Emily was setting the table for dinner, getting plates out of the cupboard, when her father called out from his place at the stove, "Just three plates tonight, Pumpkin."

Emily's brows lifted in question. "Are you and Damon going somewhere?" she asked. A beat. "Are we finally voting Mother off the island?" (She couldn't help but sound a little eager at the prospect.)

With a wry smile, Joseph replied, "Actually, you and Alex won't be joining us."

Jaw dropping open, Emily spent a few moments stammering dumbly before she was able to string speech together. "What!? Why!?"

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and told her in a tone that one might use with someone who was being intentionally obtuse, "Honey, you and Alex need to spend some time alone – as a couple. Believe me when I say that relationships live and die by date night..."

"Oh, Daddy, there's really no need for that," Emily tried to insist. "Really." She flashed an apologetic smile. "You invited us all here to spend Christmas as a family, so it really doesn't seem right to..."

"That's true, but the point is that you also need to spend time alone with your partner." With his best attempt at a stern dad expression, he shooed her out of the kitchen. "Now, go upstairs and get dressed – come six o'clock, you two had better be out that door."

"So, what should we do?" Alex asked, looking no more thrilled about the prospect than Emily was, but she just couldn't bear any more of the heavy silence that had settled between them. She couldn't help but be a little disappointed that the easy comfortable silence that had once existed between them couldn't quite be replicated of late...

Emily shrugged, but didn't say anything on the subject, operating under the excuse that she was too busy focusing on the road ahead. Afterall, her father had given her very strict instructions to take good care of his car – an Aston Martin DB4. (Emily maintained it was stupid that his only vehicle was such an expensive collector's item in a town notorious for it's insane streets and equally insane drivers, but...)

Resisting the urge to snort derisively (albeit barely) at the lack of communication, Alex asked, "Are you taking us somewhere specific or...?" She didn't plan to be a bitch that night, but it seemingly couldn't be helped.

She shrugged again, but this time answered, "I'm just heading downtown, I'm sure we can find something to occupy our time there." Much as she wasn't thrilled about the situation, she wanted to make the best of it.

"According to Google, there's a small cinema playing classic Christmas movies," Alex suggested. "You're still a fan, I assume?" She scrolled on her phone through the movie listings, mostly so she wouldn't have to look at Emily and see the grim expression she was sure she'd find there.

Emily couldn't help the slight smile, the blush colouring her cheeks, at the fact that Alex still remembered small details like that from their time together.

Emily couldn't seem to help herself... She knew she'd missed at least three-quarters of the movie as she was too busy staring at Alex. But, well...it was hardly news to anyone that Alex had always had that effect on her. At one point, she could have sworn that she saw a tear escape to roll down her face, but by the time the lights came on, she'd quickly wiped it away.

"Everything okay?" she asked gently.

Alex tried to reply, but no words came out, trapped in her throat by the ball of grief that seemed to have settled there. She cleared her throat, tried again...but it seemed that words weren't needed. Emily already knew what was on her mind. Wordlessly, Emily rested a hand on Alex's thigh, squeezing gently to show her support.

Once upon a time, one of Alex's favourite things was watching Christmas movies with her mother, but when she died quite suddenly, Alex's interest in the genre seemed to have died with her.

"What now?" Alex asked, if only to distract from her emotional turmoil.

Emily glanced at her watch and replied, "I doubt it would be all that believable if we arrived back home quite this early..."

Unfortunately, she was right, Alex had to admit. "I guess we should get dinner somewhere..."

"You know all the restaurants will be packed with the holiday rush..." Emily pointed out.

"How do you feel about hamburgers?" Alex replied, a slight playful smile crossing her lips.

Emily laughed. "How do we always end up eating fast food whenever the word 'date' comes up?"

"I'm glad to see some things never change..." Alex said almost tenderly as she watched Emily snatch some fries from her meal.

Emily chuckled heartily. "What can I say? Yours just taste better."

Joining in the laughter, Alex said, "I don't know how you survived being apart without my fries to snatch..."

"They just didn't taste the same," Emily answered, her tone a shade off melancholy.

"Speaking of which..." Alex spoke up after a long silence, during which she avoided eye contact by focusing intently on the straw in her drink, "Did you, you know... D-date anyone? While we were apart?" Almost the second the words hit the air, she regretted having asked...she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

Emily had been expecting this question for awhile, to be honest, even if she dreaded it. A part of her briefly thought about saying something to make Alex jealous, even if only to test the reaction it would produce. Almost as quickly as the thought materialized, though, it was gone again. "No," she said, "I mean, I thought about it – even set up a date once, but I cancelled at the last minute."

"Oh." A beat, during which Alex was clearly trying very hard to maintain control over her micro-expressions, ensued. "Me neither," she added at length with a small smile.

Mirroring her smile, Emily said a soft, "Good." Then, she once again reached over to steal more fries.