Page 44 of Only in Our Dream
Picking up the box Mason had handed her earlier, Melanie waited for Mason to get another box before they headed back into the main house. Decorating the family Christmas tree was a tradition Melanie didn’t really have with Rob. They’d had a tree, sure, but it was usually a small artificial one that sat on their dining room table. It was nothing compared to the Mackenzie family Christmas tree.
Melanie marveled at it from the archway to the kitchen as the kids watched a movie on TV. Isla and Vera were cleaning up around the house, seemingly lost in their happy little world. As she watched them, Melanie felt like a stranger peeking in from the windows on a perfect Hallmark story Christmas scene. Just with more lesbians.
“More coffee?” Vera asked from behind. Melanie turned to her friend, finding her holding up the coffee pot in her hand.
“Yes, please.” Walking toward Vera, Melanie extended her mostly empty mug out to her. Vera refilled it before putting the pot back down. “Thanks again for letting me crash here today.”
“We loved having you, Mel. Seriously, anytime. You know you’re family.”
“Thanks, Vera.”
Leaning up against the kitchen sink, Melanie sighed. She knew it would make Vera ask her what was wrong, which was what Melanie wanted. And as predicted, Vera asked, “What’s wrong? Are you missingCam?”
Melanie couldn’t help but giggle. “Damn you.”
“Don’t act like I don’t know the difference between every sigh you give,” Vera laughed, leaning on the counter across from Melanie. “I’ve worked with you for too many years to not know thatthatsigh meant you want to talk about something but don’t want to be the one to start the conversation. Which is dumb because, hello, it’s me. So tell me. What’s going on with you and Cam?”
“Well, you know we kissed.”
“I do,” Vera smirked over her coffee mug as she took another sip. “Thanks to Cameron. I’d still be out in the dark if I was waiting foryouto update me on your love life.”
“It’s not a love life. At least not until after my divorce is final.”
“Which should be soon.”
“Thank god,” Isla piped in, seemingly from out of nowhere. She had on a fun Christmas sweater, same as Vera did. It was another family tradition the two of them had. “I need you and Cam officially together.”
“Me, too.”
“While I agree,” Melanie tried to stop herself from laughing, “I’m trying to keep it all above board before my divorce is final. I don’t want to bethatperson.”
“You mean Rob.” Isla’s snarky comment was met with a jab in the ribs by Vera. She recoiled dramatically, as if Vera had shot her. Vera rolled her eyes in response. “What? You were thinking it.”
“Regardless,” Vera raised her eyebrows at her wife, “we aren’t talking about him right now. We’re talking about our dear friends Melanie and Cameron finally getting together.”
“About damn time.”
Melanie dramatically groaned. “You know, sometime over the course of, I don’t know, the last twenty something years one ofyou could have pulled me aside and said,Hey Mel, do you think you might be gay and in love with Cameron?”
Instead of laughing along with her, Isla and Vera exchanged a bemused look with each other.
“Wait.” Melanie pointed back and forth between them. “What was that look for?”
“You just said you’re in love with Cam.”
Melanie felt her heart flutter as she smiled. “Well,” she laughed, “Iam.”
Sharing another look Melanie couldn’t quite decipher, she was happily surprised when Isla and Vera both went in for tight bear hugs with her. They squeezed her in the middle, melting her into their embrace. She loved her friends so damn much and was so happy to have such supportive, if not goofy, friends in her life.
“Okay, okay, let me breathe.”
“I’m just so happy for you, Mel.” Vera had tears glistening in her eyes as they let her go. “You deserve this. Truly. Isla and I are just so happy you’re happy. And that you’re happy with Cam. It’s just all so,” she seemed to search for the right words before hugging Melanie again. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Melanie whispered into her ear. She looked at Isla over Vera’s shoulder. “Is she always this emotional on holidays?”
Isla chuckled. “You’ve known her almost as long as I have. You know that’s just who she is.”
“And we love her for it.” She kissed Vera quickly on the cheek before Vera did the same back. Melanie said a silentthank youto the universe for blessing her with two of the best friends a woman could ever ask for.
