My drunken princess

Though almost everyone involved in messy mishap was upset at the situation, each trying to clean a part of the mess that was created, the now drunk Elizabeth could only see the humour in the situation and started to laugh uncontrollably. This caused Nick's built up annoyance to finally tip over into anger as he shot up from his seat and apologized on her behalf, stopping the poor waiter from apologizing for something that wasn't his fault at all. While hiding his embarrassment and holding in his anger he said, "I am so sorry for the trouble my wife has created. She has clearly enjoyed your drinks and has had way too much of them." Then he turned towards his friends and repeated his apologies. "Julia, you guys, I am so sorry for ruining our precious night out. I should have stopped her before things got so far."

Julia being much kinder than most waved her hands as she said, "No, it's fine. It is not your fault and most of it landed on Lizzy and the waiter. I'll be able to clean this in no time." Nick apologized once more before he said, "She is completely drenched, so if you guys don't mind I am going to take her home." After getting the approval from his friends he ended his multi-layered apology with a final sorry. "I am sorry I can't help you guys deal with this mess. Let me know what I owe you and be sure to give a proper tip to this waiter on my behalf." After that he pulled the confused Elizabeth out of her chair, who was asking through her drunken laughter "What's wrong? Why is everyone looking so serious all of a sudden? You should be laughing. This is hilarious." In a hissed tone he said, "NO they shouldn't and NO it isn't!" before dragging her away.

Nick pulled her along all the way to where their car was parked, responding to none of her questions or disgruntlements. When they were both inside the car, one almost thrown into the passenger seat and the other dropped into his seat with a force that showed his mood, Nick started reprimanding Elizabeth. "I TOLD you to stop drinking. I TOLD you that you would do something you would regret and that you would embarrass yourself. But do you listen? No, little miss stubborn always knows best. Now look what you did. You ruined what should have been a fun day out for everyone, including me. Dragging me down with you for a bit of drunken fun. Was it worth it? Were your extra drinks worth making some poor guy trying to make a living get covered in drinks? Were they worth ruining your own dress and the dress of your close friend?"

If being dragged around in the cold with an unclosed coat and a wet dress didn't sober Elizabeth up, Nick's loud scolding and his harsh eyes sure had. Even after he had started driving them back home, she could still see the coldness in them in front of her. She could still feel the anger and disappointment they held and couldn't say a single word in her defence. With tears in her eyes, she listened to him rage on as the nights events started replaying in her mind. When they arrived at their home, Nick got out of the car and went inside without waiting for her. As she processed yet another blow, Elizabeth slowly got out of the car and with quivering hands she walked through the open door. With the same heavy feelings and hesitation, she made her way over to the living room where Nick had poured himself a glass of water and was drinking it angrily. In a soft voice she muttered, "I am sorry..." But Nick responded coldly, without even looking at her. "Take off those wet clothes and get in the shower before you catch a cold."

In a louder voice and a balled fist she repeated, "I said I am sorry." Nick looked up at her and with a harsh glare he said, "Oh, now you know how to apologize? In the restaurant all you seemed to be able to do is laugh, acting like everything was so damn funny. Has my drunken princess finally seen the light?" Now Elizabeth was getting annoyed as well. Feeling like Nick's words weren't fair. "Don't talk to me like that. I sobered up a while ago and I am telling you that I am sorry. I will make sure that I apologize to the others as well tomorrow. What more do you want from me? I know I messed up but I can't change that fact. So instead of acting all snippy with me, why don't you try and notice that I am feeling plenty embarrassed and bad. There is no need for you to pile onto that even more." With Elizabeth's tears streaming down her face as she was saying these words, Nick started feeling a bit bad. Placing his glass on the counter, he made his way over to where Elizabeth was standing and pulled her against himself tightly. Ignoring her dirty, wet, dress and her equally dirtied hair as he comforted her a bit.

In a stern voice he said, "Don't think all is forgiven because you are crying. I am still very upset with you but I can tell that you are sorry. So, I will let you off for tonight and you can fix the rest of the mess tomorrow yourself. I am not angry at you for drinking and I am not telling you to not drink at all BUT from now on there is a three drink maximum outside of the house. Until you can prove to me that you can hold your drinks, I want you nowhere near tipsy so we don't even have a chance of reaching drunk. I know we have had some big changes in our lives and a lot earlier than either of us planned but we are parents. We have someone that depends on us to show him the right example and drinking until we are this level drunk is not helping us or him." Elizabeth agreed with his restrictions, feeling that it might be for the best, as she allowed him to comfort her.