After Weasel dropped us at SeaTac and we'd boarded the plane, our flight home was typical for us: like our first flight together and the one to Vancouver, we quickly fell hard asleep snuggled into each other, albeit I think I beat Andy to the drop. We remained asleep the whole, long flight apart from food as we were now on a come down from Washup's high.
Walking to the luggage, we spied the café and unthinkingly made a beeline for it. However, it was Soy Cappuccinos instead of hot chocolate albeit with the usual marshmallows, and we had to consume it all there as, with our luggage, we didn't have free hands. He selfied a picture of us with the unmolested doodle board to Wing which I thought was cute, but we were still tired from the flight and knew we had a long day ahead.
The Pests filmed us coming into arrivals, then into the taxi, where we fell hard asleep again, much to their chagrin. Unfortunately, we wouldn't have time for a nap before heading out for TLS.
They decided to film us doing our hot change, which we thought was fair game. In the Suites' room, I noticed a package on the bed, which we opened, and It was a pair of Ellie's Rat T-shirts. "They look good," I mused wanting to wear it to the formal dinner.
Andy was standing behind me snuggled in, so his chest touched my back, "Cat better for tomorrow?" he replied, rubbing his head on mine, referring to Wing's gifts now in our bags. I wanted to kiss him for taking me down so gently but settled for snuggling my head and back on deeper, feeling his soft breaths.
Staying at The Chalet meant we had done all our washing, so I grabbed a dark blouse and culottes, and he extracted dark grey chinos and a navy shirt. Unthinking, we pinned our Formals on, this was our sole adornment, Sadly, we couldn't do our normal assisted changing, but it meant that we knocked it off quicker!
Walking into the Dinner Party after yet another taxi snooze, I felt unexplainedly quite listless, but I had my love at my side, as usual fingertip apart, not holding hands. We walked through the door to the chattering crowd, and they greeted and then trailed us as we headed to the bar for a drink. He sensed my mood and poured apple juices for a sugar boost, which we necked, followed by the average prosecco, though the brides sensed I was off, and they asked me how I was.
"Honestly, I feel fucked," I responded rather too honestly for my liking. They gathered in, trying to separate me from him anticipating some hot titbits, but I pulled him in and headed for the sofa as I wanted him at my side so I could deliver my tofu straight from the packet.
It was interesting to observe that several couples were physically quite separate, several touched and we, as usual, had a slight gap, like our friends did. Sally did the usual blatant pash on her man!
Again, they probed, with the guys looking sympathetically at him, wondering what he was going to be hit with, but he just rubbed his soothing hand over my back with a blank look on his face. "You know when you've had a night when there was a tasty buffet, and you've really enjoyed it?" I asked, eliciting mostly blank looks, though Lindsay and Tony leaned in intrigued, and I wondered whether they were visualising one of the dinner pictures we'd DM'd them. "But the next morning you feel like you hit it too hard?" I postulated.
"So, you pigged out on holiday?" Joanne asked.
"We had lots of good food, but in the sessions, I feasted on a very wide and rich table of knowledge," I summarised, and our friends smiled knowingly.
"Somewhat tamer than normal, but still a tasty feast," Andy shrugged, briefly rubbing his knee on mine as there had been no cowering or really heated discussions like in several events. This triggered us remembering the tasty kitchen feasts early on.
I realised that my summation of the week had really confused most of the group. "It was a time to learn what needed learning from Patagonia, and I had the most to learn, which I did, thanks to a lot of very good teachers. And one especially good one," I briefly pushed into his side as our friends smirked, but the others were long lost by the metaphors.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" Joanne asked
How dim is this bird? I visualised Weasel and knew that Angie's comment would be lethally cutting. "You saw the pics: four times the number in Patagonia, same quality of food, amazing skiing. I've got a good guide," my hand went up his back and he dinged me, eliciting a pleasant 6.5/10 flinch, "I've never skied so hard but so enjoyably. It was work but very enjoyable work."
"Bat and Cen," Tony intoned deeply as Lindsay sniggered, "Those cakes looked sooo tasty, took you ages?"
"With the three of us, just an hour to bake, then another hour to ice, though we were the navvies of the kids!" I replied smiling at the memory of them bossing us around to supply the various coloured icings!
We were dry and our friends got up, escorting us to the bar and playfully ribbing us about our time. I wondered whether the crew had done the edit down on the supplied footage, then we got more drinks, but we could hear normal play had resumed on the sofas, so we stayed there chatting.
The dinner was the same as last time, more booze which we initially partook partly to keep with the group, but they were getting rather annoying and we really just wanted to curl up on the sofa and do the crossword. As usual, we made brief physical contact, and brief back touches and dings were the most frequent as for us and they are both soothing and intimate. For us, drunken idiots kill our interest in more booze, so we kept to water for the rest of the night. The food was the usual and like most of the brides: glamorous but lacking in substance. Like the last Dinner and unlike our dinners at Whistler and Patagonia, sadly there was really just the one, tedious angle and we felt on the outside, rather than being pulled in like I definitely was in there. At least we're together: that's all that matters, I thought, feeling his discrete hand on my hip, knowing that he felt the same way too as we loved each other in many ways and forms.
