Gouge away

Round 24: Spring 2019

Last update: Evan/Ione

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Evan Moretti is 30 and Ione Romilly is 23.
(Maria is 76, Araminta is 56, Henry is 54, Olivia and Lia are both 22)

Narrated by Ione Romilly

Living with Evan has been mostly wonderful.


He plays video games more often than he picks up after himself but I guess I already knew that! I can't help but nag him a little about it though.

To be honest, I kind of like cleaning. It's very satisfying to see the stove sparkling after I'm done with it. I'd never let on to Evan that I enjoy it. He's 30 and it's really time for him to learn to be more domestic.

Right now, we're on really terrible schedules. I work nights, Evan works days. Hopefully that will change soon but for now, we try to have little "dates" at home on my nights off. It's still fun - neither of us are big partiers, anyway, nor have we ever been.

It's nice, having our own little house. Sneaking Evan into the dorm wasn't fun (okay, it was a little bit fun) and the constant stream of room-mates Evan had in Exeter got really old for us too.

Even though I'm really happy with Evan, what would make me even happier is being married to Evan. I was talking to Olivia about it the other day when we went shopping. He mentioned marriage once ages ago and hasn't said anything since.

Olivia thinks if I want to get married so much, I should just go ahead and ask him myself. That's what she'd do, she says.

Honestly, I've considered it but the thought makes me nervous. Olivia dismissed that and said guys must get nervous before they ask but that it was no reason not to.

She's probably right. I think I just had this idea that Evan would ask me and it would be all romantic and beautiful. But maybe he never will. So I decided that I wanted to be married more than I wanted a proposal.

So I asked Evan to marry me. It felt a little weird and I don't even remember exactly what I said but I did it.

For all my nerves, I was pretty sure he'd say yes - I mean, we own a house together and we always talk about "the future" - but there was still that tiny chance he'd say no and my stomach was doing flip flops over it.

Finally, he said yes and that was that! We're engaged!

We called our parents right away. Mine congratulated us and said they'd drop by the next day (mainly because I had to head into work - what a dampener on the romance!) but Evan's mother must have sped over. Evan is the last Moretti to get married and Maria has been hanging out for us to get engaged since we started dating, so you could say she was a little excited.

Now that she knows we're getting married, she's already talking grandchildren. I guess that would probably bother some people but I'd really like to start a family as soon as Evan and I get married anyway, so I don't mind so much.

Maria had designs on planning the whole wedding for us though and Evan had to gently suggest that she might want to step back a little on that. Most of the fun, girly stuff that she wanted to help with is the stuff I want my mother to help me with.

And Lia, of course. Lia is my maid of honour and she's so excited for us! She and Gordon only just got back together and they're not really at the marriage stage yet, so she's living vicariously through me for the meantime.

True to their word, both my parents came over to congratulate us.

Mum was going to come shopping with Lia and me but Dad stayed at home and hung out with Evan. I think he's just happy that Evan lets him talk his ear off about cooking. I'm really relieved they get along so well, though it was a little strange at first when I realised Evan was friends with my dad before we even met.

So we set out on our shopping expedition. I had no idea there was so much I needed to consider. It was a little overwhelming! The bridal centre is huge and we didn't even enter the cosmetics or catering sections!

It's not hard to start getting excited about it all those. Everything is so beautiful. We didn't buy anything - Olivia (along with Asha Royce) will also be in the bridal party and she's going to make all of our dresses! I just wanted to get some ideas of what I wanted before she got started. She's going to make all the boys' tuxes too - Evan is having his brothers as his groomsmen.

I'm surprised how involved Evan is getting with all the wedding planning - I'm really impressed! He's scouting venues online right now. We're planning on inviting a lot of people, so it's going to be expensive but we think we can do it. Olivia is saving us a lot of money by making the clothes.

Evan wants to take me on a honeymoon. His preferred destinations would be Cape Elizabeth or Takemizu Village but I'd kind of like to go camping in Three Lakes. But neither of our families ever got take go on vacation and so far, it's not looking like that will change for us. I don't think we'll be able to afford a honeymoon but it's nice to fantasise about it anyway. Maybe a few years after we get married we can have a belated honeymoon!

Random pics:

Gee, I hope you all like Lia as much as I do because this is pretty much just an excuse for more Lia spam!

Asha and Lia also came along on the shopping trip (as well as Joanna and Rose), though they didn't really end up fitting in anywhere. Asha and Lia didn't talk much in high school but they had the want to be friends with each other, so I let them get that done on the shopping trip. They've both always been friends with Ione, so it makes sense that they'd be friendly with each other too.

Araminta, Lia and Ione had dinner at Julian's diner after their wedding research expedition and what's this? Lia is actually smiling - just for the hell of it, apparently! Her usual expression, when she's not actually interacting with anyone, is a little bit emo. She must be happy that I let her get back together with Gordon!

Notes:

• The title is from Gouge Away by Pixies.
• On one of their home dates, Ione rolled up the want "Get Married to Evan". She already had the "Get Engaged to Evan" want so I took that as a sign that she was very keen, maybe even keen enough to get over her own shyness and ask Evan herself. Evan is shyer than Ione is, so it made sense to me that she'd have to be the one to bring it up anyway. He didn't have his first kiss until he was 23 and it took him 6 months to even ask Ione out, so he's not one for making the moves.
• Maria had the want for a relative to get engaged . About as subtle as a ton of bricks, seeing that Evan is the only relative she has who is old enough to get married and isn't yet! As soon as he and Ione got engaged, she rolled the want for another grandchild. She already has 10 and will soon have 11 (maybe 12, if Amelia is carrying twins) but this woman just doesn't stop! LOL!
• Evan and Ione's wedding is set for Spring 2020 so I'll do a mini-update then. I'm so excited! It feels like forever since I've done a wedding - the last one was Caleb and Cara's wedding.