Brooke looked to the blonde sitting next to her. “Do you want something, Darlin’?”

“Ah…no, I don’t think so.” Sam said a little distracted. “I already got what I came here for.” The young woman leaned into Brooke’s shoulder.

“That will be all.” Brooke reached into her pocket and handed several bills to the waitress. “That should cover it, thanks.”

“Anytime,” the waitress took the money and sighed as she turned to deliver her next drink, giving Sam a passing glare.

Sam blinked a time or two, then looked first at the drink in front of C.C., then to her lover sitting next to her. “Brooke, I think she was flirting with you.”

“Yeah? I didn’t notice.” Brooke played with the box in her pocket, her mind obviously elsewhere than on the waitress.

Sam studied the older woman for a second, then looked over to her roommate. “What’s up?” She motioned toward Brooke with her head.

“I think she’s got something on her mind. You know…like what to get or do for people for Christmas. She likes to leave a lasting impression on everyone, but I told her that cold, hard cash was a favorite of mine.” C.C. grinned. “So what are you two up to tonight, as if I don’t already know.”

“I was…” Sam looked over to Brooke as she placed her hand on the woman’s knee. “I was hoping to get a chance to stop by the mall before we had dinner.”

“Well, Brooke will just love doing a little shopping…” C.C. leveled her gaze toward her sister’s questioning face. “…won’t you, Sis?” The brunette kicked her sister’s boot again, startling her from her thoughts.

“Sure, anything Sam wants to do…that’s fine by me.” Brooke watched as C.C. busted out laughing. “What?” The woman’s face shot an eyebrow high on to her forehead. “I promised her…ah…I promised…” Brooke realized that she had no idea of what the topic of conversation was.

The young blonde leaned in and gave Brooke a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Promised me what, Brooke?” Sam winked at her lover, “Only to let me go to one store or partake in a certain dessert?”

“Mmm…well, they both sound pretty good to me.” Brooke’s cheeks tinged slightly with blush as her interpretation of dessert came into her mind.

“Hmm…” Sam smiled as she gave her eyebrows a little wiggle, then leaned in and kissed her lover on the lips. “Let’s make that a quick dinner, too.”

The small, secluded booth at the restaurant offered them refuge from the shoppers that were scurrying up and down the crowded walkways of the mall. The merchants’ prime season of revenue was here, with the colors of red and green boldly announcing it.

Sam tapped the box of newly purchased Christmas cards and looked across the table to Brooke. “Thanks for letting me get those cards, Hon.” The blonde picked up her knife and started to cut another piece of meat on her plate.

“You’re welcome, Darlin’,” Brooke winked. “Anywhere else you need to go?”

The blonde knew that shopping in crowds was not a favorite pastime of her lover and started to apologize. “I’m sorry that we had to stand in line so long. Who would have thought that people would be shopping for gifts this early?” Sam played with the food on her plate, then reached out to touch Brooke’s hand. “Nope, mall wise, that’s it for me today. I figure that we could do our shopping for presents closer to Christmas. You know, get into the spirit and all, the week before.”

The older woman looked up from her plate, blue eyes flashing in disbelief of what she’d thought she’d heard. “You wanna go shopping for Christmas a week before?” Brooke’s mind raced with scenarios of huge crowds, full parking lots and fistfights over the last ‘favorite’ toy of the year. Suddenly, she knew why they used green and red to announce the season. Green’s definitely for the cash flow and red…well, that’s for all the blood-letting when it comes down to the mad dashes and sale-frenzied shoppers out for that last gift.

Seeing the trepidation in her lover’s face, Sam teased her gently, “Come on, Brooke…or should I say, Scrooge?” The blonde’s eyes twinkled amidst the low lighting of the restaurant in a most mischievous way. “You don’t look like the bah-humbug type, to me. I thought that we could go together and maybe get a little Christmas tree and even bake some cookies later that day.”

Brooke smiled weakly at the woman across from her. “Yes, Darlin’, we can go that week if you’d like.” She dug into her food, then paused, looking back up to Sam. “A tree for the house?”

“Well, yeah…where else would you put one?”

The dark-haired woman grinned. “Our first Christmas together.”

The tussle of blonde hair nodded as Sam shyly grinned back. “Yeah,” she spoke softly, “it will be.”

“And just think of how great next year will be, too.” Brooke reached out to hold Sam’s hand. “Our first Christmas in our house.”

“Well, that’s if I’m here.” Sam’s voice trailed off, as she thought about the uncertainty of her upcoming internship and the job potential after it. She tried to push that thought from her mind and concentrate on the words her lover spoke, letting them reverberate through her head. Soon a warm smiled graced her face.

“Baby…” Brooke watched Sam’s facial expressions as they changed, “I thought you told me that would only be for one semester. Why wouldn’t you be here?”

Green eyes looked away, then came to rest on Brooke’s face. “Ah…do I have to remind you that we can’t even wait for the weekends now, and you’re saying it’s only one semester?” Sam tilted her head to the side and gazed wide-eyed at her lover. “Remember where you’re sleeping tonight, Brooke, in a single bed, at a college dorm.” The blonde giggled knowing that it was her choice just as much as it was Brooke’s.

The dark-haired woman cleared her throat and gave a little chuckle at the same time. “What I meant was that you said the semester is over in May. Now, why wouldn’t you be here next year at Christmas?”

“Ah…oh…next Christmas…I guess…” Sam sighed, trying to put her world back into perspective. “I guess I’m kind of living from day to day with you right now.”

“Why?”

“I haven’t really thought that far ahead.” Sam looked sheepishly at her plate.

“You haven’t?”

“It’s all that I have to just get through to the next time I see you, hear your voice, or even to be with you. It’s killing me now.” The last sentence came out in a whisper as Sam finally admitted her feelings.

Sensing the need of her lover, Brooke laid her utensils down on the table, then got up and slid into the booth next to Sam. “Baby…” Brooke’s long arm encircled the young woman’s shoulders as she watched Sam look down at her hands in her lap. “I think about everything with you in mind. I can’t imagine you not being in my life.”

The blonde’s head rose, then turned to gaze into Brooke’s eyes.

“I don’t want you to live day to day with me. I want you to live every day with me.”

“I…” Sam slowly started her thought, “I can’t imagine being without you either, Brooke, any day.”

The older woman smiled at what she knew was deep in Sam’s heart. “Look at it this way, by next Christmas we’ll be living together in our house.” Sam opened her mouth to speak but Brooke’s quick reflexes stopped her with a single finger placed delicately on the blonde’s lips. “No matter where you are, I’ll follow you. If you get sent to Alaska, I’ll be there, right beside you.” Brooke’s eyes twinkled at the thought. “Me, you and Mario.”

Amazed at the love she could see pouring out of the woman that held her, Sam let the corners of her mouth turn upward. “You really do think of it like that, our house…our lives.”

Brooke let her hand slide down from the table and come to rest on Sam’s stomach, splaying out her fingers to encompass the area. “And Chastity Loran too, if Julie has her way.” Her eye contact did not waver, as each woman drank her fill of the other’s love. “Yes,” Brooke whispered, as she nodded slightly, “I have no choice but to think of ‘us’ in that term. There is no ‘me’ without you, Sam.”

The blonde’s face lit up the moment that Brooke had laid her hand on Sam’s stomach. The young woman drew a breath in, feeling her head spin at her lover’s touch. She gazed down at it, then let her own hand wrap around Brooke’s larger one, holding it in place. “Thanks, Brooke,” she whispered. “I…I feel the same way.” Sam raised her eyes slowly to look into Brooke’s face. “I guess this is real then, huh?”

The tall woman bit on her lip thinking that there could be no better time than the present. God, I’ve got the ring, I’ve got the girl. Brooke let her eyes dart around the dimly lit booth, falling to her leather jacket on the other side of the table. The moment is perfect. Now all I’ve got to do is get the ring to… Brooke’s thoughts suddenly dissipated with the gentle nudge to her shoulder. “What, Darlin’?”

She tried not to look startled.

Sam repeated herself. “I guess this is real then, huh?”

“Real?” Brooke tried to regain what the conversation was about, but it was gone. “Oh yeah, real.”

The blonde nodded, “The love that I feel, the ‘us’…the ‘our’…the way we look at the future.”

“Yes, ‘our’ love… ‘us’… ‘our’ future…” Brooke’s eyes glanced over to her jacket, then down to her hand still held against Sam’s stomach, “…and one day… ‘our’ family.”

Closing her eyes for a second, Sam smiled, then asked, “What did I ever do to deserve you, Brooke Gordon?”

“Well…” Brooke sighed, “…if you’re stuck with me, I dunno.” She shook her head ominously, “But I’m thinking it must’ve been pretty bad.” The dark-haired woman looked at the blonde and grinned.

“Huh?” Green eyes searched Brooke’s face for an answer. “What do you mean, bad?”