Our "Friendly" Matrimony

9- Party Planning?

Alex's POV

"I'm just glad its her, I mean... she knows about... everything."

Vincent nodded in understanding, the fact that it was soph was my only salvation. Not just her being my best friend, but also her knowing about stuff so many other people didn't know about. She knew things that my own parents wanted to unlearn and she accepted them.

They didn't want to talk about it and I understood that because even I didn't want to talk about it, but there were times that Soph had automatically sensed my mood and since she knew the reason for my silence, she had been the one to hug and calm me down. Through panic attacks, sleepless nights, nightmares and bullies.

Ah, damn it.

Like always, thinking about Soph made my heart squeeze itself painfully. Yes, we were getting married but only for a year.

"Well... what are you gonna do when the time is up?"

It was almost as though he had read my mind.

"I don't know."

That was when Leo entered, and clinging to him was my fiancee.

"Its our day off! Why are you both so glum?!"

Leonard exclaimed after noticing the mood we were in. Soph tilted her head and assessed me with a confused pout lining her lips, I passed her a reassuring smile before standing up. I had been going through emails in my study before Vincent had shown up.

All of us had keys to each other's penthouses, so it wasn't a surprise for me when he waltzed right in. Making my way over to Leo I knelt down beside him, silently urging Soph to let go of her poor cousin who had probably been piggy backing her all the way here.

With a massive grin, Soph un-looped her arms from around Leo's neck and leaned down on me.

"You sure you can carry me?"

Her teasing tone brought a smile to my lips, helping me do a temporary 180 from my previous mood.

"Ha, I'm used to your weight hun, you're as heavy as a hippo."

Gasping in offense, she slapped my shoulder playfully and huffed. I glanced at Vincent to find him quirking a brow at us, at me to be precise. I guess I had to do something about this.

"Did you know that we're going to be kicked from the office two weeks before the wedding?"

Soph mumbled her question.

"No, wait what? Aren't they taking the whole 'don't see each other' thing too seriously?"

She laughed lightly in response and nuzzled my neck. Unbeknownst to her, such actions were not going to be considered platonic by any onlooker who had absolutely no idea about her aloof regarding anything physical personality.

"That's exactly what I said! But grandpa was adamant and even threatened to take my car and penthouse keys away."

I fake tsked under my breath while Leo laughed beside us.

"He didn't just threaten you, he actually took them away!"

"So what? I'll just crash with lexy here, right lexy?"

I pretended to think about it as I let her down onto her feet.

"Nope."

Her face fell at my response and I almost cooed at her as she looked at me with unmasked surprise.

"Its bad luck for a bride and groom to be together before their wedding, what if my hand slips?!"

Vince hit me at the back of my head while Leo laughed and Soph pouted before a grin over took her expression and she spoke with a teasing tone.

"Don't worry, I've broken enough wandering hands in my day one more won't account to much."

She winked in response and sauntered her way over to the main door while I shook my head in disbelief, a smile fixed on my lips.

"So where are we going?"

"Nowhere."

"Why would we go somewhere?"

Vince and I shared confused looks at their responses.

"Didn't you say we were going somewhere?"

I asked Leo as he walked back from the kitchen with beverages in his hand.

"Nope, you just assumed it."

A tired sigh escaped my lips as I crashed on my comfortable L-shaped couch and placed my head on Soph's lap as she flicked through Tv channels. Running her hand through my hair, she lulled me into a state of relaxation as I nuzzled her stomach.

"Ya'know, this looks less on the platonic side now."

"What?"

Soph was the one to ask since I was much too relaxed to deal with their bullshit.

"What I mean is, usually, when he pops his head on your lap and asks for a head rub, he's like that one puppy friend you can't deny, but right now- oh forget it."

Leo huffed at our puzzled expression and dropped himself onto my legs.

"Ow! dude."

He hummed nonchalantly, his attention fixed solely on the screen as Soph scrolled through Netflix, trying to settle for a movie all of us would watch.

Slipping right into the animated movies slot she clicked on 'Corpse Bride' and the movie started. Vince turned down the lights and went to occupy the empty spot on the other side of Soph.

Good thing I had kept their snuggling habits in mind while purchasing this couch.

"How long do we have till they show up, Soph?"

Leo's question caught our attention.

"Who show up?"

Vince was blatantly ignored as Soph responded to Leo instead.

"An hour at most."

Humming in response, Leo focused his attention on the screen while I continued to shuffle my feet underneath him. My legs were falling asleep and this buffalo man refused to move. Finally having enough, I used all my force to kick my leg up into the air and smirked in satisfaction as he flew to the floor.

Soph muffled her snicker as he turned to glare at us. And Vince kept on silently brooding at being ignored. I reached over and slapped his thigh reassuringly, all while picking up Soph's hand and dropping it on my head. Sighing in relief as she dug her fingers through my hair without further prompting.

"Who's coming over?"

"Everyone."

It was then that Vince spoke up.

"Come on guys!"

Both Leo and Soph gave the exact same response, which was a scoff before Leo shoved my feet to the side and plopped down on the couch, I took the chance and plopped my feet into his lap. He groaned and smacked them a few times before settling against his wishes and cursing me under his breath.

"Soph!"

Vince whined desperately when she smacked his hand away from the remote.

"I'm sorry."

He repeated and I furrowed my brows as Soph only threw her legs onto his lap in response. That seemed to satisfy him as he grinned quietly and focused on the screen again. There was clearly a story behind this but I was too tired to find out.

Ever since the company published the news of our engagement, Max had been turning down interview requests left and right. It had already been settled that the only company permitted to publishing any news about people from our group was our own, anyone else would be dragged to the court.

And our elders were pretty adamant on following through with their threat as well. 'You kids deserve you privacy' was their reasoning and it resounded with us so we left dealing with the papz to them.

It was barely an hour later that a party of over a dozen cousins filed into my penthouse, that I finally realized what Soph meant by 'Everyone'.

With the exception of their children, every single one of my and Soph's cousins were present.

"Have you guys kissed again yet?"

Liam- the youngest of the group and my baby cuz- questioned and I immediately sprang up from Soph's lap with flaming cheeks.

"Ooooh, it was a yes or no question but he blushed instead!"

Zoe- the second youngest in the group and Soph's cuz- pointed out, directing everyone's attention to us.

"Should we take that as a yes?"

Mateo- the oldest from my side- wiggled his eyebrows at us and I groaned while Soph hid her face in a cushion.

"Don't you have a fiancee to annoy?"

He snorted in response to my question and averted his gaze, thankfully, his suspicious behavior demanded everyone's attention long enough for me to slip into the kitchen.

"Running away already?"

I whipped around at the speed of lightening and sighed in relief after spotting Kaylee and her husband Jayden. Kaylee being the oldest from Soph's side. Jayden and Remi my cousin Owen's wife, were the only one's who didn't try to embarrass us every chance they got.

"Should I be offended that you don't find me threatening?"

I patted Kaylee's head as she pouted at me before stomping her way out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with Jayden.

"Something got you down lately bud?"

Jayden asked, quirking a brow at me and ruffling my hair. I let out a long sigh in response and he chuckled.

"Your cousins got a whole lot of stuff planned for you guys, so come on."

Handing me a glass of juice, he led me out into the battlefield. What I saw before me had me toppling over in laughter as Mateo lay groaning on the floor and Soph twisted his arm behind his back.

"Fine, you girls can have your own bachelorette party."

"We don't need your permission."

Cora sneered at him and he groaned again.

"Okay! Okay-OW!- I said okay!"

The rest of the guys had backed off, none of them wanting to mess with the thunder of she-dragons.

"That's not enough, take it back!"

Willow pointed out while casually taking a sip from her drink.

"OW! Okay! You aren't weak!OOOW I said it!"

The moment Soph's eyes flitted to mine, I straightened up and snuffed my laughter. Anyone who didn't want to be in Mateo's spot would be smart enough to not tick off these Dragons.

"Alright!"

Leo clapped his hands like the dramatic s**t he was and slowly steered Soph away from Mateo, who refused to move for a bit and melted into the floor.

I stepped over him in return and got smacked on my leg before handing Soph the glance of juice Jayden had given me. He threw me a curious smile and I shrugged in response. No one wanted to be Mateo right now.

Half of them occupied the couch and the others dragged the bar stools from the kitchen into the living room. Each of them having a blast in stepping over a grumbling Mateo.

"Okay so what are all of you doing here? And how did you get in?"

The sudden realization made me question them frantically while they smirked in response.

"Did you break the lock?! Tell me you did not get through my alarm system dammit?!"

They enjoyed my panicked state as I jumped off the couch and dashed towards my door. Examining everything for a couple of minutes, I heaved a sigh and groaned under my breath. How did they get in??? There was a reason none of them had my key, and that was because the last time they did, they pulled off the spookiest shitty prank ever.

Almost landed me in the hospital to be exact.

"We had your father grant us access."

No!

Why would he betray me like that?! My own father? No! I refuse to believe it?

"Okay, he's clearly having a moment in his head, let him rot in the corner like a maggot while we discuss much more important things."

Maggot?!

I threw them the most offended look I could muster before shoving half of them off the couch and plopping back into my previous position.

"Ass."

I heard them mutter in unison and stuck my tongue out at them while Soph grinned down at me.

"Its like she's adopting a mutt not getting married."

Noah's muttering caught my attention and I immediately opened my mouth to argue when Kaylee interrupted.

"Stop it already! We're here for party planning not arguing... Lord, you're all children! The lot of you!"

Jayden sat beside her, grinning behind her back as she scolded all of us and glared at Mateo. She was just a year older than his 29 year old ass but still so much more mature.

Once all of us looked at her regretfully, she finally smiled and gestured towards Soph and I.

"Show us the rings."

A collective round of 'Oooh's' and 'Aaah's' and 'Looks expensive' rang throughout the living room as one by one they grabbed our hands to look at the rings.

"Please tell me you did the proposal thing? Your lives are boring enough as it is."

Lia- Soph's 20 year old female cousin- commented.

"Yup, Alex proposed."

Soph responded for me, dropping her hand to my mouth to keep me from speaking up. I turned my head up to see her and she gave me a knowing look. Allowing myself to melt into her touch, I ignored the wiggling eyebrows and giggling cousins till the words 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette' were brought up.

So that's the party planning they had in mind.

"According to the plan, you're both not allowed to see each other from two weeks before the wedding, though I'm certain it would kill puppy here to stay away from his life support for so long, a rule is a rule."

Owen started, throwing a smart remark my way before smoothing over it and swatting away my frown by continuing.

"We were thinking of getting together for exactly 24 hours to celebrate the occasion."

24 hours?!

"Obviously, we won't be sleeping during that time so pump yourselves with caffeine beforehand."

Nova my 24 year old cousin added on a side note as excitement vividly grew for all of us.

"We were thinking of having our separate parties at the start and then getting together and flying to Vegas~"

"Where it all began!!"

Liam cut Willow off with a loud squeal and I quickly turned over to hide my burning cheek in Soph's stomach. They were never going to let us live it down.

"But before that..."

Julian who had finally shown up from my guest room, presumably after a long bath, took a dramatic pause between his sentence to get all our attention on him, earning several eye rolls before he decided to continue.

"You guys have a lot of s**t to finalize for the wedding, so we'll split in groups and help you out."

Great. Just when I wanted nothing more than to drown myself in work or with sleep.