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“Ah. Quite the surprise.” Maggie looked around with a forced smile on.
“Indeed.” She stirred the pot that Maggie now realized contained a large quantity of thick, rich hot cocoa. Hot cocoa that had probably started as a much smaller batch, just for the two of them, and that she was now being forced to make for a much larger group. “As you know, I skipped going home this week because I had to work and, well, apparently, seeing me after Christmas wasn’t good enough. So here they all are.”
“Here they all are.”
Maggie looked them over, thinking about how she had known that. Even with how awkward the edges of their conversations had been, they’d still been texting regularly, and Katie had told her how unhappy Irene had been about Katie having to work instead of making the trip back.
Neither of them had expected this, though.
Maggie couldn’t decide whether she was supposed to think it was nice or not. She knew some people loved big gestures at Christmas. She knew Katie’s mom, and her whole family, missed her and wanted to see her, and that they were simply lost in the festive spirit and wanting to do exciting things. She knew they must all think it was wonderful. Maybe it was.
But maybe it was also a houseful of people nobody had been expecting. It was people invading a space they hadn’t actually been invited to. And it was people interrupting a plan.
Maggie sighed. She knew her own view on it was just as skewed as Katie’s mom’s was, just in the opposite direction. And they had both kept Maggie and Katie’s family separate. That meant she didn’t have any real clue what was normal for them. Katie was always Katie, but everyone was a little bit different around different people. Maybe this was okay and welcome in their family.
She looked back at Katie who was frowning into the hot cocoa. Maybe not.
Katie looked up at her, holding her gaze for more than a second or two for the first time in days. “I’m really sorry,” she whispered. “This wasn’t at all what I had planned for tonight.”
Maggie did her best to muster a smile, knowing Katie would see through it. “It’s okay. We can do that another night. And I’m sure it’s nice to see your family?”
Katie’s face twitched before she smoothed it over quickly. “It would have been nicer with some warning, or some say in the matter.”
Maggie nodded, understanding a million things Katie couldn’t say with her family swarming around them. She loved them. She loved people. But her home was her space, her privacy. She didn’t like people invading it. It was the one place she got away from the hecticness of life. The only one she enjoyed finding there unexpectedly was, well, Maggie.
Maggie breathed against the well of emotion surging through her. She needed to be strong and supportive for Katie. She needed to be happy so Katie could be happy too. She needed to be there for all of the complicated emotions Katie was currently feeling. And she wanted to be. She wanted to be that person for her. No matter what had happened to their plans.
She stepped closer to Katie, pressing into her side and taking her free hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
Katie smiled gratefully down at her, and Maggie knew she understood. They were going to get through this together. They would get their evening alone later, but everything was okay with them for now.
Maggie’s chest ached with how much she’d missed that since the Christmas tree farm. It was so subtle and so important all at the same time.
She lay her head on Katie’s shoulder, feeling like she was home at last, even in the midst of the chaos around them. “That smells amazing, by the way. Do you want me to take over?”
Katie scoffed. “No. I was making you hot cocoa, and the addition of thirteen other people to our night isn’t changing that. Let me make you the best hot cocoa you’ve ever had.”
“Any hot cocoa with you is the best one I’ve ever had.”
Before either of them could relax, a woman gripped Maggie’s shoulders and spun her on the spot. “You must be Maggie. At last!”
Katie sighed, somewhere between exasperation and amusement. “Maggie, my mom. Mom, Maggie.”
Chapter Eleven
It was an odd experience to be filled with softness and terror at the same time, but that had been Katie’s experience for most of the night. As she watched her mother continue to completely monopolize Maggie’s attention where they sat together on the couch, Katie doubted it was going anywhere anytime soon.
She’d had such plans for tonight. Terrifying, tantalizing plans—made all the more tantalizing by the way Maggie had scooched up beside her and rested her head on Katie’s shoulder earlier. Maggie was never shy with physical affection towards Katie, even in company, but, given the slight awkwardness between them lately, and the fact that Katie’s whole family had descended on their night, she hadn’t been expecting it. Or, perhaps that was a product of how nervous she’d been for the evening.
This was Maggie, her best friend, the one person she loved more than anyone else. Maybe that should have been a sign long ago, but Katie had been busy being a fool. So convinced that they were just friends, that she didn’t have time for a relationship, and that she wasn’t willing to get into one just because everyone in her life thought she should. She’d been ignorant of the fact that she’d basically already been in one, with Maggie.
Rea and Malik were right. She made time for Maggie and it didn’t feel like it took any effort at all. Every day she didn’t see Maggie was a day that felt longer and darker than the rest. When she’d been asked to make time for dates, it always felt like it was getting in the way of her job and time she could be seeing Maggie.
Now, she realized it only felt like a chore because it was dating that was being almost forced upon her. She’d been happier when she’d placed a ban on dating because she got to spend her time with the one person it felt natural to be around, and wasn’t that what relationships were supposed to feel like? She didn’t have time for relationships that felt draining and uncomfortable, but she did have time for Maggie. All the time in the world, no matter how much she worked.
It hadn’t been much of a leap from that realization into realizing that she’d been in love with Maggie for some time now. And she’d been so close to finally telling her.
Then, she’d opened the door and basically been rushed by her family. Her mom had relocated the food she’d made for Maggie into the refrigerator for another time, set out the food she’d apparently brought with her, and, upon discovering the thick, rich hot cocoa Katie had been making, set her in front of the stove to make enough for everyone.
