Chapter 14

Conner and David continued to bond, slowly but surely my panic started to subside, and I was able to watch Conner and David without feeling an overwhelming sense of panic. I would have loved it even more if we could spend more time together as a family, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon. This "small wedding" was turning out to be more than any of us could handle. Teddy's father had come into the picture now and he was as bad, if not worse, than his wife. Not to mention, they had found out about David and they were constantly trying to butt in where they weren't wanted there now too. The only good thing I had to say about them was that they didn't resent David for any reason and treated him as their own. I think I would have handled that better if I didn't think that they wanted to make them one of their own. I was constantly on the look out to make sure they stayed in line.

Conner and I were working out our own problems. We had finally had it out and decided that the past was in the past and it couldn't be changed. What mattered now was the future and how we were going to work things out. We were building a friendship up again and custody was almost all figured out. Conner and Teddy were even thinking about moving to Chicago so that they could be closer to David. I was thrilled at the idea. It meant more help. Todd was staying in the background for the time being and for that I was grateful. I loved Todd like a brother, but he didn't think of me like a sister. Usually, I could ignore it but I could tell he was hurt that he was going to be replaced a little, because Conner was in the picture again. To get into those issues… I didn't even want to think about it.

I was figuring out where to put seven hundred people when Conner walked through mom's kitchen door with David on his shoulders. My breath caught and I couldn't stop the smile that broke out on my face at the two of them. You would never have guessed that they been apart for years with the way they were acting now.

"Dad, put me down. I want to hug mommy."

I loved when David did stuff like that because it made me feel like I was still wanted. David was put down and he ran to me. When he ran off to play with his toys, I wanted to call him back. Anything, to get out of the tedious work I had in front of me.

Conner took a water bottle out of the fridge. "So what's up Liz? You look ready to kill. I'm getting rather used to the look."

I gave him a smirk, "You should come over here and help me figure out where to put all of these people. After all, they're going to be family after this week."

Conner looked horrified, "I wouldn't know how to help Liz, and I'm not any good at this stuff."

"You really need to get rid of those people. Your future mother-in-law wants to turn the wedding into a big major event of the year, and your future father-in-law, wants it written about in all of the papers. Do you know that man asked me if I could write about the wedding and have it show up in the papers in Chicago?"

Conner turned a little green. I knew he didn't like to be the center of attention, "Don't tell me stuff like that, Liz. I don't like knowing."

"Mrs. Carman gave me notes on everything. I could write a book on the seating arrangements alone with all the details she wrote down. Everyone hates one another. If I put someone at a table and next to someone they like I find out that those people don't like anyone else at the table."

Conner looked lost. "Yeah, well I share the feeling buddy. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this. Jessica is constantly leaking because she keeps forgetting to pump and she's not getting any sleep. Zack is throwing things, and Leah is looking like she wants to jump Zack. I don't understand how the last one worked out, but she's the only one who seems to have her head with her."

"Why don't you have her do the seating arrangement's then?" he suggested as if it were that easy.

"She's doing the seating for the reception and she's having a harder time than I am. She has to seat tables. I just have to make sure that people aren't going to sit next to someone they don't like."

Conner looked so relieved that he didn't have to do any of it that I started looking for a knife to stab him with. I grabbed a chair instead and Put it next to me, "Whether you like it or not. You're helping. I have to get this done by tonight so I can start writing out the place cards."

"Don't they have people that do that?"

"Not when you do this all at the last minute. They have a lot of money, but people just don't care enough to suck up to them. No one has the time to do it."

We spent the next three hours working on where to put everyone. After the third call from Mrs. Carman, I turned off the phone and let it go to voicemail. She would call someone else when I didn't pick up. I had enough to handle. It was tedious work and I was getting a migraine.

"I don't see why we can't put Chelsea and Samantha together, they don't hate one another."

"Samantha is dating Chelsea's little sister's ex-boyfriend. It would never work out that's why. Tally is going to sit by her big sister and that means she's going to argue with her ex. We can't have that."

"Isn't there a program that could do this?"

"If there is, we don't have it. Plus, Mrs. Carman wants actual people to find out where these people sit."

"Well, we have one side of the family finished."

"Your side doesn't count Conner. As long as we make sure you mom and her ex-boyfriends don't sit next to one another, then we're good to go."

And so the work continued. When Teddy came over because no one was picking up the phone, we made her help to. It took us most of the day but we figured it out. And then I passed out from too much work. I forgot that this was supposed to be my vacation of sorts.

The shit really hit the fan when I really needed to help out Jess with the baby. Adam wasn't sleeping and Jeremy was about to have a meltdown. Instead of spending the whole night working, we stayed up taking turns walking around with Adam, to try and calm him down. Then dawn came and Mrs. Carman started calling for updates, and she didn't stop. At seven we had to take Adam to the emergency room because he had a fever of 101.1 and we all panicked. It turned out to only be an ear infection, but when Teddy's mother called for the fourth time that morning, I cracked.

"Honey, I know that family comes first but the wedding is in four days, and we really have a lot of work to do. You should have called someone to take the child to the doctor. I really can't tell you how important it is to get all of this done. My Teddy needs her day to be perfect," and on and on it went.

What I really wanted to say was, "Listen, you old hag. Shut the fuck up. Mind your own business, and let us do the work that we know how to do. I've had it with you. I quit."

Since it was Conner's wedding and I owed him, I said, "I understand your concern, but I assure you that we have everything under control, and everything will be perfect for your daughter's wedding.

We worked double time after that, and we had to call in even more people to help out so that we could get the work done. Adam's fever went away, but he was still distressed and Jessica was even worse. In the end neither of us did a lot of work for the wedding in the end and we just supervised. We let co-workers and friends do everything that needed doing and took care of what was really important.

I called the paper and made sure that I still had a job to get back to when I got home to Chicago and they assured me that everything was fine. My boss said I needed the vacation and he wasn't going to punish me for being gone a month. It was a miracle, and it would have been even better if this was actually a vacation.

Somewhere in the middle of it all I finally admitted that I still had feelings for Conner and that I was really jealous of Teddy, but I was too busy to act on anything. I was too feel or to think. I was relieved that I didn't have the time to grieve over something that wasn't mine. I don't know how I even figured it out since I didn't even get any time with Conner either. I was working all the time. I was more stressed out then I had been when I came back to Sweet Valley.