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“I do have lentils,” said Anna. She had a strange look on her face that Rubie couldn’t quite identify.
“You okay?” she laughed awkwardly and shuffled from one foot to the other. “I have a bit of a habit of micro-organising things; if you’re more of a spontaneous person then we could decide tomorrow instead?”
Anna raised an eyebrow. “Really? You really think you’d be okay with deciding everything in the moment?”
“Yes,” said Rubie, but she wasn’t sure she sounded convincing, even to herself. “Well I can try?”
Laughing, Anna offered Rubie her hand, and when granted it, tugged the both of them until they fell onto the sofa. “It’s okay, I don’t mind planning things out in advance. It makes things easier for you that way?”
Rubie thought of the spreadsheets that lived on her work computer, analysing data and pulling together all of the information that she needed for payrolls and Stuffie Hospital London’s accounts. “In most things I’m fairly happy-go-lucky,” she explained. But there are some things that I find easier to plan. I’ve got a cooking spreadsheet that we could use?”
Anna looked at her, bemused. “A cooking spreadsheet?”
“Yeah, so I can get the timings right on complicated meals.” Rubie flushed. “Okay, yeah, I’m sounding a bit weird.”
“No,” said Anna. “Like I said, I don’t mind planning things out; and I bet you don’t ever have cold potatoes with a meal.”
The warmth in Anna’s smile made Rubie feel a little more at ease, and she smiled shyly. “Nothing but piping hot spuds here!”
“Do you want to see what we’ve got in, and work it all out now?”
Rubie nodded eagerly. “Yes please, if that’s okay?”
She hadn’t expected Anna to get on board quite as quickly as she did. In the kitchen, she took stock of all the food supplies, and Anna dutifully took notes so that they could all put it together.
“What about tonight?” Rubie asked. “I was just planning on throwing together something quickly whilst I cooked the turkey.”
“Cooking the turkey tonight?”
“It’s better than waiting hours and hours to eat on Christmas Day; I can’t be waiting until 4pm to have Christmas lunch.”
“Well,” said Anna. “If you prep the turkey and do the marinade and whatever else you think needs doing for that, I’ll do us dinner for tonight. Just leave me one shelf in the oven. You got any dietary requirements?”
Rubie shook her head, bemused. “Okay, well, I’ll leave that up to you then.”
“Atta girl,” said Anna, and pressed a kiss to Rubie’s forehead.
They both froze, and Rubie’s eyes darted all over the place, not knowing where exactly to land her gaze.
“Shit.”
Her gaze landed on the other woman.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…I mean, it felt…fuck. I’m sorry. I should have asked permission first. Are you okay?”
Rubie took a deep breath and leaned forward, her lips hovering just above the smoothness of Anna’s cheek. “May I?”
Anna nodded wordlessly, and she pressed a smooth kiss to the other woman’s skin. Anna smelt like jasmine.
It was enough to make Rubie heady.
“There; we’re even.”
When Anna looked at her, a question in the other woman’s eyes, Rubie just smiled. “At the risk of making things awkward, if you wanted to kiss me, I wouldn’t mind.” She did her best attempt at making her eyes twinkle cheekily. “I think I’d rather like it.”
“Well,” said Anna throatily, “I suppose we are snowed in for Christmas…we have to dosomethingto pass the time.” She leaned in and her kiss was a whisper of a touch across Rubie’s lips. “So we’d best start with cooking.”
Rubie knew that she must have looked indignant, but Anna patted her cheek softly and with such affection, that Rubie found herself unwrapping the turkey in a slight haze of delight.
