Willa Eleanor Krishna never thought she would fall in love with a woman.
She always thought that her attraction to women was solely physical, sexual, and a phase. She thought that she would settle down with a man, enjoy the married life with a husband.
"Babe, don't you miss LA?" Tania questioned as she popped her head into the kitchen through the large opening which connected to the living room. She propped herself up the bar stool easily, with her 6 feet frame.
El still thought that she would eventually fall in love with a man - a man who was Tan's best friend, in fact - but that was all before she fell in love with her. Though that was another story for another time.
"Always," she replied. Tan always called her El, as opposed to Will, what everyone else called her. El thought that it was endearing and so, reserved that name for only her from then on. El handed her a glass of wine and she took it gratefully.
"Great," she grinned wickedly, "because I have ordered tickets for us to go back to LA. Consider it as your birthday present."
El was speechless, in confusion, in shook, and the slightest ecstasy was bubbling up. They were saving up for plane tickets since September. "How? We're only half way through our savings plan, and we've been doing that for the past two months," she finally mustered as Tan took a sip of cheap wine. "My birthday isn't for another two, three months, FYI."
Tan shrugged with her hands up, threatening to spill the wine in her hand, smirking with her eyes shuttered close.
"Tan."
"Yes?" Her brown eyes fluttered open, iris dilated then grew smaller as they adjusted to the light again.
"How?"
Tan looked down sheepishly, "I sold my car."
El gaped again, choked on her wine, then yelled, "Tania motherfucking Safi!" She wasn't in shock so much of buying tickets so suddenly, but more because of the commitment of selling her car.
"Really? Last time I checked you weren't a mother yet..." she muttered quietly. When she received a hard look from the girl in the kitchen, she exclaimed, "I had to sell my car anyways!"
"No, you didn't! Why did you have to do that? We weren't even that desperate to go back to LA!" El was very much enjoying their time in Australia, thank you very much. It has been only half a year since their last visit to LA (their first visit in a year, however). Australia was as much their home as LA. Besides, Tan loved that fucking car: would hardly allow people to drive it, except El. Never Nick though; he has always been a reckless driver which was why even his parents wouldn't lend him money to buy himself a car yet, though he somehow earned his driving licence years ago.
"Willa, c'mon. Don't be mad. I thought you would be happy," she cocked her head after sourness filled her mouth (the taste mainly from the wine).
"I was. Until you told me that you bought these tickets by yourself, and sold your car to do it. I know how much you prized that car. I feel terrible."
"I can't take the car to LA." El was confused, and have calmed down slightly now. They have left the car in the garage last time they've been to LA, and it has been just fine. She didn't understand why this time was any different. Tan replied after El voiced her thoughts, "I'm gonna give it to you straight, babe. It's a one-way ticket."
"Huh?"
And so Tan explained. Of course Tan didn't do anything solid yet, her car wasn't sold and the plane tickets weren't bought. But she did talk to the lady who sold the tickets and got a fair price. Cheap enough to reserve the tickets for a hundred dollars. And she did talk to Nick about selling her car, and worked out a reasonable price with him, even though it pained her to think of the shit that Nick may (or will) do to her car. She would never do anything like this without talking to El first.
Tan reckoned that this was a good time to settle down in somewhere permanent, more lively, and more fitting for the two of them. These thoughts had definitely been pending in El's mind as well, though she never properly addressed them or talked to Tan about it because she knew she loved Australia. Neither of them wanted to waste money on plane tickets switching back and forth, and she thought that maybe LA would finally root them. Australia was the place, but people change and so do their feelings; it just wasn't for them anymore, especially with all the racist and homophobic shit that went on earlier. It still was beautiful, but perhaps LA would be somewhere that could maybe still feel like Australia, with the heat and everything, but also where they both could feel at peace. After all, LA was the place where El had grownup and where they have met.
Australia would always be at the back of their minds, though more so Tan's than El's. Tan's parents, bothers, best friends... were all in Australia. The best memories have been made there and she had grown up there. El didn't want Tan to give up Australia for her, but she knew that Tan wouldn't make this decision without thinking it through first. But she also knew that Tan was too kind for her own good; she once skipped half of a friend's wedding to cover some asshole's shift at work. He was fired a little after though, on a completely unrelated note.
"And with the same-sex marriage legalized there, maybe we could get married one day, who knows?" Marriage was always a touchy topic. It has been easier on the topic in Australia though, because they could never legally get married there, and so never spoken about it much.
"I thought you said you're never getting married," El eyed her suspiciously, then turned off the stove (dinner could wait) to continue the conversation without concern of burning their house - or, more like Tan's house - down. El never had a proper place to live in Australia, because since the very first day she came to Australia, she had lived with Tan. Though, at first, they were only work friends.
"That's not the point, babe. " Tan didn't deny it. "Point is, I want us, if you want to, of course, to pack up our lives here at Australia and start fresh in LA. I think that it would be good for both of us."
"I don't want you to regret this."
"I wouldn't do this if I wasn't sure."
"What are you going to do with this house?"
"Rent it out. I'm not ready to let this go, just yet," Tan shrugged and downed the entire glass in one go. "So, what do ya say?"
"I'm saying yes," El decided, just like that. She was an over-thinker sometimes, but most times, she just preferred to go with her gut feeling. Then quickly pointed to Tan with one finger, "For now." El changed her mind often.
Tan smiled gently, and nodded many, many times, as if making sense of her response. Then grinned, "Now, c'mon, we'll talk about this later. Can we eat?"
