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They started walking back towards the apartment, the drop in temperature from the snow making them walk all the faster and they arrived in just a few minutes. Toni went into the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine.

“Coffee? We have the master of machines here.”

“Latte, please,” Penelope smiled.

“Cappuccino for me,” Clifford said.

“You know what I want, baby.”

Toni made the coffees and brought them over to where everyone else was sitting on the sofas. She handed them out and took a seat beside her girlfriend, listening contentedly as Cheryl caught up with news from home and the elder couple conversed more with Toni, to learn about their daughter’s girlfriend. After a couple of hours, Clifford glanced at his watch and sighed.

“We’d better be off soon. We were planning on getting half the trip done tonight and renting a motel for the night, so we’d be home by tomorrow afternoon. I need to catch up on some work.”

Cheryl looked sad that she had to say goodbye to her parents again, but smiled that she’d gotten to see them at all and how well the short visit had gone. She stood and went over to embrace her father.

“Great seeing you, Dad. You too, Mom. And I’ll be home for the holidays.”

The Blossoms started to say their goodbyes as Toni walked over to the window and scoped out the scene in front of her.

“Um, I don’t think you can go anywhere,” she said, grabbing the remote and turning it onto a news channel.

“Blizzard hits New York City, road conditions highly dangerous, any unnecessary trips are warned against. Snow expected to ease and thaw through the night, bringing overcast…”

Everyone listened to the broadcaster and Clifford pulled out his cell phone.

“Looks like we’re in the city for the night, dear,” he said, “I’ll call around, see if there’s any hotel rooms available.”

“You can stay here,” Toni said straight away, “I mean, there’s no way you’ll find a free room on Thanksgiving. At least not anywhere not already inhabited by cockroaches.”

“We couldn’t impose,” Penelope said, genuinely not wanting to put anyone out.

“You won’t be,” Toni reassured, “Right, honey?”

“Of course not,” Cheryl smiled, “You can take my room. I’ll sleep with Toni. I mean I’ll share her bed. I mean I’ll-”

“Please stop before I get any images in my head,” Clifford said with a forced smile, “We’ll be out of your hair in the morning.”

Toni smiled and went back into the kitchen, rummaging through some drawers for a moment, pulling out a leaflet.

“Chinese, anyone?”

***

Cheryl crawled into bed beside her girlfriend and gave her a quick kiss.

“This was a great Thanksgiving. I didn’t realise how much I missed my parents, ya know? It was really nice to see them. And you can’t even imagine how happy I am that they know about me and us. This was just such a great day.”

“I’m glad. I had a fun day too. And I haven’t played monopoly in years; I’d forgotten I even had the game.”

After they had eaten their Chinese food, it had been suggested that they play some board games and monopoly had come out. After several games, of which Cheryl had won most, saying that she was just smart with her money, they had called it a night and all decided to go to bed.

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