Luna~
"Hon, can you mix this salad for me after you're done?" Alecia asks me as we cooked for our Thanksgiving dinner.
"Yeah, of course."
"I'm so glad I have someone to do this with now. The boys would never help unless I told them to do it."
I laugh, "That sounds like your boys."
"What sounds like us?" Christian asks as he walks in with his brothers.
"Nothing," she tells him as I start mixing the salad.
He looks over my shoulder, reaching for a piece of pasta. I watch him eat it, "Is it good?"
"Very."
I go back to cutting up the fruit that I was working on for the dessert. Christian stands behind me, putting his hands on my hips. "You're just repping Wisconsin today, aren't you?" he says noticing what I'm wearing. Which happens to be a Bucks t-shirt and Brewer shorts. I haven't changed just yet because we're cooking and I figured it'd get a little messy.
"Don't hate on it."
"I'm not."
He takes a couple of strawberries from the pile I've created. "Wow, those are tart." Karma for taking the food.
"Then I wouldn't take a raspberry. Learned that a little bit ago."
"What are you making?"
"A berry cheesecake that your mom saw on Pinterest and we had to make it."
"Sounds really good."
"Boys, get out of the kitchen. We'll call you in when it's ready."
Christian laughs quietly and watches as his brothers leave. "Christian, you too," Alecia says as he didn't leave. I try my hardest not to laugh but am not successful.
"But, mom."
"Nope. Get out. Let us cook."
"Fine." He kisses me quickly before walking into the living room where his brothers sat on the couch watching the football games that were happening.
"Aren't you glad you just had your sister growing up?"
"Very much. I was out of the house five years after my brother was born so I didn't really grow up with boys."
"They're a handful sometimes."
"Mom, we can hear you."
We both laugh, "See what I mean?"
I rub Christian's shoulders trying to wake him up. The boys passed out after our dinner while Alecia and I cleaned up and talked about literally everything. It's so incredibly easy to talk to her. I never got that so I'm glad I have it now.
He looks up at me with a sleepy smile and stretches out. "Do you wanna head home?"
"Yeah, we can head out."
He stands up and goes into the kitchen while I get my shoes on. I follow him after getting my boots on. "Luna, thanks for helping. I really enjoyed it," Alecia tells me as she comes up to hug me.
"I had a lot of fun so it's no problem."
She hugs me again. I savor every single one of these hugs. I'm normally not a hugger but she has the mothering instinct to have such good hugs.
"Are we on for Christmas?"
"For sure."
"Good because the boys won't help me."
"Mom, I'm right here."
We walk out to his car and I put the leftovers in the back seat. "How was your nap?"
"Much needed. Did you end falling asleep?"
"For a half-hour. I stayed up with your mom. We were looking at all the Black Friday deals and boxed up all the extra food."
"Are you going out tonight to shop?"
"Probably not. Cyber Monday is where it's at."
"No wonder we get a package a day."
"In my defense, a lot of it has been for our wedding."
"That makes it better."
Trinity~
Christian lets me in while the other girls wait in the car. I may have secretly flown in last night just to throw a bachelorette party today.
"Hey, how was your flight?"
"Pretty good. I got in really late. Is she up?"
"I don't know. She was still asleep when I got up."
"Okay."
"What are you planning on doing today?"
"We're heading over to Malibu Wine Safari for a wine tasting. Then we're heading to Santa Monica for a late lunch. I have nothing planned after that."
"Well, she's upstairs if you want to wake her."
"I get to be the bad guy?"
He laughs, "You planned this. Not me."
I head upstairs and push the cracked door open and see her still asleep. Her back facing the door. I'm taking the chance to be the most annoying sister ever. "Luna! Wake up!" I say shaking her shoulder.
"Trin stop," she says quietly. She flips over, "Wait, Trin? How the hell are you here? What are you doing here?"
She shoots up and hugs me. "How are you here? What is happening?"
"Flew in late last night. Go get ready. We have a long day."
"Okay. Any dress code I need to follow."
"Wear white."
"How much time do I have?"
"Ten minutes."
I move out of the way so she can get dressed. "What are we doing?"
"You'll have to see."
She sighs, "Is this okay?" she asks holding up a white shirt and white jeans.
"Yeah."
She disappears into the closet and comes back in her outfit. "Are these okay?" she asks holding up black sandals.
"Yes."
She puts those on and puts on some light makeup before taking down her hair and fixing it with the straightener.
"Okay. I'm ready."
"I don't think I've ever seen you get ready that fast."
"Well, if I would've known you were here, I would've been up already."
"That's no fun."
Luna~
I follow my sister down the stairs, meeting Christian at the bottom. "Do you know what's going on?"
"Nope."
"C'mon, let's go. We have places to be. Things to see. Food to eat. No time for goodbyes."
"There's always time for goodbyes."
"Nope, not today."
She all but drags me out of the house not even getting a chance to kiss Christian. I just wanted one.
I see all of my bridesmaids standing outside of a car with multiple bottles of champagne. I'm speechless."Oh my gosh. What is going on?"
Larisa walks over to me, holding a white sash, putting it over me. I look down, reading the gold letters, 'Bride To Be.'
"C'mon, let's go."
I get in the front seat, next to my sister. I look out the window as Christian stood up on the porch. I wave as the car starts to back up and soon we're on our way.
We pull up to the Malibu Wine Safaris and all of us get out of the car. We head over to the safari truck as a guy was waiting there with a sign with all of our names.
He greets us, holding his hand out to everyone to get on the top of the truck. "Is this all?"
"Yes, this is everyone."
We sit down on the cushioned seats as he gets in on the driver's seat and turns around to face him. "I assume you're the bride?"
"Yes," I tell him confidently.
"When's the wedding?"
"January 13th."
"Well, congratulations! That's coming up! About a month if I can remember right. I will be accompanying you all on this safari tour. Every stop we make will have a wine tasting station with all of our delicious and decadent wines that we hand-make right here in Malibu. Feel free to have as much as you want. There will also be plenty of time to stop and take pictures and feed the animals too. Are we ready?"
"Yes!" we all say earning a laugh from him.
"You guys are going to get me wine drunk and it's not even noon.," I tell them as we start moving.
"That's never a bad thing."
Yeah, I'm going to end up drunk once we're done. We make our first stop that looks over the beautiful vineyard. I'm handed a half-full glass of wine. If the glasses are going to be this full, I'm not going to make it to lunch, depending on how many stops we make.
I've had four too many glasses of wine. I'm definitely feeling it now. All of the wines were just so good. "You have to pop a bottle!" Larisa tells me as we stopped for lunch in Santa Monica. We sat on the balcony outside overlooking the pier and everything beautiful about Santa Monica.
I take the bottle from her and go stand at the edge of the balcony. I look down below making sure no one is down there. I hold my thumb over the cork, shaking the bottle vigorously. "Ready?" I ask before moving my thumb to pop the cork off.
"Hell yeah! Let it go!"
I push the cork off, the champagne fizzing out all over my hand and down the bottle. They all cheer as I take a drink after it stopped fizzing. Flashes from multiple cameras go off as I stand in front of gold balloons that spell out 'Bride' that go perfectly with my sash. My girls are so incredibly extra but this is one of the best times I've had with all of them.
"Okay, we have chips and queso, chips and guac, spinach and artichoke dip, bruschetta, and loaded nachos for you ladies," a very shirtless waiter says as I sat back down in my seat, still a bit soaked from the champagne. He sets the plates down in the middle of the round table, "Do you ladies need anything else?"
"No, I think we're good," Trin says and he walks away, winking at all of us before going back to the bar.
"God, you can't even deal with the obvious flirting without becoming uncomfortable. You two are just completely whipped for each other," Trin says as we pass around the dishes of food, picking what we want and putting it on our plates.
"You act like it's a bad thing."
"I mean, it's not. But you have a little over a month where you're not tied up to a man."
"Yeah, but look at the guy that I am marrying."
"You both are obsessed with each other and you both know it," Lindy adds.
"Do they know how you two started dating?" Trin asks me and I think about it.
"No, I don't think so. Not the full story, at least."
"Spill it!" Larisa says.
I laugh, "Well, it's something. Definitely not how I thought I'd start dating someone."
"You guys, it's fucking good. She's not as innocent as she seems."
"I moved back out to Milwaukee after being out here for about seven years. I got a job for the Brewers and that prompted my move. So I had Trin help me with apartments and that whole thing because I couldn't just leave right then. She toured the apartment that I ended up living in and got the keys for me. She picked me up from the airport since my car was shipped out a week earlier than when I left. We were waiting at the elevator to go up to the floor I was on and the doors open and Christian walks out. I think we had been talking about him and some of the other guys since I was going to be working with them."
"Yes, so he walks out, smiles at us, and we walk into the elevator and I remember asking 'What are the chances that happens? It's your destiny.' And we went into her apartment and looked around and that was the night," Trin says as I take a few bites of my food.
"The next day was my first day, more as a training. Sophia was showing me around and telling me everything that she does and just being helpful. So then I get back to the apartment complex and I had been waiting for the elevator to come down. I already pushed the button but Christian came up, pushed it again. The doors finally open and we both get on and reach for the same number. Which then got me thinking even more."
I take a drink of my champagne, "We introduce ourselves and figure out that we both know each other. We just hadn't seen each other in a while."
"Wait, you knew him?"
"Yeah. When I was dating Corey, we'd all go out during Spring Training. It'd be me, Corey, Cody, Christian, Travis, and a few other guys. We'd go out like twice and he'd be there every time. So we reintroduce ourselves. He came up with the idea of us carpooling together so a couple of nights after that encounter he asked for my number, and we started carpooling. We'd switch off on who drove every week. We became really close. He ended up being my best friend. Then all of the speculations of me and Christian came out just because I interviewed him after a game once and apparently we were giving each other lots of looks and there was tension. We're probably like three weeks into me being out in Milwaukee and the Dodgers come to town. There happen to be a weird conversation between Corey and me before a game. So that night Christian and I were at his place, having a few drinks. We were somewhat drunk, much to how I'm feeling right now."
They laugh as I continue, "Trin, I don't think you know this. But, at some point we got talking about Corey and what would it take for me to get over that bridge of not knowing what to do. It was late. It was pretty dark. I was sitting on the countertop and he was off to the side of me. He made the comment of 'Can I help with some swaying?' We were both feeling the alcohol and he was very close to me. Centimeters from my face. He kissed me that night. And the next morning, I woke up in his bed. I had my clothes on but I couldn't believe that I was in his bed. My phone died that night. So when I left, I see Trin and Cody outside of my apartment door and I knew I was fucked. I couldn't hide anything from them. She's been by my side for my entire life and Cody is like a brother. They kept asking and I only told them that we drank a lot and I fell asleep."
"I think Cody and I both knew something was up but we didn't say anything. She was out there living her dream and we were going to let her because she was so happy and still is."
"Yeah, so that day, I remembered the kiss but he acted like he didn't. So I was going to temporarily forget about it. That night was the night I officially ended things with Corey. And we got back to our apartment and the thought of us kissing was eating me alive. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that he didn't remember because he had less to drink than me. So I said something and he kissed me again while we're standing in my doorway."
"Something went down between you two right then, didn't it?" Larisa asks and I nod.
"Yeah, so we ended up back in my bed that night. This time with no clothes."
They all shriek and I laugh to myself, remembering that next morning. "That next morning we had coffee and kind of put it in stone that we were friends with benefits. I know it sounds kind of bad, but it was fucking fun."
"How long did that last?"
"That started in May and we started dating in September. So about four months. It was a fun four months though. It was never weird or awkward at all."
"That's the kind of relationship you see on TV."
I unlock the front door after my sister dropped everyone off before me. She had to leave right away. Which seems to occur too often. I had a lot of fun today. Don't seem like you're drunk when you most definitely are about there.
I take the sash off after they made me wear it the entire day. My side stretches a bit, causing a sharp pain right along my rib cage. When we were done with lunch, we passed by a tattoo parlor, and somehow I got talked into getting a tattoo on my rib cage. I've been thinking about getting another one for a while, but haven't done so until today. I think the alcohol definitely had a play in that decision.
I look around for Christian, finally seeing he's out on the balcony in a chair. I open the sliding door, getting his attention. He smiles, "Hey."
"Hi."
I walk over by him, leaning down behind him, kissing his cheek. "How was your day?"
"Very fun."
"Come here."
He takes my hand, pulling me onto his lap. He kisses me after I sat down. He licks his lips, "Wine and champagne?"
"Yeah, a whole bunch."
"Are you tipsy?"
"A little more than tipsy."
"I saw the video that your sister posted."
"Was it a champagne pop?"
"Yeah."
"It got all over me. I was sticky for a few minutes."
He laughs and kisses me again. My side rubs against his chest, causing me to wince from the sensitive nerves in that area. "What was that?"
"I got talked into getting a tattoo."
"Them or the alcohol."
"Both."
He shakes his head, laughing, "Let me see."
I pull up my shirt and the side of my bra to show him. He smiles once he sees it and lightly traces over the plastic wrap. "222. Any reason?"
"I was born on 2/22 at 2:22. I always see 2:22 on a clock. When I bought my car, the last three digits were 222. For my apartment in Milwaukee, the last two digits were 22. For my apartment in LA, I was on the 22nd floor."
"My number is 22," he says plastering a smile on his face.
"I believe that 22 or 222 are my angel numbers and I wanted to make that a permanent thing. I see it all the time."
"I like it. The lines are amazing, wow. Did it hurt?"
"It hurt more than the one on my other side. It's a bit sensitive right now."
"I missed you."
"They were joking about how we're attached at the hip all the time. Because I missed you too."
I put my arm around him again as his hand rests on my leg. "Did you do anything fun?"
"I went over to Ryan's just to hang out. We didn't do anything since he had to watch the kids. But we played around with them."
"Just a chill day?"
"Pretty much."
"That'll be my day tomorrow."
"I'll go get some Pedialyte so you're not dehydrated. Did you eat anything besides a lunch?"
"No."
"What do you want?"
"Something that will soak up all of this wine and champagne."
He chuckles, "So is Chipotle on the table? Because I really want a burrito."
"Yeah, that sounds great."
I stand up from his lap. I reach around his neck to hug him. He holds me in place. "Jump."
I jump up into his arms. "I can walk on my own."
"You were stumbling coming out here."
"You saw that?"
"Yeah."
"That's embarrassing."
"It was cute because you were trying so hard to act like you were fine."
He puts me down near the edge of the couch. "I'm gonna go get that stuff right now. Do you want your normal?"
"Yeah, that'd be great," I tell him as I take off my sandals.
"Okay. I'll be back. I love you."
He leans down to me and kisses me, "I love you too."