Chapter 76

Joshua tentatively watched as his parents engaged in small talk with Caroline and Marcus about how much nicer their weekly dinners felt with a family style meal over individually prepared plates, not missing the glances in his and Henry's direction. To his right, the blond man was keeping his head down, eating his slice of cake as slowly as possible, seeming nervous despite having no reason to be. It was not as if they had anything to say with regards to the wedding planning other than it was moving along in full swing. But Joshua could understand to a degree, he felt a little like when he first started his job, confident in his work and yet nervous about sharing it in a meeting. The fake relationship had become a second job of sorts for the two men, not as noticeable when alone in Henry's apartment but incredibly so when it comes to discussing details with other people, even if the other people were their families. In fact, it was precisely because they were their families.

As the topic naturally came to a close, Caroline turned to the two young men. "Has everything been alright with the preparations? Is there anything left we can help with?" She and her husband could not help but talk about how little help they were giving towards the upcoming wedding, not only was it so different when compared to the frenzied month leading up to their eldest's but the couple could not help but feel like they were not doing enough as parents towards their younger son's special day.

Of course, she knew that it was Henry and Joshua who did not want help, everything so immaculately planned within the short amount of time that all preparations were proceeding slowly without even impacting their jobs, but as a parent, Caroline felt a little useless. The only contribution they had truly made was money. She wanted her son and Joshua to have the day they wanted, to have everything as they wanted, but still, as a parent how could they help so little?

Joshua shook his head as Henry shrugged. "Everything is going smoothly. We have our fitting next Wednesday and Penelope is coming with us. Catering is all set and ready, we will have our final check in with the caterer three days before to make sure everything is progressing smoothly with no issues and the venue has been triple checked, as well as the backup just in case. All we have left is bolstering the security for the week leading up to the wedding and keeping public appearances up. That and our investigation into the online slander that is still quietly building up."

"I've also set up a program to keep a track of all the reservations and bookings so if there are any issues or discrepancies or attempts to bribe, we will know and can deal with it immediately."

The four parents could not help but stare in shock. They had been involved with a number of weddings in their years, not to mention the mayhem within their own. Even if they trusted their second sons, it seemed completely unbelievable that everything was going so smoothly. Wedding do not go that smoothly, ever. However, they did not want to say too much and tempt fate.

"So," Caroline, as usual, was the first to gather her thoughts and speak aloud, "do we take that as there is nothing for us to do?" She watched as her son took in the question before a stunned expression showed on his face. That clearly had not been the response to all that detail expected from her. In fact, it seemed like the couple had completely forgotten that there were six family members who were eager to be involved if they allowed or needed it.

Joshua and Henry looked at each other for a second, almost as if confirming with one another that Caroline's questions was implying that if there was anything they could do, they wanted to do it. But, what exactly could they hand over to their parents. Most things were sorted and simply required monitoring, and what was yet to be finished had details that they had to see to.

"Um, it's not that that we don't want help, we just don't really need it with what few things there are left to finalise," Joshua answered for them.

"Well, what do you actually have left?"

"Other than triple checking the venue, catering and security? It's mostly menial things like going through all the nameplates to make sure there are no defects, updating the seating plan according to recent social or industrial developments, start compiling the gift bags, get in touch with the invited photographers and journalists for a second screening, dropping by the tailors to make sure there are no problems with anyone's clothes and going through the ordered decorations for anything faulty or damaged."

It was quite a list that Joshua had gone through but when considering that the pair had multiple half days at work until the wedding and that there were still a couple weeks to go, it was an easily achievable goal. At least, it was for the two geniuses.

"Surely there is something there we can help with, just to lighten your load. What about the decorations or gift bags?"

"No!"

Everyone was stunned silent by Joshua's loud rejection. All but one. Henry could not help but shake his head with a helpless smile, how could he not at that ridiculously cute idiot who had come further to the surface as the organising was underway. "The gift bags are something we had planned to do ourselves otherwise it would be pointless. And all the detail work has to be perfect, meaning this one has to be present." Cue more silence from the crowd.

As Joshua's face started to heat up with embarrassment, the blush going down to his nape, Henry wracked his brain for a second. "If it makes you guys feel better, you could pick up the press screening and seating plan, although the latter is just plugging information into a program and then double checking the result for errors in another program. The rest of it though, it absolutely has to be us to do it. Otherwise, it just won't work. That's why we used so much of our annual leave on it."

Hanna sighed, shaking her head as she said, "We'll handle them both then. If any other tasks come to mind, please throw them our way. I know you two planned everything personally and have a very exact vision of how you want the day to go but do try to keep in mind that we would also like to be involved as much as possible. There may not even be another wedding in the family until Penelope is all grown up. We want to help in any way we can."

While Hanna's words were heartfelt, the children and personal assistants were instantly caught up on the shade thrown at the Lore heir, a quiet snickering sounding down the table. Archer himself could not feel offended at the words because he also felt it was a very likely truth, although not one he wanted to admit.

With an agreement made and Archer's slight humiliation still in the air, dinner was finally concluded.

The parents made their way up to the Reyes' family office to discuss some important matters between themselves. Those important matters obviously being the gossip around their children and first on the agenda was the mess Archer had gotten himself into on his way home from work.

On that same matter, Archer was dragged away by Samuel and Meera so they could officially rip him a new one for being so stupid as to hook up with someone he knew would be bad news. The bedroom door stayed locked for the rest of the night with no intention from the Reyes couple to release the troublemaker until morning to ensure they got their message across.

The PA's had gone to get back to their own lives for the night, disappearing without anyone noticing them.

Henry and Penelope went off together for an evening piano practice. They only intended to spend an hour together as Henry was eager to disappear back to his flat before anyone tried to convince him to stay the night. He still had food in his fridge, in fact twice as much as normal now. He did not want any of it to go to waste. Penelope, of course, was free to continue practicing until it was time for her to leave, but she had been softly warned by the young man not to overdo herself considering how tired she seemed when she had arrived.

That left Joshua.

He had also been invited to the piano session seeing as everyone else had gone off to do their own things, and as tempting as it was to see Henry play again, the man declined. Instead, he decided to spend some alone time, going up to Henry's room and flopping down on the bed while kicking his shoes off. Almost as if it was natural to do so, Joshua bundled himself up in the blanket and pulled his phone out to casually read a light romance novel as a wave of tiredness descended on him.

And, if the young man was honest with himself, brutally honest, it did feel natural. It was Henry's room, and while physically a different room, in essence it was exactly the same room as the one he had been sleeping in the last couple weeks.