Page 62 of Make You Mine This Christmas

Haf sends back a grumpy-face emoji, but worried they will revert back to emoji-only communication, follows it up with a bit more.

Haf:We are making a gingerbread house for the fête

Ambrose:who let you bake? do they not know about the butterfly cakes??

Haf:Tried to warn them

Ambrose:i hope they didn’t leave you unsupervised

Haf sighs and braces herself. Luna nudges her muzzle against Haf’s calf, which she takes as emotional support, but could honestly be just a sneaky request for a treat now that all the Calloways are out of the room.

Haf:Kit’s helping me

Ambrose sends back a string of letters that starts outskskskskksksksand keeps going for several lines.

Ambrose:you are fucked, my friend xoxo

Haf:Sod off >:(

Haf:We are just friends!!!!!

The timer goes off sooner than she expects – apparently gingerbread needs very little cooking time at all.

She slides the trays out and sets them on a cork trivet.

The gingerbread has grown . . . a lot.

The moderately straight edges that Kit had crafted are now art déco curves, and there’s a huge air bubble in a bit that she’s pretty sure was supposed to be one of the walls. Hopefully, they can fix it once everything has cooled down.

It smells good, at least. Apparently, Christopher really knows how to make a gingerbread dough.

Her phone buzzes on the counter again, and she returns to their conversation to find Ambrose penning an essay.

Ambrose:baking together is probably inherently romantic

Ambrose:i bet you’re making big, gooey eyes across the flour while listening to inappropriate pop songs about unrequited lesbian love

Ambrose:are we just friends or lovers, what is flirting, idk i’m just too gay, oooh oooh ohh

Ambrose:(these are the lyrics, i’ll sing it you when you’re home)

Ambrose:actually maybe you should keep going, this is very entertaining to me

Haf:It’s Dolly Parton, actually!!!!

Ambrose:Oh no

Ambrose:Dolly is too powerful

Ambrose:Dolly is what human connections are formed around

Ambrose:were you dancing?

Haf:A bit

Haf:She dances like one of those whacky waving inflatable tube men

Haf:It was kind of cute