by Diane Marie
When Joey and Gabriella were done with their whipped cream tasting event, they hopped back into the shower. Their shower together was more intimate then the shower they took earlier today. Gabriella paid much attention to washing Joey’s body, while being sweet, loving and caring to his needs. Joey grabbed Gabriella into his arms as they made deep, intimate love in the shower.
When they were done in the shower, Gabriella made sure the alarm was set for Joey to wake up for the gym and work in the morning. Gabriella then found her favorite spot in Joey’s chest, but he flipped her over.
“Get comfortable on this side.” Joey said, recalling to Gabriella’s mind, he didn’t want to have set sides in their marriage.
Gabriella did just as Joey had said, and found a different comfortable spot on Joey’s chest. Joey cuddled himself up to Gabriella, holding her tight, wishing her sweet dreams, and telling her he already couldn’t wait to get home from work tomorrow. Joey and Gabriella fell asleep both in pure happiness while they were both thankful to have each other.
Chapter Seventeen
When the alarm went off in Monday morning, Joey hopped right out of bed.
“Sleep well?” Gabriella asked, rubbing her eyes.
“I sure did.” Joey announced.
He then leaned down to Gabriella who was still laying in bed, to give her a morning kiss on the forehead.
“Well you’re in a good mood.” Gabriella said, walking over to Joey and giving him a proper morning kiss, right on the lips.
Joey was in the middle of dressing in his gym clothes and packing a bag with his work clothes, and was delighted by her kiss. Gabriella then left Joey behind in the room, retreating downstairs to fix Joey and she breakfast.
Gabriella poured two cups of coffee and fixed them to each of their liking. She was then greeted in the kitchen by Joey, while she was preparing his lunch for him.
“Maybe some whipped cream would go nice on top of this coffee.” Joey said, grabbing Gabriella from behind for a moment to hold her.
“You’re silly. Would you like some?” Gabriella asked, taking Joey’s hold off of her to walk to the refrigerator.
Once the door to the refrigerator was open, she held out her parents can of whipped cream.
“Sure.” Joey said.
Gabriella proceed to swirl whipped cream on top both cups of their coffee. “It tastes better on you.” Joey said, while licking the whipped cream off the top of his coffee.
“Does it now?”
“It sure does. What are you doing?”
“I just fixed your lunch and now I’m toasting some Honey Wheat English Muffins. Have you ever had this kind before? They’re real good with butter.”
“No. I’m excited to try it though.”
“Good.” Gabriella said, placing Joey’s plate down before him. “I bought them last week with the money you gave me. I only picked a few things up. The stuff for the pizza, some breakfast foods for this week. I knew we were going out Friday night for dinner, so I didn’t make a fuss at the store. I’m going to go shopping with the rest today for this week.” Gabriella said, filling Joey in on how she selected to spend his money. He had been curious, but he didn’t want to inquire with Gabriella in regards to it, as to not take away from their trust.
“Do you need more money?” Joey asked, simply.
“Nope. I should be fine.”
“All right.” Joey said. He then took a bite of his English Muffin while Gabriella finally sat down at the table. “Yum.” He said. “Yum? Should I have expected you to say anything else?” “Yummy?” Joey asked, with a face showing he was waiting for acceptance.
“Yum’s fine. You’re cute.”
“Thanks my dear. What else do you plan on doing today? Are you taking care of the invitations?”
“I plan to. I just have to add my friends to the wedding list first. I have to register somewhere before they can be sent out.” “Oh right. They add that slip of paper into the invitation, right?” “What’s the last wedding you’ve been too?”
“Gavin’s. Actually outside of family that’s the only wedding I’ve been invited to.”
“Yeah besides Danielle and a couple of my cousins, I haven’t been to any other weddings.”
“So, just pick the stores you want to register at and tell the invitation people that’s where your registered and then go register tomorrow.” Joey said, not wanting Gabriella to get flustered with too much too do in one day.
“Your coming with.”
“Oh am I?”
“Yes. It’s our stuff not mine. It’s important for you to be there.” “I’d be happy to.” Joey said, thinking about it for a moment. “How many stores are you registering with?”
“Two to three.” Gabriella said, thinking for a moment herself. “All right. We’ll hit up one store tonight after dinner, another tomorrow, and if we need to, a third Wednesday night. That way when the wedding invitations get printed, mailed and delivered we will have already registered.”
“Really?”
“Of course. It’s my wedding too.”
“You mean your marriage. The stuff on the registry is for the home Joey.” Gabriella said, which got Joey thinking about the house he was building.
“Well, I better get off to the gym and go finish building our house.” “Joey you can sell the house. We can stay here until your business picks up.”
“We’ll see.”
“All right. We’ll I made you a cup of coffee to go, and there’s a bottle of water on the counter for the gym. In the plastic bag is a bottle of soda for you, to have with the leftovers from last night for lunch.”
“Oh wonderful. I did love your zucchini. Did I mention that yesterday?” Joey asked, as he stood to grab all the stuff Gabriella had laid out for him.
“No.” Gabriella said, with a pouting face.
“Well I meant to.” Joey said, unable to resist how cute Gabriella’s lips became when she pouted them. Joey gave Gabriella a kiss on the lips as his way of saying sorry.
“Oh.” Gabriella said, in awe after Joey’s kiss.
“I love you Gabriella.” Joey said, looking into her eyes.
Gabriella started to smile, Joey smiled, Gabriella’s eyes light up with pure joy, Joey’s eyes light up in happiness. “I love you too.” Gabriella said, standing to give Joey a goodbye kiss. Joey became lost in the kiss for a few moments as Gabriella felt him get excited, and then he pushed away.
“Damn. I got to go.” Joey said, abruptly and then was headed out the door.
“Bye babe.” Gabriella called out. Joey walked in the door after work at seven fifteen, and quickly found Gabriella in the kitchen.
“I’ve missed you so much.” Joey said, giving Gabriella kisses on her neck.
“I’ve missed you too, but please wash your hands. I don’t need my top getting all dirty.” Gabriella said, ruffling Joey's hair so he wouldn't become offended.
Joey washed up in the sink as Gabriella took her prepared meal out of the oven. Joey noticed Gabriella had made him chicken parmigiana with spaghetti.
“All this for me?”
“Yup.”
“You really shouldn’t have.”
“Why? You don’t like chicken parmigiana?”
“Oh it’s my favorite, but still.” Joey said, while Gabriella was placing their plates on the table.
“Well it’s no big deal. I’d rather cook a big meal, it passes the day quicker.”
“You had so much to do today.”
“Still.” Gabriella said, remembering how she had grown bored throughout her day.
“I’m starving. What did you do to occupy your time before me?” Joey questioned, feeling badly his work called for long hours. “I don’t know. I went to the beach.” Gabriella said, after thinking for a moment.
Joey laughed and changed the subject quickly.
“Are we going to register tonight?” Joey asked, while he was eating fast.
“Joey stop eating so fast. And yes.”
Gabriella stood from the table to get Joey more to drink. She then sat back down. “You don’t have to wait on me hand and foot, you know?”
“I like to.”
“You really do?”
“I do.”
“Well, okay then.”
When Joey and Gabriella were through eating dinner, Gabriella stood to do the dishes right away.
“Hey, may I bring the leftovers for work tomorrow?” Joey asked, being he really enjoyed Gabriella’s cooking.
“If you want. I brought rolls and cold cults today.”
“I’d rather your cooking.” Joey said, grabbing Gabriella by the sides and then into his arms.
Joey gave Gabriella a long kiss, showing her how much he missed her all day. “I really did miss you today.”
“I missed you more.” Gabriella said, remembering back to a point earlier in the day when she felt bored, and simply wanted Joey to come home.
Gabriella stayed in the kitchen while Joey went upstairs to take a quick shower. When Gabriella got up to the room, Joey was in the bathroom doing his hair, styling it as he always did. Gabriella stared at Joey for a minute while he was coming out of the bathroom, in disbelief over how handsome he was. She then sat down to do her makeup quickly as Joey sat and watched in wonderment, over how fast Gabriella was able to do her makeup. Gabriella decided to apply top eyeliner tonight, considering Joey did his hair so nicely. Gabriella stood up when her makeup was all done.
“You ready?” Joey asked.
“Yup.” Gabriella was pleased to announce.
Joey grabbed Gabriella’s hand, led her out the bedroom, down the stairs and out the front door. They then got into Joey’s mustang and headed for the mall.
Gabriella had gone to the mall earlier today because Joey had suggested so over breakfast. She decided for them to go to the store where she saw a Lennox vase set and the china set she wanted to register for.
“Isn’t this place pricey?” Joey asked, looking up at the store Gabriella was leading him into.
“A little.” Gabriella said, with confidence, sure she wasn’t going overboard.
Gabriella, with Joey in hand, walked over to the service desk and inquired what they needed to do to register. The lady set them up, as a couple, in the computer and gave them both a scanning device. She briefly instructed Joey and Gabriella on how to properly use them. The lady then explained what button to press before you scanned the item, if you wanted multiplies of a particular item. Gabriella was eager to get started, while Joey was happy to have a device of his own, feeling like a little kid receiving a new toy. Gabriella took notice, Joey seemed excited over the scanning device.
“Would you like to be the one to scan everything?”
“We can share. This thing is quite cool though.”
“Were you paying attention on how to use it?”
“Yes.” Joey said, laughing as Gabriella had made him feel like a little boy again.
“Well okay.” Gabriella said, then leading Joey over to the china section. “This is the pattern I saw today. I love it.” Gabriella said, showing Joey her dream china set.
The set was an off-white color with rose tops and vines engraved around the brim.
“I like, matches our theme well.” Joey said, then he took a look at the price. “Woah. Pricey.”
“It’s for display.”
“Ok. You don’t want to use it on holidays and stuff?”
“No. My kitchen dish set is nice enough.”
Gabriella had sat down earlier to pick out her dish set through a catalog her mother had, being she didn’t like anything in any of the stores she checked out before she went to the invitation store.
“So, how many plates?” Joey asked, ready to type in the number and scan the plates.
“Well, I’m not sure. It really is just for display in a china cabinet. How big do you think our china cabinet will be?” Gabriella asked, smililing over the thought of having her own china cabinet.
Joey thought about the dinning room in the house he was building. It was a mansion after all, he knew the china cabinet would have to be quite big to fill the room.
“Well. How many chairs do you want at the table?”
“Probably eight.”
“Okay so we’ll get sixteen.” Joey said, figuring their dinning room table would at least seat ten considering the size of the dinning room. He also calculated extra china for the family squeezed in by extra chairs.
“Sixteen?” Gabriella asked, thinking that was way too much. “Yes. Sixteen.” Joey said, scanning the plate to register sixteen of dishes.
“Joey, undue that.”
“Why?” Joey asked, sure sixteen was the right amount after he had envisioned in his head, three long rows to their China Cabinet. “Well. We also need the little plates to place in front of the big ones.”
“Okay, so sixteen of those too.” Joey said, then scanning sixteen of the little plates.
“Fine.” Gabriella said, planning to leave a box of both the little dishes and the big dishes unopened until they had a china cabinet. “Oh Gab, look at these.” Joey said, holding up crystal wine glasses with the same rose print sketched in the glass.
Joey then scanned sixteen of those too. Gabriella knew that her china set would most likely be the last thing to be bought on the registry, ‘when it was the only thing left,’ she thought. “Joey, you do know that whatever we don’t get as a wedding gift we’re going to have to buy? Right?”
“Yup.” Joey said, already aware of that. “Oh come on Gab. I have it all set in my head how your going to display the cabinet, with one cup a big plate and a little plate.”
“Should we get silver spoons and forks to go in this display?” Gabriella asked, to prove Joey was being ridiculous.
“No. We can buy that in time.” Joey said, even though he wanted to say yes, but he knew that Gabriella was only being sarcastic.
Gabriella huffed at Joey’s answer and began to walk to where she spotted the Lennox set she saw earlier. Gabriella turned around and saw Joey scanning something, she walked back over to Joey.
“And what are you scanning now?”
“Sixteen bowls.”
“Joey, I don’t need china bowls.” Gabriella proclaimed.
Joey ignored her as he then scanned three different size serving bowls.
“Sure we do.” Joey said, happily.
Gabriella again walked away from the china section. As she was walking away, Joey scanned a serving platter also on display with their print. Gabriella gave him a look to kill, but Joey knew Gabriella wasn’t mad at him.
“Ok. I’m done.” Joey said, starting to walk where Gabriella was standing, while she tapped her foot saying ‘I’m waiting.’
Gabriella lead Joey over to the Lennox vases and bowls she wanted for her living room. She told Joey which ones to scan, and Joey scanned what he was told.
“I really like these.” Joey admitted, while scanning a small vase. “I love Lennox.”
After hearing that, Joey took it upon himself to scan a couple more items in the section. Joey scanned two Lennox angels in both of their birth months, a Lennox Mickey and Minne Mouse, and also Whinne the pooh. Joey thought they would go nicely on display in a nursery.
“Oh really Joey? Do you want people to think we’re getting married cause I’m pregnant? Why not Tigger Piglet and Eeorye too.” Gabriella said, cutely as she tickled one of Joey’s sides in the spot she had found last night.
Joey started to giggle
“All right.” Joey said, happy to scan Tigger, Piglet and Eeorye. “We can move one set out of the nursery and into another bedroom and display the second set for our next baby.” Joey said, sharing his thought out loud.
Gabriella ignored Joey's thought and started walking away to lead Joey out of the Lennox section before he spotted anything else he might like. Gabriella was too late walking away. Joey picked up a box that held
a Lennox puppy in a bag.
“We’re buying this one now.”
“Joey, I’m not pregnant.”
“I know. This is for me. Look how cute it is.” Joey said, making a puppy face of his own.
Gabriella started laughing over how cute Joey was. “Fine. The puppy can come home.” By the time Joey and Gabriella reached home, they were both worn out from each of their days. Gabriella put her pajamas on and washed up for bed right away, as Joey did the same. When Joey hopped into bed, he held Gabriella tight from behind. “I really, really missed you today.” He said.
Gabriella didn’t say anything, she was on her side ready to fall asleep. Joey was a little, more demanding this time. “I want to make love.” Joey whispered in Gabriella’s ear. Joey’s words gave Gabriella a tingling feeling so strong, she didn’t have the will to argue. Joey made love to Gabriella and then held her tight all through the night.
Chapter Eighteen
While Joey was at work on Tuesday morning, he took a moment in time to have a look in the dining room of the blueprint he was bringing to life. He remembered how much fun he had last night, scanning everything with Gabriella. While in the dinning room, he pictured the vision he had of their china cabinet on the back wall. He had a smile on his face, while thinking of Gabriella’s dream china set.
Joey then couldn't help himself from looking at the bedroom closest to the stairs leading up to the master bedroom. Joey pictured baby furniture, unable to help himself from growing excited. He pictured his and Gabriella’s future children running rampant around the house. He planned to have many children with Gabriella, and judged they would have a hard time keeping track of their whereabouts in such a big house.
When Joey got home from work, Gabriella wasn’t nearly through preparing dinner yet. She instructed Joey to take a shower, promising dinner would be ready as soon as he was through.
When they were through with dinner, they were off in Joey’s mustang to the mall again. Joey was gleaming with excitement, while thinking of their house, and the material stuff they were on their way to pick to suit it.