“I wasn’t sure what kind you like, so I got a few.” She crouched on the floor and kissed Carys. “Do you want some now?”

Carys blinked, her expression unreadable. “No, I was going to go out and get some when I finished.”

“Yeah, that’s why I got it.”

Greta put the four pints in the freezer and settled back on the bed.

“That was a sweet thought, Greta, but like I told you, I wanted to do that when I was done. It was going to be like a marker of finishing, and I always go to this place and get a cone.”

Something tightened in Greta’s stomach.

“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to mess up your tradition.”

“It’s okay—you didn’t know. We can still go get cones and eat that later.”

“Okay,” Greta said. She’d never done something nice for someone and had them reject it before. Carys said it was fine, but Greta felt uneasy.

An hour later, Carys threw down her clipboard and crawled into bed with Greta.

“I’d like to thank the academy for giving me this honor,” she murmured to no one. Then she threw an arm over Greta’s stomach and kissed her neck.

“Hi. You done?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Congratulations, yay.”

“Thanks,” Carys garbled. She nuzzled in closer.

“Did you wanna go get your ice cream cone to celebrate?”

“Mm, I’m so comfortable,” Carys said. “Maybe later.”

Then she promptly fell asleep.

***

The next week was the best of Greta’s life. Carys was on winter break, so her days were free, and she only had a couple of ghost tours scheduled so her nights were mostly free too.

Greta went to Muriel’s for morning coffee and asked her if the Garden Gang might be up for helping Carys’ friend Tana’s students build raised beds at their school, and Muriel called around and began planning all the materials they could donate.

Ramona and Greta got stoned and wandered through the aquarium, renaming all the marine life and sending Carys nature documentary-esque videos of their explanations, which Carys found extremely amusing. When they collapsed in a pile of giggles in front of the sea lion display, Ramona told Greta that she seemed happy, and Greta told her, without any irony, that she’d never been so happy in her life.

And that weekend would be Eleventh House’s annual holiday party, so every evening, they planned the food, worked on decorations, and explained their traditions to Greta, who was thrilled to participate, especially since one of the traditions was that you elaborately wrapped up something you had on hand to give as a gift, then everyone swapped back at the end of the night, unless you both liked the trade. That way, everyone got the fun of opening presents without the pressure of having to buy anything.