Chapter Text
“Hey, Erin, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Erin looks up from her work to see Holtzmann standing awkwardly near her desk, a nervous expression on her face. Erin immediately turns her attention to the younger woman, worried something was wrong, she’s never seen her like this before, “is everything ok?”
“My parents are coming to visit,” Holtzmann blurts. Erin relaxes slightly, parents she could handle, she’s had enough issues with her own.
“Is that a problem?” Erin didn’t really know much about Holtzmann’s parents, what sort of people they were or what Holtzmann’s relationship with them was like.
“No…” Holtz trails off and Erin got worried again, this was very un-Holtzmann-like behaviour.
“But?”
"I told them that I have a girlfriend," Holtzmann admits in a rush, avoiding eye contact with Erin as she does.
"And you don't?"
Even through her panic, Holtzmann replies flirtatiously, "you know I only have eyes for you."
Erin rolls her eyes, "really, now?"
"Sorry, it's a force of habit," Holtzmann didn't look sorry at all, "but it's actually worse than that. I may or may not have led my parents to believe that you're my girlfriend."
"What! What made them think that?" Erin’s voice gains a panicked edge, her mouth falling open as she stares disbelievingly at Holtzmann.
“I told them that you were.”
“What!”
“I didn’t mean too, but they kept asking me if I was dating anyone and I got fed up and told them I had a girlfriend and when they asked who it was I said the first person who came to my mind.” Holtzmann loves her parents, she really does, but sometimes they can get on her nerves, especially when they bring up her love life, something that is nonexistent. So she’d lied, hoping that’d stop the questions and it’d worked, up until now where it was about to backfire in her face.
“Why didn’t you just make someone up?” Erin tries not to read too deeply into the fact that out of everyone Holtzmann could’ve picked, she’d chosen her, she didn’t want to get her hopes up that maybe her feelings weren’t so unrequited.
“I’d spoken about you to them, about all of the Ghostbusters,” Holtzmann quickly added, “so they already knew who you were, it was easier than making up a whole new person.”
“Ok, never mind how it happened, what do we do now?”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about, they want to meet you.”
“What!”
“That’s why they’re coming to visit.” They’d expressed interest before in coming to visit to see her new job and meet her new colleagues but the news that Holtzmann was in a relationship had been the main factor in her parents deciding to visit now when they’d seen how serious it was. Which of course had been another lie.
“Nope, I can’t do that, I can’t do meet the parents while pretending to be dating you, you know how bad I am at lying.” Erin was struggling to breathe as she spoke, thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong, from Erin’s parents not liking her despite the fact they’re not even dating to Holtzmann figuring out Erin’s feelings while they’re pretending to be a couple.
“Please, Erin, please,” Holtzmann begs, “I’ll do all the talking, you don’t need to act any different around me, just don’t tell them the truth. I can’t tell them I lied, they’ll just end up worrying again.”
“Worrying?” Oops, Holtzmann hadn’t meant to say that.
“That’s the real reason I lied,” Holtzmann admits, not making eye contact again as she does, “they worry about me, worry I’ll end up alone, so I lied and said I was seeing someone.”
Erin understands that, her parents are the same, always questioning if she’s found a boyfriend yet but she thinks that’s more because they want grandkids than their worry that she’ll end up alone. But that’s the deciding factor that gets her to agree to Holtzmann’s plan, if it’ll help Holtzmann then she’ll do it.
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
Holtzmann punches the air, a large grin on her face as she throws her arms around Erin, “thank you, thank you, thank you, I owe you one.”
Erin laughs, glad Holtzmann is back to her own self again, “anything I need to know before I meet them?”
“Nope,” Holtz said, popping the ‘p’, “they really are nice people, have always supported me with my work and my life choices so I can’t complain really, I just wish they’d lay off my love life and hopefully this’ll get them to do just that.”
“When do they arrive?” Erin asks, already formulating a plan of how she’ll deal with everything that could go wrong when meeting the parents of her now fake girlfriend.
“They’ll be here in an hour.”
“What! And you didn’t mention this sooner because?” Erin was trying really hard not to panic again.
“I was hoping they’d cancel,” Holtz admits, “and I didn’t tell you sooner because I knew you’d panic about it. This way, you have less time to get worked up about it.” That was a lie, she’d mostly just been avoiding having this conversation.
“Instead you tell me with no time at all to prepare!”
“It’ll be fine, just be yourself and act normal and if they ask any questions, I’ll answer.”
“You owe me big time,” Erin says, trying to regulate her breathing, repeating Holtzmann’s “it’ll be fine” over and over in her mind, “and you’re telling Patty and Abby.”
xxx
Patty and Abby were all too eager to join in on the lie, laughing as Holtzmann explained that her parents were coming to visit and they all had to pretend that she and Erin were dating.
“You have seen Erin lie, right?” Abby asks, struggling to keep her laughter at bay, “she gets all sweaty and can’t speak properly, how is she going to pretend to be your girlfriend?”
“That does not happen,” Erin cuts in, glaring at Abby.
“I’m sorry sweetie, but it does.” Erin turns her glare on Patty, neither of them were helping her stress levels and they’re definitely exaggerating her behaviour, she hopes anyway.
“Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter,” Holtzmann says, trying to keep Erin calm as her parents would be here soon.
“Do you have a back story?” Abby asks, deciding to leave Erin alone for now, they’d be time for lots more teasing later.
“We don’t need one, my parents won’t be here long, just enough to meet you guys, have a quick tour then we’re going out for lunch. If they ask any questions then I’ll answer them, all Erin has to do is stand there and look pretty,” Holtzmann explains, a wink thrown at Erin as she talks, “and all you two need to do is not say anything about our relationship either and then we’ll be golden.”
Completely ignoring what Holtzmann has just said, Patty starts making up her own story, “what if one night, you two were the last left here working and you got talking and one thing led to another and you realised you had feelings for each other and have been dating ever since.”
Abby cut in, enjoying seeing Erin blush, “or, what if one day Holtzmann got jealous after seeing Erin getting flustered around Kevin and she asked to speak to Erin, but instead of talking Holtz just kissed her then you guys admitted you had feelings for each other and the rest is history.”
Abby knew her friend had feelings for the engineer and maybe this would be the push they need to finally get together. Abby also knew Holtzmann had been interested in Erin from their first meeting and knew there was a reason why Holtzmann had told her parents that she was dating Erin instead of her or Patty. That’s the only reason she’s teasing them now, knows they both have feelings for each other, it’d be too cruel to do that if their feelings weren’t reciprocated. Hopefully though, her two friends would realise that their feelings were mutual and they’d finally admit them to each other.
“Ohh, that’s a good one,” Patty says, grinning, seeing how embarrassed both Erin and Holtzmann are now, “or what if one of you just asked the other on a date, simple as that.”
Abby opened her mouth and with Holtzmann staring at them in what now looked like shock, Erin knew she wasn’t going to put a stop to this so she had to.
“Nope, no more,” Erin cut her off, trying not to imagine those scenarios, or the dozens of other scenarios she’s imagined where she admits her feelings to Holtzmann, “you’re not helping. We don’t need a back story like Holtz just explained, we just need to act normal while her parents are here and everything will be fine.”
“You two should at least hold hands in front of her parents, don’t want them to be suspicious,” Patty suggests, enjoying this way too much.
“A kiss would really sell it, leave no doubt in their minds that you two are dating,” Abby adds and Erin is really going to kill her friend.
A knock at the door startles them all, stopping this conversation which Erin is immensely relieved about until she realizes exactly who it is on the other side of the door.
“You ready?” Holtzmann asks as she heads towards the door, a quick glance at Erin to check she’s ok, giving her one last chance to back out. Holtzmann is going to have to have words with Abby and Patty after this, she knows they both know about her feelings for Erin and it wasn’t fair what they just did to Erin, making her feel uncomfortable like that. She’ll apologise to Erin later too, hoping this situation won’t affect their relationship at all, that’s the last thing she wants.
Erin nods, “let’s get this over with.”