Better Not Pout (Mistletoe Falls)

by Maren Moore

Poor-vision girls unite.

It’s not that I think love isn’t real, but maybe it’s just not as whimsical as it seems between the pages of a book about a man, written by a woman.

Rosalie Sullivan has my full attention, whether I want it that way or not.

“You’re hot as fuck when you’re mad. Bothering you might just be my new favorite pastime.”

“Trust me when I say I don’t need to beg a woman for anything, Rosalie, unless she’s into that kind of thing, and then I can be a very good boy.”

Men’s gray sweatpants are the equivalent of lingerie for women.

She’s wearing the cutest fucking ruffle socks that stop right above her ankle, pink and dainty. Like her. What the fuck is wrong with me? They’re goddamn socks, Wells. For fuck’s sake.

“Any guy would be the luckiest motherfucker on this planet to be able to touch you, and if he says otherwise, he’s a liar.” We’re so close I can feel the soft puff of air that escapes between her lips as she sucks in a breath. “So no, having to touch you, kiss you, hold your hand when we’re in public isn’t going to make me feel uncomfortable. Even if it’s fake.”

“Just so you know, I brought you coffee this morning because if we’re convincing everyone you are my girl, then she’d need it after I kept her up all night, exhausting her body until she couldn’t move. Gotta take care of her. After all, optics are everything right now, yeah?”

“But I’m starting to realize just how wrong I am about you. Now, all I want is to find out if you taste as sweet as I’ve imagined, Rosalie Sullivan.”

But as I’m kissing my fake girlfriend in the middle of my barely renovated bar, it feels like the most right thing I’ve ever done. Like all of the shit that I’ve been through in the last couple of years has led me straight here. Straight to her.

“That fucker never deserved to lay a single goddamn finger on you, Rosalie. It’s you that was too good for him. And you know what? It’s good that he fucked up and lost you because then I never would’ve had the chance to make you mine, Sugar. You are beautiful. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Without a doubt, without question. I love your body.”

“You are perfect. Every inch of you. And if you’ll let me, I want you to give me the chance to prove it to you.”

Those who have never struggled with their weight or body image can’t fully understand what it’s like to hate the person staring back at you. To pick apart every single part of you until there’s nothing left but a shell.

“I’m good too, and if you’re sure, there is nothing in this goddamn world that I want more than to feel you wrapped around me with nothing separating us. I’ve never been bare with anyone.”

“I suggest you hit those pucks into the net right the fuck now, Rosalie Sullivan, or I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and take you back to the cabin and fuck the shit out of you.”

“They’re tempting, but they’re nothing compared to how tempted I am by you. I’m beginning to realize that my sweet tooth is for you, Rosalie Sullivan.”

I’m fairly sure he could ask me to fly away with him to another planet right now, and I’d agree.

“The whole time I thought I was searching for a place to call home, when all along, I was searching for you, Rosalie.”