Love at First Fight

by Carrie Aarons

I’ve had to lie to my own brain to trick it into thinking that Molly Archer is a stuck-up brat. Because if I don’t, I’ll have to admit she’s my kryptonite. I’ll have to admit that the minute Justin introduced her to me a year ago, I understood. It clicked. I know what it feels like to fall in love at first sight. Because I did, with her. And then she went on to fall in love with my best friend.

I can’t explain the feeling that came over me the first time I laid eyes on Molly. It wasn’t a bolt of lightning; the room didn’t fade into tones of pink and red. There were no bells chiming in my ears. No, it was a slow, fuzzy feeling that took over my brain, my heart. It was if my whole being just said, “Ah, there she is. I found her,” and it all just clicked into place. She hadn’t said one word to me, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, I knew this was the woman I was meant to spend the rest of my life with.

Now she’s living in my rental house for the entire summer, single as a lone wolf, and I can already feel my defenses starting to slip. But I have to keep them up, remember why she can never be mine. Not only has my best friend been there, but now, I’m in no place to love someone the way she deserves to be loved. I’m damaged goods, and there is no way I’m letting her touch my issues with a ten-foot pole.

I’m in love with my best friend’s girl, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to make her see that I’m the one she should be with.

It’s funny how every time we interact, with each instance I come in contact with Smith, I forget all about my broken heart. And start wondering what it would be like if it beat for him.

part of me doesn’t understand how Molly doesn’t realize that the guy who wants to spend his life with her is sitting just feet from her face.

my birthday this year reminds me that I’m single. That sounds pathetic, but it does. I guess sometimes I think that I’m just not girlfriend or wife material.”

My vision had gone red with fury when she’d been at the bar, by herself, on her birthday, lamenting about how men just didn’t want to make her a longtime option. Couldn’t she see that I was desperate to hang onto her forever?

This was the kiss of a man who had waited for more than three hundred and sixty-five days to take this woman’s mouth. This was a kiss with all of the emotions and passion I’d been locking away inside my heart while she fell in love with my best friend. This was the kiss of a starving person, one who thought they’d never get this chance, and one who was pouring everything into it because he may never get this chance again.

Anyone who has met the human who feels like the other half of their soul understands. That’s what Molly is for me.

I promise that I’ll show you every single day just how much I cherish you. Just how much I’ve loved you, just how much I knew you were the other half of me since the first moment I laid eyes on you. I have a lot to prove to you, Molly, but please. Be with me. Love with me. Jesus, fight with me. Fight for me. Nothing else matters.”

“You told me a while back that you thought you’d be planning your wedding within the next year. And that stuck with me. Not because you were talking about another man, but because I wanted you to see, so desperately, that I was supposed to be the one you were marrying. I know you might think this is fast, that a lot of people might think that. But I’ve been in love with you for a long time—what seems like forever—and when I know what I want, I don’t wait. I love you, Molly. I promise, I will try for the rest of my life to make you happy, and I’ll always keep you safe. Marry me? Make me the happiest damn man on the planet?”