Our Love (Advent Calendar 2015)

The 6th of December

"Was that all?" Kristen asks, her legs bouncing and her hands clutching the still warm paper cup.

"Yes. You in a hurry?" Ruth questions, frowning at how Kristen's feet are already touching the ground, ready to get off the high bar stool any second.

"Kinda. I just have to get home and cook something. I'm meeting up with someone," Kristen explains, not bothering to elaborate.

"Oh? Since you leave out any names, I assume it's not Suzie or CJ we're talking about here," Ruth says with a slight smirk and a raised eyebrow. Kristen raises an eyebrow at her in return and starts chuckling, looking away from her agent's curious stare. "Shut up, Sherlock," Kristen mutters, still giggling. Ruth can't help but laugh along.

"Oh my God," Ruth suddenly says, like she's just had an epiphany. "Is it who I think it is?"

"Nah, it's not Jenny Lewis. Too bad, right?" Kristen jokes. Ruth sends her a dirty look.

"Why are you meeting up with Rob?" She asks her, turning a little more serious.

Kristen takes a deep breath. "Well, we've kinda started seeing each other again, I guess." When she sees Ruth's wide and shining eyes Kristen realises the double meaning to her words. "Not like that! As friends. He called yesterday and asked if I wanted to have dinner with him, and uh, I said yes. It's been a long time since we've hung out and I kinda miss h-, uh, it."

"Sounds like the Robsten bubble is back on, baby. Want me to get the mistletoe?" Ruth asks teasingly.

Kristen blushes, pictures of her and Rob kissing suddenly rushing through her mind. Pictures she has forced herself not to think about for a very long time. "Er, no thanks," Kristen answers, trying to shake the images – or at least the thoughts that are welcoming them – out of her mind.

"Have fun," Ruth tells her, stroking the back of her hand in an almost maternal way as she looks at her sympathetically.

"Thanks," Kristen says, lifting her head to smile at her agent. She then grabs her bag, her leather jacket and her red to-go cup and walks out of the coffee house.

The first thing Kristen does when she gets home is to walk into the kitchen, find the recipes she'll need and start cooking. She puts some Christmas music on and is reminded of the times where she'd bake gingerbread and Rob would serenade her with All I Want for Christmas is You. For the first time in the seven months they haven't been together, memories of their time together bring a smile to her lips instead of a tear to her eye.

When it's 4:45, Kristen packs up everything and drives to Rob's place.

She's greeted by a long, warm hug as she walks into the house. When they pull away, she gets down on her knees and greets the two very excited dogs. Rob offers to take all her things and he carries them into the kitchen as she calls out, "Cole's in the car. She missed her play mates. I hope you don't mind." Rob can't help it, he smiles. 'It's like the entire family is gathered,' he thinks, and frowns at the same thought afterwards. That's the first time in a long time he has thought of Kristen as his family.

"Okay, don't hate me," Kristen says, announcing her arrival as she enters the kitchen.

"I could never," Rob says, feeling bold. Kristen sends him a light smile.

"You said you didn't care what I cooked, so I took the opportunity and experimented with something new," she explains.

"Oh no," Rob says teasingly, though he doesn't mind Kristen's experiments in the kitchen at all.

"I made something called ricengrod [risengrød]. That's not how you pronounce it, but that doesn't matter. They eat it in Sweden and Denmark in December. It's like a rice pudding and then you eat it with cinnamon, sugar and butter. I know it probably sounds really fucking weird, but Tom and Sienna had it when they were in Denmark last Christmas and Marlowe loved it so much that she had Sienna make it when they got home. I'd completely forgotten about it until I saw it on Pinterest a couple of days ago."

"Sounds interesting," Rob says, unable to hide his smile. He's always adored Kristen's great passions, not just for acting but also for cooking. The only thing better than hearing her talk about food and cooking, is eating her food.

"See, you're saying 'interesting', but I know you mean 'disgusting'," Kristen says, resting one hand on her hip. Fuck, she's cute.

"Well, I can't know if I don't try it out, can I?" Rob says, already going to open the cupboards. "Bowls?" He asks, in doubt of how you eat the Danish rice pudding thing. "Yes, and spoons."

"Uh, what do you drink with it?" Rob asks, as he walks into the dining room to set the table. Kristen is right behind him, carrying a huge bowl.

"Well, in the recipe they recommended something called 'safetewand' [saftevand], but from the description it kinda sounded like Snapple, so I bought two."

Rob smirks, reminded of all the times Kristen asked him to buy some Snapples for her.

"I choose to believe you on this one. I haven't read the recipe; you could just use it as an excuse to drink Snapple."

"I would never do that," Kristen states, pulling out a third, half-empty Snapple and taking a swig of it. She sends Rob a smile and he chuckles.

They talk about anything and everything as they eat. First it's about the food; it has a weird consistency but other than that they both find it delicious. They laugh and make jokes as they both don't know how much cinnamon, sugar and butter you're supposed to use. They talk about upcoming projects, family, their everyday lives. It's just like how it used to be – two friends having a fun and nice time together. Except they used to be so much more than friends. But none of them will let themselves dwell on that tonight. Tonight they're reunited best friends, not reacquainting ex-partners.

"You wanna watch a movie?" Rob asks Kristen when they're done with the dishes. He's hopeful; he doesn't want her to leave just yet.

"Sure," Kristen says, smiling warmly at him.

"'Home Alone?" He suggests, trying to recover from Kristen's smile.

Kristen nods. "I brought some cookies. Some new cookies. They're also Danish and I won't even think about considering trying to pronounce their names, 'cause I can't. There are so many sounds in that language that shouldn't be there."

Rob starts laughing and tells her that he'll go find the movie. She says that she'll arrange the cookies and asks him if he wants hot chocolate.

Ten minutes later, Kristen walks into the living room carrying a tray with two cups of hot chocolate with candy canes, mini marshmallows and whipped cream, and a plate with four different kinds of Danish Christmas cookies.

Rob has turned off the lights in the living room and lit some candles. There are extra pillows and a blanket on the couch. Kristen puts the tray down on the table and curls into a ball on the couch. Rob joins her on the couch. He notes her trembling form and asks, "you freezing?" Kristen nods, her teeth almost chattering. She's wearing a thin t-shirt and a pair of boyfriend jeans with huge holes in them. She's not even wearing socks. It might be California, but it's still bloody December! Rob reaches behind her, grabs the blanket next to her and wraps it around her. "Thanks," Kristen says, smiling wearily at him. "You're welcome," he tells her in return, rubbing her back lightly.

He hands Kristen one of the cups and points the remote at the TV, starting the movie.

As they get further and further into the movie, they move closer and closer to each other, first starting with a good distance of fifteen centimetres between them and ending up with their sides touching. When the hot chocolate is drunk, the cookies are eaten and the movie is nearing its end, Rob's arm is around Kristen while she has her head against his chest, sound asleep. He knows he should probably wake her up so she can get home and sleep, but as he looks at her, eyes closed, chest rising up and down as she sleeps peacefully, he can't get himself to wake her. So instead he pulls her closer and places a kiss on the top of her head.