Chapter 21: A Wedding Announcement

It was the dog-days of summer. A day or two each week Tonya and Austin would take an extended lunch and let the kids play in the small portable plastic pool in the backyard before it got too hot. After their playtime in the water, one of the adults would take the kids to get changed while the other made lunch.

Today it was Austin’s turn to get the kids changed while Tonya made lunch. He entered the kitchen with the twins trailing closely behind, their wet hair leaving droplets on the floor. Tonya finished placing chips on plates as the kids clamored onto their highchairs. Next to Austin’s place mat was a stack of mail.

“I grabbed the mail before I made lunch,” said Tonya as she moved the plates to the table.

Halfway through the stack of mail Austin found an envelope with their names hand-written in a formal script. Austin carefully opened the envelope, then cheered. Tonya looked at him questioningly.

“It’s a wedding announcement. Jackie and Alex are getting married!”

“That’s great,” she sang out. Then a bit more evenly she asked, “How long has it been since you talked with Jackie?”

Austin had to think. “Uhm,” he started. “It’s been ... too long. I don’t remember. At least a month or two?”

More brightly, Tonya asked, “And when is the wedding? We should suggest getting together sometime after they are married.”

The kids finished their lunch and were allowed to run back to their bedroom and play.

Austin paused as he read a second piece of paper that came out of the envelope. He smiled and looked up at Tonya. “The wedding is in three weeks. This is just an announcement, not an invitation. However,” he held up the second piece of paper, “this is an invitation. Let me read it.”

“Dearest Tonya and Austin, enclosed you will find our wedding announcement. The wedding ceremony will be very small and with only handful of family members. In lieu of large wedding and a honeymoon trip we are going to do a two-day stay-cation downtown. We used the money we saved by not having a big ceremony and honeymoon to put a deposit down on a house!”

Tonya interrupted Austin’s reading with a cheer of her own. “Good for them!”

Austin continued, “We cordially invite you to a BBQ at our new house as a combined celebration – the wedding and a house warming.” A date and time were included. At the bottom of the invitation there was a line of hand-written text. “Our new home has a pool and we hope your sitter will be engaged late enough to help us break it in the right way.”

Tonya had walked over to Austin and was looking at the invitation. “Sounds like she’s wanting to carry on the tradition started by Rachel. Guess you’ll like that, huh?” Tonya teased Austin. “You’ll get to see your work-boobies again.”

Austin teased back. “And with it being a couples night, you’ll also get to ogle Dennis and Alex’s packages.”

“Packages?” laughed Tonya. “You mean their dicks. Their cocks. Their man-meat. Damn, I better slow down or I’ll get myself worked up.”

“I’m here to help,” offered Austin with a sly grin.

“Later,” Tonya said as she put their plates in the sink with a wiggle of her ass.

Later that afternoon Tonya hung up the phone with a grunt. She hated coordinating home repairs. It was so tiring to call two or three repairmen, arrange a time for an estimate, make a decision on who would do the work, and then the time needed to do the actual work. With three separate projects do be done around the house Tonya felt like she was constantly on the phone.

Her phone buzzed. “Hello,” she said after she clicked a button.

“Mrs. Hilton? I am Brian at Superior Kitchen and Bath. Calling you back about the work you are interested in being done.”

“Hi Brian, please call me Tonya. Yes, I wanted to get an estimate for some granite work in the kitchen.”

“Sure, I’m happy to help. In fact, if you have a few minutes, and can do a video call, I can get a lot of information over the phone and possibly avoid a trip to your home.”

If the process could be shortened Tonya was all ears. “Sure. Hold on a second.” She looked at her phone screen and clicked a few times and then saw a flicker as the call converted to video.

“Hello,” said Brian. He was onscreen and waving. He was a younger man with a close cropped beard and a beautiful smile. She smiled and waved back. “Hi.”

Brian had her show him the current counter tops, then she used a tape measure to get him the length and width. He asked questions about the molding she would prefer, as well as a back splash, sink, and faucets. As he entered her information into his estimation tool Tonya had an idea.

“Brian, if I’ve got you on the phone, can I also get you to give me an estimate on a counter top for the master bathroom?”

“Of course,” he said. “I think I’ve got what I need for the kitchen. Let’s take a look at the bathroom before we talk about details.”