Some Thing's Never Change

Chapter 2

Christmas day is almost over, throughout the years the magic of the day had come back and your nephew and niece had gotten to the ages where it was exciting. Santa was real and needed milk left out for him on Christmas Eve (Rudolf needed his carrot too of course), the snow was an amazing canvas for angels and the tree was decorated by the entire family once again.

In previous years you had looked forward to this month, this time with your family, but this year...

After bumping, quite literally, into Gail the week before, your entire days had been filled with thoughts of her. It had gotten so bad that if anyone was to hear your thoughts they would be under the impression that you needed help, it was verging on the territory of stalker-ish.

Tonight was no different, presents had been opened, food had been eaten and alcohol was flowing. The children, Archie and Lily, had finally calmed and were in bed (how they had managed to eat that much sugar you would never know) and you, your Mom, Dad, Rose and her husband Cooper were all sitting around the table playing board games.

You had lost track of who owned what property and you're pretty sure you went bankrupt hours ago, but your mind was somewhere else. Your mind was hooked on a set of blue eyes and a smirk that made your heart leap out of your chest and splatter onto the Monopoly board in front of you.

No more egg nog for you.

"Hol, it's your turn."

You look up and smile at your Mom who returns the sentiment but the smile seems sad, was it a reflection of your own? You hoped not, you hoped your parents knew how happy today made you, that if there was a hint of sadness about you it wasn't because of them.

No, the sadness came from what you dreamt about and what you thought your life would be like now, that instead of being 41, in your parent's home you would be in your own. They would all be there, of course, but Gail would be with you and she would be putting your children to bed with their cousins, if you closed your eyes you could hear their laughter as Gail chased them around their rooms.

You can feel the tears prickle at your eyes and you make your excuses to leave the game and table, saying your goodnights and hugging your Mom and Dad.

You were starting to fall asleep, and you were so comfy (maybe the egg nog was a good idea after all). Your phone buzzes on the nightstand and you shoot upright, until you're sitting, your right hand holding your heart.

You lean over to your right, grabbing blindly for your phone and finally feeling the device.

Unlocking the screen with your passcode, you squint and see that it's a text, clicking on the notification, you can just make out the words

Merry Christmas Lunchbox.

You smile to yourself, your finger moving to trace the words.

You hadn't expected to hear from her, well the first few days after seeing her maybe but not today, not on Christmas.

Hitting reply, you debate with yourself what to type, whether to keep it simple or to tell her that your heart still belongs to her, that you have never stopped loving her even though you had tried.

You go with the safe option, nothing could happen between the two of you, you were still going back to San Francisco and she was still going to be living here.

Merry Christmas Gail :)

Locking your phone again and placing it back on the nightstand, you lay back down and turn over, falling into a blissful night's sleep with a smile on your face.

That was the last you heard from her on that trip.

Another half a year comes and goes. You hadn't made it back to Toronto again, life had kind of gotten in the way and your parents had visited you several times, so it wasn't like there was any reason for you to go back to the city.

Now you're sitting in a plane, on the runway, waiting for your flight to leave for Canada.

You hadn't planned to move back to Canada but when the job as Head Forensic Pathologist had pinged in your email inbox, your curiosity had got to you. It was the next step, you had thought, and your job in San Francisco was kind of up in the air.

With the pandemic and budget cuts, you were the last of the 'newbies' (even though you had been there for nine years nearly, the turnaround in staff was very low) and you know what they always say, last one in, first one out.

You had liked your job there but it was time, maybe you had been manifesting for something to come up or maybe you wanted an excuse to go back to Toronto.

Truth be told, you hadn't stopped thinking about Gail since you had left the day after New Year, it was now June.

As the plane touches down at YYZ, you rush to get off, collect your bags from the conveyor belt, and head straight to meet your sister at arrivals.

The journey to the city is no more than 45 minutes and Rose talks about the children and how excited they were for a sleepover at Aunt Holly's new place, Rose admits she's also happy for you to be back.

As Rose pulls into the drive of your new townhouse, not too dissimilar to the one you sold all those years ago, you feel the breath release, the one you hadn't realized you were holding.

You wanted to cry, happy tears of course.

Home.

"So I was thinking me and you could just have a girl's night tonight, then tomorrow Mom and Dad were on about coming over and helping you organize your things, then we can order takeout with the kids and Cooper in the evening. How does that sound?" Rose asks you.

You look up at the house in front of you and smile.

"Sounds perfect."

And it had been, the weekend had flown by, and come Sunday night, as you settle down in bed, it feels like everything is starting to look up again.

The last thought you have as you start to fall into sleep is of the set of blue eyes and smirk that you missed so much.

The next morning, you hear her before you see her.

"Hey Lunchbox, you aren't allowed down here."

You push your glasses back up the bridge of your nose, towards your eyes, with the back of your gloved hand, and turn to the person who had said the words.

"Thanks..."

She's in plain clothes, not a uniform in sight, dark blue jeans hugged her legs perfectly, a classic black t-shirt and her signature black leather jacket hung open showing off her shiny Detective badge that was placed on her hip.

"...Detective, appreciate it."

She smirks at you, full-on smirks as if she's won.

"Some things never change ay." She says to you and you can't help but give her that lopsided smile.