Chapter 75

"Oh, look who the cat dragged in!" Archer exclaimed as he walked into the Reyes' living room, seeing Henry and Joshua playing cards with Penelope, Ramy and Haerin on the floor. "How are you two harder to find now that I work in both buildings?" The eldest Lore son dropped down onto the sofa, falling against Meera, who was working on her laptop. The only ones missing were the parents and Samuel, who all were finishing work late.

Missing from what? Of course, the weekly family dinners that Henry and Joshua had skipped on the previous week. They would have skipped this week too if both had not received not-so-subtle emails from their respective mothers.

Meera scrunched her nose, not taking her eyes off the screen as the younger sibling and PA's ignored Archer's antics. "You came here straight from a meeting, when did you have time to hook up with someone?"

"Where there is a will and a car, there is a way."

"Still, when did you have time to even go after someone… oh shit!" Meera suddenly turned to Archer with a glare. "You did not sleep with Preeti, did you? She only just broke up with her boyfriend. And we told you she would be trouble."

"She came onto me first, what was I going to say? No?"

"Just wait until Sam gets home, you will never hear the end of this. Now go and shower. You reek of sex."

"Why, we're all adults here."

"No, we aren't," Penelope interjected. Somehow Archer had not registered his younger sister's presence, freezing before jumping up and running out. Henry and Joshua shared a look of amusement as Haerin brought her palm to her face. The Lore heir always knew how to make a scene of sorts. 

Henry threw his cards down and sighed, this game was their loss and he knew it. "Why did you do that?" Joshua asked, not really paying attention to the current hand with his brother's behaviour, not that is was any different but it just felt like it had been a long time since he had witnessed it. 

"Look at our cards, we're done for. It takes us to 99. May as well just call this game now."

"We haven't lost yet."

"The three of them are on 50 combined, we've lost. Hell, your sister still has 0 points. I can't believe I lost paired with the maths genius."

"Excuse me, I have more important numbers running through my mind at the moment."

"You can't still be thinking about the cake!" 

As a matter of fact, Joshua Lore was indeed still thinking about the size of the wedding cake the pair had already ordered and paid the deposit for earlier that day. The man just felt like it would not feed as many people as the caterer had said with the dimensions advertised. Not with equal slices at least. 

"Oh my god, you are, aren't you! What does it matter if the cake that is meant to feed approximately 50 ends up only feeding 47? The big cake is only for family anyway, no one is eating it at the wedding apart from us. We have already got enough mini versions for every guest and staff at the event and people who work at the company, specific to their dietary requirements, what more could you need?"

"But 47 is a prime! How are we meant to share that between us?"

"We'll be eating one slice, that's 46!"

"No, it's still 47 if you want some of that cake at home!"

"How! And it doesn't matter because, if you remember, we've already ordered it. There is no changing it now."

"But we still need to separate the servings fairly and I can't figure out how."

Everyone had stopped what they were doing now, watching the back and forth. It was truly amazing how worked up the couple was getting over the cake. But then again, was it a real wedding without bickering involved. 

What was even more amazing, however, was how suddenly the situation diffused itself.

"Josh, stop think about the serving sizes. We'll just as them not to cut it up. Penelope gets the top tier, we'll keep the middle and what remains on the bottom can just be split in half for each house. Done."

"Uh… I guess that works." Henry just rolled his eyes, of course it works, because serving sizes had nothing do with anything in this matter.

Both men then looked around, confused at the sudden silence. They had no clue why everyone else had stopped, once again oblivious to how they acted when alone.

"So… wedding preps going well?" Meera asked, realising neither were going to come to why they were all staring. "I mean, 6 weeks is not a long time, no matter how impressive a plan you two made." She had seen the plan, and 'impressive' did not do it justice. Just reading it made her want to have another wedding because it looked like a fairy tale. But still, having already gone through the wedding process, she knew things rarely went to plan, and the time constraint they had could not have made it any easier. 

Henry looked at Joshua, wondering how to answer. Not because it was not going to plan, but because of how expertly the other man had organised things. They had both expected some deviation but currently it was nowhere close to the level they had expected. Things seemed to be going relatively smooth. "It's been good, actually. Everything's been booked, and from the weekend we'll be supervising as it all starts to pull together." 

"As long as our contingencies hold, we should be pretty smooth sailing," Joshua added, leaning back on the floor, using his arms as support. "The only thing we are really still working on is bolstering security after what happened last time. We need it tighter with how public an event it will be, it has to be perfect."

There were several reasons the two had decided the security had to be at a level of perfect that most would not even be able to comprehend. Of course, there was the safety of their family, that had been the first and foremost reason that they were in this current position. What was the point of a fake marriage and lying to everyone they love if they couldn't keep them safe? There was also the matter that if anything was to happen, even without anyone coming in harm's way, it still left their opposition more ammunition against them, no matter how small a problem occurred, the Q Group would latch onto it and twist it for days until the reality of what happened became completely forgotten (a little like Henry's black eye the previous week in the eyes of the internet). It was not a risk either was willing to take and a point emphasised in every private conversation about the wedding. 

Another, so-called 'not-so-important' reason was Joshua. The marriage was going to be fake, not legally but to them it would not change their reality, but the wedding was still important to Joshua. If one had seen the detail in his previous wedding plans, they would think it was not possible to be any more engrossed in it, however with every minute and hour Joshua worked on making the wedding everything he wanted, it became increasingly more important to him. Henry had picked it up in the last week, but the event had essentially become Joshua's baby. And this only brought on the final reason why the wedding had to be absolutely perfect, both with security and the event itself, Henry was feeding off Joshua's passion and now felt that if anything was even a smudge less than perfect on the day, it would be worse than failing every achievement he had ever made, combined. And this passion only fed back into Joshua, as all Henry's hard work did.

Essentially, if the two young men ever took a step back, they would realise that the 'not-so-important' reasons were in fact the very reason they wanted unaltered perfection. 

Well, perhaps they would not, because that would require the men to admit they were working so hard for each other.

Speaking of the wedding, Henry was suddenly reminded of something he had wanted to ask the youngest Lore. "Penelope, I've been meaning to ask, did you want to come and do your fitting with us? Everyone else has appointments set to their schedules and you can join whoever you want or go with a friend, but I thought I'd ask seeing as we still haven't managed a shopping trip." 

The teenager's eyes lit up at the offer. It had been difficult for her to even leave the house without causing a hassle, even just for school, she would take any chance at an escape. "Absolutely I want to go with you. When are you two going?"

"Next Wednesday afternoon," Joshua answered before Henry could pull his phone out to confirm. "We'll pick you up early from school and we can get lunch beforehand."

"You don't eat before a fitting," Henry rolled his eyes as he retorted. "We'll get coffee, get through the fitting and then get a late lunch." He smiled when Joshua simply nodded, leaving it up to him. Penelope shared a look with Henry and they both grinned at each other. 

"You guys plan a date with Penelope and yet avoid me like the plague, I'm beyond hurt!" Archer re-entered the room with a flair of dramatics, falling down on the sofa back where he had been just five minutes earlier, leaning against Meera with a hand on his heart. The Lore heir's dark hair was oversaturated with water, dripping over the shirt he had borrowed from Samuel's wardrobe. 

The younger siblings and PA's paid him no mind, all turning back to the low coffee table, discussing whether to start a new game or not. 

"Look at it, Meera, they are bullying me!"

"Maybe they wouldn't ignore you if you stopped being so lame." 

Everyone turned at the sound of Samuel's voice, seeing the man with their parents coming into the room.

"Sam! You can't be mean to me! You're meant to be on my side!" Archer's antics were nothing new, but everyone could see he was acting a little more manic than usual. 

"Archer, are you drunk?" John asked, his eyebrows furrowing at the childish pout atop his eldest son's face. He watched the offended expression bloom on his eldest sons face at the question, realising that it was probably not the case. He had an inkling of an idea as to why the man was acting all giddy and suddenly he did not want to know hear the real reason. "No, never mind. We'll start dinner in ten minutes so why don't you kids move into the dining room."

Without another prompt, everyone stood up and made their way to the dining table, Joshua tidying up the cards before he and Henry followed the group. Samuel was the only one who went elsewhere, heading to his room to quickly freshen up before the parents so he could get the low down on Archer's hook up before the adult adults were part of the audience. 

Henry could not help but feel a little strange at how smoothly everyone sat in their self-assigned seats, which was no longer with each family on either side. On one side of the table sat Archer, Samuel, Meera, Joshua and Henry, in that order. Opposing them was Marcus, John, Hanna, Caroline and Penelope. Of course, at that moment, half of the seats were empty. They also had the addition of the two PA's sitting next to Penelope, it seems like both had also been invited to dinner having worked all day with minimal breaks. He studied everyone else, who looked ridiculously comfortable considering it had only been two months since both families had become close. 

The young man could not help but turn to Joshua, both of them sharing the same look and sentiment. The families really had become one already, it was a little daunting, especially considering one of the major factors towards this was a big, fat lie.

Samuel came running in, skidding to a stop at his seat, stopping all the conversations and the young 'couple's' moment of overwhelm. He turned straight to his wife and asked, "Quickly, before they come down, who did he fuck?"

"Don't swear in front of my baby sister! Or talk about it here!" Archer's protests fell on deaf ears, only earning a flat look from Meera. She had been the only one to correctly recognise the man's stalling. 

"Despite all of our warnings on how much bad news she would be if he got involved, he hooked up with Preeti Garcia."

"Preeti, as in just broke up with her creepy, possessive stalker boyfriend who she is definitely going back to by next week? That Preeti?"

"The one and only. And we are not helping when he decides to attack Archer because the idiot can't use his brain for even a second when it comes to willing women."

"Archer! Why would you do that? You know how many problems the pair have been causing. The last guy who gave in to Preeti almost ended up with acid thrown at his face!"

Joshua turned to Henry with his jaw dropped, shocked at the sudden escalation of danger his elder brother had gotten himself into. But instead of mirroring Joshua's shock, the blond man was having a light bulb moment. He had heard about the incident, it happened just just before his current rotation. He had a week off and went into the accounting department to find everyone talking about it. Thankfully, their building security had intervened as soon as they saw the unauthorised person enter the Reyes building with his girlfriend's company ID and no one was hurt, however it had been a big deal ending with a large lawsuit that unfortunately ended in a settlement rather than jailtime, much to his parents' dismay. It seemed the intended victim decided he would rather receive one million USD and quit his job than press charges.

Quietly, Henry gave Joshua a quick rundown of what had happened as Ramy explained the same story to Haerin and Penelope, none of the three being able to react as they wanted. The parents had come in, staff bringing food to the table at the same time. Instead, the three of them with the addition of the two storytellers just turned to Archer like he was insane. By now, Samuel, Meera and Archer were acting as if there had been no commotion at all. 

Caroline and Hanna shared a look as they sat down, both husband oblivious to what had been happening before they entered. On the other hand, the mothers had incredibly keen ears and had heard Samuel's initial reaction during their leisurely walk to dinner. "I'll tell you later, we'll sort it out ourselves," Caroline's voice had been so quiet that no one noticed, everyone's focus slowly moving towards the last of the food being presented and thinking about what they were grabbing first from the various communal plates.

The two families fell into silence as they filled their plates and ate, only the sound of cutlery against China until it was time for dessert. And that is when the part the engaged men had been dreading commenced: the wedding talk.