To Have And To Hold

20 - Nearing Nuptials

"What time's your appointment?" Lauren asked Joey as she lay facing him in bed.

"10:30. Which means we have to leave in forty minutes."

Lauren groaned, burying her face in his chest.

"You can stay here," Joey said, chuckling.

"No!" she replied, her voice muffled. He grinned, kissing her hair.

"You'll probably just get bored," he said.

"But I want to see what your suit looks like," she said, pulling back to look at him.

"You're gonna see it soon enough anyway," he reminded her. She gave him a soft smile, kissing him gently.

"C'mon," she said, climbing out of bed and pulling Joey up with her.

Her enthusiasm seemed to have faded slightly by the time they got to the store, as she sat down on the couch as soon as she'd greeted the sales assistant, and quickly became absorbed in her Twitter feed. Joey smiled fondly, then went into the back to try the suit on.

When he was dressed he walked out to Lauren, smoothing down the shirt. As soon as he rounded the corner and came into her view she was up out of her seat, straightening the lapels of his jacket.

"What do you think?" he said, looking down at her.

"Navy blue looks good on you," she murmured, adjusting his tie.

"You like it?" he asked.

She nodded, looking at him appreciatively. She turned around to face his reflection and Joey took in the two of them in the mirror. Her eyes darted to his sleeves, hanging just a little too far over his wrists, and she reached out for them.

"Stop fussing Lo, it doesn't have to be perfect yet," he laughed.

She sighed softly, smiling, and took a step back.

"You look great JoJo," she said.

"Not that anyone's gonna be looking at me."

"You haven't even seen my dress yet!" she reminded him.

"I don't need to," he said, gazing at her with eyes full of adoration. Maybe he was biased sometimes, but he was sure no one would be able to take their eyes off of her. 

She rolled her eyes, her hands automatically fiddling with the hem of his jacket as a distraction. Joey caught her wrist. She looked up at him expectantly, and he leaned down to kiss her.

"So can we go get food now?" she asked when he pulled away. Joey laughed loudly, returning to the back of the store to get out of his suit.

He took her hand as they walked down the street to a restaurant round the corner. 

"Thank you for coming with me," he said. He'd considered bringing his groomsmen along too, but they had enough to do with other wedding preparations, and Lauren's opinion was the only one that really mattered to him anyway.

She squeezed his hand, smiling up at him. "Of course."

As they sat down to eat, Lauren got a text to say that her dress was ready to pick up.

"This is really happening," Joey murmured.

Lauren laughed. "You can still back out if you want," she joked.

"Like I'd ever want to do that."

Lauren arranged for Jaime to collect the dress so that there was absolutely no temptation in Joey's way.

"What, you don't trust me?"

"Remind me who's the one insistent they don't want to see the dress but still walked twenty minutes to catch a glimpse of it?"

"Okay, point taken," Joey said, holding his hands up.

"I'm going to Jaime's to get ready anyway, it'll be easier."

"I can't believe we're getting married next month," he said, his chin in his hand as he gazed across the table at Lauren.

"I can't wait," she grinned.

A/N No one's gonna be able to tell I rushed this in the last hour when I should have been doing chemistry homework right???? This is the second part of the extra chapter that turned into two extra chapters so it's the only one that wasn't prewritten and this is exactly why I don't start publishing fics until they're done. So I'm sorry this is a bit short but the next one's back to normal length. And it's a good one!