Page 58 of Full Court Crush

The pair walked down St John’s Street, past a long row of cosy wooden huts. Their proprietors stood outside them, or behind tables, or in their next-door neighbour’s hut, chatting and laughing. Keira pointed out one hut with amazing glass art, each perfectly twinkling and reflecting the surrounding Christmas lights. The next hut sold tiny sculpted metal figurines of people, horses, elephants, cats, and a multitude of other animals.

A large group of people walked towards them, and Amelia instinctively took Keira’s hand to pull them out of the way. Keira looked down at their joined hands and back up at Amelia. Amelia just smiled and ambled on, still enveloping Keira’s hand in hers. The contact grounded her in that moment. Pride rooted in her chest. She’d finally found somewhere she belonged. She didn’t belong at her parents’ house, and she’d lived in the city for years, but she had never really felt like she fit in. But here, in this moment, with this woman, she felt the tendrils of permanence wrapping around them, joining them together.

They kept holding hands all down one side of the stalls and back up the other, taking their time looking in on the intricate crafts, homemade jams, or the wooden children’s toys beautifully crafted by an older married couple.

By the time they returned to Queen Street, Amelia couldn’t resist the tempting aromas of the food stalls.

“Shall we get something to eat?”

“Sure. Doughnuts, maybe?” Keira gave her a wink. Amelia thought back to their Winter Wonderland trip and how something had sparked between them when she wiped doughnut sugar from Keira’s face. Her cheeks heated, wondering if she’d been so obvious, even then.

They joined the queue of people waiting for Christmas dinner style rolls, hand in hand, still talking. Their conversation slowed, and Amelia’s gaze lingered on Keira’s. Her calming presence drowned out the rest of the world without even trying. She squeezed Keira’s hand and tugged her a little towards her. Keira’s gaze, already on her eyes, lowered to her lips as she leant down. Amelia held her breath in anticipation.

“Hey, guys!”

As Lucy bounded up to them, Amelia let go of Keira’s hand as if it was red hot, and leapt backwards. She turned to face Lucy, but not quickly enough to allow the mercy of missing the look of hurt on Keira’s face. Asha walked up to Lucy’s side and looked between Amelia and Keira. Amelia’s cheeks heated.

Lucy carried something sweet and chocolaty. The smear of chocolate on her face made Amelia laugh.

“What?” Lucy asked.

“You’ve got a little something there,” Amelia said, rubbing her own chin to show Lucy.

“Saving it for later!” Lucy said happily as she wiped it off. “What’re you guys getting?”

“Oh, err…” Amelia turned. Keira’s face had become hard as stone and unreadable. “We’re getting some turkey and stuffing rolls, I think.”

“Ooh, we had the veggie version earlier. It was great. Hey, Keira,” Lucy pushed through the line behind them to get to the other side. Standing next to Keira, she said, “I’ve been meaning to ask, do you think you could get Sonia to sign…”

A gentle touch on her arm distracted Amelia from the rest of their conversation. Asha looked up at her with a commiserating smile on her face.

“Hey, did we interrupt…something?” she asked softly, so the other two wouldn’t hear.

“No,” Amelia said quickly. Keira shifted beside her. Amelia couldn’t tell if she was listening.

“Are you sure?” Asha asked, but before she could answer, Lucy was addressing all of them again.

“We were going to check out the wooden perpetual motion machines they’ve set up in one of the arcades. Do you guys want to come?”

“Lucy, no. We should leave them to it — ” Asha began gallantly.

“Sure, sounds fun,” Amelia found herself saying, immediately sensing the chill from Keira’s gaze on her back. Asha gave Amelia a pointed look before putting her ear defenders back on.

“C’mon, you,” Asha said, pulling Lucy away.

“Meet you guys there!” Lucy shouted while Asha dragged half backwards down the street.

Despite the surrounding bustle, an awkward silence descended. Amelia opened her mouth to speak and closed it again, unable to find the words. Keira, however, did not have that problem.

“I didn’t know you were ashamed to be seen with me,” Keira said, the hurt obvious in her voice.

“I’m not!” Amelia protested, but Keira gave her a look.

“I’m not, I just — I can’t — this is new and —”

“But you told Asha this wasn’t a date.”

Amelia reached out for Keira’s hand, but Keira took a step back and folded her arms.