**Hi guys! Happy Monday! I hope you guys enjoy this early update! Friday's chapter is going to be INTENSE so prepare yourselves!**

Roxie's POV

Milo and I shared a look before I stuck my finger in my mouth as if to say 'gag me' as we pulled up to the store we'd be shopping at. I knew by just a single glance that pre-Rouge me wouldn't have been able to even breathe in the air from this place.

"Tell me again why the 'happy couple', her mom, your dad, and his parents all had to come with us?" Milo whispered against the shell of my ear as to keep everyone else in the car from hearing. Oh yes, we had to carpool too. Imagine that. I giggled at his sarcastic tone, causing Jedrek to peer at the two of us from his rearview mirror.

"Because the princess decided today was the best time to go shopping for all the furniture for their new home together," I muttered back in amusement.

"This is going to be so much fun. I haven't been this catty since I was in middle school," he responded, causing my eyebrows to furrow in confusion.

"You have no idea how much shit you can cause inside a store like this," Milo insisted before wiggling his eyebrows at me and opening his door. He helped me out, making sure to keep an unnecessarily firm grasp on my waist. Seeing our intimate embrace, Tori tried to grab Jedrek's hand and hold it, but he jerked it from her before shoving both in hands into his pant pockets.

"Did you see that look she just gave me?" I asked Milo.

"Everyone saw the look she just gave you," he replied with a laugh.

"She acts like that shit was my fault!" I hissed quietly, highly annoyed.

"That's because it was, you idiot," he stated with a half-smirk. I just rolled my eyes at his observation before pulling him ahead of the whole group. We did a half-skip into the store before skidding to a halt as Milo jerked me back.

"How committed are you to getting him back?" Milo asked me seriously.

"Why would you even ask me that? He's getting fucking married Milo. There is no 'getting him back'," I growled, angry he'd even toy with my feelings like that.

"Bullshit. I'll ask again. How committed are you to getting him back?" he asked groughly.

"If that was even a possibility," I began, leveling him with a pointed look, "I would do anything. He was it for me. I'll never love another the way I love him - assuming I can love another man that isn't him," I said, my voice wavering with emotion.

"Then you have to follow along," Milo ordered with a shit-eating grin.

"If you guys don't mind, we're actually going to do some pre-registering for wedding gifts ourselves," he suddenly said over his shoulder.

"What?" My father snapped, caught off guard. "Since when were you two engaged? I thought you were just dating?" he demanded, obviously miffed about his 'only' daughter not telling him about her pending nuptials. You cut me out of your life, it's only fair I do the same to you I thought.

"Well, I'm just being prepared for what's to come," Milo insisted with a huge smile before looking down at me and kissing me chastely. I just smiled back at him and shook my head, knowing exactly where he was going with this.

"Jedrek, where are you going?" Tori demanded angrily as he stormed off and into some random department in the large store. She followed after him while demanding that he stop and wait for her. The rest of the crowd quickly followed behind, obviously trying to do some damage control.

"Phase one is a go," he mumbled, pretending to talk into a radio. I threw my head back and laughed loudly before grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the store's entrance. We wandered around before walking right into the mattress and bedding department.

"You know what this area is good for?" I asked Milo with a devious grin.

"What would that be?" he asked with an equally mischevious grin.

"Mattress hopping," I giggled before taking off at top speed. I jumped and flipped at last second, landing on one of the beds and bouncing on my back. I hopped up onto my feet and bounced a few times to test the stability of the bed.

"How much will you give me if I make the jump?" I asked him grandly. He was watching me with his arms crossed and a huge grin.

"I'll give you a thousand-dollar bonus on your next paycheck," he said. I nodded, indicating I'd heard him before stepping to the back edge of the display bed and doing a few bounces while gathering my courage.

"Give me a countdown!" I said, needing the extra nudge. It was a pretty big gap.

"Three...two...ONE!" Milo yelled, attracting the attention of the other shoppers around us. At his cue, I took off. I got a few good lunges in before jumping and propelling myself across the space, just barely landing on my stomach on the next bed over. I hopped up onto my feet once again before thrusting my hands up in the air in victory.

"AND SHE STICKS THE LANDING!" I yelled, giggling my head off. Milo doubled over, laughing at my disheveled appearance and the crazy, pissed off looks we were getting from everyone else.

"Roxanne, what the hell do you think you're doing!" Sandra shrieked, coming up behind us a few seconds later. She either caught wind of what we were doing or happened to show up just in time to see my little charade.

"Ma'am, you cannot be jumping on these beds!" a sales associate hissed as he came up from behind Sandra.

"How can you expect me to commit to buying this fifteen thousand dollar bed if I don't know if it's sufficient in every aspect I'll be using it for? Is that not what they're here for? To test out?" I challenged, causing the associate to become flustered.

"I mean, I have some pretty crazy sex!" I insisted, causing the man who was looking at comforters with his wife to laugh under his breath.

"See! He gets it!" I yelled while gesturing to the man. He cleared his throat before shaking his head and quickly gesturing to his wife with a nod her way.

"Roxanne Amelia Robinson get down right this instant or else-"

"Or else what dad? You'll spank me? Don't worry, I already have a man to do that for me," I growled back, angry he was even trying to threaten me. He hadn't been a father since mom passed, what the hell gave him the right to start back up again now? I jumped up one last time before letting myself land on my butt before bouncing back onto my feet. I ran and hopped up onto Milo's back, wrapping my arms and legs around him.

"Next stop, dining room sets!" I ordered while pointing forward in a random direction. Milo just cursed under his breath at the shit storm I'd caused before following my instructions.

**

It'd been about an hour since the bed incident, as Milo liked to call it. We had been in just about every department in the store. We'd played our own version of Higher or Lower with pretty much everything in the store, but had yet to actually scan anything with the stupid little handheld thing they'd given us.

"You know, when I imagined what it'd be like registering for my wedding I always pictured a redhead with me, but a totally different shade of red," Milo mused.

"What do you mean?" I asked, completely taken off guard. In the short month or so I'd known him, I'd never heard him talk about or be seen with a single woman that didn't work at the club. "And I thought you said I wasn't your type?" I added playfully.

"I suppose it's about time I tell you about the only other co-owner of Rouge and who the club is named after," he sighed. "Her name is Candice and she has fire-red hair, unlike your light strawberry thing you've got going on. She's also tall and slender, something I'm personally attracted to. She started Rouge all on her own after her husband cheated on her and then took off with his secretary. It was doing well, but she was way out of her league and had no idea where to turn for help. She ended up in my club one night and we instantly hit it off. Very long story short, she ended up asking me to become a partner and help her keep from going under with the business. Obviously, I agreed-"

"Obviously? After only knowing her a couple of hours?" I interrupted. That was a lot of money to risk for someone you didn't know and Milo was a very smart businessman; I just couldn't see him doing something like that.

"Well, it wasn't just a couple of hours because I'm just summarizing here, but somewhere in that very long story we slept together...quite a lot, actually, and I developed feelings," he added with an awkward laugh. "Anyway, she doesn't do a lot of the customer or employee relations anymore as she'd rather do the books and whatnot - that's why you've never met or seen her before," he spoke, occupying himself by looking at the small trinkets on the shelf in front of us.

"And I'm guessing she has major trust issues from her first marriage and that's why you're not already together," I said, filling in the rest of the gaps in the story myself.

"Bingo. I've begged her to give me an actual chance so many times over the past few years, but no dice," he continued, his shoulders slightly slumping.

"Well, when I'm done here - no matter the outcome of my own relationship issues - I'm going to help you get Candice," I stated with determination. He snorted a laugh, but his eyes held no amusement.

"Good luck. She's an incredibly stubborn woman," he said.

"So am I," I retorted before reaching forward and twisting one of his nipples harshly.

"Ouch! Hey! What the fuck was that for?! I could literally fire you!" Milo hissed teasingly while trying to sooth his nipple.

"My methods of cheering up my friends are a lot less funny than your own," I snickered.

"So, how's wedding registry going?" came the voice that haunted all my wet dreams. I spun on my heels to see Jedrek looking at me pointedly, completely avoiding eye contact with Milo.

"Great! We've decided on these ones, haven't we babe?" Milo asked while picking up a random placemat from the display to our left and holding it out.

"Yep!" I replied chirpily.

"You hate forest green," Jedrek deadpanned while glancing back and forth between the mat in question that Milo was still holding up and me.

"Yeah but Milo likes it, so I'm compromising," I insisted, hoping he didn't see right through the lie.

Too bad he did. He still knows me better than anyone else. Before he had a chance to open his mouth and call us out, Tori came barreling in from behind Jedrek.

"Where the hell have you been? Every time I turn around to show you something, you've run off!" she shrieked angrily.

"Because no matter my opinion you're going to do whatever you want anyway," Jedrek snarked back. Milo and I glanced at each other, swapping equal looks of discomfort at having to be an audience to their argument.

"Well, you decided on the house plan without even consulting me so I'd say that's fair!" she hissed back.

"Guys, I don't think-" I started, but was immediately cut off.

"Shut up, Roxanne!" Tori screeched. "No one asked you to butt your head in!"

"Tori," Jedrek growled lowly, causing the hair all over my body to stick up straight as my breath caught in my throat. He leaned down, whispering something vehemently into her ear as her body tensed up.

"We're leaving. Let's go," Jedrek demanded before turning, not even waiting for a reply before stalking off.

"We're leaving. Let's go," Milo deepened his voice to impersonate Jedrek. I giggled before we continued in the direction Jedrek had gone, but I couldn't shake the niggling feeling in the back of my mind that was worried about Jedrek.

"I think that went well, don't you?" I asked Milo who immediately burst out laughing. It was the absolute last thing I should've said seeing as the car ride was filled with so much tension you could've cut it with a knife. Everyone else in the car glared at the two of us before a single chuckle broke through, stopping my heart.

God, I missed that laugh. Our eyes met in the rearview mirror for the second time today, but this time instead of glaring angrily there was a fire in his eyes that caused a pulsing to begin between my legs.

"You might as well have just screamed 'come fuck me' because that's exactly what the look you just gave him said," Milo muttered into my ear. I cleared my throat and looked out the window, trying to quell the sensations that were flowing through my body. I just needed to get out of this fucking car. I wanted to be alone so I could process whatever the hell I was feeling and screw my head back on straight.

"Honey, why don't we stop at the house so we can give Milo and Roxanne a tour?" Tori asked while shooting me a devious smile. Yes, please. Show me more of the future you're building together. I love it.

"That's a wonderful idea!" Sandra exclaimed with an excited clap of her hands.

Just kill me now.