𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧.

KEVIN: hey, tone is hard to read over text!

KEVIN: i'm glad you're enjoying it, in any case

JADE: Yes, yes, so you say.

“They will all be in my vows,” Weston said with a grin, his features unable to tell her if he was actually joking or not. Truth be told, he loved Jade and if she needed to hear all the things he liked about her then he could do that. However, he’d take his time since there was no fun in showing your hand. “Exactly, you don’t know a thing about her and yet you’re going to begin to make some prejudgements on her. Besides, she honestly seems like a nice, well-put-together woman, and I think we should give Kevin the benefit of the doubt when it comes to dating. “Plus, Kevin’s been single for awhile now, I’m sure seeing us together all the time makes him wish he had someone too. Now he does, shouldn’t we be happy for him?”

-

“Fine, I guess I can wait a little while longer,” she said with an overly dramatic sigh. Secretly, she was a little bit nervous about the vows part of the big day. While she and Weston had a lot in common, Jade had always lacked the charm and finesse that Wes possessed, which probably explained why he was the politician and she wasn’t. He was good with his words and she just... wasn’t. Speaking from the heart wasn’t something she really knew how to do, but she sure as hell would try her hardest. She’d be damned if she let him outdo her. “Don’t call me judgemental! I’m not judgemental, I like to think I’m... realistic. Don’t act like you trust easily. Also, I’m not sure Kevin’s chronic singleness works in his favor here. It probably just makes him more desperate for the whole white picket fence life. I want to be happy for him, I just don’t want him to get his heart smashed into a million little pieces.” 

It wasn’t quite the smooth start that she’d wanted for them and she quickly blamed herself for not taking into consideration the fact that not everyone found themselves as affected by art as she did. “No, not at all.” The words come out fast, eager to let her know that there was really no need for apologies and when Jade changed the subject she was quick to gratefully latch onto it. “Sure, I’m really not an expert so don’t set your hopes too high but I’d love to help.” Smile rested on her lips, happy to be included and left feeling as though she could be useful. “How about you pick next time?” It seemed obvious enough to her that this would be far from the last time that they spent time together and it was only fair if Jade got to choose an environment that she was a little more comfortable in. God knows there were plenty of places Ava felt out of her depth if she wanted to return the favour.

Smile widened to a grin as Jade continued and she felt pleased that they seemed to have found a way to get back on track. “I like the way you think. Any suggestions?”

-

Jade couldn’t hide , not loving the idea of having to choose some place that would entertain both her and Ava. Much like Weston, the things she enjoyed were usually pretty tedious to anyone that wasn’t a control freak. “I don’t know if you want me to pick, Ava. Only Weston enjoys my particular brand of fun. There’s a reason we’re getting married,” she warned. “We could do one of those escape room things. I would be awesome at those.” If her choice of activity didn’t ruin her potential friendship with Ava, her competitiveness just might do the trick. “How about we go to Arts and Drafts? There’s the word art in there and I might suddenly understand these more after a few drinks.”

KEVIN: please, there absolutely is such a thing as too far

KEVIN: enough about this, though; how are you?

JADE: Don't worry about it, Kevin.

JADE: Great. Wedding planning is a blast.

“Yeah I know you don’t, it’s actually one of the qualities I like best about you,” Weston said, if only because he himself could be described as a go-getter who always put in the effort so it was nice to know Jade was also that way too. “Oh you’re definitely prejudging,” Weston corrected with an amused smile now sneaking its way to his features. “Well, first of all, it think you should stay off twitter, it’s got a lot of unhinged people on there. “However, if it’ll make you feel better, that intern — Becky, I think her name is, her dad’s in the FBI, ask her to run the girl’s name through their database and if it comes out clean then we should give Kevin’s new girlfriend our blessing,” Weston had been mostly joking though now that he said it out loud it didn’t sound like the worst idea either. “Because Kevin is our child — well, manchild. Don’t tell him I said that.”

-

“Ah, tell me more about these qualities I possess that you like so much,” she said with a grin, always interested in hearing about all the things he enjoyed about her. No one understood her the way Weston did. The way he saw her went so much deeper than just surface level. He saw everything about her that used to scare people away and he liked it. She would never tire of hearing him remind her of that. “How can I prejudge her? I barely know a thing about her, which is the problem. What if she’s got an unhinged baby daddy back home? These are the things we need to know about. I’ll talk to Becky and, if she’s clean, we can meet her. Then I’ll do the actual judging and think about giving her my blessing.” Jade couldn’t help the laughter that burst out of her after Weston’s comment. “I would never because I agree. He needs us.”

KEVIN: i WASN'T worried, but i am now

JADE: Don't worry, I run everything I do by Wes to make sure I don't go TOO far.

“Yeah, that might work. My pops is an expert bullshit detector so the less you try the more he’d appreciate it,” Weston offered the advice freely. He knew his father had grown especially bitter and a little lost after his mother’s passing but with both he and Eva around he was warming up to change. He knew eventually he’d warm up to Jade, perhaps not up to her standard, but it would take some patience. However, Weston was happy to delve into Kevin’s love life now than his own family issues so he took the bait and ran with it, “Hey, let’s not pre-judge her. But also, what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t run a background check. Or at the very least a little twitter and instagram stalking,” Perhaps they were enabling each other or maybe they just really wanted to make sure Kevin found someone nice, Weston would say it was probably fifty fifty. “I’m sure she’ll check out just fine. Besides, it’s been a while since he’s had someone he’s into, you know? Might be good for him.”

-

“I don’t know how to not try. That sounds so... lazy and unambitious,” she said with a drawn out sigh. Her being overly... everything wasn’t her trying too hard or not being herself. It was the opposite actually. Jade Liang was a doer. She didn’t know how to be anything else. “I’m not prejudging, I’m being cautious. You know there’s a lot of... odd people out there. You take care of Twitter and Instagram and I’ll handle the serious business.” Not that social media wasn’t often a mine of compromising information. How many people had lost everything over old tweets dug out or unfortunate pictures surfacing? Too many to count. “Why does it sound like we’re discussing our child and not a friend?”

KEVIN: didn’t think you’d miss it, exactly, but, look. it’s not a big deal. honest. it definitely wasn’t intentional

“Of course I would,” Weston said, almost buying it himself. However, thankfully it was mostly true because he didn’t think Jade was actually doing anything wrong. Did he think she made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the wrong way? A little. Only because he grew up in a household that buttered the bread before the peanut butt and jelly, but he could admit that maybe he was the wrong one there. But everything else? She seemed perfect. “My pops is a man of few words, it just takes time. Doesn’t mean he hates you by any means,” And Weston genuinely thought so too. “All I know is that her name’s Isla Jean, she’s from Mississippi, she’s got a seven year old daughter, and she makes him happy,” Weston said, shrugging his shoulders with a knowing smile, “What else is there to know? Besides, Kevin seems a bit peppier about life, I’ll chalk it up to this girl. I told him we should grab dinner and introduce us.”

-

It was a relief to hear that Weston wasn’t keeping something from her as far as the way she was acting around his family. She trusted that he would tell her if she were being rude in one way or another. Although she was never purposefully impolite, she was perfectly aware that she could come across as such regardless. “Alright, alright, if you say so. I’ll just... give it some time and stop trying so hard?” Maybe it didn’t help that she was constantly trying to prove herself. “She literally sounds like a country song. I’m going to run a background check. You can never be too safe. Don’t worry, I’ll get it all done before the dinner. Well, if there’s still a dinner to be had after I’ve run the background check.”

KEVIN: 🤦🏻‍♂️ i should've known you would catch that

“Look, my mom would have loved you, my pops, however, he’s a bit more stubborn,” Weston began, though he figured that’s probably where Eva got her own stubbornness (and perhaps himself as well). “Regardless, he’ll come around, so don’t worry about, alright?” Weston said, wrapping a comforting arm around Jade’s shoulder. “You let me know any way I can help, I’m here for you,” And he was, no matter how busy his schedule tended to get. “By the way, Kevin’s seeing someone, I think we should get dinner and maybe meet her, you know, see what’s been keeping him happy lately.”

-

“Alright, that’s fair, but you would tell me if I were doing something wrong, right? Because you know if there’s one thing I lack it’s self-awareness,” she told him, in a rare show of vulnerability. Self-deprecation was not Jade’s thing. “If you say so. Hopefully before the wedding. Might make for an awkward speech if he still hates my guts at the reception dinner.” Perking up at the mention of someone special in Kevin’s life, immediately wanting to be privy to every single Weston knew. “Is he? Who is she? What does she do?”

Weston had always been good at reading people, it was what made him a great politician, and lately he could pick up on the fact that the stress was slowly but surely getting to Jade. Perhaps not so much all the planning, which he felt she was 100% capable of accomplishing with or without his help, but about his family not being fully on board. At least Ava made an effort, which couldn’t really be said for his father. “And the most modest, don’t forget that,” Weston teased with a smirk. “So how you holdin’ up with everything? As much as I enjoy cheating on my diet for cake tastings, is there anything else you need my help with?”

-

Truthfully, Jade constantly overthinking and over-planning wasn’t so much a sign of cockiness as it was a sign of crippling anxiety over all the things that could go wrong. The wedding planning was coming along nicely, but what was even the point if she couldn’t get Weston’s parents to approve of her by the big day? She couldn’t control their feelings about her and it was driving her to the brink of insanity. “Unless you can brainwash your family into liking me, I doubt it. That’s the one thing I don’t have handled.”

DOWNTOWN CAKE TASTING June 21st, Tuesday w/ @jadeliang​

While Weston understood that some of Jade’s antics seemed like overkill, such as three cake tastings, he also trusted her completely and wanted to make sure their wedding was nothing short of perfect. So there they were at the local bakery doing their third and final cake tasting during their lunch break. “You know, I think we’re makin’ this work-life balance thing look easy,” weston joked with a teasing smile. It was no surprise that they both were ambitious about their careers, and truth be told, Weston thought it’d be more of a challenge to find some balance, but they were making it work. “Alright, I still like the dark chocolate cake with the cheesecake frosting, that’s my final vote. What about you?”

-

As expected, Jade had taken these cake tastings as seriously as if she and Wes had been updating their wills, which happened to be on her very long list of things to do before the wedding. For now, though, she was fully focused on the cake in front of her, eyes closed to help her concentrate on the many flavors. Truthfully, all she could taste was boring vanilla and that would just not do for their wedding. “Oh, yeah, we’re killing it. Are you surprised? We’re the two most efficient people to ever walk this earth,” she said with a scoff, humble as ever. “Yeah, I agree. I mean, vanilla isn’t bad, it’s just so... overdone. See, aren’t you glad I booked us so many tastings? Now we get to have the best of the best.” 

When Jade had agreed to go to the gallery with her she’d been glad, somewhat nervous but glad. She wasn’t sure exactly how it would go with the two of them hardly having spent enough time together for her to have formed a strong opinion of the other woman. But what she did know was that Jade was important to Weston and what was important to her brother became important to her. Shocked look flickers over her features as her attention moves from the painting back to Jade. “None of them?” Tone and expression were incredulous before she caught her and at least schooled her features into something more neutral. Even though she was trying to practise more honesty in her interactions, if there was one person she wasn’t trying to accidentally offend it was her brother’s fiancée.

After a moment of reflection she decided that it spoke volumes that Jade had been willing to come at all, just to spend time with her. That and her candour endeared her to Ava and so she made an offer. “Why don’t we go grab a coffee or even something stronger?” It wasn’t as though their visit had been a short one when she was fairly certain they’d made their way around at least the majority of the paintings. The whole reason behind the trip had been to give them an opportunity to get to know one another better and they certainly didn’t need to be in a gallery for that. “I’m actually getting tired of looking at this one - I think figuring it out is giving me a headache. Or if you want to stay I can try to give you an art crash course but I’m no expert.”

-

Jade wasn’t exactly used to not knowing everything about everything, so this wasn’t her proudest moment. It was 100% her fault, though, she shouldn’t have agreed to meeting here. She wanted to impress the girl, not make her think she was an uncultured idiot. “Sorry, I should’ve warned you I’m not much of an art person. My apartment walls were completely bare. Maybe you can pick up a few things for our place.” She might be an uncultured idiot, but she was an uncultured idiot who could dish out compliments like no other. What she lacked in art knowledge, she more than made up for in charm. Classic politician. 

“Sounds good. I could use a few drinks to wash down the embarrassment of this entire evening,” she said jokingly, happy Ava had offered to leave this damned place. “You can give me a crash course while we have drinks. Why pick one when we can have both?”

“The harder you ignore my sarcasm the more insistent I’ll become on using it,” Weston said in a sing-songy tone as he tried to hide his amusement. “Besides, as much as I know you like being in charge of things, you can pass some of the planning my way. We’re a team, we should tackle the wedding as one, too.” That and he knew how stressful weddings could be no matter how much the couple enjoyed planning and organizing it could still become too much. The last thing Weston wanted was either of them getting overwhelmed or burned out. “My family doesn’t dislike you, they just haven’t had a chance to fall in love the way I have. It’ll just take some time, which we have plenty of,” he said, taking an optimistic approach to the issue. “Hmm well my sister’s always had an eye for art, maybe hit up a museum? My pops might be easier, he likes brutal honesty, don’t bullshit him and you’ll be fine.”

-

“And the harder I’ll ignore,” she said with an obnoxious smile. They were both the type to want the last word at any cost, to always want to win. She firmly believed it would keep their relationship interesting, if anything. “Fine. You can be in charge of... I don’t know. The color of the napkins. You gotta run it by me when you settle on one, though. I gotta make sure I don’t have to wipe my mouth with orange napkins at my wedding.” She nodded along as he attempted to comfort her and advice her on how to worm her way into his family’s hearts. “Museums? If there’s one thing I understand nothing about, it’s art. I guess I could pretend... Look up the exhibits before our visit.”

Weston liked to think he had known Jade fairly well — from her obscenely specific coffee order to her morning routine. In the end, the cake tasting was something he had foreseen and figured it was best to let Jade do what Jade did best — organize and plan. “Alright, multiple tastings, that sounds totally sane and not overkill at all,” He said with a teasing smile despite the fact that there wasn’t actually much sarcasm in his words. Truth be told, he agreed with her. He wanted everything to be perfect, if that meant multiple cake tastings then so be it. “Don’t be silly — there are several reasons why I love you,” He reassured her quite easily with the shrug of his shoulders. “I think we have the rest of our lives for them to fall absolutely in love with you. Besides, I think they like you just fine, no one’s throwing a fit over this wedding,” Which was true enough even if his father probably had some opinions at least he was keeping them to himself for now.

-

“Contrary to what you may think, I pick up on your sarcasm, Weston Jameson. I just usually choose to ignore it,” she said with a playful glare before checking cake tastings off of her list. Sadly, the list still looked completely overwhelming — even for Jade, the self-appointed queen of planning. “Yes, I know, what’s not to love? I’m going to make an amazing life. You probably won’t have to think of a single thing for the rest of your life. I was just always under the impression that someone’s family not liking their kid’s significant other might be a dealbreaker.” His I think they like you just fine didn’t exactly put her mind at ease, but what could she do other than try to convince them she was worthy of their son?  “You’re terrible at comforting people, you know that? Just tell me what I can do to expedite the falling in love process.”