How She Came Home

Chapter Forty-Six

The first month passed by shockingly fast, Becca's injuries fading to nothing - except for the cast she still had to wear - and Thanksgiving coming and going with a quiet dinner at Mind and Nam's with a few of their friends. 

Becca invited Irin and Ruby, and Abi and Kyle brought Freen's favourite chocolate pecan pie which invited a pang of longing as she wished her fiancée was there with her to enjoy the dinner and company.

The fact that they were a quarter of the way through Freen's deployment was a cause for quiet celebration, or at the very least a small consolation for not being able to see her every day. 

It never got easier for Becca to adjust to not kissing her good morning or good night, to not hold hands as they walked down the street or hear her singing drift through their house. 

Perhaps it should've felt weird that she'd grown so accustomed to Freen taking up so much space in her life, where previously there had been a giant hole of nothing and no one, but it never felt that way; it only ever felt wrong to her. 

Becca had been good at being alone, but now it was completely intolerable, and she often found herself eyeing Mind and Nam and their easy comfort and availability to each other with envy.

Looking forward, the three months stretching out before her felt like an eternity, and it was only in hindsight that she was able to find comfort in how fast time actually passed.

Before she knew it, it was A-Corp's annual Christmas party, weeks of Alice's frantic planning coming to fruition with the employees of the National City office and all the local subsidiaries, benefactors and investors finally gathering in the open gallery of the National City Museum.

She'd had her hair and makeup professionally done and had been driven to the venue early, wearing a deep green wrap dress beneath her camel overcoat, lips a neutral shade and hair elegantly waved. Security waved her in and she found Alice talking into her earpiece as she directed waitstaff and ticked things off her clipboard.

"I do hope you're planning on clocking off tonight," Becca laughed as she approached her, slipping her phone into her purse and snapping it closed. "You're also an employee, in case you've forgotten."

"Miss Armstrong," Alice greeted her. "You look nice."

Smiling slightly as she tried to lower the cuff of her sleeve further over the offending cast, Becca murmured her thanks. Jerking her head towards the almost empty room, ancient artefacts behind cordoned off ropes and the blue twilight seeping in through the skylight giving the place an old feeling, Becca wrinkled her nose.

"Come and get a drink."

"I--"

"They'll figure out the rest of it."

She swept through to the next room, giving everything an appraising look before she made for the bar. Ordering two vodka cranberries, she handed one off to Alice and took a sip of her own, watching as a few early-comers trickled in. 

Irin was one of them and Mind and Nam arrived shortly afterwards, a little in awe at the grandeur of hosting a Christmas party inside a museum a sort of novelty for them.

"I'm glad you guys came," Becca said with a small smile, eyes flitting around the room as more people started to arrive. "Now, it'll be tolerable."

Mind nudged her, "it's a party , you should have fun. It's kind of a requirement for these sorts of things, you know."

Irin came up behind them after fetching herself a glass of wine and clapped a hand down on Becca's shoulder as she sighed morosely.