Redamancy

Joey kept her chin tucked slightly toward her neck, glasses falling down the bridge of her nose as she continued on her brisk walk to work. Luckily enough, she hadn’t lived too far away and thought she could very well benefit from the slight exercise. It was a windy day in London, the streets bursting with people, as usual, who were all in some kind of apparent rush to get to where ever they were headed. Joey absolutely regretted not taking the time to secure her documents in her computer bag, instead figuring she might get a chance to read over them a bit as she walked. Instead, her documents were kept closed and snug under her arm, almost dropping them a total of three times from bumping into 1) a rowdy group of teens 2) a stiff muscle man with a mohawk and 3) a very rapid baby carriage.

Lucky for her, the coffee she gripped in the opposite hand hadn’t been thrown from her hands. If it had, she wasn’t too sure what she would have done - she had a particularly long chat the night before with a bride who absolutely lost her mind. Apparently, said bride had woken from a nightmare of sorts and was frantic over the phone, somehow thinking that all the vendors had cancelled on her. Joey spent about two hours on the phone with the bride, assuring her everything was fine and secured. However, the bride had still requested a full rundown of the day, down to the minute. Each detail was questioned at least once, bringing on a migraine from hell. And, of course, as soon as she had gotten out of bed to talk to the bride, (in order not to disturb her boyfriend, Adam) her rather large companion followed her to the living room, taking a seat on her lap as she talked.

She had woken up this morning with Scooby’s fleshy jowls resting on her exposed stomach and nearly vomited when the Great Dane picked up his head and a long string of thick drool snapped back onto her stomach in a decent sized puddle. As Joey picked up her cell-phone, her eyes widened. She had slept in and called to Adam to ask why he hadn’t woken her when he had gotten up, but he was gone.

All in all, her morning had not gone as planned, and as a result of her late night and morning, she hadn’t put as much effort as she perhaps should have into her appearance. Her hair was in a pony tail that sat a bit too high and slightly off to the side and she had only managed to swipe a small amount of mascara onto her eyelashes before she had to head out the door. She was walking as fast as her heels and pencil skirt had allowed, and when her place of work came into view she gave a rather relieved sigh.

Her pace quickened slightly, keeping her arm snapped tightly against the file that still remained under her arm. When she got to the door she struggled for a moment or two,before getting a good enough grip on the handle and using her body weight to open it only just wide enough. At the same time she released the door, she quickly stepped inside, cursing as droplets of her scalding coffee spilled and dripped onto her hand at the exact moment the long strap of her computer bag got caught on the door handle.

“Are you kidding me today?” She huffed, frustratedly yanking on the strap to pry it loose. She stumbled a bit from the release and looked up at the reception desk as laughter sounded through her ears. She slowly narrowed her eyes at the blonde who was sat at the desk watching her, trying to hide her giggles behind her hand. “Yep, s’ok Chlo, I’m fine! Please, don’t rush to help.” Joey growled, with a little hint of sarcasm coating the words. Chloe, who was actually one of her best friends, laughed a bit louder and shook her head.

“Alright,” she nodded, “well, your client has been waiting in your office for almost twenty minutes. Lucky for you, she’s not yet made a fuss.”



“Gemma?” Joey asked. Chloe pursed her lips as if to think and then quickly shuffled through papers.



“Gemma, yes,” She enthused, Joey nodded as she passed her friend, discreetly bringing her tongue to lick off the now cold coffee that previously dripped onto her hand. As Joey walked down the hall to her office (the second on the right), she was relieved to see the door was cracked open, meaning she didn’t have to struggle with the handle. Joey softly nudged the door open with her shoulder, a small ‘hello’ falling from her lips as Gemma and her guest turned to see who was entering. At that precise moment, Joey’s arm seemed to lose control and loosened around the documents, which caused them to go fluttering to the floor.

Joey almost couldn’t move and almost laughed at the hilarity of her unconventional morning, and instead closed her eyes for a moment or two. She sighed before deciding it definitely wasn’t the greatest idea to wear a pencil skirt today, and prepared to bend down to retrieve her documents. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see that the previously scattered papers were gathered in a large hand. Slowly, she followed the unfamiliar hand, to the tattooed arm, to the face, almost shocked by the green of the strangers eyes and the friendly, unevenly dimpled smile across his lips.

“Rough morning?” He laughed lightly, and Joey was slightly wooed by the seamless, deep hum of his accented voice. She had lived in London for about three years now, but had never before came across such a lovely sound. She shook her head slightly as if to snap out of the sound waves that lingered in the air and then she nodded, a small chuckle finally releasing from her lips as if to dispel the morning.

“Thank you,” She said, taking the papers from his hand gently. He nodded, returning to his previous position on the seat next to Gemma. Joey walked to the other side of the desk, relieved to finally be sitting (perhaps no more mishaps would happen). She set the papers and her coffee down, placing her laptop bag on the floor beside her before pushing her glasses to the proper spot of her nose. She took a look at the pair sitting in front of her and smiled.

“Morning, Gem, my apologies for being late” She said, and glanced toward the male figure, “Brother, I assume?” Because there was no denying the similarities - the give away being the smile.



“Morning! It’s not a problem,” Gemma chirped, “Yes, this is my brother, Harry.”

“Lovely to meet you,” Joey nodded toward him.



“And you, love.” He meant it as polite, but immediately after saying it, he thought that it might have been too informal. However, he decided not to try to cover it up. A small silence filled the air as Joey concentrated on organizing the papers.



“Okay,” Joey finally looked up, “So, I’m Joey - Josephine, whatever you’d prefer. I mean, you know that already, Gem, so. Anyways, you’ll be delighted to hear that I’ve secured all the vendors, and lucky for us, the original photographer you requested had a cancellation and actually contacted me.” Gemma squealed, her hand jumping to Harry’s arm and squeezing tightly. Harry knitted his brows together, taken back by the action.



“Jesus, Gem,” he laughed, but didn’t make a move to take his arm away. It was his sisters wedding after all. Harry felt eyes on him and looked over to see Joey smiling, with so much amusement that he thought she would laugh at any given moment. He grinned slightly at her before Gemma began to talk.



“Oh, my god,” Gem whimpered, “Oh my god, this is so great. There will never be a happier day in my life, I’m sure!” Carefully looking at her, both Harry and Joey had noticed there was a slight build up of water behind her bottom eyelids and the pair looked at her as if she had grown a few heads. Harry and Joey looked back at each other, both with questioning facings as if to say ‘did she just really say that?’, then back to Gemma.



“You’re kidding, right?” Joey laughed, “What about your wedding day?” It had to be the wedding day - Joey busted her ass a lot more than she usually would have because she liked Gemma so much. The two had gotten along really well, and actually saw each other outside of wedding planning a few times. Gemma’s face grew pink and she nodded furiously.



 “Well, yeah, obviously,” she sputtered, “of course.” Harry let out a rather loud, throaty laugh, throwing his head back slightly. Joey smiled widely, watching the two interact unlike anything she’s seen, however crazy that sounds. The vibe between the two far surpassed any brother/sister relationship she had been accustomed to. She guessed that, the only other relationship she knew like that was her and her older brother. It was a useless comparison now, as he had been gone about four years.

“My god, Gem,” He said through laughter, “that was absolutely golden. I’m telling Lou.” And as the words left his mouth, his brain went spinning. He had almost forgotten his sister was marrying Lou. Lou, as in Louis. Louis, as in, his best friend. When he had first found out, he wasn’t sure he had heard it right - and he remembered telling her (in front of Louis, no less) ‘him, Gem? Really? Of all these people. Have you heard him talk! Isn’t it annoying or something?! Its all squeaky!’. Of course, Harry didn’t actually mean it, but at the time he was a little angered and annoyed by the entire thing - he had even said ‘but Gem, you’re so much older!’. It didn’t take him long to apologize and calm down, figuring if they were happy, then there wasn’t much he could do. He just wasn’t the type to take happiness away from his sister. Or best friend.

Gemma playfully smacked her brothers arm, grinning ear-to-ear and said, “Please, Louis knows I’ve had my eye on this photographer for ages, longer than we’ve even been together. I’d risk my life for the photographer before Louis, I think.” Harry rolled his eyes, turning to get Joey’s attention.

 “She’s crazy,” He told Joey, who only chuckled in response.


“You should meet some of the other bride-to-be’s,” She said, “Gemma is literally the second coming of Jesus Christ in comparison.”

Harry nodded, “Ah yes, I suppose I agree. She does look a bit like a man, wouldn’t you say?” Joey’s laugh was louder than she would have liked, she quickly covered her mouth to hide her - in her opinion - unfavorable smile. Of course, this made Harry laugh as well.

And the scowl Gemma’s face held just made the situation that much funnier.


“Alright, alright,” Gemma rolled her eyes, “It wasn’t that funny.” Still with grins on their faces, Joey and Harry had almost forced themselves to stop laughing. Joey cleared her throat slightly.


“Sorry, Gem.” One last chuckle escaped, which actually made Harry’s grin a bit larger. He decided he quite liked the funny way Joey laughed. “Okay, moving on to the rehearsal. Its in about two weeks - how are you feeling about that?” Gemma took in a deep breath, and nodded (more to herself). If she was honest, the excitement was underlined with fear and nerves. She was quite worried she would psyche herself out and get cold feet like a lot of other brides do. Gemma had also made the mistake of reading wedding horror stories and a few late night episodes of ‘who the (BLEEP) did I marry?’. She almost always convinced herself she was just being irrational.

She slowly rubbed her hands on her thighs and smiled, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. A bit nervous - it’s so soon! Can you imagine in just two weeks, my life is going to change? I thought about postponing it a year or so,” - it was true, she had- at the words, Joey sat up, looking quite scared, which made Gemma chuckle, “But, that was just nerves talking.” A visible look of relief crossed Joey’s features, which was noted by Harry.



“Gem, you about gave her a heart attack,” He said jokingly.

Gemma blushed slightly and grinned, “Sorry, Jo.” Joey could only nod.

“Right well, just promise me you won’t leave him at the alter or anything,” She joked. At the words, Harry sat up straighter and just as Gemma went to say “I won’t”, Harry spoke over her.



“Or do, Gem,” he shrugged because, for God’s sake it was his best friend and his sister, “I mean…whatever.” Again, Joey was sent into a small fit of giggles as Gemma smacked Harry again, on the head this time. He grinned sheepishly as Joey shook her head.

What a funny pair, she thought.

Notes

commentary feed back would be much appreciated!