A/N: Filler chapter is really all this is.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
"Are you kidding me?" Emma asked her mother.
"No," Gabriella shook her head, even though she knew Emma couldn't see her.
Emma was sitting with her back against the couch, where her mother was perched cross legged braiding Emma's untamed curly hair, much like her own. It was Saturday night but Emma, still being the new kid, didn't have any plans. Mia was showering and Gabriella decided to break the news to Emma first, knowing she'd have a much more dramatic reaction.
"So you said yes then?" Emma questioned again.
"Yeah, I did," Gabriella wasn't sure exactly how her daughter was taking the information. She was probably still deciding how to process it.
"I'm really glad he's not my teacher," was all Emma could think to say to her mother at the moment.
Gabriella thought it was better than a completely negative reaction and chuckled slightly, "I guess that probably is a good thing."
"Are you sure this is going to be a good thing? It's not too soon?" Emma knew that this relationship could turn out to be disastrous.
"I guess we'll find out soon," Of course Gabriella had contemplated how quick she was jumping into a relationship, but it was impossible to deny she had chemistry with Troy.
"What happens if he dumps you?" Emma was always the realist, scarcely the dreamer.
Gabriella sighed, "I'll figure it out and move on again."
"I don't want to have to deal with this again," she knew that it was impossible for Gabriella to enter a relationship without emotions running through the whole family.
"Me either," she paused, knowing that one of her thoughts that pushed her into this relationship was not wanting to have any regrets. Her other main deciding point was that she didn't want to be alone forever and that she might never find anyone was as amazing and considerate as Troy, "But I don't want to be alone forever."
"But will a few months really matter?" Emma knew that the healing process should be longer than two months.
"What if he's the one?" Gabriella didn't want to loose an opportunity like this.
"Then he'd be willing to wait," Emma was beginning to get defensive, "You also thought Dad was 'the one' too."
"Em," Gabriella whispered, knowing her daughter was getting emotional over the topic, "What's wrong?"
"I don't like seeing Dad with someone else," she continued, "And I won't like seeing you with someone else."
Gabriella realized what was going on, the breakup would be real once Gabriella started dating again. Both herself and Tom will have moved on. Their life together and with their daughter's would be forgotten and a part of the past.
Gabriella's hands finished braiding and moved down to gently rub her daughter's shoulders, "It's going to be just as hard in a few months or even a few years."
Emma swiped at a tear threatening to fall from her chocolate orbs, "I know."
"Just give him a chance," Gabriella spoke desperately, "Please."
"Okay," Ultimately it wasn't her choice to make.
"You'll like him, I know you will," Gabriella bent over and kissed the crown of her daughter's head.
Emma remained silent in her spot on the floor, she would've moved by now but decided she didn't want her mother to see her face despite knowing that her real feelings were evident in her voice.
"I wouldn't be doing this if I felt like this was a waste of time," Gabriella tried to break the silence, "I'm not doing this to purposely hurt your feelings."
"It's not you that's hurting my feelings, it's Dad leaving us that's hurting my feelings," Emma knew that essentially, this wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for her father.
"Come to Thanksgiving dinner, talk with Troy and his son a little, and then we can talk about it, okay?" Gabriella tried to consummate.
"Fine," Even though Emma would be more comfortable with letting everything blow over for a few more months, she got a feeling from her mother that this guy was something special, "Wait, what about Thanksgiving."
Gabriella watched as her daughter turn her face toward her for the first time this conversation. Responding, a blush covered her face, "Oh, well he kind of mentioned Thanksgiving and I totally forgot about it with the move and everything. I've never made a Turkey or mashed potatoes or anything so Troy volunteered to help and then he kind of asked me if we wanted to just eat at his house."
"Oh," Emma was slightly upset that she would have to spend a holiday at a complete strangers house.
"Are you going to be okay with that?" Gabriella had noticed the slight upset in her daughter's voice.
"I guess so," Not really wanting to rebut at the moment.
"Come up and sit by me," Gabriella patted the couch cushion next to her, "I'm sorry I'm dumping all of this on you."
"Let's just get it over with," Emma said, knowing that the sooner the better.
"My what a positive attitude my lovely teenage daughter has," Gabriella joked sarcastically.
"Ha ha, funny Mom," Emma rolled her eyes at her mother.
"Should we make some popcorn and watch a movie?" Gabriella decided that the three of them could stay home and watch movies late tonight.
"Okay," Emma smiled at her mother, it would take some time to get used the idea of her being with someone other than her father.
Gabriella once again stood in front of Troy's door, her hand poised to ring the doorbell. This time though, she was waiting for her daughters to catch up instead of her nerves to go away. Troy answered the door wearing a plain grey hoodie and dark jeans, "Hey come on in, it's getting cold outside."
Emma couldn't resist a chuckle from escaping her mouth, fifty-five degrees was hardly cold. She watched as her mother reached up and gave the man a hug. For an almost forty year old, he wasn't looking too bad. Few grey hairs, lean body, blue eyes, and a decent smile. It was a step up from her father's salt and pepper toned hair, slowly growing beer belly, and his always stressed facial expressions. Although, now it seemed that the stress her father previously had may have been due to him trying to hide his ongoing affair from her mother.
"Troy, this is Emma and Mia," Gabriella pointed at her two daughters appropriately, "Girls, this is Troy."
Troy stuck his hand out for Emma to shake, knowing that a hug might be pushing the boundaries a little, "Nice to meet you."
"You too," Emma awkwardly replied.
"Come on in," Troy grabbed the grocery bag from Gabriella's hand, "Alex this is Emma, Mia, and Gabriella."
Alex stood up from the couch during the commercial, "I believe we've already meet."
Gabriella took his outstretched hand, shaking it with a blush covering her face. "Okay Alex, don't torture the girls with your football madness. Let them have control of the remote please."
Alex barely heard his father over the football game he was watching, one of his favorite parts of the holiday, "When's the food going to be ready?"
"In an hour hopefully," Troy glanced at his watch, noting the turkey should be done in about a half hour but it was a matter of getting everything else ready too.
As Troy and Gabriella walked into the kitchen they heard Alex say, "Well this is kind of awkward," and chuckled. Yes, it would be kind of awkward for the kids sitting in the room, but it would be less awkward than sitting in the kitchen watching Troy and Gabriella cook.
Once in the oasis of Troy's kitchen and he had sat down the bag of groceries Gabriella had brought, she wrapped her arms around Troy's neck and gave him a gentle kiss.
"Mmm," Troy licked his lips to try and rid himself of lipgloss, "we're going to have to figure out a way to see each other more than once a week."
Gabriella let her hand run up his hair, against the grain, "It's only been four days."
"Four days too long," Troy was big on the cheesy comments.
"Maybe this weekend," Gabriella started before she felt Troy's lips hit hers again, "But we should get cooking and talk about this later."
"Fine," Troy took a second to let his body get used to the feeling of her body leaving his, "I've been working on getting the vegetables ready, but you can work on the mashed potatoes."
Troy's kitchen had been transformed into Thanksgiving center. Turkey and stuffing were in the process of cooking, all that remained to be done was boil vegetables, warm rolls, and dump the cranberries out of the can. Not everything could be homemade.
Troy noticed Gabriella's blank look that she gave him, "You don't know how to make mashed potatoes?"
Gabriella shook her head, "No."
"Okay then," Troy grabbed a potato peeler and held it up, "This is a potato peeler, you peel potatoes with it."
"I know that, I'm not stupid," she rolled her eyes.
"Just start peeling the potatoes and boil some water, then tell me when you've got everything done," Troy set the potatoes next to the sink so that she could get started.
Gabriella attempted to start peeling the potatoes, finding the task more difficult than she expected. Pulling the peeler toward herself, she found that short stubs of potato skin was falling off and heard Troy chuckling from behind her.
"Peel away from yourself," wrapping his arms around her from behind, he took her hands into his own, "I'll show you." He started peeling the potato at a much faster speed than she had with cleaner lines.
"Your Mom taught you well," she commented, "I can't cook for shit."
"I can tell," he laughed, moving away from her.
"Well, you are a teacher," Gabriella began in her 'sweet talk' voice, "So you should teach me how to cook."
"I could teach you The Adventure's of Huckleberry Finn," Troy laughed, "cooking is a completely different story."
"Too bad I passed ninth grade American Lit then," she laughed, knowing that she had read Huck Finn many times being the dork she had been in high school.
"You wouldn't be my girlfriend if I was your teacher though," he went along with her teasing.
"Not in public," she joked, "Maybe we'd have one of those teacher student affairs that never happen."
"Yep, then ten years later you could write a book about it," he adjusted the heat of the stove.
"No, you're the one with the English major," Gabriella's focus began to lessen on the potatoes and shifted more toward her conversation with Troy, "You can write the book."
"Okay, we'll see how that blows over with the police," he began to strain the water he'd boiled the beans in.
"Shit," Gabriella cursed and wrapped her finger in the palm of her hand.
"What?" Troy turned his back around to look at her, "Are you kidding me? I didn't even give you a knife and you cut yourself."
Walking over he held out his hand for her to place her injured one in, looking it over he decided the cut wasn't too deep, "Alex! Can you get me a band aid and some anti-septic?"
He could faintly hear Alex mumble under his breath from the living room with what unseemingly was a sarcastic comment. Waiting a few moments, Alex walked into the kitchen, "What happened."
"She cut herself with a potato peeler," Troy said with a large, teasing smile.
Alex's nose scrunched, "How'd you do that?"
"I wasn't paying attention," She gave Troy a stern look, partially blaming her for the accident, "And then all of a sudden I peeled my finger instead of the potato."
Alex left the room laughing. Troy peeled back the wrapping of the band aid and placed it on her finger after applying some anti-septic to the sore, "Wash your hands and you can start again."
Gabriella tried to catch her breath as laughter poured out of her mouth. Dinner had blown over easily with Troy's son breaking the awkward tension. It had started out with faint awkwardness while they discussed favorite sports, activities, food, movies, etc to get to know each other slightly. Somewhere between the end of dinner and beginning of dessert, Alex had begun cracking many, stupid, jokes.
"What's the difference between a snow man and a snow woman?" Alex continued with his joke telling.
"I don't know," Emma said, wanting to move on to the punchline. Many times she'd had to work to prevent the food from spilling out her mouth at the boy's funniness. Mia looked perplexed, most of the jokes a little mature for her brain but nothing that would spoil her innocence.
"Snow balls," Alex smirked at his plate, knowing that he was a little full of himself and attracting attention.
"Okay, I think that's enough," Troy stood up, his cheeks slightly red from laughing, "Remember, she's ten."
"So, she doesn't understand it," he nodded his head toward the confused girl.
"Let's not allow her to understand," Troy grabbed a few empty plates covered with leftover filling from the pie they'd had, bringing them to the sink to be washed later along with the plates from dinner. "I was thinking we could watch a movie if you guys wanted to stay longer."
"Who said I was staying here longer?" Alex questioned.
"It's a holiday, I'm pretty sure all your friends are eating with their families," Troy said, "And who said I was going to let you leave?"
Gabriella looked at her daughter's, seeing them nod their heads that it was fine to stay longer, "We'd love to."
"Perfect."
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay longer to help wash the dishes?" Gabriella questioned with a worried expression on her face, knowing that it would take a while to completely clean up.
"No," He nodded at the girls who had fallen asleep on his couch during the second movie they'd watched, "It's 11:30, get them home and in bed."
"Are you sure? I feel like I didn't help out much, all I did was make mashed potatoes," She unwrapped Troy's arm from her shoulder and stood from her spot on the couch.
"It's fine, don't worry about it," Troy followed her motions, standing up and placing his hands on her hips. Bending down, he placed a gentle peck on her lips before she began to gently shake her oldest daughter awake.
"Come on girls, time to go home," she watched as both her daughter's began to stir. Standing up, the girls sleepily thanked Troy for hosting dinner and walked liked zombies to the car.
"I'll see you later, this weekend right?" Troy asked before helping Gabriella slide her jacket on her shoulders.
"Yeah, this weekend," She confirmed and held her arms out to wrap Troy up in a final hug before leaving. Troy obliged and squeezed her waist tight to his. Letting his head drop, he let his lips glide over her cheek before moving to her mouth.
"Mmm," Gabriella muttered, "I should go."
"You should before they fall asleep again," Troy nodded, catching a whiff of her shampoo, "Give me a call."
"I will," She nodded, "Bye."
"Bye babe," He let go of her waist and opened the door for her, watching her reach her car and pull out before closing and locking the door.
A/N: So next chapter I'm anticipating the full story of Gabriella's divorce to come out and after that a little drama. How does that sound?
