Gail stopped by her place, fed Charlie, looked in the fridge and found some chicken thighs she bought the other day and need to get used. She puts them in a reusable grocery bag, grabs her overnight bag; she pats Charlie on the head telling her to be a 'good girl' and heads to Holly's parents' house. It's already after 5 by the time the blonde walks through the front door. She received a text from Holly on her way over telling her that she wouldn't be there until six at the earliest. Gail already knows she wants to make a chicken and rice dish that goes in the oven, so she gets started on it. After sautéing the onions on the stove and browning the chicken thighs, she adds the rest of the ingredients to the pan, and she pops it into the oven. Gail glances at the clock and sees it's not ever quarter to six yet, Holly wont be home for at least another half hour. She walks to the fridge and grabs the white wine bottle they opened the night before, she pours herself a glass and takes it with her into the living room where she starts the gas fire, hoping the fire will take the chill out of the room. She picks up her book and curls up on the couch.

Holly enters the house more than an hour later, as soon as she opened the door she could smell the delicious aroma coming from the kitchen. She drops her bag and stuff at the door and walks to the kitchen with a smile on her face, but she doesn't find Gail. She pokes her head into the study area thinking she might find the blonde on the computer, but nope. Holly walks downstairs into her room and still doesn't find her girlfriend. "GAIL?!" she calls into what she is now thinking is an empty house, maybe the police officer went for a walk.

"YEAH?" she hears somewhere upstairs.

Holly races up the stairs, she's just about to go up the second flight of stairs when she sees the blonde on the couch in front of the fire in the living room. Holly stands at the entrance to the room, resting against the jamb. "Hey."

Gail closes her book and looks up, "hey."

Holly walks into the room and sits next to her girlfriend, "you look cozy."

"I am," Gail smiles as she brings her hand up to hold Holly's face.

It's all too much; tears appear in Holly's eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just happy tears, I love you so much, I'm so happy that I moved back home."

Gail furrows her brow; normally in Gail's experience tears aren't good.

Holly twists her head so she can kiss Gail's palm, "I love you and I want to come home to you every night, and smelling dinner, how comfortable you are with being here, how happy we are together, and seeing you reading here, you fit perfectly in my life, it just makes me so much more sure and-"

Gail kisses Holly to stop the rambling, she presses their foreheads together, she rubs her thumb up and down on Holly's cheek, "have you found a house yet?"

Holly smiles, "I think I found a good one the other day on my lunch break, did you want to see it before I put in an offer?"

Gail shrugs her shoulders, "I'm sure I'll see it often enough after you buy it."

"What do you mean 'often enough?' aren't you going to move in with me?"

Gail kisses Holly again, taking her breath away, once their foreheads are pressed together again Gail asks, "I can bring Charlie?"

"Of course you can bring Charlie."

"Then, yes." Gail drops her book on the floor, she uses her hands to grab Holly's face she slowly lays down and brings Holly with her, Holly gets a smirk on her face as she feels Gail's legs wrap around her. Holly moves her hands to sneak under Gail's shirt, Gail starts to unbutton the brunette's top; Gail stills her hands when she hears the garage door open. "Did you hear that?"

Holly's hands are centimeters from Gail's boobs, "probably just a malfunction," she continues to move her hands further up; she brings their lips together again.

The garage door sounds again, making Gail stop her actions again, "another malfunction?" questions the blonde, breaking the kiss. A car door slams. "Does your sister have the garage door opener?"

"No, only my parents have one, she has a key just like me."

Just then the door to the house from the garage opens, "it smells good in here. HOLLY!?"

Gail and Holly look at each other with wide eyes, Holly removes her hands from under Gail's shirt, Gail starts to button up Holly's. Holly finishes buttoning up her shirt and gets off of Gail. Gail straightens the couch while Holly downs the rest of the wine in Gail's glass, "thirsty?" asks Gail with a smirk on her face. Holly doesn't answer as she tips the glass back one more time hoping more wine is in there. "You okay?" questions the blonde, Holly nods her head, Gail gives her a light kiss, "go say hi to your parents, I need to check the chicken," Gail walks into the kitchen.

Holly stands for a second in the warmth of the living room, calming herself. "HOLLY!" her mom calls again.

"Coming!" shouts Holly. Not the type of coming I was hoping to do, thinks Holly. She walks into the hallway and helps her mom with their luggage, "what are you guys doing here?"

"We live here," Carol tries to joke. "It's your sister's fortieth birthday, we weren't going to miss it," Holly's mom smiles and grabs her daughter for a hug.

"Oh yeah," says Holly, "it's Cindy's birthday this weekend. Will you guys be going back to Florida?"

"No," says her dad, "hi sweetheart," Doug gives Holly a hug, "we would be heading home next weekend anyways, I think we can toughen it out up her for the last couple of weeks of March."

"Sometimes they're the harshest," says Holly, which is a true comment.

Doug jokingly asks, "do you not want us here?"

"Oh. No. I was just saying…"

"Relax dear, he's just messing with you. Thant's what you kids say right?" Carol holds Holly's hand, furrow on her face, "why are your cheeks all flushed?" who has just noticed.

"I'm going to go check on Gail," says Holly, not answering either of her mom's questions, "she's in the kitchen cooking."

"That does smell good, is there enough for us?" asks her dad.

Holly shrugs her shoulders, "I don't even know what she's cooking, I just got home too. I'll go ask her."

In the kitchen Holly finds another glass of wine, "that's for you," says Gail.

"Thanks," Holly takes a generous sip. "What are you making?"

"Dinner."

"Ah, whatever it is, it smells good."

"Well that's good," Gail smiles to herself.

"Is there enough for us too or do we need to order a pizza?" asks Doug as he and Carol enter the kitchen.

"There should be plenty," Gail is stirring the dish checking to see if the chicken is cooked all the way through, Doug sticks out his hand to shake Gail's, Gail reaches out her free hand to shake his as a greeting. She sticks out her hand to Carol.

"No, I'll wait for a hug," says Carol.

Gail smiles, she doesn't mind hugging Holly's family. "Safe trip?"

"Oh yeah," says Doug, "I think we made record time coming home, the border crossings were good, no issues there, didn't see too many cops out on either side, a lot easier to control the speed limit, if you know what I mean," he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Do I even want to know how fast you were going?" asks Gail.

"You can't give me a ticket after the fact, can you?"

"No, I would need evidence and maybe a witness," she looks at Carol.

"Well, then I'll just say that I was going fast," says Doug.

"That's probably safest," laughs Gail, Carol and Doug join in.

All four are sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner and drinking wine. "Anything new and exciting happen around here while we were gone?" asks Carol.

Gail shakes her head from side to side.

Holly gives her girlfriend a look, "what do you mean 'no,'" she looks at her parents, "I'm looking into buying a house."

"Tired of living here?" asks Carol.

"You know I love you guys, but-" Holly stops, she doesn't want to offend her parents.

"You need your own space, we get it, we've enjoyed having you here," says Doug. "And what about Gail?"

"I still live at the frat house," Gail puts a forkful of food in her mouth. "But, I'll probably end up spending more time at Holly's, I don't know yet."

"What do you mean, 'you don't know yet?'" Holly furrows her brow, didn't they just discuss this, probably less than half an hour ago.

"We'll see how long that lasts."

"What do you mean 'we'll see how long what lasts?'" Holly's confused.

"I don't know Holly, I've been told I'm not really girlfriend material, and I think we've lasted so long is because we have our own spaces. You in San Fran, me in Toronto. You at your parents' house. Me at the frat house. It's working."

Holly shakes her head; she wants some contact with the blonde but doesn't reach out to her just yet, slightly fearful of how this is going to go. "No Gail, I thought we were going to be moving in together."

"But you're buying the house, if we were moving in together we would be buying a house."

"Oh," Holly tilts her head to the side; this time she reaches out her hand for Gail's, "we can buy a house."

Gail's quiet as she looks at hers and Holly's hands, "are you sure?"

Holly moves her chair next to Gail's, "of course I'm sure, we can go see the house tomorrow if you'd like, you can have final say on it."

Gail feels the need to ask again, just to be on the safe side, "you sure you want to move in with me? I'm not going to piss you off too much?"

Holly uses her free hand to cup Gail's cheek, "of course you don't piss me off…too much," she gets a smile out of Gail, "I love you honey, and we're good together, and I'm excited to live with you full time, but only if you want to."

"Of course I want to," says Gail, all her insecurities on full display of not being wanted and loved, "I just don't want to mess this up, I don't want to lose you."

"You wont mess this up and you wont lose me. Gail, we're both human and we both make mistakes. Sure it might take a little bit to get used to each other, but we are really good at talking things through, that's what's so great about us, we tell each other things."

"Yeah…" Gail's quiet for a minute, "okay," she says.

"Okay?"

"Okay!"

"Okay!" Holly and Gail beam at each other.

"Hooray! My baby and her girlfriend are buying a house!" says Carol.

Holly and Gail continue to smile at each other, "we really need to stop having these huge life decision moments in front of my family," jokes Holly.

"Less people we have to tell afterwards," points out Gail.

Holly leans in to kiss her.

Gail's lying on her back on the bed in Holly's parents' basement, Holly's finishing washing up in the bathroom. She finishes rubbing the lotion into her hands and decides to lay on top of Gail. She rests her head just below Gail's chin. "I'm not too heavy on you?"

"No," says Gail, "I like it, you smell good." Gail wraps her arms around Holly so she can't move away.

Holly hums.

Gail moves her hands up and down Holly's back lightly touching her. She ventures further south and slips her hands into Holly's sleep shorts.

"If you keep that up, we're going to be having sex."

Gail pulls her hands out of Holly's shorts, she wraps her arms around the brunette again, tightening her hold and flips them, Gail's looking down at Holly, "I didn't know sex was on the table."

Holly gets her lopsided smile, "sex is always on the table."

"Except when it's on the bed," smiles Gail.

Holly rolls her eyes and grabs Gail's face, "you're insane," she pulls her into a kiss.

"You already said we could buy a house together, no taking it back now!" claims Gail.

"Don't worry," assures Holly, "I like that you're insane."

"Only an insane person would say that," Gail helpfully points out.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're having a Safe and Happy Holidays! Best of luck in 2021!