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↳ "KARL, we're going to be late, come on!" Cameron called as she put her coat on, afterwards grabbing her purse. Her nerves were making her shaky, nearly losing her grip on the strap before it was thrown over her shoulder. A hand came into her own shaky one with a reassuring squeeze.
"I swear they are chill, you don't have to worry," He promised her while giving her a soft smile. She returned a smile and looked down to find his shoes still not on.
"I can't be late, it will look bad on my part. Please get your shoes on," She pleaded to which he quickly obeyed and led her out the door after grabbing his keys.
"They really don't care, they're always late to things," Karl reassured her once again, opening Cameron's door for her. She gave him a kiss to the cheek as a thank you and got in, shutting it herself. Once they were settled and seatbelts were on, she went back to nervous rambling. This time Karl rested his hand innocently on her thigh as a way for her to know he was listening.
"I really hope I'm presentable enough, I tried not to put too much makeup on but at the same time I didn't sleep well so I needed something. Do I look too much like a grandma? I didn't want to wear a low sweater and look slutty, I don't know..oh and what if they don't like the cranberry pie? Do they even like sweets at all? We probably should have just made something else, oh god.."
"Babe, please stop worrying. You look great and your baking is amazing. They will absolutely love you! I already told them about you and they seem very interested. I know it all seems like a lot right now, but we aren't even there yet. Save the panicking so you don't overwhelm yourself," Karl was calm, cool, and collected. He hoped he was handling this properly. He wasn't trying to tell her to stop having anxiety, but maybe not thinking about it would help. It worked for him at least.
It did in fact work, Cameron took a couple deep breaths and thought about other things. She reached for the radio and found a station playing Christmas music. The two sat in bliss for a while, their hands managing to tangle together at some point and Cameron's nerves significantly lessened. For now.
Until the snow got so bad to the point where they nearly slipped off the road. So being responsible, Karl pulled over to prevent an accident. They both looked uncertain, the service was kinda in and out so they really couldn't call anyone nor did they want to put someone else in the same position.
"Well...this is..interesting," Karl mumbled sarcastically as he put the car in park,"I guess we'll have to wait out the storm, I don't know how long it'll be though."
"This sucks," Cameron sighed, stress slowly rising back up,"What do we do? We're stuck in a car with nothing to do."
"My parents are going to be so worried, geez this is bad."
"It's fine, we'll just tell them later it should be okay, right?" Cameron was starting to panic again, Karl just wanted things calm so he gave her a quick kiss to reassure her again.
"We're totally fine, the car is still warm and we've got each other. The storm will pass soon and we can just go home. We'll have to stay occupied before you break down," He ran his thumb over her knuckles with a small sigh.
"Yeah...that's sounds nice."
"Hey, you know what would cheer you up? When I was little, probably like three, I tried to climb our tree. I ended up tearing the tree down and breaking a bunch of my grandma's antique ornaments," Karl's story lightened the mood for sure as they both laughed.
"Why would you climb the tree?" Cameron managed to ask through her laughing fit, shaking her head at his small story. It did keep her mind busy though so she wasn't complaining.
"The cat used to try, never succeeded but I apparently followed him around everywhere and tried to act like him," Karl smiled brightly as if he was proud of his old antics, though in his mind he was happy just to see the anxiousness slowly fade from his girlfriend's eyes.
"I could see that. I think I have a story too," She started, thinking about it,"When I was about eight I asked for this huge doll, it was the height of me or something like that, and my parents ended up getting it for me. Being a curious kid, I went looking for the presents they got me because every year one of the presents would always have mom and dad on it. Anyways, when I went looking for that present, I ended up finding quite a few in our attic. I pulled back a sheet and all of a sudden I have this giant ass doll staring into my soul. I never touched the attic again," Karl was cackling as he nearly doubled over in his seat. She smiled at her own, sad story. It wasn't as comedy gold as imagining a baby Karl climbing a tree, but still funny in a sense.
"That's horrible, I'm so sorry," He laughed, catching his breath afterwards,"At least you know what not to get children from now on."
"Yeah, that's a good way to look at it," The sound of the radio overtook the car again, their voices dimming.
"Do you want to just eat the pie?" Karl asked, a shy smile on his face. He really wanted to eat it after having to look at it and resist eating it whole all day.
"I guess it wouldn't be horrible to," Cameron nodded at his plan, luckily they kept plastic utensils in the center console. They got to work on the pie, small talk blooming amongst them.
"Oh, do you want your present too? I know you wanted to do it when we left your parents, but we're stuck here now.."
"I'm not opposed," Karl smiled cheekily as he replied, no one wanted to deny after being offered a gift, I mean come on.
"Okay, but you can't judge me on this without letting me explain first," She unbuckled and reached back into the back seat, moving her arm around until her fingers hit an object that had two boxes piled on top of one another. She handed the tower to him. The wrapping paper had puppies in santa hats on it, neatly folded around the edges with a gold bow on top of the second box. His eyes glowed as he opened the first, the excitement uncontainable. A box with the simple word Bond Touch on it and a picture that displayed two bracelets.
"Wait, I know what this is. That's really cute, you really would want me to send you a million taps a day?" Karl glanced over at Cameron and she nodded excitedly.
"Of course I would, I miss you when we can't see each other because of work. It would be nice to at least feel like we're together..this is temporary until we move in together," Cameron insisted he open the second box which he did to find a navy colored band to switch out the black one with,"I felt like that suited you more than black."
"You're so adorable," Was the only thing he could say before he leaned in for a thank you kiss,"It means a lot. Do you want yours?"
"That's up to you, I won't force y—oh," She was handed a box also, smaller but nonetheless it felt just as meaningful. She was nervous as she opened it, god knew what was in it. A key was displayed in front of her,"Is this..?"
"The key to my apartment? Yes. I know it's stupid, especially since you just gave me this, but I wanted to make sure you knew I was serious about us. I know we've only been together for a little over a year, but I'm ready to open up everything to you," Cameron turned to putty, that was so much more meaningful to some bracelet. She took the key and enclosed it in her hand, the brass cold against her warm palm.
"That's..oh gosh, you're gonna make me cry," She laughed softly as she looked at the grooves,"I love you, thank you so much. I'm so serious about you too."
Karl took the liberty of leaning over the center console to hug her, his heart gushing at her proclamation. They both only grew into smiling messes, a big step being taken. In the right direction of course.
It didn't matter if they were stuck on Christmas on some random road without any contact to the outside world, they had each other. Somehow that made up all the missed time with Karl's family and nerves that made this mess begin. Happiness and a new found confidence had taken over.
