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“Amelia, would you please just just pick one?” Alice Kirkland asked her girlfriend, who was almost completely surrounded by a giant pile of pumpkins. If they hadn’t just spent several hours in the chilled autumn air riding tractors and wandering their way through corn mazes and petting farm animals at the petting zoo, Alice probably would’ve been far more patient with Amelia, but they had and now she was taking another half hour to pick a pumpkin to carve.
“I can’t just pick one!” Amelia protested, her blue eyes bright with innocence. It would have been endearing if Alice could feel her fingertips. She couldn’t, though, and all she wanted after the long day at the pumpkin patch was to curl up in a thick blanket with her girlfriend with a warm cup of tea between her hands. “I need to pick the perfect one!”
“They’re all the same, darling,” she told her, hoping her irritation didn’t come out in her voice. Ever since the hot summer had begun to blend into autumn and the pumpkin patches had opened, Amelia had been so excited to go. That morning she’d practically vibrated out of bed as soon as she'd woken up, and her energy hadn’t flagged since. Alice didn’t want to ruin it, didn’t want to see that excitement tempered down just because she was a little cold.
Amelia scrunched her nose. “Of course they aren’t!”
Alice didn’t even know why she was trying to get Amelia to hurry. She knew she couldn’t convince her girlfriend to do anything she didn’t want too, including picking a pumpkin out of the hundreds piled around them. Realistically they could be here for hours -
“I found it!” Amelia announced happily. From the giant pile, Alice could see Amelia holding said pumpkin over her head. To Alice, the pumpkin looked the exact same as any of the others, but the wide, very self-pleased smile it put on Amelia’s face made it far better than the others surrounding it. Suddenly, Alice wasn’t cold anymore.
It took Amelia a minute to wade out of the pile, but when she did manage to free herself she immediately made her way to Alice. The way Amelia held the pumpkin up kind of reminded Alice of the way a dog proudly returned a fetch toy to its owner, which made Alice smile. It wasn’t the first time Amelia’s blind enthusiasm reminded her of a dog and Alice often joked that she could see a tail practically wagging behind Amelia’s back. Her sister, Madeline, wholeheartedly agreed.
Alice brushed off some of the dirt coating the pumpkin’s surface as soon as Amelia was close enough, not wanting the other woman to dirty her clothes. She was pretty sure it was already a complete loss, because Amelia had already hugged nearly every mud-coated animal in the petting zoo, but at least she’d tried.
“Are you not gonna get one?” Amelia asked her. A frown tugged at her lips, something that looked fundamentally wrong on Amelia’s face, when she saw Alice’s empty hands and Alice couldn’t help but feel she’d made a grievous error somehow.
“I wasn’t planning on it, no,” Alice answered slowly.
“But how’re you gonna carve a pumpkin without a pumpkin?”
A wave of understanding crashed over Alice and she couldn’t help but smile. When Amelia had first explained the pumpkin patch to Alice, Alice had revealed to her that her family hadn’t really ever done anything for Halloween. As a child, there’d been no dressing up, no trick-or-treating, and no pumpkin carving. Amelia had been offended on her behalf and had vowed to make the upcoming Halloween the best she’d ever experienced. At the time, Alice hadn’t thought much of it, but now it all made sense.
“Amelia…”
“I’ll go find you one!”
Before Amelia could turn around and resubmerge herself in the pumpkin pile, Alice gripped the arm of her jacket. “Why don’t we just share yours, hmm? We can do it together.”
“You don’t want your own?” Amelia asked, blinking owlishly.
“I’m happy to share as long as I’m spending time with you, darling.”
“Are…are you sure?”
“Yes,” Alice told her confidently. If she were being honest, she had no interest in carving a pumpkin - it was far too messy, too chaotic for her - but Alice was more than willing to step aside and watch Amelia excitedly scoop out the sticky insides and chat animatedly about the best face design. When Amelia's mood turned sullen, Alice scrambled for a distraction. “How about this? If you carve the pumpkin, I’ll make some pumpkin pie.”
The mention of pie perked her girlfriend right back up, and Amelia quickly bounced back to her normal bubbly self. “Okay!”
As if nothing had happened, Amelia trotted off happily to the checkout counter underneath the large tent. The tent itself was filled with plenty of fall fruits, which included tiny pumpkins that sent Amelia cooing, and even Alice was partially tempted to stop and look at the small market that the farmers had set up. But Alice stayed strong and made sure to gently corral her girlfriend towards the checkout counter. After they had checked out, the couple piled back into their car and headed towards home.
That night, they cuddled together underneath a thick, quilted blanket and watched Halloween movies - Amelia insisted on the Night Before Christmas first. Both women munched on Alice’s freshly baked pumpkin pie, which Amelia’s plate piled obscenely high with enough whip cream for Alice to call it a ‘health hazard’. Outside, the pumpkin Amelia had carved sat securely on their porch, with the candle inside shining bright enough for the goofy face she’d carved into its shell to be seen from the street. Amelia had insisted that the children would like it better than a scary one when they came trick-or-treating on Halloween and Alice didn’t have the heart to protest. Overall, though, the cold Alice had felt biting at her nose and freezing her fingertips towards the end of their time at the pumpkin patch was completely gone and forgotten. Instead, it had been wholly replaced by the warmth and love radiating from Amelia.