2023 November
What can she possibly gift Lou?
Debbie thought for the hundredth time as she paced around the living room, a cup of tea in her hand.
It was already November. Only two more months before January 1st. To whole world, it is New Year celebrations. For Debbie, it is far more than that. It is Lou's birthday. Her blondie was born on January 1st and every year, Debbie gifted her either expensive perfumes, leather belts, jackets, suits, makeup kits, expensive bike accessories and what not. Lou happily accepted them because it was obviously really good and most importantly it was from Debbie. To be honest she didn't care if it was Armani or rip-off, she just felt immensely happy whenever Debbie gifted her something. But Debbie always felt her gift wasn't enough. Usually on Debbie's birthdays, Lou prepared a feast comprising of everything Debbie loved, baked cakes, made her feel like the Queen. It was so Lou-coded. She was always expressing her extreme affection towards her best friend and mentor. But Debbie was not the expressing type. She cares for Lou, she protects Lou, she is the most affectionate towards Lou, but she doesn't show it the way Lou does. She expresses through hugs and forehead kisses sure, but she never does anything poetically extravagant gestures like preparing feasts, arranging a party or write poems. She trusted in her love and affection and hoped the recipient knew about those feelings. And Lou absolutely knew. It was not in Debbie's nature to prepare something by herself and show how much the other person meant to her. Also, let's be honest, there is no way she can cook. She can't even prepare eggs, let alone grand feast. In her own words, she burns water if she is in the kitchen. She therefore depended on readily available fancy stuffs and of course her forehead kiss that told Lou everything she had to know.
This time though, she wanted to do something. Last birthday Lou had received a handmade card from her niece all the way from Australia and Lou had been boasting about that for whole year. She loved it so much. Her niece was an artist and the card was truly a masterpiece. Daphne was so in love with that card she wanted Lou to gift it to her on her birthday (Lou didn't).
Lou loved handmade anything after all. She loved Rose and Amita's respective artistic crafts, Daphne's charcoal art (which they found out when the team visited her parents who proudly displayed various art pieces on their living room walls much to Daphne's embarrassment), Constance's music production using DAW software (Debbie, Lou, Rose, Amita and Tammy had no idea what that software was or how it worked), Nineball's sweaters (Yes, the hacker knew how to knit. Don't ever talk about it in front of her though, she won't appreciate it and will outright deny about her knowledge of knitting stuffs). And of course, Lou was fond of Tammy's embroidery work and cooking (when she didn't use any of the suspicious dietary ingredients and green slimy craps).
Debbie though... She had nothing of that sorts that would impress Lou. All she did with her hands that remotely looked artistic (allegedly artistic according to Lou) was carving a shiv out of the toothbrush which Lou made fun of every now and then. Debbie never considered herself to be good at anything artistic or domestic. She just mastered cons and strategies. Yes, she is the master strategist, extraordinary genius, extremely logical and of course the born leader who led her pack but she never considered herself artistic.
Lou would definitely negate her statement if she heard Debbie say that. Debbie was really good at recognising great architecture and also had a skill of making a space look beautiful, comfy, classy, modern or minimalist as per requirements. She had good design skills but well, she can't gift the outcome of that skill to Lou. What will she do? Rearrange and organise Lou's bedroom? Or maybe tidy up the living room? It is neither a gift, nor a worthwhile investment because Lou's room was already neat and organised because of Debbie and about living room, let's be honest, the younger lot of their team had the tendency to mess everything up within a minute.
