If This Was a Movie (Evergreen Park #2)

by Morgan Elizabeth

To the hopeless romantics patiently waiting for their happily ever after.

“You know, if this was a movie—” I start before she cuts me off.

“I picture everything as a movie. Romanticize it a bit, pretend that no matter what, everything is for the plot, that at the end, the happily ever after is impending.”

Ever since I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding at much too young an age, I saw a part of myself in Toula, in her bone-deep desire to find true love. It started my addiction to romance movies, and I watched every single one I could get my hands on.

I fell in love with the idea of love and told myself I’d only let myself fall when I met him—the one people wrote books and made movies about.

“I want…I want to be loved madly. I want to live a movie-worthy life and wake up knowing every single day it’s my reality. I want to find someone I wake up every morning excited to spend time with. I want someone who loves everything about me, even the parts I don’t like. Some people in my life…they think I’m being crazy, that I’m being unrealistic, and that’s fine. I know one day, I’ll find it, even if it takes a lifetime. I refuse…I refuse to settle for less than I deserve.”

“This…pull. There’s something between us.” My heart skips a beat. “It’s crazy, Jules. I wasn’t planning on going to the bar last night, but I walked past and couldn’t stop it, like there was some thread tugging me right to you.”

When he catches my eye, his lips tip up in a soft smile, and despite everything, butterflies in my belly flutter like they’ve never been gone. I’ve completely lost it.

This is why men are only good when they’re fictional. Because in the real world, they’re always a fucking disappointment.

A little girl deserves that, to believe in magic and true love and wishes coming true.

“Anyone can be brave if they want it bad enough, Jules. You know what I say: Shoulders back, tits out, bitch. You were born for big things.”

“You know, a real man isn’t afraid of a little instruction. In fact, he might find a step-by-step tutorial is quite…enlightening.”

“You were never just some chick I hooked up with, Jules, and you know that. You were always more. So much more, I didn’t understand it at the time. But then my daughter ran to you on a crowded street, as if she knew too, like she could feel the pull of you to us.”

Nate and I both look up and see a bundle of white and green tied with a red ribbon over the doorway we’re standing in… “Mistletoe! That means you have to kiss!”

“If this was a movie, I think this is when I’d kiss you,” he whispers under his breath, mine catching with his words.

I lied, I hung up the mistletoe. And it was so fucking worth it.

“If this was a movie, I wouldn’t leave without a goodnight kiss,” I whisper against her lips.

“I’m pretty boring. I’m just a girl who doesn’t know to drip her water lines and watches too many movies and lives in delusion most of the time.”

I’ll do whatever it takes to make her entire life like this: a series of movie-worthy events to take her breath away.

“It’s not too much. Nothing is too much for you, Jules. You deserve the world. You deserve your life to be the most romantic, cinematic masterpiece that was ever created, and I’m making it my mission to help you see that.”

“Of course, I’m yours, Nate! I’m in love with you and I have been for a whole year! It makes no sense at all. None! Do you know how crazy it feels to have your heartbroken after just two nights with someone? Do you know how insane I felt, mourning the mere promise of you for an entire year?”

“I love you, Jules. I love you, and I’m going to fight back your fears every day until all you know is feeling safe.”

It’s just him and me and the promise of cinematic happily ever after.

“I love you, Nate,” I whisper, looking him in the eye, letting him see everything: how much I love him, how deep that goes, that all of my walls are completely crumbled.

“Nothing more beautiful,” he whispers against my lips. “Nothing more beautiful than you giving me that. I love you, Julianne. Thank you for giving me this. For giving me you.”

“I like to think the Donovans hold some kind of magic. Like when we find our person, there’s a bit of chaos, but in the end…” “It’s magic,” I say with a smile.

Nate is mine, and I’m his. We’ve already covered that, but the reality is Sophie is mine too. The way she snuck into my heart and stole it is obvious. I want to be in their family, I want to be Nate’s, and I want to be whatever version of a mother figure Sophie is comfortable with me being. I always knew I wanted kids one day, and Sophie is everything and more that I’ve dreamed of.

I knew from the beginning you were meant to be mine. My first mistake was not chasing you.

I love you madly, Jules. Let me love you madly.

“You’re crazy,” I whisper against his lips. “Crazy about you,” he replies.

“You want to be loved madly, and I am absolutely crazy about you, baby. I want to make every single day movie-worthy for you. I want you to make Sophie’s Christmas wish come true: become my wife, become her mom. I want to convince you to give her a brother or sister or maybe two.”

“Let me love you madly. Let me make your life a fantasy. Let me give you the fairy tale ending you deserve. So, Jules, will you marry me?”

“If this was a movie, I think this is where you guys would kiss,” Sophie says, breaking Jules from her reverie as she laughs out loud through the tears, swatting playfully at her. But I take our daughter's advice, putting a hand on each side of Jules’s face and pulling her toward me, pressing my lips to hers as we start our own happily ever after.