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“I swear to god, I have never been gayer in my life.”
The engineer slapped a hand over her mouth.
“I meant… You the… very attractive are, yes. I meant… You’re pretty, I have to go!”
The engineer spoke at what was way past regular human speaking speed before rushing upstairs and aggressively rattling with some pieces of metal, most likely not making any actual process unless one counted the production of distracting noise process.
“Smooth, Holtzy, real smooth.” Patty cackled, Abby joining her in her laughter.
“It’s just a dress.” Erin giggled a bit, attempting to hide her blush.
Abby mumbled something to Patty about Erin and a schoolgirl crush leaving the two in another fit of laughter. Erin rolled her eyes in response and grabbed her purse from the chair.
“As fun as hearing you two cackle is, I have to go now or I’m going to be late and we’re going to lose our funding.”
She sighed.
“Why do I always have to be the one to go to these fancy gala things?”
“Cause you’re the best of us at ass-kissing.”
As true as that was it still led Erin to pout jokingly and walk out the door, hailing a cab, leaving the historian and the scientist to laugh by themselves.
“I think one of us should check on Holtzy, the girl probably still hasn’t recovered from overdose of gayness.”
“One of us? You think I’m really missing that show? Hell naw.”
Patty laughed and followed Abby upstairs to the grand sight of a love struck Holtzmann. Patty taps on her shoulder to get the engineer’s attention but said engineer is currently too busy having a goofy grin on her lips, dreamy eyes glancing at blank space or rather, said engineer is aggressively making bedroom eyes at an empty wall.
“Hey. Holtz.”
No response.
“Holtzmann.”
Silence.
“Erin’s standing downstairs, stark naked.” Abby mutters.
“What?!” Her eyes focus and widen and the woman fakes a cough.
“I mean… what?”
Patty gently gives her an upward slap to the back of her head.
“She ain’t but girl, you two need to either hook up or tone down on the gay. Not that it ain’t hella entertain’ but it’s becoming too much.”
“I’m not but I’m um… I know I am but what are you?”
“Baby, I love you but you are truly hopeless.” Patty laughs in a friendly manner and Abby joins her.
“She… I just… Gah!” Her head crashed to the table.
“She’s just really beautiful and brilliant and I just maybe am a little very in love with her, happy?”
Patty clapped and Abby threw her fist in the air with a small “Woo!”
“So… You guys like… knew?”
“’Course we knew, Holtzy, you have been making heart eyes at Erin ever since forever, girl. You may be hella good with science and all but, damn, you are not good at analysin’ humans.”
“That’s the reason you’re our professional people person, Patty-cakes. I’m not good at this whole…” she stretched the following word our “feelings thing.”
“Holtzy dear, I get that but ya gotta tell Erin, the girl’s gonna go nuts if ya don’t.”
“Wait you think… Erin’s into me? For real? I thought she was straight…”
Abby snorted in the corner of the room.
“Noo-ooo. Trust me, I’ve known her most of my life, she is aggressively bisexual.”
“Well, that still doesn’t mean she’s into me.” Holtzmann said, insecurity evident in her voice.
“Trust me, she is. Professional people person speaking here, you can take my word for it. But if you haven’t noticed, she is also hella insecure so I advise you make the first move before you two gay yourselves to death.” Patty laughed and finally, so did Holtz.
“Alright. I’ll… I’ll talk to her. But if she’s not into me then ice cream’s on you two.” Holtz said, pointing her index finger at the two other women in the room and Patty lifted her hands in surrender.
“Okay, Holtzy, whatever ya say.”
Later that evening
Erin threw her heels in the corner of the room and collapsed on the couch.
“What’s with all the candles?” She questioned.
Holtzmann didn’t answer her right away, chewing on her bottom lip as she walked downstairs.
Abby and Patty had left for the day and the engineer figured she might as well make the place a bit fancier, in hopes that Erin would like it.
She’d even ran to the flower shop two blocks away to get Erin’s favourites, a bouquet of red roses, a fact she might not have remembered had Erin not been really embarrassed at liking such a common thing and Holtz having to remind her that it was okay to like common things.
She fiddled with her hands for a few more moments before she finally spoke up.
“So… About today… And how I reacted, um, I just… I wanted to say that uh…”
She sighed.
“Erin, listen, before you say anything I just… I want you to know that what I feel for you is more than just physical attraction. It’s… I’m in love with you. And I’m not good at talking about my feelings, I’m good at science and engineering and joking. I’m not good at talking about feelings but I’m going to try anyways because…” She gestures in random directions with her hands.
“Because I have feelings for you, like the soft, squishy kinda feelings, the thinking about you every day and getting really happy when you smile kinda feelings… And the thing is, I… I’m in love with you for more than just your body. It’s just soul and… I mean, if you believe in that kinda thing and it’s your brain, because you’re absolutely brilliant. And I’m so grateful because you’re always there for me and you always know what to say… You get me. And I could go on for ages and ages but no words will ever be enough to sum you up and the world doesn’t have enough adjectives to describe how amazing you are.”
She took a deep breath.
“So uh… I was wondering if you maybe would like to go out with me? To dinner or something else, whatever you want.”
She smiled and made eye contact with hope in her eyes.
Erin was dumbfounded for a moment but when she regained her ability to speak she responded with a series of yes’s and a hesitant in the beginning but getting bolder with each new movement kiss.
“Still, what about the flowers?”
“I uh… I thought you’d like them… maybe.”
Erin pecked her on the lips gently.
“Love them.” She took a moment to consider her words.
“As long as they’re not a fire hazard.”