The next two days passed quickly as we carried on working, playing, and eating food and each other. Despite combined efforts at both houses, my Culinary Incineration wedding vows remained uncompleted.
The Dinner Party takes up to eight hours to film and goes late into the evening as she'd discovered but managed to truncate due to the early flight out. We told the producers that they could pick us up from my place as we had work on in the morning, and we'd go straight to filming, but overnight at the Suites for the following Expert Day.
They wanted us to stay in the hotel until our trip out for Washup, "To strengthen our relationship", they said. A tiny bedroom and a crappy kitchen was not our idea of fun and we mused that it would be risky to try Culinary Incineration without pissing off the other TLS victims. In addition, there was nowhere to setup two workstations so we could both work, so we went with the goat'y plan: we would return to my place the day after Expert Day and spend another two days there, in part so we could meet Wing and do Washup prep, then Sarah would train home, spend two days alone and then I'd join her. We didn't really need the time apart but decided that it gave us time to think, reflect, and miss each other, though we'd still chat often. We knew that in a few months, we'd be 24/7 and were in no hurry to advance that as we planned to be 24/7 until 80.
It's only about 90 mins from hers to my place, but we had two stops to make, so the alarm fired at 7 AM and we made a breakfast of cereals, Full English, and fruit. For me, this was my holiday breakfast: large enough so I may not eat until dinner. For her, it had been enormous, though now one she was starting to enjoy, and we were unsure when our next meal would be, so we set ourselves up for the day. Our breakfast pattern had slightly changed, as she had found a better way to stabilise herself on my lap. After I sat down, she slowly and gently slid onto me as I stabilised her using her natural stabilisers, and we started playfully kissing, feeding, finding other tasty bits to nibble, caressing, and gently making love while eating the food off the table. "You are giving me bad habits," she remarked as we carried on. Once the food was finished, I got up with her still on me and placed her on the table and we carried on eating each other and working against and with each other as I filled her more and she lubricated our action more. We caressed and slowly brought each other up to a final climax, then we had our juice course, the last of the coffee. We concluded with our usual playful shower before our diligent dry off and dealt with the problems of our clothing that always seemed to need adjusting and incurring kiss-induced delays.
My love wore the medium-red one that had caused our current state of entwinement solely accompanied by the CEN brooch for adornment. We didn't wear wedding rings as we weren't jewellery wearers and I wore a red tailored shirt, black trousers, and loafers.
Our first stop was The Manor House that we'd noticed on our separate travels. We stopped for a brief walk-around and got a date scone and coffee for early morning tea, then booked dinner for the night before we were due out for Washup, plus bought a little envelope from reception.
When we got to the Wing's office, we used our ID cards to enter, then dropped our bag in the Delta room that I'd booked. We walked through the office periodically touching, though not holding hands as we weren't really PDA'ers and this was work, as I guided her to the crop mop from memory.
We reached Rebecca's desk, and I rubbed my love's hand Your turn, she softly called out Rebecca's name. Rebecca turned around to locate the feminine source, and her eyes opened wide in shock at seeing her near doppelganger. They say that unexpectedly seeing your DG is like opening a window onto your soul and in this case, this one of slightly increased height, bust, and hair, clad in a red dress that she had briefly worn several weeks ago. This apparition had evidently and with great surprise, opened this window. Like the last time, I smiled a comforting smile at her, and Sarah introduced herself, proffering her hand as she isn't a gratuitous hugger. I realised that poor Bex was hit hard again with yet another surprise as while I had shown her a picture of my love in the purple dress, she didn't connect the photo with Sarah or had forgotten our previous chat, nor knew that all three dresses were bought.
I suggested we get coffee from the outside café, and we walked outside as they tentatively got to know each other, discovering that Bex was a Graphic Designer and Sarah enjoyed doing it for fun.
At the café, I surprised Bex again by ordering four, not three coffees, then piled on more by heading to Delta. Her hole got even deeper when she saw Wing, and I knew she was really worried about what was to befall her. "Remember what I told you last time," I playfully reproached her as the door closed and Sarah removed the cake box and pronounced, "Wedding Cake," which elicited another wave of confusion from the poor soul and placed the slices on the lid which we took. I handed over the USB drive from the bag to Wing.
She smiled at us, seeing the dress and the brooch that she'd never seen before, and plugged the drive into the screen as I shifted the chairs around to face it. We ate the sweet, lemon-infused sponge and washed it down with the coffees as the video played. The video was of our wedding, honeymoon, and Patagonia that Sarah had compiled with help from Terri. Bex's mood lightened as the video played, which explained how she had come into this weird mess. Sarah had managed to get the stills and video of the Funnies as we referred them, which elicited laughs, and also our first night where the crew left us curled up on the deck until next morning.
We were all in tears at the video and Bex asked who made it. Sarah replied that it was her as she needed something to occupy her time when apart from me. Wing replied slyly, "Shame they missed the airport reunion. Not!" and continued darkly, "Wonder how the fuckers will edit that footage to when they broadcast it," and shrugged, surprising Bex and confirming our suspicions.
I playfully said, "Respect is like a chocolate-coated raw redcurrant, fear is like just the redcurrant!" and nodded to Bex to let her know that Wing was on her side, mostly.
Wing said to Bex, "We made a good choice on that dress: especially with the Tag" and playfully patted the younger lady's hand.
We presented our friend with the envelope thanking her again which brought tears to her eyes. This was just a token of our appreciation for her vast help. Soon, it was time for us to head to my place and we hugged them goodbye as they wished us Good Luck for our trip back to the City of Sorrows, as Sarah referred to it.
In the car, Sarah asked what will happen to Bex. I said that she'll find out in her next payslip: at least one, possibly several [pay] steps up, and Wing will keep an eye out for advancement opportunities as I know that the old lady never forgets, for good or for bad!
The crew had planned to film us changing, then entering the chauffeured car, but the time with Wing and Bex ran us late, so they were stuck with just filming us as we left the house and entering the car after we had quickly gobbled the sandwiches we'd made after dinner. We snuggled up in the back seat and as usual, feeling the other's breathing and the comfy shoulder/pillows caused us to rapidly drop out until we arrived at the shoot.
We walked through the entrance in close step, briefly brushing each other and feeling relaxed as our minds were open and still thinking about the video. We got to the drinks cabinet and silently looked at the offering. I pulled out the Prosecco which we both liked and got a stroke across the hand as I carefully unwrapped and de-corked it, then poured two generous glasses, then headed to the sofa to wait for the first couple. We felt bored now as sofa time for us was mostly newspaper time where our minds and bodies united.
The first couple came through the door holding hands and we rose to greet them. She was in a low-cut V dress that showed nearly everything off and her beau had a shirt likewise. I judged that they were in their mid-20s. Joanne and James introduced themselves and seemed happy to see us together, though I had to dodge her hug. We walked to the bar with them as usual, making glances though, as usual, not holding hands. We asked about them, primarily to get to know them better, and to postpone their questions about us. When they asked about the wedding, we replied that we'd prefer to tell the group in one hit, and they would get first question, similar to how we handle presentations.
A second couple came through: a short, dirty blonde wearing a mini-Bardot-type dress and with a much taller guy, then they turned around and PDA'd. They introduced themselves as Sally and Adrian. I thought the voice sounded vaguely familiar, if that was the person on the link, though I was unsure as I'd had Gopher and Weasel in the background, plus aircraft and wind noise and I was only 10% on the questions. I felt a familiar hand play-scratch my spine as a warning and I responded by flicking my hand on her spine which elicited a grimace: a different sort of warning, I thought. We introduced ourselves and enquired about their background and TLS experience, then repeated the get-to-know and stack for them and the next four couples.
The final couple walked through the door and headed to us. They seemed a bit older than the rest: more like late 30s or early 40s. She had a yellow buttoned-up blouse and long pencil skirt on, and he was wearing a long shirt and chinos. She shook my hand and observed me dispassionately, "You're the missing Bat, I'm Lindsey, this is Tony," then smiled and left my hand for Sarah's as he greeted me and she appraised Sarah's dress, asking if it was new.
Sarah smiled and said, "Gifts," cocking her head to me. It's new and it's the longest it's been on as the first time it was as it came off quickly and he wore me, she remembered.
"Wedding," a voice called out as we returned to the sofa.
"Wedding was good, but someone sunk my vows," said Sarah with a foul look on her face, and playfully dinged my spine. I returned ding but slightly harsher which elicited a harder flinch.
"What?" called out some of the group in shock.
