Georgia Peach

Chapter 4

  The walk was uneventful, Cady had tried her best to walk Rose but he had proved to strong and stubborn for her, nearly pulling his leash out of her hands on multiple occasions. If Janis and her dad hadn't been with her, they likely would be walking around for hours looking for the setter. As she stepped back into the house, Janis was greeted with a warmth and the smell of gingerbread filling her senses. Well, her grandmother must be awake. There was a clatter from the kitchen and Janis heard the soft footsteps she associated with her grandmother come around the corner.

"Janis! Love, how've you been! It's been so long since you've come down with Brandon!" Her grandmother grabbed her face and kissed her on the forehead before hugging her, she smelled almost overwhelmingly of gingerbread.

"Hey, Mawmaw...yeah, I've just been so busy with work and college, you know?" Her laugh was awkward and her hug was stiff, "This is Cady, by the way."

Janis reached an arm out to pull Cady closer, she hesitated before continuing, "She's my girlfriend."

"Oh. Hello, I'm Linda," Janis pretended to not notice the clear disappointment in her grandmother's face, "Janis, I just finished baking some gingerbread, you know where the icing and candies are if you want to decorate them."

Cady looked like she wanted to say something but her grandmother whisked away, out the door they came in from. Perhaps they should be grateful the old woman acknowledged Cady at all.

"Sorry, I don't really know what that was," Janis led her faux-girlfriend into the kitchen. Cady took a seat at the island while Janis dug through a few cabinets to pull out the decorations. Cady seemed content to ignore the awkward encounter at the door and simply watch Janis begin decorating the gingerbread people.

She paused halfway through to take a break, pouring herself some sweet tea she found in the fridge and making some oolong tea for Cady. When she returned from their room with the box of tea, Cady was studying the finished cookies on the counter.

"Are they all different artists and people you know?" Cady said without looking up.

Janis nodded as she began making the tea, "Yeah. Frida Kahlo, Marsha P. Johnson, Diana Prince, yunno...all the iconic women."

"Wonder Woman?"

"Hell yeah, Wonder Woman! Diana Prince was baby's first big lesbian crush!" She jabbed Cady in the side, Cady jumped, almost knocking into the tray of cookies, "No! Don't you dare, Jan!"

Janis eyed her suspiciously, weighing the risks, "Okay, fine. White flag, I surrender. But only because I haven't finished the cookies and I don't want you breaking them somehow."

"Ha ha, funny. What are you planning on doing for the rest of them?"

Janis handed Cady her tea, it was in a mug shaped like a cartoony polar bear in a scarf, "Usually I make the rest look like my family. Me, dad, Uncle Craig, Mawmaw, Pawpaw, Huggie, my Aunt Leslie, Phillip, Tanner, Viv, etcetera etcetera."

"That's cute! How many do you have to do for everyone?"

"Normally, I'd need like 15, but since you're here I'll need 16," She began decorating one to look like herself, she could see Cady staring down at the cookies confusedly, "Dude, you alright?"

"You do realize you only have 15 blank gingerbread left right?"

"What?" She set down her current one, counting the cookies laid out in front of her, "Fuck. Okay, uh...hm, okay well, Leslie can deal with not having a cookie this year."

"What? Janis no, just don't make one of me!"

"Oh, trust me. Leslie deserves it, "Unphased, Janis resumed her decorating, "Full intent to sound like an ass, but my Aunt Leslie is a bitch."