diminished.

"It's the meanest test isn't it?" Eddie says with a laugh.

"What is going on?" Joe laughed.

"Just your normal old Reagan family tradition." Jamie tells them.

"Not sure I'd call it normal…" Taylor says with raised eyebrows, also growing a soft smile as the relief hits.

"Yeah probably not." Frank laughs.

"It's the ultimate test, to see if you'll stand up for yourself or let us walk all over you." Henry explains.

"Which you started out a little weak and then got pissed enough that you passed, with the help of each other." Danny said with another bite of green beans.

"So mean!" Taylor said shaking her head.

"Heads up would've been nice." Joe adds.

"That's all part of it." Frank shrugs.

"You guys got it worse then me, I think." Eddie says.

"That's because we had to get to both of them." Danny says.

"Well you did. And just so we're clear there will be no strippers or male dancers at either party." Joe clarified making everyone laugh.

"Cheers to that." Henry raises his glass through the family's contagious laughter.

——

Oh those Reagan's, always up to something right? I had fun writing this one, it reminds me of what they pulled on Eddie but with different digs. And remember every couple has disagreements and fights, some of y'all are wanting Taylor kicked to the curb and I assure you she isn't going anywhere, it's all part of life and being a girl lol. Leave your thoughts!