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“We are.” She brushed a stray hair from Maggie’s face with her free hand. The feeling shot through Maggie and made her feel dizzy. If Katie’s expression was anything to go by, she was feeling the exact same way.
“Now kiss,” Rea’s voice called from down the hallway.
Katie collapsed into Maggie as they both turned to see Rea—in a Santa hat—and Malik watching them, both looking like their Christmas wishes were coming true too.
“I’m done letting interruptions ruin things,” Katie told them in a warning tone, “so I’m going to kiss her whether you’re there or not.”
“Uh, after the amount of pining we’ve watched you two doing, we’re absolutely watching,” Malik said, laughing.
Maggie groaned. At least she wasn’t the only one they thought had been pining, she supposed.
Katie shook her head and turned back to Maggie. Her eyes ran over Maggie’s face, drinking in every inch of her like she’d never really seen her before. “I love you so much,” she said, and they both ignored the cheers from Rea and Malik.
“I love you too,” Maggie said, feeling the words with her whole soul.
She leaned in, pressing her lips to Katie’s, and it was even more perfect than she ever could have imagined. She’d never felt anything like it—being in love with her best friend. Being loved by her best friend.
As they pulled back minutely to look at each other, she felt the tears in her eyes. Tears at how much she loved Katie, how much it had taken to get to this moment, and how much her life seemed beautiful, open, and promising now that she’d finally admitted she was in love with Katie and always would be.
“Yeah, I guess that was cuter than the naked under the Christmas tree thing,” Rea said with a laugh.
“Ignore them,” Katie said quickly.
Maggie laughed. “I can’t wait to hear that story later.”
“Never,” Katie said, laughing. They both knew she’d tell Maggie anything she wanted to know.
“Always,” Maggie said, her heart thudding happily when a smiling, overjoyed Katie leaned in to kiss her again.
Epilogue
Katie looked up from where she was stirring a pot of hot cocoa to watch Maggie, just drinking her in. She’d barely been home over the past week, and, even then, only to pick up more of her belongings to bring over to Katie’s. Without saying anything, they both knew she wouldn’t renew her lease when the time came. She’d only ever been living there half of the time anyway. Another thing that absolutely should have been a sign that they were already a couple.
Katie shook her head at her own foolish ignorance. But they were here now.
Maggie was sitting in the window seat, looking out over the city that was bustling with New Year’s Eve excitement as she chatted away to Mariana on the phone. Katie had always liked Mariana, but she’d especially enjoyed hearing just how relieved Mariana was that Maggie and Katie werefinallytogether. With how much Malik and Rea had embarrassed Katie with tales of her pining, Katie was glad Mariana was stocked up on similar stories about Maggie. She was already preparing for how much the three of them were going to complain about her and Maggie when they all got dinner tomorrow night.
Katie wasn’t even a little worried about that dinner. She and Maggie had been such huge parts of each other’s lives for so long, that their worlds had already been slotting together. Being officially together was just the final locking of the pieces into place—into where they should have been all along.
Tonight, however, Katie was worried.
Her week with Maggie had been so perfect and blissful. So beautifully, wonderfully magical, even with both of them working. They’d come home to each other, just like they always had, but now, it was so much more. There was no overthinking every lingering look or touch. Katie came home to Maggie and held her so tightly. They laughed together, they kissed, they fell into bed together, and, the next day, when it was time for work again, they kissed each other, declared their love, and promised to be home for dinner—whatever time dinner happened to be at thanks to their slightly unconventional schedules.
Katie had never seen Maggie so happy. Even her family hadn’t kicked up a fuss about her missing Christmas. They’d made her promise to visit soon, but it seemed they, at least, understood that babies came when they were ready, with little care for anyone else’s plans. Neither of them was sure what the future of Maggie’s relationship with her family looked like, or whether they really did want her to visit soon, but they were going to figure it out together.
And Katie herself had never been so happy. Except for the one spot of lingering tension.
Adam had managed to get their mom to stay at the same hotel he was staying at. It hadn’t been easy to do, but, once she was there, the distraction of her children and grandchildren seemed to have cheered her up. All except Katie, of course.
Their communications had been non-existent for a couple of days. Katie had relied heavily on Adam for updates on what was happening. But, when December 27th rolled around—Katie’s day off when she had been planning to go visit her family—her mom had reached out.
Maggie had sat by Katie’s side, holding her hand tightly while tracing feather-light patterns into her skin, and Katie had managed to have the conversation she’d wanted with her mom. She’d apologized for blowing up and demanding Irene go home. She’d tried harder to explain her position in a way that was reasonable and genuine. She’d talked about how she felt ignored in favor of the dream daughter her mom wanted. The one who stayed at home, got married, had a couple of kids, and dropped in every day. She talked about why that could never be her life.
And, for the most part, her mom had listened. It hadn’t been completely smooth sailing, but she talked about how rejected she’d felt by Katie’s words, about how she’d had a dream for her daughter’s life and their relationship from long before Katie was born, and how she was struggling with reality looking different. She’d wanted something she’d had with her own mother. She’d also never wanted to emotionally manipulate her children. She’d been genuinely apologetic about that.
They both listened, apologized, and acknowledged they still weren’t on the same page with some things. That some of them were going to take longer to adjust to than others. It hadn’t all been fixed, but Katie had gotten off the phone and felt relief from the pressure in her brain that had been throwing her off since their conversation outside the hospital.
She hadn’t been sure whether her family was going to stick around after that. Part of her figured they’d go back home, and Katie wouldn’t be welcome for a while before things would slip back into the status quo and they’d all move past this without acknowledging it. So, when Adam had messaged her to confirm they were going to stay until the New Year, as they’d originally planned, Katie had known what she needed to do.
