PART EIGHTY-THREE: PARTIES GALORE

I had never realized how many parties I would get, just by getting engaged. There was the reception of the wedding, of course. Then there was the engagement party, which I already had. But there also was a bridal shower and a bachelorette party for me, and then Patrick would get a bachelor party. Sure, getting married is a big deal, but why so many different celebrations? That wasn’t a question I could answer, but I was just so thankful that the extra parties weren’t things that I had to plan. Tess had taken care of the engagement party, my mom offered to throw me a bridal shower, and basically my whole ex hockey team pitched in with bachelorette party plans. Now that the wedding was getting closer, it was time for the latter two parties.
My bridal shower came first. It was at a cute little restaurant back home, closer to my parent’s place than the city. I bought a simple, modest, short white dress to wear to it, but my mom basically organized everything else. My guests and I (which included all females - friends and family who were coming to the wedding) ate lunch. I opened gifts, which were mostly the smaller, less expensive items that Patrick and I had put on our registry. We played a couple shower games, as cheesy as they could be, and then we enjoyed some white cupcakes that were arranged in the shape of a wedding dress, courtesy of my talented mom. It wasn’t much, but I hadn’t asked for much. It was just part of the wedding tradition that I wanted to continue.
A little after that was the bachelorette party (and the bachelor party, for Patrick). Both of those included a LOT of planning from our friends. The parties were on the same night, so we both would be very busy, but we both had high hopes that neither of us would have too much fun. I made my friends promise that they wouldn’t have any guys come to the party - I would never be comfortable around a male stripper ever, especially not right before getting married. I made Patrick’s friends promise the same thing about female strippers and his party too, because I knew how guys could be. I wasn’t too worried about them. Pat was a good guy, and if he wasn’t comfortable with something, he’d let them know. I was more afraid of what my friends would do. Even if they didn’t invite any shirtless dudes, they would find a way to make it inappropriate - I just knew they would.
“Are you ready for a night of magical adventures?” I answered my phone when it was time for the party to start and that was how Tess greeted me.
“I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. I actually was looking forward to a night out with my girls, but everything was still a surprise to me. I normally liked surprises, but I was still pretty skeptical about this one. Either way, I had put on a sexier white dress than the one I had worn at my bridal shower, along with some white heels, and I had made myself look presentable.
“Your ride is in the parking lot. Get yourself out here,” Tess said before hanging up. I shook my head as I slipped my phone into my purse and made my way over to the door. Patrick found his way out of our room at that point - it was about time for him to go to his party as well.
“Wow, nice dress,” he commented.
“Thanks.” We headed out the door and went out to the parking lot, where a huge party bus was parked. Of course. My friends had gone all out for this party.
“Wow. Looks like you’re riding in style,” Pat commented.
“Jealous?” I raised my eyebrows.
“A little,” he confessed. Johnny and the rest of the guys started showing up in their cars then, so he went with them and I got on the party bus with my friends. It was really cool inside. There were drinks for us and fun lighting, plus plenty of room. Tess had her music from her iPod playing too.
“Was a party bus really necessary?” I asked as I took a seat.
“Of course it was! And so is this!” She rummaged through her purse until she found a sash that said bride on it, and she put it on me.
“Really?”
“Really! Are you ready for dinner?” I nodded. We danced around on the bus until it arrived at Olive Garden. Well, so far, my friends had done a good job. I had always thought a party bus would be super fun to ride in, and you could never go wrong with Olive Garden. The food was amazing and we were an interesting group, which made for intriguing conversation. Afterwards, we headed to Tess and Jordan’s place for drinks and games. They had decorated the place with balloons and streamers, and sitting on the table were cookies. Inappropriately shaped cookies.
“I knew it. I knew you had to do something ridiculous!” I complained as Tess and Jordan started cracking up. I tried not to smile, but I couldn’t help myself. It was kind of funny.
“Come on, you know you love it,” Jordan laughed.
“There’s no way I can eat any of those cookies,” I told her. “Not with a straight face, at least.”
We all decided to have some of the cookies after drinks were poured, and we played some drinking games as well. The most interesting one we played was one where they had asked Patrick some questions about our relationship in advance. He had given his answers, and now it was my turn to try to answer the questions. Whenever my answer wasn’t the same (or very close to) his, I had to take a drink. I did pretty well, but the questions got more difficult towards the end, so I had quite a few extra sips of alcohol. The party ended up turning into a sleepover, just to be safe. It was a lot of fun, though. Patrick had texted me throughout the night with updates. I trusted him, but I knew how crazy guys could act around their friends. I think we both felt better knowing what the other person was up to.

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“So you had fun at your party?” I asked Patrick the next day. We were cuddling on the couch in our apartment, searching for a good Christmas movie to watch on TV. The holiday was rapidly approaching. I was glad our parties were over so we could finally relax.
“Yeah, it was great. How about yours?”
“Same here. Oh, I almost forgot! I brought home some party favors for you,” I remembered. I sprung up from the couch and went into the kitchen to retrieve a small Ziplock of some extra cookies. I brought it back to the living room and tossed it to him.
“Seriously?” He wore a smile, but he also looked very confused.
“I thought you’d enjoy them,” I giggled.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“They’re dick cookies!”
“It doesn’t mean anything!” I couldn’t contain my laughter through any of it, as hard as I tried. I attempted an escape, but Patrick grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me backwards. I stumbled into him and we fell back onto the couch, so I wasn’t very successful.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed in our almost two years of being together, but I’m not into dudes,” he told me.
“Oh,” I answered, as if I was surprised at his explanation.
“Do you need me to do something to convince you?” he wondered.
“Maybe. I mean, you and Johnny are together a lot. And have you ever been on Tumblr? There are some pretty persuasive posts on there…” I grinned.
“Ya know, you and Tess are really close, I guess you must be a thing.”
“Dammit! Are we that obvious?” The sarcasm in the room was strong.
“Yeah, you really are.”
“You and Johnny are too. You should definitely tone it down a little.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep your cookies. I don’t think I can handle eating any of them,” Pat decided.
“Why, are they too big for you?” I couldn’t help it. He set himself up for that one.
“They’re definitely not too big for you,” he smirked.
“Shut up,” I retorted, unable to hide the fact that I was blushing slightly.
“So the real question is…does Tumblr seriously think Johnny and I are gay?” Patrick wondered.
“Not seriously. They just make funny posts about it. They ship you two,” I explained. “Oh, and there’s some erotic fan fiction about it too,” I added.
“Gross…” Pat answered, thinking about what I said. “Alright, I don’t even want to think about that. Distract me.” I did exactly that. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Is this a good enough distraction?” I inquired.

“Yeah. Feel free to continue distracting me,” he said, pulling me even closer, if that was possible. It clearly was mistletoe season.

Notes