Uncharted

A week went by in the blink of an eye, I was sitting at Des and Cooper’s kitchen table enjoying a cup of coffee with Cooper when Des burst through the door clutching a pile of mail and waving an envelope at Cooper and I frantically. I arched an eyebrow in question but kept quiet, leaving it up to Cooper to try to decode the message my boyfriend was so desperately trying to relay to us.

“What are you trying to tell us?” Cooper asked slowly, he narrowed his eyes at Des and then took another sip of his coffee.

I watched Desmond intently, his eyes were light up with an emotion I couldn’t quite place my finger on. It was somewhere between anger and excitement…or at least that’s what I was getting out of it. His face however took on the appearance of someone who had just seen a ghost.

“This!” was all he managed to say before smacking the piece of mail on the table.

“What is it?” I asked looking from the silver envelope back up to Des.

“A wedding invitation!” Des shouted, clearly angry for some unknown reason. I had no idea that a wedding invitation could create such a commotion. I was about to ask what the invitation had done to upset him when he shouted again. “To my sister’s fuckin’ wedding!”

“Wait, which one?” Cooper asked with a laugh.

“Gemma!”

“I didn’t even know she was engaged.” Cooper commented, watching as Des slammed things around in the kitchen while getting himself a cup of coffee.

“That makes two of us!” Des growled and slammed a cupboard door shut making me flinch.

“I thought you said you haven’t seen her in years.” I said recalling the day at the shopping center that Des and I talked about our families before we got into a fight. “You’re acting like you talk to everyday and she just never told you.” I rolled my eyes at how over dramatic he was being.

“Yeah, but she’s my sister! My little sister. I should have known about this. Someone could have called me!” Des said taking a seat at the table with us.

“Ollie has a point, Des.” Cooper said. “You know, if you had a Facebook, you probably would have known about this months ago.”

“I’m not making a Facebook!” Des snapped.

“I’m just saying.” Cooper said holding his hands up in surrender.

I tuned out the background noise of Des and Cooper began a pointless argument about the pros and cons of Facebook. Instead, I decided to look at the invitation that was the cause of the whole argument. I pulled out an elegant piece of white cardstock, there were a lot of words written in a swirly script but what caught my attention most was the gorgeous black and white photograph of who could only be Desmond’s sister, Gemma, and her fiancé.

It was easy to see the resemblance when I looked from the photo of Gemma to Desmond who grimacing at what Cooper was going on about. Even when Gemma was smiling and Desmond looked like he wanted to punch Cooper’s head straight off his body I could see that they had the same sharp facial features. The photograph was in black and white but I imagined she had the same vibrantly green eyes as her brother. Gemma was easily one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. I assumed that unnatural beauty must have been a Gallagher family trait.

“All I’m saying is that she’s nineteen years old, she’s too young to be getting married! She has no idea what love even is. She’s a baby!” Des said loudly, drawing me out of my thoughts.

“If I recall, weren’t you engaged at nineteen?” Cooper asked, a smirk on his face and his eyebrows arched in amusement.

“Yes! Exactly! And did that work out for me, no! I don’t want to see that happen to her!” Des sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

“So, are you going to the wedding?” I asked curiously.

“C’mere” Des said holding his arms out to me.

“That didn’t answer the question.” I laughed as I stood up and walked toward the inked arms that instantly wrapped around me and pulled me down until I was sitting on his lap. “Des.” I whined while I tried to wiggle of his grasp.

Before I even knew what was happening, Des dipped me backwards and kissed me like his life depended on it. Of course, I immediately returned the favor. Things probably would have escalated very quickly if Des hadn’t pulled away. I looked up at him, somewhat dazed by how perfect he was. He was looking back at me the same way which made me even more breathless than our kiss had already left me.

“Hi. I’m still here.” Cooper reminded us, ruing the perfect moment we had going on. I laughed, slightly embarrassed while Des sat me upright and let me scurry out of his grasp. I was never one for sitting on people. “Anyway, Luke is having a party tonight and I don’t have to be at the hospital in the morning so guess where we’re going?” Cooper asked smiling.

“Where are we going?” Elle asked, suddenly walking into the flat with at least three shopping bags.

“Luke’s…apparently.” I answered with a laugh, having no idea who that was or where he lived. All I gathered from the brief conversation was that we were all going to be getting wasted.

I tuned out Cooper, Elle, and Desmond’s excited chatter and got lost in my own thoughts. I wasn’t sure if Desmond purposely avoided my question about attending his sister’s wedding or he simply had gotten side tracked. Either way, I was curious to find out his answer.