Reid and Emma have Lunch at the Mona Lisa - a fanfic
Title: Reid and Emma Have Lunch at the Mona Lisa
Author: nancygrew
Rating: G
Notes: Futurefic. AU after Reid drives off to Bay City to get a new heart for the idiot. Takes place ~late October 2011. Takes place after my fic Vacation Planning but you don't have to read any of my other fic in order to get this one.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ATWT
Summary: Reid and Emma have lunch at the Mona Lisa
After Emma and Reid were seated at Reid’s favorite table at the Mona Lisa, their waiter quoted them the afternoon’s lunch specials. Reid listened patiently. When it came to good food, he could be patient. He hardly ever burned his tongue by hastily shoveling hot food into his mouth without blowing on it first. Not anymore, anyway. Emma ended up ordering the rainbow trout special. Reid ended up ordering the filet mignon special. He also requested a couple of appetizers for he and Emma to share. Not that anyone truly believed that Emma was going to get more than a couple of bites of the calamari or the stuffed mushrooms. Emma and the waiter had both seen Reid in action before. Excellent food made him go into beserker mode whereupon Reid would joyously and single-mindedly lay waste to the meal laid out before him, leaving nothing behind but desolate sprigs of parsley to reflect that the plates had once held food. Shortly after meeting Reid, Emma had worriedly taken Luke aside to verify that Reid wasn’t bulimic. Luke had reassured Emma that his boyfriend wasn’t suffering an eating disorder. He assured her that Reid was merely a gluttonous pig with a high metabolism. Upon hearing of Emma’s concern for his emotional and physical well being, Reid had been oddly touched.
After taking their order, their waiter left them alone.
"How was your cruise to Belize?" asked Reid. "Nobody forced you to play shuffleboard did they? Because if they did, I’m pretty sure you could sue someone."
"I have nothing but good things to say about the cruise," said Emma. "Even though I was careful not to let anyone know that I was the grandmother of the President of Grimaldi Shipping, I was treated like a queen. A queen that’s waited on hand and foot not one of those queens that end up beheaded. The service was amazing. The food was great. Every single day, there were fun activities to choose from."
"Luke will be happy to hear that," said Reid. "He would have hated to have to make the entire crew walk the plank if they had been foolish enough not to pamper you. What was your favorite part of the cruise?"
"I really enjoyed exploring the Maya ruins. I went on excursions to Xunantunich and Cahal Pech. Xunantunich means Stone Woman and there is supposedly a red-eyed ghost that haunts the place but, unfortunately, I didn’t run into her."
"That’s a shame because you could have gotten all Velma Dinkley about the ghost and discovered that the haunting was a scam set up by the old caretaker," sympathized Reid.
"Sometimes I have no idea what you’re talking about," said Emma cheerily while Reid smiled gently. "Anyway, Cahal Pech means ‘place of ticks.’ Not as great a name as ‘The City of Lights’ or ‘The City of Brotherly Love.’ I’m going to email the pictures of the ruins over to you and Luke. I think that you boys might want to consider Belize as a future Cool But Educational vacation."
"Did you know that the Maya used both base 20 and base 5 in their mathematics?" asked Reid excitedly.
"Well, that’s just . . .lovely," said Emma encouragingly. Reid could tell that Emma’s interest in ancient mathematical systems wasn’t as genuine as she was pretending. Luke’s youngest sister Natalie would have appreciated the information. Oh, well. Emma had many other fine qualities. She was stalwart, competent, caring, and sensible. But most importantly, she actually liked Reid.
The waiter returned with their appetizers and beverages. Once he left, Emma and Reid continued their conversation. The difference between the two was that Emma’s mouth was generally empty when she spoke.
"Did you make any new cruise buddies?" asked Reid.
"I spent a lot of time socializing with Lord and Lady Stewart Cushing during the cruise," Emma said.
"Well, la-di-dah," teased Reid. "Aren’t you Miss Fancypants hanging out with the nobility?"
Emma laughed. "You know how you always go on and on and on and on about Oakdale and it’s far-reaching tentacles of physics-defying coincidences?"
"That sounds vaguely familiar," said Reid. "Please, let me guess. Lady Cushing turned out to be your long last identical twin who was kidnapped at birth by carnies and Lord Cushing turned out to be the nefarious James Steinbeck back from the dead for the trillionth time."
"So close," said Emma with a smile. "Lady Cushing is the former Marcy Thompson who once lived in Oakdale and was best friends with Frannie Hughes. Lord Cushing is the biological son of the late Paul Stewart."
"How is Frannie Hughes related to Bobbo? And is the late Paul Stewart related to Oakdalians Susan, Emily and Meth Nurse Stewart?"
"Frannie is the daughter of Bob Hughes and his late wife, Jennifer," advised Emma. "Jennifer was Kim’s sister. She died when Frannie was very young."
"Bob was married to sisters?" asked Reid who wasn’t nearly as surprised as he should have been. "That’s so Snyderiffic of him."
Emma ignored Reid’s uncharitable observation of her family. It’s not as though she could pretend that her sons, and daughters for that matter, hadn’t made it a practice to take turns dating the same people. The upside to her children recycling their significant others is that she didn’t have to learn a lot of new names. "Frannie has an identical cousin, Sabrina Hughes."
"How sitcom-y," snarked Reid. "Did they have wacky Patty Duke-like hi-jinks where they switched places in order to get out of taking algebra tests?"
"Not to my knowledge," said Emma. "However, they did both date my eldest son Seth and at one point Sabrina pretended to be Frannie when Seth was dating Frannie."
"That’s disturbing," said Reid.
Emma nodded vigorously. "Sabrina is the daughter of Bob and Kim Hughes so Sabrina and Frannie are half-sisters as well as cousins but they didn’t meet until they were adults. Although Kim had believed that her baby died at birth, she was actually sold to a baby broker and adopted by another family."
Reid sighed. Oakdale was the most ridiculous place on Earth. It was probably built on an ancient Native American pranking ground. Tribes probably sent smoke signals back and forth to one another asking if they had Prince Albert in a can.
"As for the late Paul Stewart," continued Emma. "He was the uncle of your administrative assistant, Lowell Ward, and Emily and Alison Stewart."
Just then Reid noticed Luke entering the restaurant with another man. When Emma lifted her hand to wave Luke over, Reid grabbed her arm and pulled it down.
"Don’t," hissed Reid. "Maybe they won’t notice us if we don’t wave our arms at them like we’re signaling an airplane for landing."
"Are you and Luke having problems?" asked a concerned Emma.
"No, no, no," advised Reid. "We’re great."
Emma frowned at Reid in disbelief.
"No, really," insisted Reid. "Oddly enough, we’re still bizarrely in love with each other."
"Then why are we hiding from my grandson?" questioned Emma.
"It’s the house," grumbled Reid. "He’s supposed to be meeting the architect for lunch today. I didn’t know that he was meeting the guy here or else I would have made reservations for the two of us elsewhere."
"You don’t want to be involved in the decisions regarding your new home?" asked a confused Emma.
"Not even a little bit," admitted Reid. "Whenever we do house-related stuff, he counts it as quality time for us. He tried to count going to a home renovation store to look at floor tile as our Date Night last week! There’s nothing romantic about discussing grouting and decorative tile!"
"Aren’t you worried that if you try to stay out of all the house decisions, that you’re going to end up living in a house that you don’t love?" asked Emma.
"Pffft," harrumphed Reid. "I don’t care about stuff like that. As long as I’m living with Luke someplace close to the hospital, I’m good. I really don’t care whether our home meets the standards to be certified as a "green" building or if we need a butler’s pantry or if there’s any scientific merit to feng shui. He’s the one who thinks that we need the ‘perfect’ home."
"Before you decide that you don’t want any input into the design of your home, you might want to be aware of the fact that Luke loved to watch Pee Wee’s Playhouse when he was a child," said Emma. "If you end up with a Technicolor dreamscape of a house with talking furniture and puppets, you only have yourself to blame."
"Ha!" Reid responded. "I think I’m safe from little Luke’s fantasy of what a home should be. Grown up Luke has decided on having the warehouse converted into a sophisticated home of modern design."
"What warehouse?" asked Emma.
"Oh, when Luke couldn’t find the bestest, most perfect home ever, he decided to have one designed," Reid explained. "We needed someplace close to the hospital so when an abandoned steel pipe warehouse in Milltown went on sale a month ago, he bought it. The architect that he hired is going to design the renovation plans."
Just then the waiter returned to clear off the appetizer plates and to bring them their entrees. Emma politely thanked the waiter. Although Reid didn’t see the point of having to be nice to someone whose job it was to bring you food, he went along amiably with Emma’s expectation of his behavior when in her presence. He thanked the waiter before diving into his meal. He wasn’t sure why the waiter looked so astonished. Not that he cared enough to devote much thought to it.
Reid was happily eating his lunch and making occasional comments to his lunch companion when he took a good look at the architect that Luke was meeting with. The architect was young, very young. And handsome, in a non-neurosurgeon kind of way.
"The architect is a teenybopper," hissed Reid at Emma.
"He looks about the same age as Luke," said Emma amused at Reid’s disgruntlement.
Reid eyed Emma to see if she was making fun of the age difference between he and Luke. She was sometimes stealthily snarky that way. Funny how Lily never noticed when her mother-in-law was less than pleased with her.
Reid waved their waiter over. "Mrs. Snyder has decided that she wants us to finish our lunch with her grandson," Reid advised the waiter while ignoring Emma’s knowing smile. "We’ll take our plates over to their table. Can you bring over our chairs?"
"Of course, sir," said the waiter. "Please leave the plates and we’ll bring them over to you."
"Thanks," said Reid as he grabbed hold of Emma’s hand and dragged her over to her grandson’s table.
Luke was pleasantly surprised to see his boyfriend and his grandmother. He stood and greeted each of them with a kiss.
"Grandmother, Reid, I’d like you to meet Roth Jones, our architect," Luke introduced. "Roth, this is my boyfriend Reid and my grandmother Emma Snyder."
Roth stood and shook hands with each of them. "It’s very nice to meet you both."
Waiters brought Emma’s and Reid’s chairs. They all sat.
"Emma noticed you two and insisted that we finish our lunch with you," lied Reid. "So, Roth, how old are you?"
"Reid!" said Luke in an exasperated voice.
"I’m 23," said Roth. "I’m probably much younger than what you’re looking for in an architect but I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in architecture. I took summer classes in order to finish up my degrees as quickly as possible. And I share the same design aesthetic as Luke so we’re working really well together. We’re completely in tune with one another."
"So, how did Luke find you?" asked Reid.
"We’ve actually been casually acquainted for years," advised Roth. "We met on our first day of college at Oakdale University and we were both involved in the LGBT association at school."
Luke thought he heard his grandmother giggle but when he looked at her she was busy dabbing her mouth with her napkin.
"I was surprised when Luke told me that his boyfriend was too busy to be involved in the decision-making process for the house," said Roth.
"Actually, I’m Luke’s fiancé, not his boyfriend," Reid informed the young, good-looking architect who had been looking at Luke with longing. Reid recognized Luke-longing when he saw it. Reid rubbed his hand over Luke’s back possessively as waiters brought over his and Emma’s lunch.
"Congratulations," said Roth. Reid could tell that the news of his and Luke’s engagement was secretly devastating to Roth. Roth probably had had hopes of spending the rest of his life discussing flooring options and lighting fixtures with Luke over candlelit dinners.
"You’re engaged?" squealed the normally even-keeled Emma Snyder. "That’s so wonderful. When is the wedding going to be?"
"Reid and I decided that we weren’t going to tell anybody about being engaged," said Luke while shooting Reid a questioning look. "We’re going to skip having a ceremony and just elope. We were just going to hop over to Iowa next month. There’s a three business day waiting period so we’re either going to have to stay a few days or head to Iowa twice."
Emma was appalled. "You’re not going to have a wedding? You love weddings."
Luke nodded. "Yeah, I love attending weddings but I don’t really need to have a wedding ceremony myself. We have each other’s power of attorney so we’re as married as we can get in Illinois. We still want to be ‘married’ even if Illinois won’t recognize it so we’re going to go to Iowa to have an official wedding."
Emma had always been proud of the fact that she wasn’t one of those interfering grandmothers like, oh, say Lucinda Walsh. However, her grandson eloping without any plans to be surrounded by family was just too much for the woman to take.
"Luke, don’t you want to be surrounded by friends and family when you and Reid vow to love and cherish each other for eternity?" asked Emma.
"Having a wedding would just be a nightmare," sighed Luke. "Damian and I have made such progress in our relationship and if I had a wedding I’d want him to be there. Which means Mom and Dad would be uncomfortable. Then there’s the fact that Mom and Dad are having problems and it would be weird to have my parents’ tensions hanging over my wedding. Then there’s the problem of transporting the guests to Iowa. It's just not worth it."
"Lily and Holden are having problems already?" asked a saddened Emma. "They haven’t been remarried very long."
"Mom didn’t give me too many details," said Luke. "Apparently, Dusty Donovan is investigating some mobster and Mom was helping him much to the displeasure of both Dad and Janet. She’s really upset about it. I had to cancel a meeting this morning because she needed to talk things over with me."
"Does Electra realize that you are her son and not her boyfriend?" asked a disgruntled Reid. "It’s not really appropriate for Mommy to expect her son to drop everything to hold her hand."
"I know it’s difficult for you to understand," said Luke. "But I love my mother and don’t mind offering her support and comfort when she’s unhappy."
Reid rolled his eyes. "Miss Sarah Bernhardt is always unhappy. Maybe she should just get used to it and stop flinging her unhappiness at people like a caged monkey flinging it’s feces."
"Wow," said an astonished Luke. "Maybe this is something we should talk about later. You know, not in front of my grandmother and Roth."
"Sure," agreed Reid. "So, Roth, has Luke spoken to you regarding our master suite yet? I’m hoping for something sybaritic and sensual. We enjoy showering together so you probably want to plan on a huge walk in shower for us."
"Since when did you become interested in the details of Casa Snyder & Oliver?" asked a confused Luke.
"It’s only fair that I help you in creating the perfect home for us," said Reid while ignoring Luke’s confusion.
"Can we go back to talking about the wedding?" asked Emma. "Reid, wouldn’t you like a real wedding?"
"I think it’s selfish of us to not give Katie the opportunity to be my best person and to dress in a tux like Marlene Dietrich," said Reid. "She’d love the chance to show Hank how cross-dressing is supposed to be done."
"You want a big, girly wedding?" asked a surprised Luke.
"It doesn’t have to be big," sniffed Reid.
"Oh," said Luke. "I didn’t realize that a wedding would be something you might want. Why don’t the two of us discuss this tonight? If you do want a wedding, we should probably put it off until after the house is done. Between our jobs and planning the house, we don’t have a ton of free time right now."
"Why don’t you plan the house and Reid and I can plan the wedding?" suggested Emma.
Reid was torn. If he was spending time planning the wedding with Emma, that meant he wouldn’t have the time to be included in Luke’s meetings with the sadly smitten Roth. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Luke completely. Luke was the most loyal, trustworthy person he had ever met. He was Lassie in human form. But it would be upsetting to Luke if Roth embarrassed himself by falling in love with Luke. However, Reid didn’t want to wait to get married. He and Luke were solid. He could take point on the wedding, along with Emma’s help, while Luke took point on the house. He started feeling very virtuous about having this cooperation thing down pat. He was going to be a great husband. He’d probably win all kinds of marriage awards.
"That sounds great!" Reid said enthusiastically. "Do we want to involve Lucinda and Katie in the wedding plans or should we fear their input? I can see Katie and Lucinda going all Bossy Betties on us."
"If they want something that you don’t, you get to play the ‘This is Luke and my wedding and we make all the final decisions’ card," said Emma. "Why don’t we have the whole family over to the farm for dinner on Friday night? You and Luke can make your announcement about getting married and we’ll ask Lucinda and Katie if they want to be involved in the plans."
"Do you think we can make arrangements for a wedding to be held over Christmas break?" Reid asked Emma. "Luke’s only going to get married once instead of having a bunch of temporary marriages. It’s a big deal and we should have all of the Snyders there. If the wedding is over Christmas break, it might be easier as all of the kids would be on break from school. And when I say ‘kids’ I am including your grandson."
Luke glared at Reid for the ‘kids’ remark but Reid wasn’t paying any attention to him. Apparently Emma was going to be Reid’s wedding-planning cohort. Luke smiled at his fiancé and grandmother as they began discussing guest lists. Luke was happy that Reid thought that having a wedding ceremony was going to be worth all of the trouble that it was going to be. He wondered if Reid would order slide rules as wedding favors for the guests. Luke muffled a giggle. When Reid looked at him, Luke gave him a smile and kissed him solidly on the mouth. Reid wrapped his arm around Luke’s back and then continued his discussion with Emma regarding whether the wedding should just be family. Luke turned back to Roth to continue their discussion regarding flooring options. Unbeknownst to the people at the table, their waiter was advising Lisa Grimaldi, Mona Lisa’s owner and the town crier [albeit amateur status], of the proposed wedding. By early evening, Luke had referred his mother, Grandmother Lucinda, Faith, Natalie and Aunt Iva over to Reid. Yeah, working with an architect and contractors on a home was going to be so much easier than planning a wedding with the input of a bunch of headstrong and romantically inclined women. Reid was such a sucker.
Author: nancygrew
Rating: G
Notes: Futurefic. AU after Reid drives off to Bay City to get a new heart for the idiot. Takes place ~late October 2011. Takes place after my fic Vacation Planning but you don't have to read any of my other fic in order to get this one.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ATWT
Summary: Reid and Emma have lunch at the Mona Lisa
After Emma and Reid were seated at Reid’s favorite table at the Mona Lisa, their waiter quoted them the afternoon’s lunch specials. Reid listened patiently. When it came to good food, he could be patient. He hardly ever burned his tongue by hastily shoveling hot food into his mouth without blowing on it first. Not anymore, anyway. Emma ended up ordering the rainbow trout special. Reid ended up ordering the filet mignon special. He also requested a couple of appetizers for he and Emma to share. Not that anyone truly believed that Emma was going to get more than a couple of bites of the calamari or the stuffed mushrooms. Emma and the waiter had both seen Reid in action before. Excellent food made him go into beserker mode whereupon Reid would joyously and single-mindedly lay waste to the meal laid out before him, leaving nothing behind but desolate sprigs of parsley to reflect that the plates had once held food. Shortly after meeting Reid, Emma had worriedly taken Luke aside to verify that Reid wasn’t bulimic. Luke had reassured Emma that his boyfriend wasn’t suffering an eating disorder. He assured her that Reid was merely a gluttonous pig with a high metabolism. Upon hearing of Emma’s concern for his emotional and physical well being, Reid had been oddly touched.
After taking their order, their waiter left them alone.
"How was your cruise to Belize?" asked Reid. "Nobody forced you to play shuffleboard did they? Because if they did, I’m pretty sure you could sue someone."
"I have nothing but good things to say about the cruise," said Emma. "Even though I was careful not to let anyone know that I was the grandmother of the President of Grimaldi Shipping, I was treated like a queen. A queen that’s waited on hand and foot not one of those queens that end up beheaded. The service was amazing. The food was great. Every single day, there were fun activities to choose from."
"Luke will be happy to hear that," said Reid. "He would have hated to have to make the entire crew walk the plank if they had been foolish enough not to pamper you. What was your favorite part of the cruise?"
"I really enjoyed exploring the Maya ruins. I went on excursions to Xunantunich and Cahal Pech. Xunantunich means Stone Woman and there is supposedly a red-eyed ghost that haunts the place but, unfortunately, I didn’t run into her."
"That’s a shame because you could have gotten all Velma Dinkley about the ghost and discovered that the haunting was a scam set up by the old caretaker," sympathized Reid.
"Sometimes I have no idea what you’re talking about," said Emma cheerily while Reid smiled gently. "Anyway, Cahal Pech means ‘place of ticks.’ Not as great a name as ‘The City of Lights’ or ‘The City of Brotherly Love.’ I’m going to email the pictures of the ruins over to you and Luke. I think that you boys might want to consider Belize as a future Cool But Educational vacation."
"Did you know that the Maya used both base 20 and base 5 in their mathematics?" asked Reid excitedly.
"Well, that’s just . . .lovely," said Emma encouragingly. Reid could tell that Emma’s interest in ancient mathematical systems wasn’t as genuine as she was pretending. Luke’s youngest sister Natalie would have appreciated the information. Oh, well. Emma had many other fine qualities. She was stalwart, competent, caring, and sensible. But most importantly, she actually liked Reid.
The waiter returned with their appetizers and beverages. Once he left, Emma and Reid continued their conversation. The difference between the two was that Emma’s mouth was generally empty when she spoke.
"Did you make any new cruise buddies?" asked Reid.
"I spent a lot of time socializing with Lord and Lady Stewart Cushing during the cruise," Emma said.
"Well, la-di-dah," teased Reid. "Aren’t you Miss Fancypants hanging out with the nobility?"
Emma laughed. "You know how you always go on and on and on and on about Oakdale and it’s far-reaching tentacles of physics-defying coincidences?"
"That sounds vaguely familiar," said Reid. "Please, let me guess. Lady Cushing turned out to be your long last identical twin who was kidnapped at birth by carnies and Lord Cushing turned out to be the nefarious James Steinbeck back from the dead for the trillionth time."
"So close," said Emma with a smile. "Lady Cushing is the former Marcy Thompson who once lived in Oakdale and was best friends with Frannie Hughes. Lord Cushing is the biological son of the late Paul Stewart."
"How is Frannie Hughes related to Bobbo? And is the late Paul Stewart related to Oakdalians Susan, Emily and Meth Nurse Stewart?"
"Frannie is the daughter of Bob Hughes and his late wife, Jennifer," advised Emma. "Jennifer was Kim’s sister. She died when Frannie was very young."
"Bob was married to sisters?" asked Reid who wasn’t nearly as surprised as he should have been. "That’s so Snyderiffic of him."
Emma ignored Reid’s uncharitable observation of her family. It’s not as though she could pretend that her sons, and daughters for that matter, hadn’t made it a practice to take turns dating the same people. The upside to her children recycling their significant others is that she didn’t have to learn a lot of new names. "Frannie has an identical cousin, Sabrina Hughes."
"How sitcom-y," snarked Reid. "Did they have wacky Patty Duke-like hi-jinks where they switched places in order to get out of taking algebra tests?"
"Not to my knowledge," said Emma. "However, they did both date my eldest son Seth and at one point Sabrina pretended to be Frannie when Seth was dating Frannie."
"That’s disturbing," said Reid.
Emma nodded vigorously. "Sabrina is the daughter of Bob and Kim Hughes so Sabrina and Frannie are half-sisters as well as cousins but they didn’t meet until they were adults. Although Kim had believed that her baby died at birth, she was actually sold to a baby broker and adopted by another family."
Reid sighed. Oakdale was the most ridiculous place on Earth. It was probably built on an ancient Native American pranking ground. Tribes probably sent smoke signals back and forth to one another asking if they had Prince Albert in a can.
"As for the late Paul Stewart," continued Emma. "He was the uncle of your administrative assistant, Lowell Ward, and Emily and Alison Stewart."
Just then Reid noticed Luke entering the restaurant with another man. When Emma lifted her hand to wave Luke over, Reid grabbed her arm and pulled it down.
"Don’t," hissed Reid. "Maybe they won’t notice us if we don’t wave our arms at them like we’re signaling an airplane for landing."
"Are you and Luke having problems?" asked a concerned Emma.
"No, no, no," advised Reid. "We’re great."
Emma frowned at Reid in disbelief.
"No, really," insisted Reid. "Oddly enough, we’re still bizarrely in love with each other."
"Then why are we hiding from my grandson?" questioned Emma.
"It’s the house," grumbled Reid. "He’s supposed to be meeting the architect for lunch today. I didn’t know that he was meeting the guy here or else I would have made reservations for the two of us elsewhere."
"You don’t want to be involved in the decisions regarding your new home?" asked a confused Emma.
"Not even a little bit," admitted Reid. "Whenever we do house-related stuff, he counts it as quality time for us. He tried to count going to a home renovation store to look at floor tile as our Date Night last week! There’s nothing romantic about discussing grouting and decorative tile!"
"Aren’t you worried that if you try to stay out of all the house decisions, that you’re going to end up living in a house that you don’t love?" asked Emma.
"Pffft," harrumphed Reid. "I don’t care about stuff like that. As long as I’m living with Luke someplace close to the hospital, I’m good. I really don’t care whether our home meets the standards to be certified as a "green" building or if we need a butler’s pantry or if there’s any scientific merit to feng shui. He’s the one who thinks that we need the ‘perfect’ home."
"Before you decide that you don’t want any input into the design of your home, you might want to be aware of the fact that Luke loved to watch Pee Wee’s Playhouse when he was a child," said Emma. "If you end up with a Technicolor dreamscape of a house with talking furniture and puppets, you only have yourself to blame."
"Ha!" Reid responded. "I think I’m safe from little Luke’s fantasy of what a home should be. Grown up Luke has decided on having the warehouse converted into a sophisticated home of modern design."
"What warehouse?" asked Emma.
"Oh, when Luke couldn’t find the bestest, most perfect home ever, he decided to have one designed," Reid explained. "We needed someplace close to the hospital so when an abandoned steel pipe warehouse in Milltown went on sale a month ago, he bought it. The architect that he hired is going to design the renovation plans."
Just then the waiter returned to clear off the appetizer plates and to bring them their entrees. Emma politely thanked the waiter. Although Reid didn’t see the point of having to be nice to someone whose job it was to bring you food, he went along amiably with Emma’s expectation of his behavior when in her presence. He thanked the waiter before diving into his meal. He wasn’t sure why the waiter looked so astonished. Not that he cared enough to devote much thought to it.
Reid was happily eating his lunch and making occasional comments to his lunch companion when he took a good look at the architect that Luke was meeting with. The architect was young, very young. And handsome, in a non-neurosurgeon kind of way.
"The architect is a teenybopper," hissed Reid at Emma.
"He looks about the same age as Luke," said Emma amused at Reid’s disgruntlement.
Reid eyed Emma to see if she was making fun of the age difference between he and Luke. She was sometimes stealthily snarky that way. Funny how Lily never noticed when her mother-in-law was less than pleased with her.
Reid waved their waiter over. "Mrs. Snyder has decided that she wants us to finish our lunch with her grandson," Reid advised the waiter while ignoring Emma’s knowing smile. "We’ll take our plates over to their table. Can you bring over our chairs?"
"Of course, sir," said the waiter. "Please leave the plates and we’ll bring them over to you."
"Thanks," said Reid as he grabbed hold of Emma’s hand and dragged her over to her grandson’s table.
Luke was pleasantly surprised to see his boyfriend and his grandmother. He stood and greeted each of them with a kiss.
"Grandmother, Reid, I’d like you to meet Roth Jones, our architect," Luke introduced. "Roth, this is my boyfriend Reid and my grandmother Emma Snyder."
Roth stood and shook hands with each of them. "It’s very nice to meet you both."
Waiters brought Emma’s and Reid’s chairs. They all sat.
"Emma noticed you two and insisted that we finish our lunch with you," lied Reid. "So, Roth, how old are you?"
"Reid!" said Luke in an exasperated voice.
"I’m 23," said Roth. "I’m probably much younger than what you’re looking for in an architect but I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in architecture. I took summer classes in order to finish up my degrees as quickly as possible. And I share the same design aesthetic as Luke so we’re working really well together. We’re completely in tune with one another."
"So, how did Luke find you?" asked Reid.
"We’ve actually been casually acquainted for years," advised Roth. "We met on our first day of college at Oakdale University and we were both involved in the LGBT association at school."
Luke thought he heard his grandmother giggle but when he looked at her she was busy dabbing her mouth with her napkin.
"I was surprised when Luke told me that his boyfriend was too busy to be involved in the decision-making process for the house," said Roth.
"Actually, I’m Luke’s fiancé, not his boyfriend," Reid informed the young, good-looking architect who had been looking at Luke with longing. Reid recognized Luke-longing when he saw it. Reid rubbed his hand over Luke’s back possessively as waiters brought over his and Emma’s lunch.
"Congratulations," said Roth. Reid could tell that the news of his and Luke’s engagement was secretly devastating to Roth. Roth probably had had hopes of spending the rest of his life discussing flooring options and lighting fixtures with Luke over candlelit dinners.
"You’re engaged?" squealed the normally even-keeled Emma Snyder. "That’s so wonderful. When is the wedding going to be?"
"Reid and I decided that we weren’t going to tell anybody about being engaged," said Luke while shooting Reid a questioning look. "We’re going to skip having a ceremony and just elope. We were just going to hop over to Iowa next month. There’s a three business day waiting period so we’re either going to have to stay a few days or head to Iowa twice."
Emma was appalled. "You’re not going to have a wedding? You love weddings."
Luke nodded. "Yeah, I love attending weddings but I don’t really need to have a wedding ceremony myself. We have each other’s power of attorney so we’re as married as we can get in Illinois. We still want to be ‘married’ even if Illinois won’t recognize it so we’re going to go to Iowa to have an official wedding."
Emma had always been proud of the fact that she wasn’t one of those interfering grandmothers like, oh, say Lucinda Walsh. However, her grandson eloping without any plans to be surrounded by family was just too much for the woman to take.
"Luke, don’t you want to be surrounded by friends and family when you and Reid vow to love and cherish each other for eternity?" asked Emma.
"Having a wedding would just be a nightmare," sighed Luke. "Damian and I have made such progress in our relationship and if I had a wedding I’d want him to be there. Which means Mom and Dad would be uncomfortable. Then there’s the fact that Mom and Dad are having problems and it would be weird to have my parents’ tensions hanging over my wedding. Then there’s the problem of transporting the guests to Iowa. It's just not worth it."
"Lily and Holden are having problems already?" asked a saddened Emma. "They haven’t been remarried very long."
"Mom didn’t give me too many details," said Luke. "Apparently, Dusty Donovan is investigating some mobster and Mom was helping him much to the displeasure of both Dad and Janet. She’s really upset about it. I had to cancel a meeting this morning because she needed to talk things over with me."
"Does Electra realize that you are her son and not her boyfriend?" asked a disgruntled Reid. "It’s not really appropriate for Mommy to expect her son to drop everything to hold her hand."
"I know it’s difficult for you to understand," said Luke. "But I love my mother and don’t mind offering her support and comfort when she’s unhappy."
Reid rolled his eyes. "Miss Sarah Bernhardt is always unhappy. Maybe she should just get used to it and stop flinging her unhappiness at people like a caged monkey flinging it’s feces."
"Wow," said an astonished Luke. "Maybe this is something we should talk about later. You know, not in front of my grandmother and Roth."
"Sure," agreed Reid. "So, Roth, has Luke spoken to you regarding our master suite yet? I’m hoping for something sybaritic and sensual. We enjoy showering together so you probably want to plan on a huge walk in shower for us."
"Since when did you become interested in the details of Casa Snyder & Oliver?" asked a confused Luke.
"It’s only fair that I help you in creating the perfect home for us," said Reid while ignoring Luke’s confusion.
"Can we go back to talking about the wedding?" asked Emma. "Reid, wouldn’t you like a real wedding?"
"I think it’s selfish of us to not give Katie the opportunity to be my best person and to dress in a tux like Marlene Dietrich," said Reid. "She’d love the chance to show Hank how cross-dressing is supposed to be done."
"You want a big, girly wedding?" asked a surprised Luke.
"It doesn’t have to be big," sniffed Reid.
"Oh," said Luke. "I didn’t realize that a wedding would be something you might want. Why don’t the two of us discuss this tonight? If you do want a wedding, we should probably put it off until after the house is done. Between our jobs and planning the house, we don’t have a ton of free time right now."
"Why don’t you plan the house and Reid and I can plan the wedding?" suggested Emma.
Reid was torn. If he was spending time planning the wedding with Emma, that meant he wouldn’t have the time to be included in Luke’s meetings with the sadly smitten Roth. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Luke completely. Luke was the most loyal, trustworthy person he had ever met. He was Lassie in human form. But it would be upsetting to Luke if Roth embarrassed himself by falling in love with Luke. However, Reid didn’t want to wait to get married. He and Luke were solid. He could take point on the wedding, along with Emma’s help, while Luke took point on the house. He started feeling very virtuous about having this cooperation thing down pat. He was going to be a great husband. He’d probably win all kinds of marriage awards.
"That sounds great!" Reid said enthusiastically. "Do we want to involve Lucinda and Katie in the wedding plans or should we fear their input? I can see Katie and Lucinda going all Bossy Betties on us."
"If they want something that you don’t, you get to play the ‘This is Luke and my wedding and we make all the final decisions’ card," said Emma. "Why don’t we have the whole family over to the farm for dinner on Friday night? You and Luke can make your announcement about getting married and we’ll ask Lucinda and Katie if they want to be involved in the plans."
"Do you think we can make arrangements for a wedding to be held over Christmas break?" Reid asked Emma. "Luke’s only going to get married once instead of having a bunch of temporary marriages. It’s a big deal and we should have all of the Snyders there. If the wedding is over Christmas break, it might be easier as all of the kids would be on break from school. And when I say ‘kids’ I am including your grandson."
Luke glared at Reid for the ‘kids’ remark but Reid wasn’t paying any attention to him. Apparently Emma was going to be Reid’s wedding-planning cohort. Luke smiled at his fiancé and grandmother as they began discussing guest lists. Luke was happy that Reid thought that having a wedding ceremony was going to be worth all of the trouble that it was going to be. He wondered if Reid would order slide rules as wedding favors for the guests. Luke muffled a giggle. When Reid looked at him, Luke gave him a smile and kissed him solidly on the mouth. Reid wrapped his arm around Luke’s back and then continued his discussion with Emma regarding whether the wedding should just be family. Luke turned back to Roth to continue their discussion regarding flooring options. Unbeknownst to the people at the table, their waiter was advising Lisa Grimaldi, Mona Lisa’s owner and the town crier [albeit amateur status], of the proposed wedding. By early evening, Luke had referred his mother, Grandmother Lucinda, Faith, Natalie and Aunt Iva over to Reid. Yeah, working with an architect and contractors on a home was going to be so much easier than planning a wedding with the input of a bunch of headstrong and romantically inclined women. Reid was such a sucker.