Chapter Text
The sound of her bedroom door opening wakes Christen up and she rolls over, cracking her eyes open in her dimly lit room. She sees her younger sister tip toeing towards her bed, a mug in each hand and Morena and Khaleesi trailing behind her.
“Morning,” Channing says softly, holding a mug out as a peace offering as she gets closer to the bed. “Merry Christmas.”
Christen rubs her eyes and sits up, patting the bed next to her. “What time is it?” she yawns, taking a mug from Channing’s hand and grinning when she sees that it’s hot chocolate with marshmallows. She leans forward and pats the foot of the bed, inviting the dogs up and gripping her mug as they both jump up and curl up by their feet.
“Um like 7. I couldn’t sleep,” Channing admits sheepishly, pulling the covers over her and getting comfortable before grabbing her own mug off the night table.
“Too excited? Did Santa come?” Christen teases.
“Shut up,” Channing rolls her eyes, sipping her hot chocolate.
“Are mom and dad still sleeping?” Christen asks as Channing nods. “What about Tyler and Will?”
“I think so, I didn’t check,” Channing answers. “Do you think dad’s gunna try to video tape us coming down the stairs in our pajamas?”
“Oh god, you know he will,” Christen laughs. “I don’t think that tradition will ever die but not gunna lie we deff don’t look as cute trying to squeeze down the staircase holding hands anymore.”
“Our matching PJs are still pretty cute though,” Channing giggles, gesturing at their pajamas.
“Hey! What are you guys, sister bonding and having fun with out me? Rude,” Tyler says as she slips into the room and walks towards the bed. “And you have hot chocolate? Wow, okay.”
“We can share,” Christen offers, scooting over to make room for Tyler on the bed.
“Sorry Ty, I would have woke you up but I didn’t wanna just barge in on you and Will,” Channing explains, holding her mug out to Tyler.
Christen’s phone chirps from her night table and she leans over and grabs it, grinning at a few texts from Tobin detailing her breakfast and the presents she had opened so far and a picture of her in a UNC hoodie and a Santa hat, lying in pile of wrapping paper with a big grin on her face.
“Who’s that? Tobin?” Tyler asks, raising her eyebrows at Christen’s smile.
Channing leans over and looks at Christen’s phone. “Yupp, it’s Tobin,” she confirms. “Aw, she’s cute,” she coos, laughing when Christen locks her phone and scowls at her.
“Can you give us the deets on how you guys started dating now? We probably have like an hour or two until mom and dad wake up,” Tyler says, giving Christen her best puppy dog eyes.
“Ugh, fine,” Christen concedes, taking another big gulp of hot chocolate first. She starts at the very beginning, detailing everything from the first time she and Tobin had met to their arboretum date to the flowers in the clock tower. She skims over some stuff but tells them almost everything, even about the fights and misunderstandings that she and Tobin had had. By the time she’s done, both mugs are empty and discarded on the night table and the dogs have abandoned them in favor of seeing who else was up and stirring in the house.
“Well isn’t this a sweet sight,” their mother calls from the doorway, grinning at her three daughters lying in bed talking like when they were little girls. “You guys ready for presents?”
“Duh,” Channing calls, pulling at the covers and climbing over Tyler to get out of bed. “Let’s go,” she calls impatiently at her sisters.
Later that afternoon, Christen is sipping sangria and laughing at her dad and Channing trying to fly her dad’s new drone in the backyard. Tyler and Will had left to spend some time with his family, and the rest of her family, who had spent the night at her aunt’s house, wouldn’t be over until dinner time. Christen is about to go see if her mom needs help in the kitchen when her phone rings with the FaceTime tone. She quickly answers, feeling a grin spread across her own face when Tobin’s smiling face appears on her phone screen.
“Hey baby! You busy?” she asks, running a hand through her hair.
“Nope, what’s up?” Christen answers, wandering away from the back door towards the living room.
“Nothing, just had a little while until dinner so I wanted to see your face. Miss you.”
“Miss you too,” Christen says, putting her sangria onto a coaster and sitting down on the couch.
They talk for the next half hour, Christen showing Tobin every article of clothing that she had received and Tobin pretending to be interested before she gets called by one of her sisters for dinner.
“Gotta go. Thanks for showing me everything you got. Text you before bed,” Tobin says, blowing Christen a kiss as she ends the call.
“Was that Tobin?” Christen’s mom pokes her head through the doorway to ask, startling Christen.
“Shit, mom you scared me,” Christen laughs, a hand to her chest. “Yeah, it was Tobin.”
“Is she having a nice Christmas?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Christen answers, leaning over to grab her sangria.
“Oh good,” her mom smiles warmly. “She’s such a nice girl sweetie, I’m so glad you’re happy.”
Christen gets up and walks over, pressing a kiss to her mom’s cheek. “Thanks mama. Do you need help in the kitchen?”
“No baby, that’s okay. Why don’t you go get Channing and get dressed? Everybody will be here in an hour or so,” her mom answers, checking her watch.
Christen nods, walking towards the backdoor to get her sister and dragging her upstairs to help each other with hair and make up. The family has a tradition of taking way too many pictures when they’re all together like this so they’re sure to spend a little bit of extra time getting dressed up before they head back downstairs just as the doorbell rings.
The rest of the day and night is filled with a lot of food, laughter, and as predicted, pictures. They do presents again and Christen sneaks way more sangria than her parents would allow, finally ending the night by watching Christmas movies and eating warm cookies with hot chocolate and milk. Christen only checks her phone a few times, and she’s disappointed to have not heard from Tobin again but she can only hope that Tobin is having as perfect of a Christmas as she is.
Christen doesn’t hear from Tobin until she’s finishing up a long walk with her sisters and cousins and the dogs the day after Christmas. She’s laughing at their attempts to ride the hover boards that her cousins had gotten for Christmas, having turned down their offers to let her try, not wanting to risk getting hurt. She’s unclipping Morena’s harness when her phone starts to vibrate from her pocket.
“Hey babe,” she answers distractedly, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she tries to unclip Khaleesi’s harness, struggling a bit as Khaleesi tries to pull away and run up the driveway with her sister.
“Hi,” Tobin responds quietly. “You busy?”
“No, what’s up?” Christen answers, pulling back on Khaleesi’s leash. “SIT,” she commands, the phone slipping a little as Khaleesi wiggles.
“What?” Tobin asks.
Christen groans as she finally gets the harness unclipped and stands, adjusting the phone. “Nothing, sorry I wasn’t talking to you,” she answers Tobin, squeezing the phone between her shoulder and ear again as she uses her hands to wind up the leashes.
“Oh, do you want me to call you back?” Tobin asks, her voice barely audible.
“No, it’s fine but I can barely hear you,” Christen says, walking up the driveway to the front door. She walks inside with the dogs on her heels and deposits their leashes in the closet, before finally grabbing the phone and letting her shoulder drop. “Tobin? You still there?” she asks a little breathlessly, walking into the kitchen to get a bottle of water.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Tobin answers.
Christen’s brow furrows as she hears her girlfriend’s voice. “What’s wrong?"
“Nothing,” Tobin mutters.
“Babe,” Christen warns, walking upstairs to her room. “What’s going on?”
She can hear Tobin sigh on the other side of the phone as she walks into her room and clicks the door shut behind her. She kicks her shoes off and climbs onto her bed waiting for Tobin to answer.
“Talk to me Tobs,” she prods gently. “Do you want me to Facetime you?”
“No, that’s okay,” Tobin says finally. “Just- Can you just be honest with me for a minute?”
Christen’s heart starts to race a little as she wonders where this is going. “Yeah, of course,” she answers, trying to keep her voice steady.
Tobin pauses and takes a deep breath and Christen wishes she was able to see her, having gotten better at reading her nonverbal cues over the past few months. Just when she’s about to say something to break the silence, Tobin speaks up.
“Do you think it’s stupid for me to put so much time and energy into soccer and not anything else? Like my classes or whatever?” Tobin blurts out.
Christen’s eyes widen in confusion, not having expected that. “What? No, of course not. Why?”
“I just- I don’t know. My dad was asking about my grades earlier and my sisters know I wasn’t doing so hot earlier in the semester so I told him that but I was saying how I was able to pull my grades up a little by doing okay on my finals. He just thinks that I should be prioritizing school over soccer not the other way around. He thinks soccer is a waste of my time. He’s worried that I’ll get hurt or not be drafted after I graduate and then I’ll have nothing to fall back on,” Tobin explains.
Christen hums in understanding, taking a moment to think of her response before speaking. “Babe, first of all, there is no way that you don’t get drafted. And I don’t think you’re wasting your time on soccer at all, but he might be right that it might be a good idea to have a back up plan just in case. Have you ever thought about what you’d like to do if you couldn’t play soccer?” Christen asks gently.
Tobin groans in frustration. “Seriously, you’re agreeing with him? No, Press I haven’t. You don’t get it. I don’t want a back up plan I just want to play soccer. School is just something I have to endure so I can play. Being at UNC is pointless for me. I should have just signed with Lyon and left when I had the chance.”
“Oh,” Christen whispers, swallowing hard.
Tobin is quiet for a moment so Christen clears her throat and speaks again. “I should go,” she says, her voice rough.
“Fuck,” Tobin mutters. “Wait, Chris. Don’t hang up. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
Christen opens and closes her mouth, trying to think of a response but drawing a blank.
“I meant that classes are pointless for me, that’s it. I love being at UNC. I love our team. I love playing with you and living with you and getting to see you everyday and I don’t regret not signing with Lyon I promise,” she insists. “I’m sorry.”
“I know,” Christen says softly. “I’m sorry if it seemed like I was siding with your dad or something.”
“No, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I bet you have like a ton of back up plans, huh?”
“I mean, yeah, I have a few. But it’s different for me. I’m not as good as you and my chances of ever getting drafted are way lower than you. You will get drafted. I probably will have to get a job after college,” Christen explains.
“Seriously?” Tobin laughs. “Babe, you have no idea how good you are, do you? You’re gunna get drafted too. Hopefully to whatever team I end up on so we can keep being unstoppable. I’m not just saying this because I’m your girlfriend either. I promise you’re going to be able to keep playing soccer after college.”
“Pinky promise?” Christen asks, a smile now on her face.
“Pinky promise,” Tobin confirms. “You’ll have to wait until I’m there for me to seal it with a kiss though.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Me either,” Tobin says, her voice soft. “Soon baby. But let me go, I gotta get dressed for dinner. I’ll text you before bed okay?”
“Alright, talk to you later,” Christen answers, pulling the phone away from her face and getting up from her bed.
A couple days later, Christen is straightening her hair when her phone buzzes on her night table where it’s charging. She had been waiting for a call from Tobin so she quickly gets up and grabs it, but frowns when she sees a number that she doesn’t recognize. She considers not answering but it’s an LA area code so she slides her thumb across the screen to answer.
“Hello?” she asks, unplugging her charger and walking back towards her straightener.
“Hi, can I please speak to Christen Press?” a woman’s voice asks.
“This is her,” Christen responds, her brow furrowed.
“Hi Christen, this is Amanda calling from US Soccer. I wanted to call and tell you that we were impressed by your season at UNC this year and we want invite you into the January training camp with the U-23 team in Carson, California.”
Christen pulls the phone away from her face and looks at it in disbelief, wondering if she’s being pranked, before she realizes she should probably say something. “Oh, uh, wow, that would be amazing, thank you so much,” she stutters out, her voice high and shaky.
“Great!” Amanda exclaims. “The camp is going to run January 6th through the 13th. We can handle travel arrangements for you. I’m going to email you with some information and some forms that I need you to fill out and send back, okay?”
“Of course,” Christen squeaks out before confirming her email address.
“Okay Christen, you should get the email within the next few hours. Send back those forms as soon as you can and we can arrange for your travel to Carson.”
“Okay,” Christen nods.
“Great. Congratulations! See you in a few weeks.”
“Thank you. See you in a few weeks,” Christen answers, hanging up the phone and staring at it for a few minutes, trying to process what just happened. She takes a deep breath and unlocks her phone, quickly clicking into her favorites and bringing her phone back up to her ear.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she mutters, listening to the dial tone.
“Yo.”
“Tobin,” Christen whispers, before bursting into tears.
“Christen? Are you okay? Are you crying? What’s wrong?” Tobin asks, concern evident in her voice.
“No,” Christen sobs out.
“No what? No you’re not okay? Babe, breathe. Talk to me. What’s going on?” Tobin questions, sounding a little panicked.
“No,” Christen repeats, trying to pull herself together. “I’m not- I- Tobin,” she stutters, embarrassed by her emotional reaction.
“I’m here baby,” Tobin soothes. “It’s gunna be okay. I got you. Just breathe okay? Breathe and talk to me. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Christen says, still trying to compose herself.
“But you’re crying,” Tobin states, obviously confused.
Christen pulls in a deep breath, wiping at her cheeks. “I don’t know why I’m crying,” she laughs out, sniffling. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m happy.”
“You’re happy?” Tobin asks, skeptically. “What’s going on?”
“I just got a call and I was invited to the U23 January camp!” she squeals, grinning widely.
“Are you kidding me?” Tobin exclaims loudly. “That’s so fucking awesome babe! Holy crap, I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m so excited. I can’t even believe it.”
“That’s so incredible Chris. I’m excited for you. But I’m not surprised, they’d be stupid not to call you in after the season you had. What’d your parents say?”
“I didn’t tell them yet,” Christen admits. “I literally hung up the phone and called you right away.”
“I’m the first person you told?” Tobin asks, her voice full of wonder. “I’m honored,” she giggles.
Christen laughs, wiping her eyes. “I should go tell my parents and sisters though. Talk to you later?”
“Yeah, go tell them. I’m really happy for you babe.”
“Thanks Tobs,” Christen grins before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone.
She cries again telling her parents but her mom cries too, so it’s okay. There are a million hugs and questions and her dad insists that they go out to a fancy dinner instead of grilling the chicken that’s marinating in the fridge.
Christen gets the email and fills out the forms, scanning and resending them before getting ready for dinner. The family goes to a nice steak and sushi restaurant and Christen eats way too much, changing into sweats and collapsing onto the couch when they get home.
She’s scrolling through Netflix with her sisters, trying to settle on a movie to watch when Tobin calls. She quickly grabs her phone to answer, concerned about why Tobin would be calling when it’s so late on the east coast.
“Be right back, pick a movie while I’m gone,” she instructs her sisters, sliding her thumb across the screen and walking to the back door.
“Hello,” she asks warily, softly closing the door behind her.
“Happy birthday,” Tobin says excitedly when Christen answers. “It’s midnight on the east coast.”
“Thank you baby,” Christen laughs, sitting down in one of the patio chairs. “You didn’t have to stay up for me.”
“I was up anyway. What are you up to?” Tobin responds. “I’m laying in bed so I can’t promise I’ll be up when it’s midnight on the west coast. Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I wouldn’t expect you to stay up. I was just about to watch a movie with Tyler and Channing. What are you doing tomorrow? Can we Facetime?”
“Uh, I’m getting brunch with Perry and Katie and then just have to run some errands,” Tobin murmurs, sounding sleepy. “Can we Facetime tomorrow night?”
Christen squints her eyes, trying to picture her planner to see what she has scheduled for the next day. “Mmm, yeah, I think I should be able to. I know that I’m getting dinner with my sisters for my birthday but I’m not sure what time or where. They said it’s a surprise. But I think if you Facetime me at like dinnertime your time I should be able to talk for a while. Or I can Facetime you after dinner if you’re still awake,” Christen offers.
“Yeah, that works. I can Facetime like 6ish my time? That’s 3 for you. That’s okay?”
“Yeah, I should be home. It’s a date,” Christen smiles.
“Should I get dressed up? Or maybe undressed?” Tobin teases.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Christen muses.
“I like the way you think Christen Press. I’ll let you get back to your movie though. I’ll text you in the morning, okay?”
“Okay,” Christen agrees, standing up to go back inside. “Night Tobs.”
“Night gorgeous,” Tobin murmurs. “Happy birthday again.”
Christen walks back inside, unable to wipe the grin off her face despite the relentless teasing from her sisters.
Christen’s mom wakes her up the next morning with homemade waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, and fresh fruit along with juice and a French press full of fresh coffee. She sticks a candle into Christen’s waffle and the family sings an enthusiastic rendition of ‘happy birthday’ before digging in to the spread that Christen’s mom has put out.
After breakfast, Christen gets dressed and meets some friends at the local rec fields, doing drills and taking shots while her friends goof around and watch her.
She showers quickly when she gets home, expecting Tobin’s Facetime call any minute. She throws her wet hair into a bun and puts on a loose t shirt and sleep boxers, grabbing her laptop and climbing into bed to wait for Tobin’s call.
She grabs her phone and scrolls through Twitter and Instagram while she waits, killing time until she gets sucked in and stalks a random YouTuber’s entire page, even clicking into their YouTube channel to scoff at their dramatically overproduced wedding video. She doesn’t even realize how long she’s been mindlessly scrolling until she glances at the time and sees it’s almost 3:40 and she still hasn’t heard from Tobin.
She calls her but gets her voicemail, so shoots her a text checking to see if she had forgotten and if everything is okay. She waits a little while longer before sighing and closing her laptop, climbing out of bed and putting it on her desk. She’s looking through her closet and trying to decide what to wear to dinner when she hears Tyler yelling for her to come downstairs.
She walks over to her door and pulls it open to yell back. “I’ll be down in a little bit!”
“No, come down now,” her sister yells back. “I wanna give you your gift now so I don’t have to take it to dinner with us!”
“Fine,” Christen groans, yanking the door open to walk out of her room. She can hear her phone buzzing behind her and she assumes it’s Tobin but after making her wait for almost an hour for her call she decides to let Tobin sweat it out for a little bit. She bounds down the stairs, looking for her sister.
“Where are you?” she calls out, looking around the empty living room.
“Kitchen!” Tyler calls back, appearing in the kitchen doorway. “Close your eyes,” she commands.
“Seriously?” Christen asks, rolling her eyes and slowing her walk as she approaches her sister.
“Yes, seriously. Close ‘em,” Tyler insists, pointing a finger at Christen.
“Okay, fine,” Christen obliges, squeezing her eyes shut and coming to a stop in front of Tyler.
“Good,” Tyler says, grabbing Christen’s hands and pulling her slowly forward into the kitchen. She comes to a stop and releases her grip on Christen’s hands. “Okay, now count to ten and then open them,” Tyler instructs seriously.
Christen sighs but starts counting loudly. When she reaches ten she opens her eyes and finds herself standing in an empty kitchen, facing the island with no present on it. “Tyler! What the-,” her words are cut off when she feels a pair of hands cover her eyes from behind.
“Guess who?” a familiar voice murmurs in her ear.
“Fuck…” Christen finishes her earlier statement, reaching up to grab the hands and peal them off of her face. She whirls around, her eyes widening. “Tobin,” she squeals, launching herself at her girlfriend and throwing her arms around her neck. “What are you doing here? When did you get here? How did you get here?” she asks rapid fire, squeezing Tobin tightly.
Tobin wraps her arms around Christen, leaning back to lift her a few inches off the ground and laughing at her questions. “I’m here to see you! I just got here. Tyler picked me up at the airport,” she explains, dropping Christen back to the ground and untangling from her arms. “Now do I get a kiss hello or what?” she teases.
Christen nods, putting her hands on either side of Tobin’s face and leaning in to kiss her. The kiss is short and not their best work with the way Christen can’t stop giggling and Tobin can’t wipe the grin off of her face to kiss her properly, but neither of them mind. “We’ll work on that,” Tobin laughs, leaning back in to peck Christen on the lips one more time before pulling back. “Okay, so Tyler’s dinner plans were fake but if you wanna have dinner with your sisters we could do that. Or, I was thinking maybe we could just grab something to go and eat down at the beach and watch the sunset. Up to you birthday girl,” Tobin smiles, grabbing Christen’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
“Beach and sunset sounds like the perfect birthday to me,” Christen says, looking down at her outfit. “But I do need to change. C’mon, you can put your bags in my room.”
“Alright, but I kinda have a lot cuz I brought my shit for camp too,” Tobin admits sheepishly, walking into the dining room where she and Tyler had stashed her bags.
Christen trails behind her and rolls her eyes when she sees that Tobin’s definition of ‘a lot’ is a big US Soccer rolling bag, her backpack, and a small carry on. “Oh yeah babe, I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit all of this in my room,” Christen teases, grabbing Tobin’s backpack and the carry on and leading the way up the stairs.
She busies herself with getting clothes out to change into and Tobin flops down onto her bed and intertwines her hands behind her head, watching her. “So are your parents gunna be cool with me sleeping in here? Or I’m okay with sleeping on the couch or whatever, it’s no big deal,” Tobin offers, her eyes following Christen’s every move.
“Hmm,” Christen hums, considering it as she rifles through her drawer for a t shirt. “I think they’ll be cool with it. We just won’t say anything and see if they say anything about it,” she grins triumphantly when she pulls out the shirt she had been looking for.
“Gotcha,” Tobin replies.
Christen shoots her a quick smile and hesitates before pulling her shirt off, suddenly shy in front of her girlfriend. She turns away from her and pulls her shirt off, quickly putting on a bra and her t shirt. She shimmies out of her shorts next, pulling on underwear and a pair of jean shorts. She turns back around to face Tobin as she zips and buttons the shorts and finds her staring back at her, a familiar look on her face.
“Nuh uh,” Christen shakes her head at Tobin. “I’m starving and it’s my birthday and right now I want In-N-Out to eat, not you,” she teases.
Tobin rolls her eyes and sits up in bed. “Fine,” she groans. “I should get changed too though,” she gestures to the joggers and t shirt that she must have worn on the plane.
“Chris! Granfran is on the phone to wish you a happy birthday,” Tyler screams from downstairs.
“Go ahead. I’ll meet you down there,” Tobin urges, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
Christen slides her feet into flip flops and presses a quick kiss to Tobin’s lips before walking out of the room, shutting the door behind her and walking downstairs to talk to her grandmother.
A few minutes later she’s sitting in the living room and waiting for Tobin after hanging up with her grandmother. She hears her door open upstairs and stands up, walking to the bottom of the stairs. Tobin comes sprinting down the steps, her hand hovering over the banister, ready to catch herself if she stumbled.
“Do you do anything slowly?” Christen teases as Tobin reaches the bottom and comes to a stop in front of her.
“I’ll do you slowly,” Tobin mutters suggestively, stepping closer and putting her hands onto Christen’s hips, leaning forward to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth.
“Clever,” Christen grins, stepping back out of Tobin’s grip. “In-N-Out, not sex,” she reminds her, grabbing her keys and wallet off the table by the door.
“Yeah, yeah,” Tobin groans, following Christen to the front door. “Can I drive?”
Christen dangles her keys off her finger and holds them back to Tobin as she walks out of the door towards the driveway.
“Sweet,” Tobin exclaims, grabbing the keys and following Christen to her car.
They go through the In-N-Out drive thru, getting shakes, fries, and burgers before driving to the nearest beach.
“Hang on, I have a blanket in the back,” Christen says as the get out of the car, handing Tobin the bag of food to hold.
“Of course you do,” Tobin laughs, gripping the food bag in one hand and balancing their shakes in the other.
Christen grabs her beach blanket out of the trunk before taking her shake out of Tobin’s hand and leading the way down to the sand. They still have about a half an hour or so until sunset so they pick a good spot to set up the blanket and sit down to dig in to their food, laughing and talking and enjoying each other’s company.
Tobin runs their garbage up the beach to a trash can before returning to the blanket with just a few minutes until sunset, settling in at Christen’s side. Christen studies her profile as Tobin looks out at the waves, taking in the warm brown eyes and sun kissed tan skin and sharp jawline that she missed so much over the past couple of weeks. Tobin must feel her gaze because she turns to look at Christen, a self conscious smile playing on her lips. “What?” she asks, her eyes searching Christen’s face.
Christen just shakes her head, smiling. “Nothing,” she says softly. “I’m just so glad you’re here.”
Tobin’s face lights up at that and she pulls Christen over so she’s sitting between her legs and leaning back into Tobin’s chest, Tobin’s arms wrapped around her. “I’m glad I’m here too,” she murmurs in Christen’s ear, pressing a kiss the the edge of her jaw just below her ear.
Christen just hums and leans back into Tobin further, enjoying her warmth as they quietly watch the sun dip into the ocean. After a few minutes of silence, Tobin subtlety shifts behind her. “So, do you want your present now?” she asks.
Christen leans forward to look at Tobin, her brow furrowed. “You have it with you?” she asks in confusion.
Tobin just nods, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth.
“No fair,” Christen pouts. “Your present is at home.”
“That’s okay,” Tobins says, shaking her head. “This one is your birthday and Christmas combined and I know you hate that but hopefully it’s okay just this once.”
“Of course it’s okay,” she reassures. “You didn’t have to get me anything Tobs. You being here is enough of a present for me.”
“I know but I wanted to get you this,” Tobin explains, reaching in to her pocket and pulling out a small red jewelry box, holding it out to Christen.
Christen’s eyes widen when she reads the word printed in gold on the top of the box and she takes it from Tobin’s palm with a shaky hand. She flips it open and gasps when she sees a slightly smaller version of the ring Tobin wears every day. “Oh Tobin,” she whispers in disbelief as she takes the ring out and slides it onto her right ring finger, amazed when it fits perfectly. “I love it. But this is so much.”
Tobin waves off her concern and grabs her hand to look at the ring, holding up her own hand so Christen can see that they match. “Do you remember what kind of ring this is?” she questions, lacing their fingers together.
“Cartier?” Christen asks, still marveling at the gold band on her finger.
“Well yeah,” Tobin responds. “But I mean like the name of the ring.”
“Oh,” Christen says, lifting her eyes to look at Tobin’s face. “A love ring?” she asks slowly.
Tobin nods, her eyes wide. “Right, a love ring so uh, well that’s why I wanted to get it for you,” she starts, her eyes drifting down to look at their joined hands. “Because I know it’s crazy and that we’ve only been together officially for like 2 months but I just feel like, I don’t know. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before and I hope you feel the same way but I love you Christen,” she finishes, finally looking back up to meet Christen’s gaze.
Christen is rendered speechless for the moment so she does the next best thing to responding, placing her hand on Tobin’s jaw and leaning forward to kiss her slowly and deeply. When she leans back to catch her breath she squeezes Tobin’s hand and smiles warmly at her. “I love you too Tobin,” she whispers, before leaning forward to capture her lips with her own again, the sun completely set over the ocean behind them.