"Holly? It's Charlotte. We met the other night at Matt's housewarming?"
It took a second for Holly to register, as she was still disappointed at the fact that it wasn't Gail's voice on the end of the line. Something she had gotten used to over the past month.
"Oh hey. Matt mentioned you were going to give me a call. How's it going?" Holly said.
"Great. I was wondering if you wanted to meet up for a drink or maybe..." Charlotte said before Holly cut her off mid sentence.
"How about tonight?"
Head in her hand, Holly cringed. "Wow! How desperate do I sound?"
For the past couple of weeks Holly had been fighting the urge to call Gail every chance she got. She knew Gail had been going out on quite a few dates, and it was starting to bother her to no end.
Holly had spent endless hours during the day procrastinating, which in her line of work she just could not afford to do.
Most nights had been filled with anxiety, thinking about what Gail had gotten up to on her dates. However, over the past few days Holly had started to receive late night texts, where she found herself commiserating with Gail over her misery. Something that she had enjoyed for a moment before having realised she was wishing her friend unhappiness, which intern made her feel terribly guilty and sorry for herself. There was no win win here.
She thought that going out with Charlotte would be the perfect way to stop thinking about her crush on Gail. Which seemed to be growing bigger by the day. Sure, it was a silly idea, but it was either that or blurting out some embarrassing love confession to her new, be it straight, friend. Something she was pretty sure Gail would not want to hear.
Charlotte paused for a few seconds and chuckled "No, that's fine, I am free tonight. You work down at the morgue on Smith street, right? I know a bar near there that I sometimes go to, we could meet up after work? Perhaps we could get dinner after?"
"That sounds great. Why don't you text me the address, and I'll meet you around 7?" Holly said trying to sound as casual as possible while wiping her last sentence from her memory.
Holly stood outside staring at the flickering lights of The Penny's sign, not wanting to step a foot closer to the front door. She had been contemplating for the past three hours whether or not she should make up some lame excuse to why she couldn't make it tonight. She was doing exactly what she had done all week, and what she was particularly trying to avoid doing tonight - think about Gail... Gail and her blue, blue eyes.
She took two steps back. It was her last chance to bolt.
"Fuck it. Let's do this." She said, surprised at the volume of her somewhat brief pep talk.
Holly took a deep breath and opened the door, quickly scanning the room before heading towards the bar.
For a short moment she was so relieved that she hadn't seen Gail there, and couldn't help but smile at how stupid she had been acting all afternoon, worried about a chance meeting.
That was until she heard Gail's voice. "Helloooo" Gail said.
Gail sounded weirdly chipper, as she casually leaned into the bar next to her her. Gail was such a goofball, and Holly couldn't help but grin at the mere sight of her.
Within a split second of laying eyes on Holly, Gail was up and out of her chair. "I retire champion of the world".
Gail knew Chris had said something to her but she found herself so distracted by her new friend walking towards the bar, that she made a B-line straight for her.
"What was she doing here?" She thought to herself.
But she didn't care. All that mattered was that she was here.
"Hey, I didn't know you'd be here." Holly said as Gail ordered a drink to go alongside Holly's.
"Yeah, Dov's is on this new trivia kick and is not gonna let us leave until he is crowned king of the dorks."
Gail pulled some cash from her pocket.
"Why don't I get these, and you can get the next round" she said assumingly.
Gail was excited at the prospect of not having to sit through any more trivia, however her mood suddenly dropped when Holly said she was here to meet someone else.
She did her best to perk up and wipe the disappointment off her face by coolly asking if it was a friend or something potentially more.
"I don't know yet" Holly replied, sounding all too happy with herself, which bummed Gail out even more.
"When did I become so jealous?" she thought, eyeing off Holly and her beautiful (in an obvious kind of way) date going in for a somewhat awkward hug.
Gail sat back down at her table and tried to avoid the sickening display of affection Dov and Chloe were flaunting to all those around them. She raised her eyes and glanced over at Holly who was laughing. A laugh she knew too well by now, as it's seemed to be all they'd do when they were together.
"I'm gonna need another drink" Chris said, removing himself from the table.
Gail, still staring at Holly, and curious to why Holly chose The Penny of all places to bring a date, felt her face getting increasingly warmer as she muttered under her breath "Make mine a double".
For what felt like an eternity, Gail had finally broken her gaze and noticed Chloe curiously looking in the same direction as she was. At Holly, back to Gail then back to Holly. Gail watched as Holly's date playfully stroked Holly's hand, and before Gail could change her facial expression of dread, she was caught by Chloe. They blankly stared at each other for a few seconds before Gail jumped to her feet and shouted "Going to the bathroom, dorks."
She shot Chloe the most menacing stare she could muster, but feared she probably more likely resembled a hot tomato. Gail hated tomatoes.
Charlotte dropped her handbag on the table and said "Going to the bathroom, back in a sec".
Holly was beaming, and was very pleased with how her date seemed to be flowing.
Using her finger to invisibly draw a "tick" on the table, Holly started making a mental checklist of all the things she has done right so far. Sure, it wasn't a long list, but she didn't care.
"- remember her dates first name, check!
- not get drunk, check!
- don't look at your watch, check!
- don't think about G..."
Before she had a chance to check off the last point, someone knocked Charlotte's handbag to the ground scattering its contents. As Holly leaned down to help pick up the stuff she recognised that it was one of Gail's friends.
"Holly? Your Gail's morgue friend, right?" He said.
"Forensic pathologist. "Morgue friend" sounds a little weird and creepy." She smirked.
"Well, Gail can be both those things" he joked.
"I guess you are right there" she laughed.
"I'm Dov, Gail's roommate and fellow Officer." He said in very strange way, leading Holly to believe he was a little drunk.
"You know, Gail is over there right?" Dov said pointing to an empty table. "Well she was a minute ago. I'm drunk" he added.
Holly laughed again.
"I know, I saw her earlier, but I'm here on a date."
Dov picked up the remaining items and placed the handbag back on the table and apologised for knocking it down.
"That's ok, its not mine, it's my dates." Holly said.
Dov had raised his eyebrows with a bashful grin on his face. "Right on" he's said, winking at her as he walked off.
"Gail was right. What a dork! Though he is kind of adorable." She thought.
As Gail zipped her pants she heard someone entering the stall next to her.
Gail opened her stall door and walked towards the mirror, placing her hands on either side of the sink to prop herself up.
She looked at herself in the mirror shaking her head and mumbled "what am I doing?"
"What?" A voice echoed from the stall.
Gail forgot she wasn't alone. "Er, sorry, nothing." She said embarrassed.
Gail dropped her head to stare at the ground as if in mourning, still leaning against the sink, wondering when she was going to snap out of this state of... whatever this was.
She heard the toilet flush as something fell to the ground, and slid towards her feet.
It's was a badge. As the stall door opened Gail leaned down to pick it up.
"Detective, I think you dropped..." is all Gail got out as a small wave of panic surged through her body. It was Holly's date.
"Thanks, don't want to lose that" the woman said as she held out her hand to receive it.
But Gail failed to move that extra foot to hand it back to her. Instead she just stared at her, mouth slightly agape.
The woman had reached for her badge, as Gail wasn't going to be moving anytime soon.
"Are... you ok?" the woman said in a concerned tone.
5 seconds later Gail quickly shook her head. "Sweet" she said, imagining she must have looked like such a tool.
"Okayyyy then" the lady said bemused, as she washed her hands and left the restroom.
Red faced, Gail looked in the mirror. "You fucking idiot" was all she had to say to herself.
Gail sighed as she pushed open the restroom door and slammed straight into Chloe.
"Perfect!" Gail exclaimed.
Gail walked straight back to the table and threw back the drink Chris had bought her.
She wanted this night to be over.
"You know that blonde over there has been staring at us for the last 20 minutes" Charlotte said.
Holly looked towards Gail, and they briefly caught each others eye. Gail had given her the quickest of smiles, which had given Holly a fuzzy feeling.
"Yeah, I just had the most awkward encounter with her in the restroom, she seemed really out of it. Do you know her?" Charlotte asked.
There was a long pause before Holly replied. "Sorry?" as she whipped her head back.
She didn't hear what Charlotte had said as she was too worried about Gail being "out of it".
"Do you know her. The blonde?" Charlotte asked again.
"Yes, that is my friend Gail" said Holly still worried.
Charlotte raised her eyebrows and turned her head towards Gail and curiously asked "just a friend?"
Holly gave Charlotte a wry smile.
"Just a friend." Holly said reassuringly, even though she knew, at least on her part, it was a complete and utter lie. She had really wanted to say 'girlfriend'.
They both agreed it was time to leave and get some dinner, but as they were getting up Holly noticed Gail was slowly walking backwards towards the bar while mouthing something to her friends.
"I just have to ask the bartender something. I think I left my sunglasses here last week." Another lie. "Meet me outside!?" Holly kind of stated rather than asked.
"I'm leaving, but not before I have another shot." Gail said walking slowly backwards towards the bar.
"We're leaving too" replied Dov.
Gail felt someone's hand softly touch her shoulder by way of grazing her neck.
The bartender handed her her shot and she sculled it quickly.
"I've got this" Holly said as her hand moved down from Gail's shoulder to Gail's back, before she reached for her purse and put the cash on the bar.
"For earlier" Gail heard as Holly slowly turned towards her.
Gail was already looking at her and on the bar, had lightly placed her hand on top of Holly's as a gesture of appreciation.
Still touching her hand, Gail had looked at her for what seemed like a very long time, engrossed in her beautiful brown eyes, knowing Holly had become increasingly aware that this was a look she had yet to have seen from her. It was a warm, yet slightly awkward exchange.
Holly's eyes did not break from hers, as Gail stood up and gently placed her hand on Holly's lower back caressing the bottom of her spine. She slowly leaned in and placed the softest of kisses on Holly's cheek and lingered half a second longer than a friend normally would.
She noticed Holly had blushed, so Gail shifted a tiny bit closer, applied more pressure to Holly's spine with her palm.
"Later, Nerd." She whispered into Holly's ear and walked off.
Dov felt a searing pain in his rib cage. Chloe had elbowed him, trying to get his attention.
"Ouch, what the fuck?" Dov said under his breath.
"Are you seeing this?" Chloe screeched, and gestured towards the bar.
"Look, Gail and that woman."
"That's Holly, Gail's friend. I think she was here with a lady friend". Dov said charmlessly.
They both watched Gail as she touched Holly's back, kissed her cheek and then whispered in her ear.
Dov felt another sharp pain in his rib cage.
"What do you think she is saying?" Chloe said a little too enthusiastically.
"My superman hearing isn't that fined tuned" he said bent down, out of breathe, rubbing his ribs.
"Gail has been acting totally weird all night" said Chloe. "She didn't call me Mrs Von Trapp once!"
Chris cluelessly interrupted. "Who's weird. What are we looking at?"
Dov and Chloe paused and look at each for a few seconds, grinning wildly before taking off towards the exit laughing.
"Nothing" they said at the same time.
"Whatever" Chris shrugged.
Holly's mouth was open, waiting for the words to come out. She turned and watched the blonde with blue eyes walk away from her. At the door Gail had shot her one last smile, cutely waved, then was gone.
Holly suddenly was jolted back into reality at the sound of a shot glass being slammed down in front of her.
"It's on me" the bartender said, pouring, trying to conceal his amusement.
Holly grinned,
"Shut up" she said sarcastically.
Gail watched as Dov, Chloe and Chris came bounding out The Penny door laughing.
"Do you want a ride home, Gail?" Chris shouted across the parking lot.
"Walking." Gail said as she pointed down the street.
As Gail walked towards the traffic lights, she slowly felt the warm and fuzzy feeling from the past few minutes fade, as she realised she may have just crossed over that fine line, however subtle it might have been, from friendship to something more. She was nervous. Not because Holly was a woman, but because she had found someone who got her, inside and out, and posed a greater risk on completely breaking her already fragile heart. This was something Gail did not want to experience ever again.
As she stopped at the intersection she looked at her reflection in the corner store window. For a second her eyes moved past it.
"Mmm, Cheese Puffs!"