Gail's not sure what to do. She once again feels she owes Holly an apology. Why does she keep doing this? Why is it so difficult to be a friend? Why is it so difficult to be a good friend to Holly? Gail tosses and turns in her bed before she finally decides she should set her alarm so she can wake up in time, wake up in time to be able to do everything she has to before her shift starts.
Holly's not sure what to do. She feels she owes Gail an apology. Why is it so difficult to be a good friend? Holly tries to come up with a reason to see the blonde before she leaves Toronto, but so far her mind is blank. She kind of wants to ask Gail, if she has time off and wants to, if Gail would want to come visit her in San Francisco. Holly sighs. She gets the vacuum out from her parents' closet and starts to vacuum, directing her little niece to move the stools so she can vacuum properly without any obstructions.
Gail knocks on the door, hoping Holly's there. She can hear noises coming from inside. She has shown up at the Stewarts' house a day after the party. Flowers in hand she knocks at the door again. Cindy opens it, "hello?"
"Hi," says Gail, "is Holly here?"
"Yes, one moment please," she turns inside the house and yells, "Holly!" She looks back at Gail and smiles, realization hits her a second later and her face morphs into a surprised look, "blonde, beautiful, and blue eyes," Cindy kind of gasps, "you're the cop."
"Do I know you?" asks Gail, even though they have never met, she can tell this is Holly's sister, with the dark brown hair and the dark brown eyes, similar facial features and tones of voice.
"Um…no…oh, here's Holly," she maneuvers her way out of the doorway and back into the house. "She is very beautiful," she whispers to her sister as they pass.
Holly is confused as to who her sister is talking about. She gets to the front door, "Gail? What are you doing here?" She steps onto the front porch and closes the door behind her.
Gail offers up the flowers, "these are for you, or you can give them to your mom since you're leaving tomorrow, but I thought it would be nice to bring you flowers," Gail says rather fast.
"Um," Holly still is confused. "Thanks, they're beautiful," Holly accepts the flowers and sniffs them, "but why did you get me flowers?"
"I'm sorry…again, and I figured it was too early to buy you a couple of drinks from a bar, so I figured flowers would be better."
"Good choice, it is only 8am, but you didn't have to apologize. I should be the one apologizing," Holly's about to say more but feels like they're being watched, she turns around and spots her sister and nephew watching from the window. She smiles at Gail, "one moment," she walks inside and hands off the flowers to her sister and instructs her to put them in a vase. She rejoins Gail, "want to go for a walk, there's a park at the end of the street?"
Gail nods her head. They walk side by side on the sidewalk until they put some distance between them and the Stewart's house. Gail dying to ask, so she does, "why do you have to apologize?"
Holly smiles a sad smile, "I shouldn't have asked you to come," Gail gets a weird look on her face, thinking she came all on her own accord today, "last night to my parents' party," Holly clarifies, "that was selfish of me. Asking you to spend time with my family, people you don't know, I shouldn't have put you in that situation." Holly decides to make a joke, "especially considering three weeks ago you were texting me complaining about going to your brother's birthday party, someone you've known since birth" she bumps their shoulders together.
"Not like I had a choice on that though," Gail says snarkily. They keep walking to the park. Gail remains quiet; relieved Holly doesn't hate her, wondering what to do next. They reach the park and sit at a bench. "So, was it a nice party?"
Holly smiles at Gail, "it was, I haven't seen some of my parents' friends in years. Plus it's always nice to spend some time with my siblings and their families without the added pressure of a holiday."
"Is that who I met at the door?" Gail decides to play it up, "a lady who sounds like she had previously been told that I'm…sorry but I'm forgetting the word...oh wait no I'm not, now I remember, beautiful, that I'm beautiful. I wonder who would have told her that…"
Holly makes an unhappy noise, like shit, I did say that didn't I….but plays it off, "yeah, that is weird, I wonder who would have told her that."
"Right," says Gail.
The two fall into silence, watching the birds fly from tree to tree on this beautiful autumn day. The sun shining, giving them that feel that it could still be summer, but it's cold, so no.
Gail breaks the silence, "you ready to go back?"
"To the house? Sure," Holly about ready to stand.
"No, to San Francisco," Gail clarifies.
"Oh, yeah, I guess. I haven't even been away for half a year, but I feel like I've missed so much, it's weird."
"I know what you mean, when we go undercover and don't see our friends and family for a while, regardless the stint it feels like you miss so much. I know it's not really the same," Gail shakes her head at herself, slightly confused as to why she keeps sharing information, trying to make herself/situations relatable.
Holly doesn't seem to notice the struggle going on inside Gail's head. Holly hums, "well, at least I can still stay in contact with them; it's amazing what the video chats can do, I'm still able to see my nieces and nephews grow."
"There is that," smiles Gail. Gail's phone beeps, she looks at her watch, "sorry, I have to go, I'm supposed to watch my friend's kid for a couple of hours while she's at work, then I have to go to work," Gail explains.
"That's okay," says Holly, "thank you for coming over, and I am sorry about yesterday," still feeling kind of bad over the whole situation.
"You'll text me when you get home?" hopes Gail, wanting to make sure Holly gets home safe.
"I can…" smiles Holly, happy for the extremely easy reason, extremely practical reason to start a conversation with the blonde.
"And you are going to continue to send me all your sciencey facts," requests Gail.
"Uh," jokes Holly, "we in the sciencey community like to just call it facts."
Gail smiles, "I was always curious if there was a technical term for that."
"Well now you know."
Gail stands up, "I do have to go," she doesn't know how to say goodbye, is Holly going to kiss her again, does she go in for the hug this time, a handshake? Gail will watch Holly and follow suit.
Holly stands up too, "we can walk back together," she offers.
Gail's fine with that, prolong the goodbye. Plus Gail wants to bring up another topic. They walk out of the park, back onto the sidewalk and now the two are standing in Holly's parents' driveway. No one said anything the whole way, complete silence, just birds chirping.
Holly looks at Gail, "thanks for understanding everything; I'm so glad you're a good friend."
"Yes." Says Gail, "I'm glad we're friends too." Gail wanted to ask if it would be alright if she visited Holly in San Francisco, but chickened out and feels that this is a good leaving point.
Holly does give Gail a hug, but it doesn't feel the same to Gail as it did two nights ago.
Thanks for reading, thanks for your comments and interest in this story.
