I Will Love You Endlessly (Sequel to i dare you to love me)

Part 12

Phil runs his hands over his face and drops back against the couch. As much as he wants to believe that he's an innocent party in all of this, he can't shake the nagging feeling of guilt eating at the pit of his stomach. The more he thinks about it, the more he realises he could've done more to help, and he hates that he put Dan through so much stress all by himself.

He sighs again; how could he be so careless? He hates that he's made Dan think that he doesn't care about the wedding details - because he does, he's just not very good at organization the way Dan is. He doesn't have the attention span or the patience for it. But that's not saying that Dan should have to suffer through all of the horrific details of wedding planning alone, and now that his eyes have been opened, he's determined to make it up to him.

Deciding not to risk messing anything up by touching Dan's schedule plans, he takes his own laptop and gets to work on the invitations and save the date cards - something Louise told them they needed to finish up at least a month ago but both of them were too busy.

He smiles a little to himself as he gets to work, going through various websites to pick the perfect layout and design before settling on a plain white card with pink flowers in the corners and a fancy script-styled font. He drafts the invitation and rewrites it three times before it's absolutely perfect.

Daniel James Howell
and
Philip Michael Lester
request the pleasure of your company
as they unite in marriage.

Saturday, Twenty-Fifth of May, Two Thousand Nineteen
at four o'clock in the afternoon
Birtsmorton Court Ltd Highlights
Birtsmorton, Near Malvern Worcestershire, WR13 6JS

reception immediately following the ceremony

Phil smiles proudly at his work and saves the image, so he can show Dan when he gets home, before ordering the prints.

He makes the 'save the date' cards in a similar style to the invitations - plain white with pink as the accent color, and a watercolor design of a pink flower off to the side of the details. He decides to keep it simple.

SAVE THE DATE
25.05.19.
for the wedding of
DANIEL HOWELL &
PHILIP LESTER.

Phil once again saves the image to his desktop before placing an order on the prints. He can't help but to feel a bit proud of himself; he thinks the invites and save the date cards look beautiful and he hopes that Dan will think so too. He also hopes that Dan will forgive him for sucking as a fiance lately.

He isn't sure what else to do at this point, still afraid to tackle the schedule alone, so he goes to the kitchen to make dinner for when Dan comes home. He distracts himself with pots of boiling water and spaghetti and jars of tomato sauce as he embraces his inner Master Chef. He's so immersed in cooking dinner that he doesn't notice when Dan finally returns, having let himself in virtually silently.

"Hey," he says and Phil drops the spoon he's stirring the sauce with in shock.

He turns to look at Dan. "Hey."

They both blurt out, "I'm sorry," at the same time, and Dan crosses the room to hug Phil.

"You don't have to apologize," the older man says. "I was being insensitive and lazy. I should've helped out more."

"You were trying," Dan tells him. "And I definitely didn't give you enough credit for the things you did do."

"Oh, speaking of which!" Phil turns off the stove before taking Dan by the hand and leading him back into the lounge. "Consider this my way of apologizing for not doing my share," he says as he opens his laptop and shows Dan the wedding invitations and save the date cards he made. "What do you think?" he asks, looking over at him to try and read his face. "I already ordered the prints, so it'll be really unfortunate if you hate them."

"I love them!" Dan is smiling from ear to ear and he wraps his arms around Phil's shoulders, kissing his cheek and telling him, "They're beautiful, thank you for making them."

"That's okay," Phil says then turns his head so he can peck a kiss to Dan's lips. "And I know it seems like I haven't been doing my share lately, which - admittedly - I haven't, but I have a really, really good reason."

"Oh?" Dan raises his eyebrow. "And what is that?"

Phil smirks. "One word: honeymoon."

Dan's eyes widen. "Honey - Phil, what are you planning?"

"That's for me to know," Phil kisses Dan once more before getting up to his feet and heading back into the kitchen to finish dinner, calling out, "And you to find out!" over his shoulder as he leaves Dan sitting in the lounge in absolute awe.