Page 121 of Deck the Hauls

The porcupine moved and my heart skyrocketed into my throat.

Shit. I yanked Dana’s hand back.

“Quick, we need to get out of the firing line! Don’t they shoot quills at people?”

Dana stepped back. “I think that’s a myth.”

“I hope you’re right.” Porcupines did not feature in Animal Rescue Hospital. The porcupine didn’t appear to be paying any attention to us, at least. “What should we do?”

Dana frowned. “I’m pretty sure you can’t relocate porcupines. They don’t handle being moved well. They’ll either starve, or go through a lot of trauma to make their way back. I’ll call our local wildlife control woman to check, but I suspect she’ll say that the only humane option is to dispatch it.”

“Dispatch it?” I frowned. What the hell did that mean?

“Put it down,” Dana said.

“Oh.” I stared at the porcupine. It resembled a giant spiky rat, but it was kind of cute. The thought of it being dispatched...

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to let that happen.” Dana slid her arm around my back.

“So you’re just going to let it keep eating the trees?”

“Now that I know what it is, I can try some humane deterrents. I’ll have to do some research, but I’m sure there’ll be something we can do—fencing, sprinklers, spray.” Dana peered up the tree. “It looks like it has well and truly destroyed the leader of that tree, but I might be able to retrain the tree with a new leader.” She glanced at her watch. “We don’t want to be late for the party. I’ll start researching humane porcupine control tomorrow.”

I smiled at my girlfriend. I loved that after months of trying to capture the creature destroying her precious trees, she was still worried about its wellbeing.

Dana held out her hand, and I took it.

Four days ago, we’d commissioned Ronnie to take a photo of Dana and me, facing away from the camera, arms around each other’s backs, against the backdrop of the firs at Red Tractor Farm. by Happy holidays everyone! #loveislove’ and a few rainbow and love heart emojis for good measure. While it was still early days in our relationship, I wanted to come out on my own terms. The reaction had generally been positive. A few celebrity gossip websites had written articles about it, including a major queer news website that claimed Detective Marianne Hayes had always sent their gaydar tingling. There’d been some homophobic comments on my post, but the positive comments significantly outweighed the bad.

It was too early to tell if it would impact my career. Yesterday a casting agent had cancelled an in-person audition booked for early January, but whether that was due to my involvement in Phillip’s downfall, me coming out, or something completely unrelated, I’d never know. I felt strangely okay about it. If it was because of Phillip or my sexuality, I didn’t want to work with those people anyway.

After I posted the photo, we’d strolled down Main Street, hand in hand, and had a coffee at Novel Gossip. It felt strange, but also exhilarating, to publicly display my affection for Dana. Every day I spent with her, allowing myself to imagine a future together, the more certain I was that I had made the right decision. A career in acting was so unpredictable, success could come and go. But friends, family, loved ones, being yourself...that was for the long haul.

Dana and I were for the long haul.

I gave the porcupine one last look before we turned and headed back toward the cabin.

—

We heard the music and loud voices even before we opened Roz and Olivia’s front door. The party was already in full swing.

We left our coats and my handbag in the hall.

“I’ll go put this in the fridge,” Dana said, lifting up the bag of drinks we’d brought.

“Thanks babe.”

I stepped into the living room. Jenny bounded over to me. “Hey! Happy New Year’s Eve!” She threw her arms around me. “Have you seen how many views that reel of Austin has gotten now? It’s in the millions!”

A reel had appeared on social media a few days ago, titled Is Austin a sleaze? What followed was a montage of clips from HolLove movies, zooming in on Austin’s wandering hands doing things that weren’t appropriate, but that a viewer wouldn’t have noticed if they weren’t looking for it. Austin’s bad behavior had been in plain sight all along.

“It’s pretty incredible,” I said. “HolLove announced yesterday that he’s been removed from all his roles, pending further investigations.”

“Do you think Charles put the reel out?” Jenny asked. “The account that posted it looked like a burner one.”

“The timing certainly seems a little coincidental. I’ll ask him next week.”

Dana returned, holding a glass of sparkling wine for me and a can of non-alcoholic beer for her.