Work Text
Christen is sitting in the boardroom and taking her first glance out of the floor to ceiling windows behind her back in almost two hours when the first few flakes of snow begin to fall. It’s odd to see the flakes falling silently against the window when she’s used to the pitter patter of the rain that’s usually barely audible through the thick glass panes.
The members of the room have been focused on the feedback from Christen’s team of direct reports year-end performance reviews. To Christen’s surprise, her boss shuts her laptop thirty minutes before they’re supposed to be done with the meeting and asks everyone to remain in the room while she goes to grab a surprise. They start to chit-chat about the upcoming holidays and the festive events they’re going to attend over the weekend. Her co-director is going to Edinburgh this weekend because her sister is having a baby, her boss’s boss is taking his daughter to Winter Wonderland while his wife attends a ‘hen do’ for one of her friends, and her co-directors assistant is going window shopping with her boyfriend at Harrods.
Everyone is listening to her talk about all the plans she’s got over the next couple of weeks. She’s taking two weeks off to go spend time with her and Tobin’s families, it’d taken a long time for her and Tobin to decide what their trip would be like. Christen had wanted to spend at least part of Christmas with her family but she also really wanted Tobin to be able to spend Christmas morning with her young nephews. She’s only made it through her plans for her birthday when her boss comes back with the cart they usually use to order lunch for important meetings. It’s decorated with some plastic champagne flutes, a bottle of champagne, and an array of miniature cakes. Christen asks what type of cake it is and is informed it is ‘Christmas pudding’, which does not help her in the slightest.
Her boss passes the little plates around as well as the bottle of champagne, congratulations to the team as they share their last day where they’re all in the office together for the rest of the calendar year. She sends them home for the weekend early, an extension of her gratitude for working so hard. Christen thinks of the 120 emails in her inbox that beg her to stay but the thought of going home to finish some of her packings is equally as tempting. She packs up her tote bag in her office, hands someone a thank you card for a secret Santa gift she’d received earlier in the week, and bids her co-workers a good weekend and happy holidays as she passes them on the way to the elevator.
On her way home, she decides to swing through Costa to pick up a latte for herself and one to surprise Tobin. When she walks through the door of their apartment, hat damp from melted snowflakes and boots wet from walking through the streets, she sees Tobin sat on the couch with her laptop open with Christmas music playing through a Bluetooth speaker. She glances over her shoulder with a smile on her face, “You’re home early.”
Christen kicks her boots off her feet, leaving them by the door to pick up later when they aren’t wet anymore, walks towards the couch, and holds the to-go cup in front her Tobin’s face. Tobin grabs it and Christen places a hand on Tobin’s shoulders and cranes her neck to meet her for a quick kiss, “Looks like you’re working hard.”
Tobin’s laptop has at least ten windows open, a habit that gives Christen a headache whenever she needs to use it. She’s been trying to convert her to using tabs for years but has been unsuccessful. The frontmost window is open to an article titled ‘Medium Dog Breeds’. Tobin grumbles something about ‘it’s very important’ and ‘the dog breed symbolizes a lot’.
Christen walks around the other side of the couch to sit next to her, laying her head on Tobin’s shoulder, “I’m sure it’s very important.”
Tobin closes her laptop, reaches her arm over Christen’s lap to rest on the opposite thigh than is touching hers, and hums softly to the tune of the Christmas music, “We should watch a Christmas movie since you’re home and it’s snowing.”
“Are you packed yet?”
“Kinda,” Tobin shrugs her shoulder and Christen raises her head back up as a reflex, reaching forward to set her to go cup on the coffee table in front of her.
“We should finish so we can do whatever we want tonight,” She inches her hand a little further up Tobin’s thigh, “It’ll be our last night alone for a while and I want to try to make it to that Tapas restaurant in Covent Garden for dinner.”
-
The morning that they need to leave for the airport, Christen is buzzing around their apartment, trying to finish getting things in order for them to leave for two weeks. Tobin is somehow managing to sleep through the noise and Christen has to shove her awake two separate times before she rolls out of bed to get ready to go.
They take the tube to terminal 5 to catch their flight, they pay for their bags, and make it through security despite the long lines and holiday frenzy. It’s not until they get to their gate that things start to spiral downward.
They knew their flight was going to be delayed before they got to the airport, the incoming flight from New Jersey had departed late due to weather on the East coast. When the flight lands, dozens of people exit through the runway and they’re told they just need to finish cleaning the plane and then they’ll start boarding.
Twenty minutes later there’s an announcement, maintenance crews are going to be looking at something that she can’t quite decipher over the loud speaker. It’ll be another hour or so.
An hour goes by with no updates. Tobin has left her with all their stuff while she goes to get coffees for them. Just as the clock approaches the time on the screen that they’re supposed to start boarding at, a woman who looks very distressed starts to speak over the loud speaker again.
Their flight is cancelled and they can get rebooked by talking to a ticketing agent.
Christen’s initial instinct is to run past everyone hurrying to get to the counter to talk to the gate attendant, which she knows isn’t going to get her anywhere. She can’t leave their stuff anyway so she slides her phone out of her pocket to start calling the airline, only to receive the busy signal. She sighs and leans back in her seat, rubbing her hand over her temple.
When Tobin comes back nearly ten minutes later to the mess that is a couple hundred people learning their flight has been cancelled three days before Christmas, Christen is curling a chunk of hair around her finger, a habit Tobin knows indicates anxiousness. She feels like she’s watching a scene from a movie, some middle aged white men are yelling at gate agents, some small children are throwing fits, and her homesick fiance looks like she is barely holding herself together. A new flight to Dubai is showing on their gate now and it doesn’t take Tobin very long to piece together what she’s missed.
She feels her own body deflate. They’ve had a difficult few weeks in London. Christen had been working on a proposal for her boss at work and the presentation to the board was held the day after Thanksgiving. They were not even able to think about going home for that holiday so they’d planned a nice long two week trip home so that they’d have enough time to see both their families on Christmas, spend Christen’s birthday in California with her parents, and celebrate New Year’s at Tobin’s mom’s house in Florida with the rest of her siblings. The thought of cutting the trip short by any amount of time cuts her heart sharper than she’d felt in a long time.
Not going home for Thanksgiving means that the only member of their families that they’d seen in the past five months was Tobin’s brother, he’d come to stay with them in September a couple weeks before Christen had asked her to marry her. They’d planned a big trip around London and then through Scotland and Ireland. Her brother had informed Tobin a couple days before he left that he was planning to propose to his girlfriend in Ireland. Tobin didn’t know it at the time but Christen and her brother snuck out one morning for coffee so that she could tell him about her own proposal plan in a couple weeks.
They’ve loved their tenure in London thus far, the traveling they’ve done has been incredible, they’ve made some great friends through Christen’s work, and their relationship has progressed a lot. They’ve learned to truly work together, how to travel together, when they need to give the other space to breathe, how to cook each other’s favorite meal when they’re stressed and trying to meet deadlines. They’d lived together before in New York while Christen was in grad school and during the first couple years of her job, but this was different. They’d had to be dependent on each other in ways they’d never imagined. Nevertheless, the distance from their families is incredibly difficult.
Tobin can’t handle the stimulus of the airport anymore. She wants to leave, she wants to go home to their apartment where she can get food that’s better than the shitty British airport food and she can stop lugging around her heavy backpack and their carry-ons.
Christen, on the other hand, has a different opinion. When Tobin comes and stands in front of her, suggesting that they leave and figure out what they’re going to do at home, Christen shakes her head and says she’s fourth in line on hold. She wants to figure this out now and get on another flight if they can. Even if they are able to book another flight the same day, they’d still have to leave to get their backs to re-check them.
So Tobin waits for Christen, she’s got the annoyed and determined look on her face that Tobin knows not to mess with. It’s the same face she has when she comes home late from work at 8 PM, frustrated that other people have not met their deadlines so she has to work into the early hours of the morning to ensure that they can get everything done on time. She paces while Christen waits on the line, too annoyed to sit down. When Christen finally connects with someone she tries her best to stay patient, but the process of simply getting on another flight is not simple since the holidays are coming and almost all flights are booked. There are some options that they could book, but since the airline is only matching their ticket price there’s an absurd difference in payment for some really inconvenient flight paths.
At this point, they’re both upset. Christen’s getting seemingly nowhere with the agent on the phone and Tobin asks for the third time if they can just go figure it out at home. Christen finally caves, ending her call with the agent in a tone of dissatisfaction that scares Tobin.
They don’t talk while they grab their checked luggage, as Tobin stares out of the window of the black cab Christen hails from the line at the airport, or when Tobin immediately flips on the gas stove to start making the one can of soup that’s left in their pantry while Christen heads to their closet to hide their luggage until they figure out what the hell is going on. Christen doesn’t come back from the bedroom but Tobin can hear that she’s got her phone on speaker again, waiting for the busy tone to end, and probably has her laptop open on their bed.
She knows that she should check on Christen, but she also knows that she’s frustrated with Tobin’s lack of patience at the airport. If they’d been home more recently they probably wouldn’t be as emotional or giving each other the silent treatment. However, even though she’s upset and annoyed and a little disappointed with her own lack of patience with Christen at the airport, she’d much prefer to mope with her fiancé than mope by herself.
She leaves the stove on the lowest setting, hoping that the soup doesn’t burn because then she’ll for sure have to do something she really doesn’t want to do right now and go to the grocery store. Before she opens the door she gives a soft knock in warning. Christen has the lights off and since it’s nearing three PM the sun is starting to set so their room is already relatively dark. Her eyes are red and puffy. Tobin pulls back the covers on her side of the bed and mirrors Christen’s near fetal position, shifting close enough to Christen that they should whisper to each other but not quite close enough for their bodies to touch.
“I’m sorry,” Tobin apologizes softly.
“’S not your fault our flight got canceled,” Christen sniffles and rubs at her red eyes, “I’m sorry too, I’m just frustrated and home sick.”
“Me too.”
Christen doesn’t say anything for a while, she takes some breaths and works to even out her tone, “It feels like the first time you go home after you leave for college, you know? Like you were really homesick but then you settle in a bit, make new friends and memories, then by the end of the semester you forgot how homesick you were until right before you leave.”
“It does,” Tobin cracks a smile at the analogy, and a little more when Christen reaches over to rest a hand on her shoulder. Her thumb draws circles over the sweatshirt Tobin’s wearing.
“I haven’t told my parents yet and I don't know if I can handle talking to them right now.”
“How about I finish lunch and text our parents, while you wait on the phone and figure out what our options are?” Christen nods her head at the suggestion, “I trust you to make the right decision so whatever you think is best just book it.”
“Thanks for volunteering to disappoint our parents,” Christen jokes and moves her hand from Tobin’s shoulder to her neck in a signal for her to stay for just a few more seconds, “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Tobin leans forward to kiss Christen’s forehead before she pushes herself up and out of bed again, heading towards the kitchen to check on her soup.
-
It’s 11:47 at night and Tobin can’t sleep. It’s a rare occasion when Christen is curled up behind her, passed out and snoring occasionally. Other than when Tobin’s trying to make a deadline, there are very few instances that Tobin can think of when Christen has fallen asleep before her.
Their flight got rescheduled to Christmas morning, meaning they’d make it to New Jersey just a few hours before the 4 PM flight they had previously booked to California that would get them there in time for a late Christmas dinner. It’ll be a long day of travel but it’ll be worth it to see both their families on Christmas day.
Christen had been fighting through her sadness all evening, she didn’t even want to go down the street to get dinner at their favorite restaurant and decided to order takeout instead. Tobin had known she was anxious to get home but she hadn’t known exactly how excited she was.
She’s been trying to think of something fun they can do the next day to take their minds off of everything. It’s too short of a turnaround time to book a last minute trip to one of their places on their bucket list but they had already squeezed in all of the festive holiday activities they wanted to do in London. However, she’s scrolling through their joint google doc where they have different tabs that they plan their trips on. There’s one for each country they’ve been to with their flight information, the itineraries Christen makes, and hotel reservations. The last tab is their list that they update with cities and countries they want to visit. There’s a city in England, Brighton, that they’d been wanting to go to. They’d been prioritizing the more distant travel, trips that Christen would need to take a couple of days of PTO for them to get a long weekend. Brighton is close though, just under an hour by train, and they always push it off saying that they’ll just go on a weekend sometime.
So Tobin takes a chance and books some train tickets. She finds a cute little hotel overlooking Regency Square that has a room open.
-
The next morning when Christen wakes up, Tobin is already awake. It’s early and Tobin’s dressed even though they don’t have plans to do anything yet. When she rolls over in bed Tobin throws a black and white striped turtleneck and a pair of jeans at her, “Put those on.”
Christen is still trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes as she sits up in bed, holding the items in her hands with a confused expression, “Why?”
“We’ve got a train to catch at 10:30,” Tobin explains, “I got us a hotel for the night in Brighton and some tickets to go on the Brighton tower.”
“Are you serious?” Christen perks up more than Tobin had seen in about 24 hours.
“Yeah, I packed a bag already. Grab your toiletries from your suitcase and bring my stocking, I think it’d be nice if we open them tomorrow morning since we’ll miss Christmas morning at my sister’s and we’ll need to leave for the airport at 4 AM.”
Christen pushes herself up from the bed and walks over to meet Tobin by their bathroom door. She wraps her arms around Tobin’s neck and pulls her in for a kiss, morning breath and all, “Thank you.”
Tobin reciprocates by wrapping her arms around Christen’s waist, “I figured we could do something to cheer us up.”
“Mm-hmm,” Christen agrees, digging her head in Tobin’s neck and pulling her in tighter.
“You should also pack that red bra I saw you try to sneak into your suitcase the other night.”
Christen pinches Tobin’s shoulder but only moves her head so that she can whisper into Tobin’s ear, “I’m pretty sure sneaking a peak at your Christmas presents will get you on the naughty list.”
“And I’m pretty sure that’s a gift that only somebody who’s already on the naughty list would receive,” Tobin moves to backs away from her but Christen has an iron grip on around her neck, “Seriously though we need to leave, the train leaves in less than an hour and we still need to make it to the station and grab some breakfast. We can’t miss the train to our backup Christmas plans.”
-
The journey to get to Brighton goes much better than their attempt at flying home the day before. They arrive twenty minutes early, grab a second round of coffee and some pastries at the Costa near their platform, and most importantly their train leaves at the exact time it’s supposed to.
Once they’re in their seats, Tobin pulls out her Switch to play some games and Christen pulls out a magazine. They’re barely eight minutes into their 56 minute journey when Tobin’s device dies from low battery. There are no electrical sockets in their cabin so she puts it away and drops her head on Christen’s shoulder, sighing at her own lack of preparation. She’s a little surprised to see that Christen’s got a wedding magazine open to a page about finding the perfect silhouette for your body shape. Tobin reads over her shoulder a little bit, bored by both the old-fashioned wording in the description of body shapes and also the talk of the latest wedding dress trends she didn’t care about at all unless it was on Christen’s body.
“According to this I should pick a simple dress so I don’t overwhelm my body frame,” Christen states, “Apparently a gossamer tulle skirt would be a good way to get some volume without being too overwhelming. I don’t even know what that means.”
“When did you get this?”
Tobin’s head is still on Christen’s shoulder but she shrugs anyways, “In that care package my mom sent a few days ago, I figured I’d bring it on the plane to look at in case I got bored.”
“Hm,” Tobin just mumbles in response.
A few more minutes pass by, Tobin stews over the response while Christen quickly flips through the magazine. “Should we, like, start planning do you think?”
“Do you want to? I was waiting for you to finish your final draft and things to settle down after the holidays to bring it up.”
“I mean,” Tobin pauses for a second, trying to squash the anxiety she feels flush just thinking about all the planning that’s required to plan a wedding, “How long does it take to plan a wedding?”
Christen grins a little, “I don’t know, I’ve never gotten married before.”
Tobin sighs and lifts her head back up to look out the window.
“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d been thinking about this a lot so I didn’t want to bring it up until things calmed down for both of us.”
“It’s fine.”
“And truthfully,” Christen reaches to grab Tobin’s hand between them, “I didn’t want to think about picking where we want to get married.”
“Well, where do you want to get married?”
Christen pauses for a moment but knows she needs to be honest, “I’d like to get married near my parents' place, but I know that’s a bit selfish of me. I’m fine with getting married in New Jersey too, or closer to Stanford since that’s where we met.”
“I’d love to get married in LA Chris,” Tobin responds without a beat, “I don’t really know where I would even want to get married if we chose New Jersey. Plus, when it comes to the weather that seems like the most reliable option.”
“That sounds like step number one is complete. And now we just have to plan everything else,” This time her joke draws a little chuckle from Tobin, “How about we get the contact information for Tyler’s wedding planner when we actually make it back stateside?”
-
When they get to Brighton they hail a cab to their hotel even though it’s only a ten-minute walk. There’s a light dusting of fresh snow on the ground and it’s colder than either of them care to drag their joint carry-on suitcase over the brick streets in. Their hotel is a block from the sea with a view of Regency Square and the Brighton tower sticking up into the sky.
It’s a cute and trendy hotel, their room has a double bed barely big enough for the two of them but it was the only room that was available on such short notice. The relatively rare snowfall makes for a beautiful scene as they take a moment to enjoy the view of the sea from their room before they decide to brave the elements and walk towards the beach and pier. Their cheeks and ears get cold from the harsh wind as they walk along the pebble beach but there’s no shortage of little shops in the area for them to stop to buy some hats and scarves in.
Christen watches as Tobin embarrasses herself trying to knock over some bottles in a carnival game on the pier, they stop at the aquarium for a while, and do some shopping in the winding narrow streets of the lanes. They don’t actually buy much but Christen finds a painting she wants to get framed for their apartment and a set of matching pajamas for Tobin’s nephews.
They drop off their purchases in their hotel room before they head back towards the observation tower. It’s not quite four yet but the sun has already set so their trek towards the sea is illuminated by the street lamps. At Christen’s persistence, they arrive the recommended twenty minutes early to get through security but a line has already formed so they find the end of it.
The tower is much taller than Tobin expected, they watch the glass orb descend toward the ground while they wait in line to get in. Christen has her arm looped through Tobin’s since they can’t hold hands while they have their mittens on. When they stop in the line, Christen unwraps her arm so that she can slide it around Tobin’s back. Tobin wraps her own arm over Christen’s shoulders. They stand in silence for a while until Christen very lightly bumps Tobin’s hip to get her attention.
“What are you thinking about?”
“This is going to sound so cheesy but five years ago, we’d only been dating for about two and a half weeks at this point in time. If you would’ve told me in five years that we’d be living in London I don’t think I would’ve believed you.”
“I don’t think I would’ve believed it either,” Christen agrees.
“Where do you think we’ll be five years from now?”
Christen takes a long pause, it’s a difficult question. There are a few things she’s certain about but a lot of things that she’s not. It’s hard to even envision where they’ll even be living next year, she doesn’t know exactly when they’re going to get married, or what the next phase of their lives will look like. What she does know, she’s certain of.
“We’ll be married, of course. I think we’ll own a house by then, hopefully the traveling for work will settle down a bit. You will have finished your third book and I think I’ll be at the same company, but we’ll be back home in the states. And I think we’ll have a baby, maybe two. And a dog, of course.”
Christen nudges Tobin’s hip a second time when she mentions babies. Tobin has had major baby fever (but won’t admit it) ever since both of her sisters had babies within a week of each other back in June. She was already obsessed with her first nephew, but Christen knew she was doomed when she saw the look on Tobin’s face when she got to hold both of her new nephews at the same time when they were about two weeks old. It seemed like it was all Tobin talked about for a month after they got back from their two week summer vacation to Rhode Island. They’d known for a long time that they wanted kids, at least two since they both had multiple siblings. It was on that vacation to Rhode Island when Christen had that moment that convinced Christen to finally make the jump to buy a ring for Tobin. They were laying in bed one night after being awaken by one of Tobin’s new nephews crying in the night and Tobin turned to ask her not if or when she wanted to start a family together but how. She’d known for a long time that she was going to marry Tobin but they’d decided to wait a while longer to get married since they didn’t want to overwhelm themselves with too much change. That being said, those two weeks were the first time when she wanted all the things they’d talked about to be a little less in the future and a little more in the now.
“That sounds nice,” Tobin grins and leans over to press a kiss to Christen’s cheek. Almost on cue Tobin’s phone buzzes in her pocket, it’s a snapshot from her sister Perry. She holds the phone in-between the two of them and turns it sideways so Christen can watch the video with her. It starts out with the two babies laying on their tummies together, giggling as her sister Katie shakes a noise maker in front of them. Then Perry pans the camera to her three-year-old nephew, “Say hi to auntie Tobin and Christen!”
“Hi” He screeches loudly, barreling towards the phone and pressing his face way too close to the camera. They can hear Perry whisper in the background ‘say we miss you’ and he yells into the camera so loud that Katie tries to hush him from her spot on the ground.
“We should send one back when we get to the top,” Tobin suggests.
Christen nods in agreement. They wait for the rest of the line to pass mostly in silence. Christen thinks Tobin’s probably happy to get the video but it makes her a little sad to know what they’re missing out on. There’s a bar on board though and Christen had already been planning on getting a drink to take the edge off the fear of heights that she knows will hit her at the top. Tobin spends most of the 25 minutes with her nose almost pressed into the glass walls, asking Christen if she can see something that she’s pointing to with her finger. Christen keeps her hand on the small of Tobin’s back for most of the ride.
When they finish they head back to the hotel again to freshen up before dinner. Their reservation isn’t until 7:30 so they have a couple hours to relax. Christen takes the time to enjoy a bubble bath since they don’t have a bath tub in their apartment. Dinner goes smoothly, they share a bottle of wine but Christen doesn’t like the dish she orders so she switches with Tobin. They walk back to their hotel slowly, taking some time to stop at the sea and admire the way the large waning moon shines over the sea.
Christen is happy to be near the sea. Brighton is absolutely nothing like California but the sound of the waves rolling into the shore reminds her of home.
-
The next morning they order room service for breakfast, crepes for two and some ‘fresh’ fruit. Christen only gets slightly upset with Tobin when she kicks her new red lingerie set behind the door when the food delivery man comes. They lay in bed while they eat, Christen has the sheet pulled up around her chest and Tobin’s asking Christen how much she thinks the hotel will charge her if she steals the robe she’s wearing. When they finish and Christen’s complaining about how she doesn’t want to get out of bed, Tobin jumps up to grab their stockings from the bag they’d brought with them.
“Merry Christmas babe,” Tobin leans over to give Christen a quick kiss as she sets the stocking down on Christen’s lap.
“Thank you,” Christen fiddles with the lining while she waits for Tobin to climb back into bed. She starts opening the gifts, there’s a travel mug with a gift card in it, a new watchband for her Apple Watch, a beanie, and a Gucci wallet that she hems and haws about being much too expensive for a stocking stuffer.
When she gets to the end of her present opening though there’s an orange sitting at the bottom of her stocking. Christen tries to cover the shock that hits her when her fingers make contact with the familiar object. It’s a family tradition that she didn’t think Tobin even knew about since this was their first Christmas together.
“How’d you know?” She holds the orange up in her hand, turning it around in her hand like she was confused.
“You told me about it,” Tobin scrunches her face as if it was obvious, “The night before I drove you to the airport when we first started dating. Remember, you made me and Lauren and Jrue the chicken chili your mom always makes the day after Christmas and Lauren made that candy cane cheesecake?”
“And then we drove around looking at Christmas lights,” Christen finishes, “I can’t believe you remembered that, we were so drunk by the time we went to bed.”
Tobin leans over to give her a kiss on the cheek, satisfied with herself, “Did you get me an orange too?”
“You’ll have to open it to see,” Christen shoves the stocking closer to her and sending her a wink before she reaches over to place her hand on Tobin’s neck to pull her in for a kiss. She keeps her hand there for a couple seconds too long and waits for Tobin to open her eyes before she pulls away, “Thank you, for the gifts and pulling this mini trip together.”
-
They catch a late afternoon train back to London so that they can get to bed early since they have to leave so early for their flight. They make it to the airport with plenty of extra time and this time it goes much more smoothly. The flight is on time and the captain tells them they’re going to land about a half an hour early based on the wind patterns. There are mimosas and despite the flight attendants having to sacrifice their Christmas morning, they’re cheery and there’s a special holiday dessert option after lunch. They definitely drink too many mimosas and attempt to start Elf at the same time on their screens until eventually, they fall asleep (Tobin much earlier than Christen, laying her head on Christen’s shoulder).
Katie had told Tobin that her brother would pick them up at the airport so that they didn’t have to leave the babies alone with their husbands, but when they make it out of customs to head towards the car pickup area they see Tobin’s entire family waiting for them. Both her sisters, her parents, her brother, her brothers-in-law, and all of her nephews are waiting with Welcome Home and congratulations posters for both her and Christen, as well as balloons and flowers. Her sisters run to hug her, crashing into her forcefully at the same time and squealing in her ears. She wraps an arm around each of them tightly.
Her oldest nephew, the only one capable of walking, runs much slower and clutches onto her legs beneath them. Christen gives quick hugs to everyone while Tobin moves on to give her brother a tight hug as well, but not before she picks her nephew up and keeps him in her arms for the rest of the greetings. Her sisters take the time to clutch Tobin’s left hand, pulling it close to their faces to inspect the square diamond in real time. Christen coos at the babies in their car seats after greeting Katie and Perry’s husbands. The babies look like they’ve doubled in size since they last saw them in June. Tobin’s mom hovers behind her until she stands up again and gives her a hug. Tobin’s mom pulls back and holds her shoulders to get a good look at her. Christen feels overwhelmed by the love and attention they’re receiving. Likewise, Tobin’s mom pulls her own left hand to get a good look at the ring Tobin had gotten her. Tobin’s mom pulls her in for a second hug and whispers, “Welcome home sweetheart.”
Two nights ago, when she’d been standing in line with Tobin talking about their future she hadn’t been sure where they’d be in 5 years. Rather, she wasn’t sure where they’d be living. She’d run her head through different scenarios hundreds of times, there are so many places that they’d lived, together or separately. Each one is significant in its own way.
Much like that night where they were lying in bed in Rhode Island and she’d decided to buy a ring for Tobin, she knows when they’re in the airport where they’ll be in five years.
It’s obvious to Christen, Tobin’s got her nephew in her arms and everyone is fighting to hug them and ask about their engagement. There’s no urgency to leave the airport even though they’ve only got a few short hours before they need to be back at the airport. Everyone is so happy and Tobin is beaming.
In five years they’ll be here. Not literally in the airport, probably not even New Jersey unless they settle on the suburbs. Katie still lives near their hometown and Perry lives about an hour away, Jeffrey lives in North Carolina but it’s a short flight away. Tobin’s parents live in Florida now but they still have their summer house in Rhode Island. Christen realizes that she wants this, she wants to be near Tobin’s siblings and parents all the time. They’re going to find their way back to New York.