A Simple Beginning

Last Straw

Christian
Gail handed me the bills for Elliott's destruction of my home on his bender and other times he came in without cleaning up prior to his visits. The costs totaled over thirty thousand dollars for everything. So I visit his apartment and give him the copy of the bills for the damage and demand payment. I told him that every time he comes to my place and causes damage he will pay for it all. He goes to his office and I follow him and he pulls out his checkbook and writes me a check for fifty thousand dollars. He told me to give Gail and the staff that put up with him the extra money for the inconvenience he caused them. Namely having to undress him and put him to bed. Kate walks in after hearing the conversation and tells me he won't be doing that any more.

Kate
I hear the whole conversation and I walk in and tell Christian that Elliott won't be doing it again now that we are getting married he will be with me and he will be getting a shower built in his office so he can clean up after work from now on. Elliott agreed to do just that. Dad has one in his office and one for the staff to use, after all reporters can get into some strange situations and they need to clean up before they report on line or on the programs. We have tv and on line news and they need to look good in front of the cameras.

Elliott
After I look through the bills I go to my office and write a check for fifty thousand rather than the thirty sone thousand dollars damage I did to his apartment. I tell him to give the balance to the staff for the inconvenience that I caused all of them. Kate walks in and assures that I am building a shower at my office to clean up before I leave work so I won't be damaging his place again. She tells him that since we are getting married he will be respectful of others domiciles including his own. She has seen my home and the staff members she had me hire are now cleaning it all up and painting and bringing in people to renovate everything to Kate's taste. After all it will be her hone as well.

The announcement

Carrick
Eamon calls and invites us to come to dinner at their home. I am a little nervous about why though. I am hoping Elliott didn't get Kate pregnant and refuse to marry her. I decide to stop thinking that way and accept the invitation. Apparently he wants our whole family to join them. Mia has been acting moody and has not had Kate over in a while. Elliott has been too busy to drop by for his breakfast or even dinner. We thought he might be ill at first but Christian assured me he wasn't ill but he tried to get Gail to feed him because he now has an apartment in Escala. Gail threw him out of Christian's apartment when he damaged the place. So she had security help him leave. You have to really done a lot to upset Gail. I can see where Elliott has damaged things here at our home and we put our foot down and that was stopped immediately after he got the bills for the damage he did to our home.

Grace
I tell Carrick that we will just find out what they are announcing when we go to the dinner tonight. It only took me one look at Enid's face that it is news that made her very happy. If it includes us it could be a wedding and I know it is not Mia and Kate or Mia and Ethan, so it has to be Kate and Elliott. I suspected that they were involved but could never prove it. Somehow video footage was erased before I got time to check it out.

Eamon
We all sit at the dinner table and finally we encourage Elliott to make the announcement. I watch as he stands up and helps Kate stand up and he announces their engagement and the date they intend on getting married. They already have everything planned out including the venue, food and everything else. They sit back down and Enid and Grace are talking about the wedding and I hear  the plans the kids put together being picked apart like a dead carcass. Elliott stops it and tells them that Kate has already completed the planning and it is their wedding and her day to shine as a bride and he won't let the take it away from her. He has finally became the man she deserves and Carrick and I are in full agreement.

Kate
I am impressed with Elliott and dad and Carrick for standing up to the mothers. I have everything I want and everything is paid for and all we need to do is get the wedding clothing tailored. We even chose our matching wedding bands. Two months from now I will be getting married. I hired Mia's as the caterer and gave them a design for the wedding cakes. Mia has ideas for the bachelorette party and Ethan has ideas for the bachelor party.

The parties are getting a bit much and we had to step in and make modifications to the lists of attendees. Sone of the people invited thought they could invite people and the parties list was growing by leaps and bounds. Over two hundred people and only twenty people were invited to each party. We discovered that someone that wasn't in the original guest list was responsible to inviting the other guests. We were flying to Vegas for both parties and the guests had to go through a background check. I am not sure how the guests lists got so out if control, but we eliminated the people we had never met and the person who invited them. Finally we got it back to twenty people total for both guest list. Christian was paying for everything and his security was on the toes and discovered the guest lists were not what they should be. It turns out one person had adjusted the list and switched it with the original list.

After everything we had a wonderful time in Vegas. What we didn't know was what happened the night of the bachelor and bachelorette party. We discovered the next day that the very quiet and secretive friends of ours ended up on the front page in a wedding dress and tuxedo running from the paparazzi.