At the wedding, our families like us, had connected and exchanged contact details. Since then, they had chatted periodically, checking in on our happenings, and even met up for lunch once. However, this caused an enormous problem when the crew hit everyone up to film Family Time, where we met up with each family in turn. The families were rather reluctant, and Ellie had actually told the producer "After how you've treated them, you can get fucked," and relayed it to mum and Andy's parents, in turn, had somewhat more politely declined the filming.
We wanted to keep The Pests happy and put the hard word on them, so they reluctantly agreed to filming at The Garden Café, across the road from The Manor House. They told the crew that it would be 20 minutes each and the exact times, omitting that they would then walk across the road for a group lunch. After the lunch, we would head to Andy's for an early night before our early morning flight to Vancouver for Washup.
We arrived first and then Andy's parents arrived, and we hugged them. We were surprised that they had matching T-shirts that said UNITED PEST CONTROLLERS that had a logo of a large rat with a cheesy grin, flashing the bird. The producers asked if they had something to wear on top and they advised in the negative, so they reluctantly rolled cameras as the coffee arrived. His parents chatted about their recent activities and were completely uninterested in us, not that we were too surprised as we had chatted with them during prep for this, which infuriated the crew, and they ignored the proffered questions. I heard Andy's dad's watch bleep at 20 minutes, and they knocked back the coffee and bade us goodbye, exiting the café like a rat up a drainpipe.
Seeing Ellie and mum arrive, I smelled/saw a big rat as they too wore the same T-shirts. As Ellie passed the crew, she recognised that the producer was the same one that had been at her house filming for the first Dinner Party and she slid over and playfully kissed him on the cheek saying, "Like my T-Shirt?", eliciting a sour response. This confirmed that my similarly stubborn sister was the instigator. Again, the producers raised the clothing question and got knocked back, like the arriving coffees. Likewise, they didn't ask us anything, really pissing the crew off, then left at the dot of 20.
We walked over to The Manor House restaurant and found our families gathered, congratulating Ellie on her T-shirt design and the receptionist took a group photo. Then, we moved into the restaurant and found our table and Ellie asked why there was a spare seat. In my side vision, I saw a figure walking towards us, and I tapped Andy on the knee. We got up and approached the figure as she arrived at the table, causing the others to be confused. I introduced them, then said, "This is Wing she's one of the Executive Assistants at Rapid: our guest of honour."
"She's been so helpful to us these last weeks, we felt she needed thanking and introducing to you," my love introduced.
"You have two really naughty kids, spoiling this old lady so badly," she said and hugged us deeply and briefly, then she ran through her time at the Spa we'd gifted her in Delta.
Andy's parents loosely knew her, though mine didn't, and, over starters, we all started chatting. As usual, she was enigmatic about her personal life: Andy had told me that even after 10 years, he didn't know anything about her family situation. She asked about the T-shirts which Ellie 'fessed up to and asked if the three of us wanted one too. We all nodded, and Andy asked if Wing could get an extra in one size smaller than me [for Bex]. I kissed him on the cheek, "So caring, so hot," I affirmed.
"Nasty girl," Wing said to Ellie smiling and proffering her hand, "You can come and work with me anytime," and we buried our heads in our hands thinking about that scenario. "That'll teach the buggers," she remarked darkly, "but they've had a lot to learn, and they've been taught a lot recently," she smirked, and we hugged her again.
Between starter and main, we brought out a large laptop and placed it on the table. We showed the video that we'd shown in Delta as our families laughed at the Funnies and our running commentary.
The mains arrived, then the Champagne and, as the waiter opened it, we announced that it was from our first night. The conversation turned to our time so far, and then she smiled and filled in some of the interesting bits about dresses and airports. We filled them in on the Dinner Party and Expert Day, eliciting more laughs as we recounted how we'd confounded them, and Andy had sunk Sneering Sid.
After dessert, we headed our ways, and Ellie had generously offered to take us to the airport early the next morning, despite not being an early riser, as when we flew back we'd head straight for The Suites, so she tailed us to Andy's where she hit the spare room. Early the next morning, we roused her, and Andy made a large breakfast. She joked that I was picking up his bad habits, which was true, and as she was here, there were some new habits that we couldn't partake in. She was yawning her head off, so Andy offered to drive her car, so she could sleep again, which she agreed to.
At the airport, we used the Premium line to check in, then we bade her goodbye as we headed airside and to the lounge to wait for the flight, similar to my last check-in, this time with an escort that I could snuggle and kiss.