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

Part 18

Time is beginning to fly by and before either of them know it, it's a month until the wedding. And to say that Dan and Phil are on a constant emotional rollercoaster would be an understatement. They go from being extremely happy and excited to being stressed to being worried that something is going to go wrong, and the cycle repeats. It's crunch time for the both of them because, while they do have some time to finish up some last minute things, it's almost not enough time.

Louise keeps reminding them that everything is going to be fine, and day after day they're reminded of how thankful they are for her. She's been helping them out so much lately, mostly by covering for Dan at the shop while he runs around and does wedding things. Even though she insists that she doesn't mind the overtime, Dan can't help but to feel bad for having her work so much. And as much as he's excited for the wedding, he kind of hates all of the work that's going into it right now. because it's taking up all of his time and he's starting to miss his shop and his flowers and work. Every time he's working, he ends up having to take an early and extended break to make numerous phone calls and reply to emails, and half the time he ends up just leaving early to take care of wedding things. He hasn't worked a full day in weeks and he hates it.

It's another day where he's had to leave work early and call someone else in last minute to work a shift so they're not understaffed, and Dan can't help but mope a bit while he helps Phil organize a list of who has and hasn't RSVP'd.

Phil knows how hard it must be for Dan to not be working so much. It doesn't matter that he owns the shop and he doesn't even have to work as much as he does, because Dan loves his job more than anything; there's no one on this earth who has as much of a passion for flowers as Dan does and being unable to spend time doing the thing that makes him the happiest (aside from Phil, that is) must be killing him.

They didn't finish everything they needed to last night, so when Phil wakes up, he makes sure to call the BBC and let them know that he absolutely cannot come in today, and he is determined to finish up as much as he can on his own. Dan is already gone and he makes a promise to himself that he's going to allow Dan to work a full day at the shop.

Besides, all he has to do today is stock the bar, get a full headcount of everyone attending, and work on the seating arrangements for the reception. How hard can that be?

He spends the entire morning on the phone, whether it be calling relatives or making the arrangements for drinks, and while it's all tedious, it's easy. The task itself takes a long time but he finally manages to get it all done. Feeling proud of himself, he rewards himself with a coffee break and then gets right back to work, starting to organize the seating arrangements.

There's a layout of the of the reception hall laid out before him and sticky notes with everyone's names on them for him to pick and place wherever he chooses. 'How hard can this be?' he thinks confidently as he places the sticky note with his and Dan's names on it on a table in the center of the hall. The rest of the tables go around the room in a circle, and the first row of tables is easy to label; Dan's parents and his little brother get a table of their own, Phil's parents, his brother and his brother's girlfriend get a table, Louise, Matt, and Darcy get a table, and some of their other close friends get a table up front as well.

Phil smiles proudly to himself as he finishes and mulls over the rest of the tables and attendees, but his smile is soon gone when he realizes just how difficult this has gotten. He can't keep track of who can and can't sit near each other for one reason or another, and every couple of minutes he has to call Dan at work and ask for confirmation. Dan offers to come home and help him, but Phil keeps on insisting that he can get it done - and it takes a long time, but he manages to get together the perfect setup.

Or at least it was perfect for about fifteen minutes, until Phil's aunt called and informed him that she and his uncle wouldn't be able to make it to the wedding, meaning the final headcount is now off. Which isn't a major problem, but now there is an incomplete table at the reception, meaning the seating arrangements are now going to have to be reorganized. Again.

Staring down at the now imperfect layout of the reception that he had spent hours trying to make perfect, Phil angrily grabs the thick storyboard paper and throws it at the wall, unable to deal with the fact that his hard work now means nothing.

"Fuck!" he hears Dan swear as he walks inside of their flat. "Jesus Phil, you damn near gave me a paper cut."

"Sorry," Phil grumbles sulkily.

"What's wrong?" Dan asks, taking his coat off and hanging it up before bending down to pick up the discarded storyboard. "What happened with the seating arrangements?"

"They're all off now," Phil replies, annoyance evident in his tone. "Because my auntie and uncle aren't coming now, which means everything has to be rearranged again and everything I spent hours doing is now ruined."

"Aw, Phil." Dan walks over to him and goes to rub his shoulders, frowning at how tense he is. He hates seeing him upset like this. "Don't worry, we can fix the seating chart and everything is going to be fine."

"No, it's not!" Phil whines, aware that he sounds like a child right now but he's had a long day, he's allowed to do some whining. "I had it so perfect Dan; everything was set up so nicely, and your uncle and his new girlfriend were the appropriate amount of feet away from his ex wife and kids, and my grandparents on my mum's side were on the opposite end of the room as my grandparents on my dad's side, and there was an extra seat at your parents' table in case your brother brings a date, and now everything has to get changed and moved around and it was just so perfect already and now it's not!" He sighs heavily, feeling out of breath after his rant, and crosses his arms grumpily. "Why can't everyone just get along and seat themselves?"

"Truthfully, we probably should've done that from the start," Dan admits. "But, I refuse to let your hard work go to waste so we're going to take a break and then come back to this, okay? You and me."

Phil sighs again, this time sadly and Dan stops rubbing his shoulders to sit next to him. "I'm sorry," he apologizes, resting his head on Dan's shoulder. "I wanted to get this done on my own."

"Well first of all, you are not Eponine," Dan attempts to joke and Phil cracks the smallest of smiles. "Second of all, you and I are a team, Phil. We're partners now and forever, and that means I'm always going to be here to help you just like I know you'll always be here to help me. Don't feel bad for needing me, okay?"

"Okay," Phil says softly, feeling a little bit better about everything now, and Dan gently pushes his head up so he can kiss him.

"I love you," he tells him.

"I know," Phil says, now smiling properly and he rests his forehead against Dan's. "I love you too."

"Now, forget about all of this," Dan says, gesturing to the seating chart. "You and I can tackle that after dinner; right now, you are far too tense so you're going to take a break and a long hot shower."

Phil smirks a little. "Only if you join me," he says taking Dan by the hand and leading him down the hall to their bathroom, where the two of them relieve themselves of some stress together.