#lydiabelle

Lydia smiled as she entered back into the small living room to see her girlfriend meticulously folding wrapping paper over the gifts.

“Enjoying yourself?” she called out.

Isabelle held up the neatly wrapped gift in triumph and smiled at Lydia.

“Almost done. I just have Alec’s and Jace’s gifts left to wrap,” Izzy replied as she stood up from her piles of gifts and wrapping paper shreds to make her way to Lydia. “How’d the cake turn out?”

“Good, it’s cooling right now before I decorate it.” Lydia smiled and pulled her girlfriend closer into an embrace.

“I’m almost done wrapping. I can help you decorate the cake afterward.” Izzy offered, already knowing the answer. She knew there was a specific reason she was wrapping the gifts rather than helping with baking. Izzy had heard the phone conversation between Alec and Lydia, begging her not to let his sister cook the food they were bringing to the Christmas party later.

“I’m sure I can handle it myself,” Lydia assured Izzy with a smile. She had to be careful. Lydia knew of Isabelle’s cooking skills first hand. She had made the mistake of letting her love for her girlfriend look at Izzy’s cooking with rose-tinted glasses, ignoring her best friend’s warning against it. She could still recall Alec’s ‘I told you so’ when she had to call back into work sick for the week.

“Are you sure?” Izzy pressed as she internally smirked. She enjoyed lightly pushing the subject to hear the excuses that her girlfriend would invent. Izzy’s favorite one to date was when she had offered to set the water to boil for pasta while Lydia showered, only for Lydia then to come up how she didn’t have bottled water and the apartment’s tap wasn’t healthy to drink from even if boiled. They had ended up ordering pizza that day.

“I’m positive it’s just a bit of frosting and sprinkles.” Lydia reasoned, leaning closer to kiss Izzy’s cheek. “Did you wrap the ones we have to mail out to your parents and mine?”

“We can send them out tomorrow or sometime this week,” Izzy nodded as she turned and pointed to the pile of presents separated to the left side from the main mountain. “Should arrive in time if we don’t procrastinate it.”

Lydia had to resist the urge to roll her eyes when Izzy mentioned procrastination being a ‘we’ issue. She would’ve corrected others, priding herself on punctuality, but with Izzy, she didn’t want to. Lydia was willing to admit that being with Isabelle had loosened some of her previously tightened strings.

“Sounds good,” Lydia responded.

They stood there for a bit with the soft instrumental holiday music playing in the background. Isabelle leaned her back against her girlfriend’s chest with a pleased hum, embracing the moment’s simplicity.

“I should get back to the cake,” Lydia whispered into Isabelle’s hair.

“My offer still stands to help you out.” Isabelle teased with an amused tone in her voice.

Lydia smiled and shook her head into Izzy’s hair one last time before pulling away and turning her girlfriend to face her.

“No, I am sure I can manage one cake by myself, Iz.” Lydia deflected again. She leaned and claimed Izzy’s lips softly with a smile still present. “Just finish the presents, then we can head out.”

Isabelle smiled back into the kiss and nodded. Most assumed that she took offense to people being wary of her cooking skills, but that also meant she got to eat Lydia’s cooking and pastries often. So Izzy couldn’t see it as much as a negative. Sure, she couldn’t home-cooked meal for her girlfriend, but she made up for it with fancy restaurant dates.