True to the promise I made to myself on Holly's couch, our relationship does progress slowly in the next couple weeks. Funnily enough, the couch itself seems to turn into another obsession of mine. Or, I guess it becomes a solid anchor around which our relationship revolves. We watch movies while sitting on her couch, we drink tea, we talk about work, and we definitely do other things besides those activities.

We touch and we kiss and it's always so amazing. But each time I make sure to pull back before clothing starts being discarded. I tear my mouth off of hers, or her neck, wherever it happens to be at that point, and sit up, almost always out of breath. She always has this dazed look about her and I love looking at it. It's like I've kissed her into another world and she's out there floating in the space. I know what it looks like because I feel the same way. And it's amazing that I, Gail Peck, could push her to that point. But then she shakes it off, runs her hand through her messy hair and nods knowingly. She respects my decision and I'm glad for that. Because if she ever pushed me to go farther, I don't think there is any force on earth that would make me say no.

I know it seems like I'm being a prude, but there's just been too many times when I fell into the physical part of a relationship first and then later fucked up the emotional part because that's not the way normal relationships work right? Isn't it better to work out and build the emotional connection before you fall into bed together? At least, that's what I tell myself. And it seems to be working. So I think I'll stick to it.

We don't talk about the drunken night that Holly had. And we're both okay with it. But I think this time around, we're a little more cautious about our progress. Even more so than before.

Holly and I go back to getting our morning coffees. I still feel terrible whenever I have a particularly early shift, especially after speaking to Holly's neighbor, but Holly insists on doing it anyway. And that's another reason that I really want to do this right. Because she tries too.

We finally make the time to mini-golfing and I almost want to throw myself into the stupid fake river that's on the course. Though I don't think I could drown in it since it's only about three inches deep. Too bad, I contemplate.

"Gail! It's your turn."

I snap my head back from staring at the river and see Holly brandishing her golf club at me. Very threatening indeed.

"God, Holly, I don't even know where my ball is. I think it disappeared."

"Don't give me that, it's right over there."

"But I suck at this! You keep beating me to the hole by like 7 moves!"

"7 strokes, Gail. And I think it was 8." Holly winks at me and she really needs to stop doing that, because it throws off what little game I have.

I snarl at her. "See my point?"

"Oh come on. Just because you're not amazing at it doesn't mean it's not fun!"

"That's not why this isn't fun," I frown, and walk over to take my shot. Or stroke. Whatever.

"Just be a little careful in aiming! You aim a gun pretty much on a daily basis and you can't aim a tiny ball into a hole?" Holly scoffs.

"It's not exactly the same thing, Miss Forensic Pathologist. You should know that. Now shush."

I hit the ball and the damn thing misses the opening it's supposed to shoot through and rolls back to basically its original position by my feet. I almost want to pick it up and chuck it into the hole at this point.

Holly, on the other hand, is way ahead of me and sinks her ball into the hole with her next move. Damn her. I'm in a pretty foul mood as I continue trying to make my ball go the same way. I finally make it in after 4 more strokes and stomp over to the hole to pick the ball out. When I stand up straight, I feel an arm around my waist that turns me around roughly.

Hot lips are on mine and I drop my ball and club unexpectedly as I lose myself in her presence. I forget that we're standing in the middle of an open mini-golf course. I feel only her and her warmth. It's like she's completely captured me and is holding me prisoner.

When Holly finally lets me go, I blink and I stutter. My foul mood's gone, to say the least.

"There. Better?" Holly grins at me. I think she likes taking me by surprise. It's her chance to sneak up on me and she likes it. And I like that she likes it.

"B-better," I catch myself after a moment. "Now if you could do that after every hole, this could be as good as a trip to Disneyland."

Holly agrees and we continue to finish the course in record time. Amazingly, my game improves. Either I'm finally getting a hang of this or my own personal incentive is giving me motivation. I think it's the latter. We're at the front desk returning our equipment when I hear an unfamiliar voice.

"Holly?"

We both turn from the counter and I see some woman with dark brown hair pretty similar to Holly's walking towards us with a smile. Immediately, my defenses go up. Holly's presence makes them go down, but this woman is smiling with a smile that makes me altogether uncomfortable. She's pretty and walks with a confidence that I probably never could manage. The only walk I can do is the police officer one.

"Emma! What are you doing here?" Holly takes a step forward and hugs her warmly. Okay, defenses up and attack cannons are out. Who the hell is this woman?

Emma-with-brown-hair turns and gestures towards a group of people who've just walked in and are standing by the door.

"Just an outing with family. Dad insisted that we go mini-golfing since we haven't gone in forever."

"Ohhh, that's right. I remember. Good times."

I'm starting to feel like I should excuse myself from eavesdropping on their conversation. I stand there awkwardly watching Holly and Emma-with-brown-hair exchange some more small talk. I'm almost about to leave without Holly when I decide to clear my throat.

Holly finally seems to remember she's here with someone. She turns around and pulls my arm towards the stranger woman.

"Gail, this is Emma. We used to be roommates in college."

I breathe an internal sigh of relief. Roommates. Not an ex.

"Hi, I'm Emma," she smiles and reaches her hand out for me to shake. She's friendly, I guess. Okay, attack cannons are being stored away.

"Hi, nice to meet you," I say politely, shaking her hand. The three of us stand there awkwardly in silence for a couple seconds. Oops, I guess I made it awkward.

"Well, I guess I should get our stuff and head in. We don't want to be out too late and who knows how long this round will take us. People start accusing each other of cheating and whatnot," Emma shakes her head and laughs. "Our family takes this game way too seriously."

"I remember," Holly smiles cordially and nods. Okay, so clearly Holly has a history with Emma and her family. Hm. Okay, they were roommates, so it would kind of make sense that she knew her family.

"I'll let you guys take off then. It was nice meeting you Gail. Holly, we have to grab a coffee sometime when you're not so busy. See ya," Emma waves and moves past us towards the counter.

I link my arm through Holly's and together we walk towards the door. We haven't done a lot of arm-linking in public, but I feel the need to remind Holly of who I am. Even though they were roommates, I can't help but feel slightly threatened.

"She seems nice," I remark lightly as we walk to Holly's car.

"Yeah, Emma's nice. We used to be pretty close in college," Holly replies quietly. Her demeanor has changed completely from when she greeted Emma. It's subdued and not at all friendly. It's like she doesn't really want to talk about it. I didn't even get this feeling from her two minutes ago. Holly must be pretty good at hiding feelings when she wants to. Except for that one night, I guess. It must've been a lot of alcohol.

"Yeah, you guys seemed like you knew each other pretty well before."

"Yup, you could say that."

Holly doesn't say any more on the matter, and I don't push. I don't push because I don't know how to push. I don't know how to ask what happened, and why Holly seemed slightly upset over the meeting. I don't push because I'm afraid to know the answer. All she said is that they were roommates in college. That could be true, but maybe she's not telling the whole story. Maybe they fought and didn't end things too well? Maybe they dated. I don't know. I don't want to know, I think. I'm not ready to know about Holly's past life.

Holly drives me home and we recap our moments on the golf course. Even though she's laughing, I sense a bit of secrecy coming from her side of the car. Don't ask me how I can sense that. Maybe Holly is seriously rubbing off on me. I hold her hand in my lap, like I always do when we're in the car. I hold it as an anchor. In the bottom of my stomach, I feel like Holly is floating away and this time, it's not because of me. Which mean it is not okay.

We arrive at the apartment, and she puts the car into park and turns to me.

"Today was fun," she tells me.

"Sure, fun for you. You got to see for the second time how much I suck at sports. I told you I'm no good at this."

"No, I think you improved this time. Definitely better than the batting cages," Holly smiles slowly. I like it when she does that.

"Holly…" I start and trail off. I'm not sure how to ask the question. I'm not even sure what question I'm trying to ask.

"Yes. The answer's yes." Holly cuts in, squeezing my hand as she speaks.

"What, yes?"

"We dated. Emma and I. If you could call it that."

I feel my stomach drop out, even though I know it shouldn't. It seems childish of me, but I just never gave a thought to Holly's life before our meeting. It's stupid, but I feel like her presence only existed starting from when we met.

"Okay. And?"

"And nothing. It ended. And that's that. It's fine, Gail. Please don't worry about it. We're together now, right?"

"Yes. But are you sure that's all?" I push because Holly opened the door herself.

"That's all you need to know. It was a long time ago, and…it's in the past. And that's where it should stay. So please, don't worry. I'll be fine. It's fine. You know how it is with ex's," Holly smiles, but it's a sad smile.

"You sure?" I squint at her and try to squeeze some more information out of her.

"Yes."

Slightly relieved, but not that much so, I lean over and I peck her on the lips. "Okay. If you say so, I'll let it go. But you can call me if you need anything."

"I will. See you tomorrow morning?"

"Coffee's on you this time. You owe me for the torture session today."

I open the car door and leave Holly laughing behind me in the car. As I stomp into the apartment and undress all the layers, I can't help but still wonder about Emma.

Who is she and how was she able to throw Holly off like that? I thought Holly was one that couldn't be broken, except by me. It was rather egotistical thinking, but I guess it makes sense, since I haven't known Holly too long. We rarely talk about our pasts, but Holly at least knows about Nick. How could she not, since we pretty much started our relationship when I was still trying to pick myself out of that mess?

But why didn't Holly tell me about Emma? I try not to think about the answer, because Holly told me not to worry. She told me it's in the past. It is in the past. So I should let it go. But, as I settle down on our couch in the living room (which is nowhere near as comfortable as Holly's), turning on the TV so I could play some of Dov's video games, it's still solidly there, in the back of my mind. And it doesn't go away.

A/N: Hope everybody had fun and safe holidays! One thing to note though, I've only been mini-golfing ONCE in my life, so I'm sorry if I got anything wrong in that aspect. Would love to know what you guys thought of this chapter.