A Memorial Day To Remember

No matter how many parties they attended, or how much she didn't miss the games and the scheming, Olivia had to admit that it was still odd to be on her best behavior. Despite the fact that she would never have intentionally done anything to start drama at an event that Parker's company was invested in, she couldn't help but think about all of the times that they had been at parties very much like this one and been caught up in all sorts of drama with their peers. It was strange to think of how far they had come personally, among everything else. She smiled up at Parker, feeling oddly proud of how far he had come professionally as well. She supposed that it was strange to think of how far their relationship had come as well, considering all that they had gone through in high school, the decade of complete separation, and the sudden progression to a real, adult relationship over the last year.

Two months still seemed like an impossibly long time to continue on the way that things had been. Brandon had never realized how active their spring and summer months had really been until he was put in a situation with an incredibly pregnant girlfriend who found discomfort in much of their normal routine. He felt bad about dragging her to Mexico for Riley and Adam's wedding the month before, and he felt bad about pulling her away from the Hamptons house to attend yet another party. He knew that she would have much rather had been at home relaxing than having to play nice with a bunch of their social acquaintances, and most of the time he couldn't help but agree with her. Still, he appreciated that she continued to try and make the best out of the situation. He watched her for a minute, smiling at her. Even seven months into the pregnancy she still looked as beautiful as ever, something he wasn't sure that he reminded her of enough. "You look wonderful," he complimented softly.

Olivia shook her head. Admittedly, yes, one of the side effects of not finding herself in the middle of drama any longer seemed to be that her life was much more uneventful than it had once been. Uneventful in the way that their nights now consisted of dates or evenings at home instead of scheming and corrupting their social circle's lives. But again, she couldn't say that she entirely missed it. Sure, there were some things that had been exciting and terribly dramatic, but she was finding it just as amusing to just spend time with Parker. She nearly groaned at her own thought process with how domestic and in love she seemed to be. If she were an outsider looking in she was sure she would have said some unkind remarks about herself. But, for now, she was too blissfully unaware to care. "No, not too terribly bored. At least not anymore than normal," she added teasingly. "So who do we have to go say hello to now?" Looking out over the room she spotted a very pregnant looking Amber Jacobs and hoped that she could at least avoid having to play nice with her for a bit longer.

Brandon shook his head. "Just wonderful, period." At the mention of Cassidy suggesting that she stopped working in a few weeks, he paused. It wasn't the worst idea, he had to admit, but he wasn't sure that being cooped up inside of the Penthouse for the next two months was going to do anything to make her feel better. "What do you want to do?"

Maddy couldn't say that she was necessarily thrilled about spending time at an event where Parker and Olivia were in attendance, but she was trying to be the bigger person in this situation. She was very happily engaged to Cooper and no matter what had happened in the past, they weren't able to ruin that now. At least, she hoped that they wouldn't. It was hard for her to remember a time where she had been as happy as she had been since she had started dating Cooper, which really only made her that much more excited to get married to him next fall. She grinned at her fiance when he mentioned that it was probably time to start talking to Amber about their impending wedding, following him over to Amber and Brandon.

Brandon sighed, not knowing if there was a way that he could actually win when it came to anything happening over the course of her pregnancy. "Don't a lot of pregnant women knit for the babies? Who knows, you might love it," he teased, before turning to their friends, appreciating a small break from the conversation. "Hello, Madison. Cooper."

Maddy smiled at them, "Hi. Amber, I was just thinking about the wedding and I was wondering if you might have some time to talk about the bridesmaid dresses. I just don't have the eye for fashion that you do so I thought it might be fun."

Olivia had to admit that she was perfectly content to put off anymore small talk. It could be exhausting to pretend to be interested in other people's lives for so long. When Parker mentioned that it was better to have a topic or an announcement, she looked at him curiously. The smirk poised on his lips did nothing to stifle her curiousity as to what he was hinting at. "Yes, I suppose that it would be good to have something to curb the boredom."

Olivia froze. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting but it hadn't been this. Sure, she had assumed that it was coming eventually, but she hadn't quite expected that it would happen so soon. When they had sat down to talk about their future together, she wasn't even sure that she expected herself to ever get married. She loved Parker, she couldn't deny that, and now that it was in front of her and he was asking her to marry him, she couldn't remember why she had ever thought that she would have ever said no to him. He was absolutely right, she couldn't think of a more exciting prospect than growing to be boring with him too, and though she had never expected that they would be here, she was glad that they had. Grinning widely at him, she nodded. "Of course I would."

Brandon gave a small dry laugh. He hadn't meant to feel frustrated by the entire situation but he was really growing to miss how things had been before the pregnancy. He just couldn't wait for her hormones to go back to normal, at least in the way where he knew how to handle things as they came. This was something that he had no idea how to handle as it seemed like he couldn't do anything right in this situation. "Does it make me a horrible person if I said that I couldn't wait for it to be over?"

Maddy grinned at Amber, glad to have reached a point in her friendship with the other woman where they could geek out over things like dresses, shoes, and flower arrangements. "No, we haven't narrowed down the exact date yet, but we're thinking maybe next fall? I don't know why but I just love the idea of a fall wedding. But of course that means I have no idea what sort of dresses I should be looking at for you and Riley, or myself even. Long, short, dark colors, light - there are far too many options." She caught Amber's attention turned toward a commotion across the room and spotted Parker presenting Olivia with a ring. She momentarily felt her breath catch in her throat but shoved it aside, turning her attention back to Amber. "If you have some time, I would love to have you and Riley over to look through some ideas."

Adam nodded his agreement to the idea of finding Cooper and Madison but stopped when he saw what Riley had mentioned. "Apparently we are. That makes two couples from high school now? Maybe we need a wider social circle. Or maybe we've all reached that age where everyone we know is coupling up." Shaking his head, he pressed a quick kiss to her temple. "Let's go find our friends," he suggested.

Olivia grinned at him and kissed him back easily, feeling an overwhelming rush of happiness at the entire exchange. She never expected to feel like such a girl about the idea of being engaged or getting married some day, but now that it was real, all she could think about was what it was going to be like to spend the rest of her life with Parker. They had been through so much together already, whether they had been dating or scheming, and it just seemed like everything was finally coming full circle. She nodded, leaning up on her toes to press another kiss to his lips. "Much less bored. Surprisingly more happy," she declared.

Brandon nearly raised an eyebrow at Cooper, wondering how one was supposed to announce that he hadn't actually been having sex with his girlfriend. Something about the fact that it had become incredibly apparent that there was a baby inside of her made it feel incredibly uncomfortable to think that sex was going to interrupt the baby's living space. Though she did seem to be incredibly open to the idea that they could act upon their sex drives, he just wasn't sure that it was the right thing to do for the baby. It was just hard to consider it without thinking that it was going to be strange for all involved parties, including their unborn son. "No." He said finally, "We haven't."

Maddy wanted to hug Amber for how wonderful she was being about the whole wedding and everything that went with it. "You're really amazing, you know. Brandon is lucky to have you. And I have to admit, I'm so excited for your baby to arrive. You realize that he's going to be completely, unfairly genetically gifted, right?" she teased her friend, trying to ignore the fact that she was fairly certain that her ex-boyfriend was currently in the middle of getting engaged to the horrible woman that he had left her for. "Oh hey there, Mrs. Tyler," she greeted her best friend teasingly. "We were just talking about how my wedding was going to possibly compare to yours. Speaking of, how was the honeymoon?"

Even if it hadn't been said in so many words, Brandon hated hearing any allusion to the fact that he wasn't having sex with Amber, and he hated Cooper's dismissal of it. Not that he necessarily wanted to get into a conversation about his sex life, or current lack of one, but when it came down to it, they were Amber and Brandon. They were the ones who were notorious for disappearing from parties like this to have sex in the coat room, or the bathroom, or some isolated corner of the room. It wasn't like them at all to be going through a dry spell, self-inflicted or not. "Sure," he nodded. "I should have some time available early in the week if that works for you?"

Adam gave a small laugh, "Yes, I was afraid we were going to have to cut the honeymoon short because Riley had decided that she might be able to outlast Queen Elizabeth. Thankfully she came to her senses and set her sights on the White House instead," he teased his wife, kissing her cheek lovingly. He had to admit, as wonderful as their wedding had been and as relaxing and perfect as their honeymoon had been, he was happy to finally be home with their friends and family. And, he added to himself, now they had plenty of time to get started on a family of their own, unless they had gotten lucky on their honeymoon.

Maddy laughed, shaking her head. "I think bossing people around will be just fine. I was just asking Amber for her advice on the dresses, and I'm sure she'll be wonderful at helping to decorate too. My family just never seems to stay in town long enough for me to ask for their help so I figured that I couldn't really get better advice than from someone who has much better taste than I could ever imagine having." She figured it was probably a bit much, but she couldn't help but notice that things had seemed particularly strained for Amber lately as her pregnancy progressed. She hoped the compliments would boost her self-esteem a bit, at least Madison figured that's what she would have wanted in Amber's shoes. Besides, this way she was able to keep her attention away from the now apparently engaged couple drawing a bit of attention.

Liv couldn't seem to stop grinning like a loon, something she was coming to resent of her body. She couldn't remember the last time that she had been so outwardly happy about something and it made her feel oddly vulnerable. Though it also made her want to stand up in front of everyone at the party, microphone in hand, and announce that she was getting married to Parker. It was such a weird dichotomy, she admitted. "Is it absolutely horrible that I have an overwhelming urge to announce it to the party now?" she asked her new fiance softly. It was, she conceded, his company's party and therefore she didn't want to do anything that would cross a line. "Or at the very least tell everyone that we know."

Brandon figured that now was probably not the time or the place to get into the reasons why he and Amber hadn't been having sex over the last several weeks, and really, the more he thought about it, the more he started second guessing whether or not they should have just given it a try anyway. It was hard to remember why it seemed weird when the alternative was that they didn't have sex at all. He took the opportunity to change the subject that Cooper presented as Parker and Liv made their way over to say hello, or to brag he was sure. Not that they had gotten engaged, he and Amber remained the only two that weren't planning a wedding or had already gotten married. It was quite the contrary from what he would have expected considering their group of friends and acquaintances. And what's more, in his opinion, Parker and Olivia seemed to be the least likely to settle down, but apparently hell could freeze over. "Looks like you and Madison might have some wedding competition." Even saying it out loud made Brandon realize how much he was growing to hate that he and Amber were the last, when all things considered, they probably should have been the first.

"Oh shush," Maddy dismissed Riley's statement of her being a better bride than Riley had been. "You were a stunning and perfect bride." And as if the conversation of weddings had drawn them over, Maddy suddenly found Parker and Olivia joining their little group. It shouldn't have bothered her nearly as much as it did, she knew that, but for whatever the reason she had always just assumed that Olivia would have been a fling too, just something that Parker needed to get out of his system. It had actually made her feel a little bit better after their break up to just assume that he was incapable of settling down with anyone. It wasn't even that she was necessarily jealous or that she wasn't happy for them, it was just that there was still a lot of history and a lot of baggage behind it all. She loved Cooper and she was so excited to spend the rest of her life with him, but it didn't mean that she really liked the idea that her ex was moving on with the horrible woman that he had left her for.

Olivia grinned at Amber's congratulations and nodded, "Thank you. I have to say, part of me is surprised that you haven't gotten engaged yet either. Though," she paused, smiling politely at her. "I suppose that you and Brandon have never been the sort to do things by the book."