July 30, 2012, 4:23 p.m.
To Have and to Hold: The Planner
M - Words: 3,067 - Last Updated: Jul 30, 2012 Story: In Progress - Chapters: 2/? - Created: Jul 10, 2012 - Updated: Jul 30, 2012 269 0 4 0 0
"Are you sure you don't need me to come down there? My vacation starts next week, so I could come by and help you out for a couple of days."
Kurt Hummel drummed his pencil against the notepad resting on his lap as he considered his best friend and former roommate, Mercedes', offer.
"Sorry 'Cedes, Maritza's been watching over me like a hawk this week. I think if I bring in some unannounced helper's she'll literally bite my head off."
"That's ridiculous! You left that vampire-bat's company four months ago, she shouldn't be watching over you anymore!"
"Hey, if it weren't for her I wouldn't even have my business at all. As much as I hate to admit it, I owe her big time."
"You, Mr. Hummel, need to grow a backbone," Mercedes scolded.
"Goodbye, Mercedes," Kurt teased.
Mercedes gave Kurt a light hearted laugh before making him promise to call her that night. After he promised to call her promptly at seven the two hung up and Kurt tossed his brand new iPhone onto the coffee table beside him. He stretched himself along the couch he had been reclining on for the past twenty minutes and turned his attention back to the notepad on his lap.
Kurt had stayed up until the early hours of the morning trying to tie up the loose ends for the handful of weddings he had to prepare for. Nothing seemed to be going his way that week. The caterer for the Cahley wedding had called that night to say that they wouldn't be able to make the elaborate seven tier cake the bride had specifically requested to represent the seven years she and her fiancé had been together, leaving Kurt with two weeks to find a new baker that would be capable of putting together the elaborate cake. The florist for the Zebrowski wedding had prepared the bouquets for the bridesmaids with orchids instead of lilies, which sent the bridezilla on a tirade that resulted in Kurt receiving a nearly hour long scolding. To top it all off, the band for the Fajardo wedding had canceled with only a month until the wedding, because apparently the drummer had managed to get the lead singer's girlfriend pregnant, leading to a nasty band breakup during a rehearsal for the wedding reception that ended with two broken noses, a bruised lip, and one hysterical pregnant woman.
Kurt turned his nose up at the notepad that sat on his lap, still completely untouched. He'd intended to at least come up with a rough sketch of the seating arrangement for the DeLeon wedding, but found that his mind wasn't up to the challenge after only receiving three hours of sleep. With a discontented sigh he flipped the notepad closed and shrugged off the couch. He decided against taking a shower that morning, choosing instead to have a proper breakfast to help nourish his aching mind.
After brushing his teeth, quickly styling his hair and dressing in his usual white button down shirt and black dress pants Kurt sat down at the counter in his kitchen to decide what to have for breakfast. It was moments like the one he currently found himself in that made him miss his former roommate, Mercedes Jones, more than usual. Mercedes was an aspiring chef, who was always making Kurt try her new breakfast concoctions. More often than not her morning experiments weren't very appetizing, her dinner experiments were much better, but it was still better than waking up to a stale Poptart every morning. Kurt decided to settle for frozen waffles when he realized he was running five minutes behind schedule. While preparing his lackluster breakfast Kurt made himself a mental note to text Mercedes later, begging her and her cooking experiments to move back to New York.
Kurt finished off his uneventful breakfast, gathered up his briefcase and walked over to the train station across the street from his apartment. He spent the equally uneventful train ride to his office scanning through ads for one bedroom apartments, hoping to find something small yet classy enough for his needs. Since Mercedes had moved to Nevada less than a month ago to work for a popular restaurant in Las Vegas Kurt found that their two bedroom apartment had become too much of hassle for him to live there by himself, and thus decided to move into a smaller apartment. Unfortunately, finding a comfortable and affordable one bedroom apartment in New York City was next to impossible.
Kurt walked into the lobby of his office and tossed his newspaper into a nearby waste bin more roughly than was necessary, grabbing the attention of his assistant, Piper.
"Bad morning?" Piper asked as she handed Kurt the coffee she had bought for him.
"Not really. This apartment hunting thing is just really stressful, and I really don't need any extra stress right now. Why can't New York apartments just be affordable like the ones in Ohio? Oh, and guess what I found yesterday? A grey hair; a grey hair Piper! I'm twenty six, I shouldn't have grey hairs!"
"Relax, your hair is perfection, as usual." Piper gave him a small smile before continuing, "Tell you what, I'm meeting Matt during my lunch break today, and his office is across the street from a real estate agency. I'll text him now and ask him to bring a couple of flyers for some affordable one bedroom apartments."
"Oh God, thank you, you're a lifesaver. What would I do without you?"
"Probably cry yourself to sleep at night and slowly shrivel and wither until you inevitably turn into a raisin."
Kurt burst into a fit of giggles at Piper's nonchalant expression as she typed out a message to her boyfriend, Matt, on her phone. He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before crossing over her desk to the glass double doors that led to his office. He let out a groan when he caught sight of his former boss, Maritza, or as he and Piper referred to call her, Satan-in-stilletos.
"Just go in and get it over with. The longer you keep her waiting, the angrier she'll be."
Kurt groaned again, knowing that Piper was right, and took a deep breath before stepping into his office. Not even five seconds after he stepped into his office Maritza began to ramble on about all the things Kurt needed to do that day, along with reminding him of all the things that had gone wrong the past days.
Ever since Kurt had left Maritza's agency of elite event planners to start up his own wedding planning business she had been following him relentlessly. To his dismay, it was thanks to Maritza that Kurt had even been able to start up his own business after she lent him the $1000 he needed for the down payment on the building he was going to use as his office. Since that day Maritza decided to take it upon herself to be Kurt's mentor, hovering over him every morning before departing around noon to get back to her own business. Kurt wouldn't have minded Maritza's presence as much if she didn't constantly feel the need to point out Kurt's mistakes as an amateur wedding planner.
"Don't you have your own business to attend to?" Kurt snapped as he sat down at his desk.
"I do, but because I am your loving and caring mentor I had my assistant schedule all my meetings in the afternoon so I could be here."
Kurt quickly wrote himself a note to send Maritza's assistant an Edible Arrangement as a bribe for her to start scheduling Maritza's meetings in the morning.
"So, who's the most amazing woman in the world?" Maritza boasted, taking a seat on the edge of Kurt's desk.
"Patti LuPone," Kurt answered quickly.
"Me," answered Piper, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation from her desk.
Maritza's face fell as she shot Kurt a dirty look.
"Fine then, I'll just tell Santana Lopez that I'll plan her wedding myself." A smug smile spread across Maritza's lips at Kurt's shocked expression.
Kurt stood up from his desk, covering his open mouth with shaking hands as he struggled to contain his excitement. Even Piper had pressed up against the glass of the door between her and the office, struggling to listen in on the conversation.
"Santana Lopez? As in the actress Santana Lopez?"
"The one and only."
Neither Kurt nor Piper could contain their excitement anymore. Kurt let out a squeal of excitement just as Piper burst into the office, both of them pink faced and giddy.
"H-how did this happen?!"
"I have friends in high places. I talked to a couple of Santana's reps and one of them managed to sneak her my card. She gave me a call asking for an appointment a few days ago, and since I'm booked solid for the next two months, I decided to pass her on to you. I thought you could use a big name client to help get your name out in the world. She and her fiancé will be here for their first meeting in about…twenty minutes."
"WHAT?!" Kurt and Piper exclaimed in unison.
"I hope you don't mind that I just cleared up your morning schedule so you could give Ms. Lopez the attention she deserves."
Kurt and Piper ignored Maritza as they began to run around the office frantically. Kurt hurriedly attempted to clean off his mess of a desk while Piper anxiously rearranged the stack of bridal magazines on the coffee table in the lobby.
"Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?" Kurt practically shouted at Maritza while he searched for his notepad amongst the clutter of papers littering his desk.
"I thought a bit of pressure would be a refreshing challenge for you. To succeed in this business you must learn to work well under pressure."
I can succeed in this business without any help from you, you tactless cow.
"Thanks," Kurt muttered through gritted teeth.
Maritza stood by with a smirk on her face as she watched Kurt and Piper scramble to prepare for their celebrity client. Maritza caught sight of a familiar silver car parking across the street from the office and decided to take her leave.
"Well I'm going to head out now, good luck Grasshopper Hummel. Try not to mess this up."
Kurt let out a sigh of relief once Maritza had collected her things and left. He thanked every superior being he could think of for the fact that he wouldn't have to deal with her during the meeting with Santana. Kurt wasn't sure if he could handle such a high scale client running on three hours of sleep, but he knew for a fact that he would definitely not be able to handle a high scale client on three hours of sleep if Maritza was watching and scrutinizing his every move. Not even a minute after Maritza left the office Santana swept through the door, gliding over to Piper's desk with unnatural grace.
"I have an appointment with Kurt Hummel," she said without looking up from her Blackberry.
"O-of course Ms. Lopez, go right in. Is there anything I can get for you? Maybe coffee or t-tea?"
"Can you get me an assistant that actually knows how to do their job?" Santana growled, shoving her phone into her pocket roughly before walking over to Kurt's office.
Kurt rushed to Santana's side when she entered his office, ushering her into one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"Welcome to Weddings Your Way, it's an honor to have you here Ms. Lopez! And may I just say that your performance in The Westfield Massacre was simply captivating, and-"
"Excuse me, as much as I'd like to discuss my Oscar-winning performances, I came here for a reason. You're friend Marishka-something-or-other told me you would be able to help me put together my dream wedding."
"Well, Maritza was right, I can make your dream wedding a reality. So, let's get down to business… Is your fiancé going to be joining us today?"
"He'll be here in a few minutes, I told him to drive around the block until he can find a spot that's within walking distance from here, but not far away enough to make me fatigued or sweat. I have a photo shoot after this."
Kurt gave Santana a small smile as he flipped open the his notepad and prepared to take notes. He attempted to calm his shaking hand as he began to write down some basic information on the page, praying that Santana wouldn't think he was a nervous wreck, which he most definitely was. Kurt was spared the trouble of having to sit through an awkward silence with Santana, because in practically no time at all, a tall, handsome gentleman strolled into his office. The petite man took a seat in the chair next to Santana before extending his hand to Kurt.
"Sorry I'm late, my name is Blaine Anderson. I'm Santana's fiancé."
"Ah, the husband-to-be. Nice of you to join us, now we can get started. So, have you guys thought of any possible dates for the wedding?"
Blaine opened his mouth to say something, but Santana quickly held her finger up to his lips to silence him.
"I've thought about much more than just the date. I've been planning this wedding since I was eight years old. It is going to be my dream wedding, and I expect you to make sure it is nothing short of perfection. There is absolutely no budget for this wedding, and I would like your little assistant to notify as many newspapers and magazines as possible and fill them in on the information about my wedding. It's going to be front page news, trust me. The reception theme is going to be "Starlight". I'll leave the decorations up to you, but make sure they fit the theme, and all decorations must be approved by me first. I have prepared a list of possible venues for both the wedding ceremony and the reception, and I expect you to accompany me to each location on my list to help me decide which ones to choose. I want a minimum of three live bands for the reception, along with a classically trained pianist to play during the wedding ceremony. I've designed my cake already, and expect you to deliver my design to the caterer, which I will also allow you to choose. I also-"
Santana's monologue was cutoff when she pulled out her vibrating Blackberry. Kurt breathed a quick sigh of relief as he finished writing down all of Santana's ideas in his notepad.
"I have to take this, excuse me."
Santana stepped out office, leaving Kurt alone with her fiancé, Blaine. Kurt decided to handle some of the questions he had for him then, as he feared that Santana would continue her monologue when she returned and he would not be able to ask Blaine any questions.
"So, Blaine, do you have anything else to add to what Santana's said?"
Blaine looked up at Kurt, slightly startled that his opinion was being taken into consideration.
"Well, Santana's pretty much said everything… I don't really have much else to say," he said with a shrug.
Kurt gave him a tight lipped smile before turning back to his notepad to scribble a few more notes. Out of the corner of his eye Kurt noticed Blaine's amber eyes flicker towards him sheepishly.
"A-actually, if I could just add one thing… Would that be okay?" Blaine murmured, a light blush creeping up on his cheeks.
"Sure, no problem. What did you have in mind?"
"I was just wondering if there could be a piano at the reception…I really want to play Santana and I's song before our first dance."
"Oh! That's adorable! Of course, I'll definitely try to make that happen," Kurt replied excitedly as he wrote down Blaine's idea.
A pregnant silence ensued a few moments later, which Kurt decided to end quickly by attempting to start up a conversation with Blaine until Santana returned.
"So, you play the piano?"
"Since I was eight. Actually, I'm a performer…well, sort of… I play a couple of shows at a coffee shop a few blocks from my apartment. I'm actually a history teacher." Blaine shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he fixed his eyes on a paper clip sitting on the edge of Kurt's desk.
"O-oh, that's great… So how did you and Santana meet?"
"It's a rather…complicated story," Blaine let out a nervous laugh, "but basically we met through Santana's maid-of-honor, Brittany."
Right on cue Santana burst back into the office, a young blonde girl in tow. Piper trailed into the room nervously, quickly pulling up a chair for Santana's blonde guest.
"Sorry about that, Britt had some trouble parking. Mr. Hummel this is my maid-of-honor, Brittany."
"Pleasure to meet you Brittany. And please Ms. Lopez, call me Kurt."
Santana raised her eyebrow at Kurt briefly before settling back in her chair to continue her monologue on her dream wedding.
"As I was saying, I want my reception venue to not only meet the expectations for my theme, but also hold a large crowd. I'm anticipating about 450 guests will be attending."
Kurt's hand spasmed as he wrote down the anticipated guest count. The largest wedding he'd ever put together only had about 200 guests. He'd never even heard of a wedding with over four hundred guests. Then again, he had also forgotten that he was dealing with an A-list celebrity…
"Along with the live bands at the reception, I would also like at least one DJ. Britt here's a dancer, so I need to make sure there's a decent amount of danceable music, so her talents won't be put to waste. My bridal party will be wearing gold, no exceptions. My invitations will delivered in envelopes lined with gold; again, no exceptions. I'm thinking of possibly a date sometime in late May, or early June. We'll talk more about that once I get my official filming schedule in two weeks. I think that's about it. So…Kurt, do you think you can handle this?" Santana crossed her arms as she looked Kurt dead in the eyes and gave him a smirk that would intimidate even Satan himself.
Kurt's racing mind had nearly reached it's breaking point, and all he could find himself thinking about was how he was in desperate need of a power nap, yet he managed to pull himself together and look Santana right back in the eye.
"Definitely. Kurt Hummel loves a challenge."
Comments
Already intrigued. Can't wait for an update!
Glad you like it! (:
Ah this is great so far! I cannot wait to read more and also get to know Blaine more as well! xx
Thank you so much! :)