Bianca unlocked the front door and made her way through to the kitchen following the smell of cooking and the sound of music playing.

Bianca was met with the vision of Marissa by the cooker singing along to Hummingbird Heartbeat by Katy Perry, using a wooden spoon as a microphone. Marissa was spinning and dancing along as she sung and was startled when she turned and caught sight of Bianca leaning against the door frame, watching her with an amused smirk on her lips. Instead of looking sheepish at being caught out, Marissa grinned an adorable grin. She pointed her finger to Bianca and began singing the words to her instead; slinking closer with her dance until she was near enough to steal a welcome home kiss.

"Hmm." sighed Bianca, captivated by the woman who had just serenaded her. "I think I love you."

"That's good." said Marissa, her arms still wrapped around Bianca's waist. "Because I know I love you!"

They shared a second slow kiss and a happy smile. Marissa, still holding her lover close, reached up and ran her fingers through a lock of Bianca's hair.

"How did it go with the doc?" Marissa asked.

"Good." said Bianca slowly, still smiling back at Marissa, but her smile faltered when the music track changed and the One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People-Eater began to play.

"What are you listening to?" she asked bemused.

"Ah, the price of putting your Walkman on shuffle." said Marissa, "I think this is one of Gabby's tunes."

The change of music was enough to remind Marissa of the task at hand and she reluctantly stepped away from Bianca to get back to the saucepan bubbling away on the hob.

"You were saying about Dr Stanhope…" Marissa prompted, looking back over her shoulder to Bianca as she spoke.

"Yeah, it went well." said Bianca as she followed Marissa across the kitchen to have a nose at what was cooking.

"I'm sorry I'm back so late," she added, "But we ended up talking about so much. I hadn't realised I had so much to get off my chest. But I think I'm at least ready for tomorrow now."

Bianca did look a lot more relaxed than she had as she left for work this morning.

"I'm glad…" said Marissa. Bianca was at her shoulder now and Marissa had the urge to turn and kiss her again, only the timer interrupted her, telling her to get the biscuits out of the oven.

Marissa donned her oven mitts and bent down to retrieve the baking tray, but she hadn't finished talking.

"…But are you ready for tonight?" Marissa asked, her eyebrow raised.

Bianca looked around the kitchen, Marissa seemed to have the dinner well underway, the table was already laid and everything was incredibly clean and tidy.

"You seem to have everything well in hand. What do you need me to do?"

Marissa thought for a moment and then grabbed a knife and chopping board from the counter and moved then to the kitchen table.

"Could you chop the fruit for dessert?" she asked, putting a bowl and a selection of various fruits on the table as well. "I thought we could serve a fruit salad with what's left of your strawberry sorbet."

"I'm right on it." said Bianca taking a seat at the table, resting her crutches on the floor, and getting straight to work.

As Bianca began stoning and dicing a peach she was suddenly aware of how quiet it was.

"Where are the kids?" she asked, realising what was missing.

Marissa, who was busy transferring her biscuits to a cooling rack, nodded her head towards the entrance hall.

"They were being very helpful laying the table and then AJ had a sudden bright idea and dragged your girls upstairs. I wasn't allowed to follow or ask what they were up to because it was going to be a surprise…"

"But do you have a clue?" Bianca asked. The peach done she turned her attention to a punnet of strawberries.

"Well, when I went up earlier to get changed I heard Gabby and Miranda arguing about a red pencil, so I'm fairly certain it is art related."

"We'd better leave them to it then." said Bianca, "AJ is always very serious about his artwork."

"You know you didn't answer my question earlier." said Marissa, she'd moved back to stirring her saucepan. "Are you really ready for tonight? And I'm not just talking about the cooking! Do you think our moms will behave themselves?"

Bianca's mind briefly went to Kendall's earlier warnings, but she shook them out of her head.

"Tonight is going to be a brilliant success because our moms both love us too much to be the ones to ruin it." she said confidently.

"Yeah." said Marissa, trying not to think about Erica's cool response to the idea of coming for a meal. "I'm sure tonight will be fabulous!"

…