by A. J. Morrow
“What are you doing?” Tess asked, her voice breaking with each new word.
“I came to get you, to make sure you were okay.”
Tess took a good, long look at Colette. Her hair floated around her in the wind, snowflakes laced through the strands, and her eyes were bright green against the barren landscape. Her cheeks, flushed with the cold, were as soft and pink as mulled wine. “Why?” Tess asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No.”
Colette took a deep breath, as though she were gathering her strength. “I told Mother she was wrong, after you left. Said you were the love of my life and she had no right to say those things to you. The others didn’t believe her, anyway, when they saw you crying.”
Tess sniffed. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. Most of my family struggle with emotion, but that doesn’t mean I look down on it. I think it’s one of your strengths.”
Tess didn’t respond.
“Tess, I…I need to tell you something. Maybe I should thank Bernard, disgraced as he is, for pushing me to tell you this, but there’s something you need to know.”
Tess stared at Colette, shivering both with cold and anticipation. This was it, the thing she feared most. Colette was trying to let her down gently.
“What is it?” she said—quietly, as if the silence would make it less true.
“I didn’t lie to my family. When I said I cared about you, I meant it.” Colette took another deep breath. “Tess…loving you was unexpected. I never planned for it, I never meant to do it. When I first realized my feelings, I pushed them away, I was mean and distant with you at work, even as you were warm and open and reliable. As bad as I was, you were always kind. You were always there. Even when I asked the impossible of you and dragged you out here for Christmas, whenever I looked around, there you were.”
Tess couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Now…now I see how wrong it was of me to do this,” Colette continued, “to keep how I felt from you. The truth is, Tess, I care about you. Not as a colleague, or a friend, or a conspirator. I care about you as a partner.” Colette gave her a weak smile.
When Tess didn’t respond, she dropped her hand from Tess’s wrist.
“I’m sorry. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way, I won’t hold it against you, I just had to tell you.”
“It’s not that,” Tess said.
“What?”
“It’s not that, Colette, I just…you know that extra Christmas present from earlier?” Tess reached into her pajama pocket and took out the box. With an awkward smile, she shoved it at Colette. “Well, this is it. I think you should open it now.”
Colette took the box gingerly. With a nervous glance at Tess, she lifted up the lid. Beneath the card rested a single sprig of mistletoe, stolen from the garden in a moment of reckless romanticism. Colette’s eyes snapped back to Tess, her mouth slightly open.
“It’s mistletoe, y’know, like at the gala, when you only kissed my cheek…” Tess scratched the back of her neck, unable to look directly at Colette.
Colette grinned—a stupid, cocky, smug little grin. “Well,” she said, “let me try again.”
She took Tess’s face in her hand and, in one swift movement, brought their lips together. It was soft, everything was so soft, from the way Colette cupped Tess’s chin in her palm to the way their lips felt against each other. Tess reached up to lace her hands through Colette’s hair and bring her closer. If there was a way two people could melt all the unspoken words and emotions into a single moment, then they’d both had just found it.
When Tess pulled away, head spinning and lips deliciously numb, she couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her. She couldn’t believe it; the whole thing seemed unreal. There she was, standing in the snow on Christmas day, in nothing but her pajamas, kissing Colette. The sprig of mistletoe was still held in Colette’s hand when she leaned back in for another kiss, and another, chaste and sweet and lovely, both of them smiling throughout.
A loud cheer could be heard behind them. Tess broke away to look through the falling snow at the front porch, where the whole family was gathered, except for Bernard. Gus was the one whooping, and Arthur joined him in a moment. Tess blushed, shivering once again without Colette’s warmth, and was glad the wind had quietened down to a gentle breeze.
“Come on, darling,” said Colette, “let’s get back inside.”
They walked back through the garden, Colette laughing at Tess’s lack of shoes, and rejoined her family on the porch. As they passed Gus, he slapped Tess on the back in congratulations, though Tess wasn’t sure if any of them really knew what happened. Oh well, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Colette was holding her hand, and that they stopped under every piece of mistletoe they saw.
An hour later, when they were in the middle of the most wonderful Christmas lunch Tess had ever seen, she turned to Colette.
“Are we dating now?” she asked. Their hands were laced together under the table.
“Yes,” said Colette. She adjusted the paper crown Tess had made her wear. “I should think so.”
She rested her head against Tess’s shoulder and watched as Tess ate yet another slice of Christmas pudding. “You know, I really can’t wait for the future.”
Tess pulled her in for another sweet kiss, cut short by Jamie making retching sounds. Everyone laughed, and Tess used the distraction to sneakily feed Sir Whirligig a piece of turkey. She still had to have a conversation with Colette about getting her a cat, but that could wait.
They had more important things to talk about.
THE END
ABOUT A.J. MORROW
A.J. Morrow was raised in England, hopping between picturesque countryside villages and the bustling seaside cities she now calls home. She began writing at the age of seven and quickly grew to love literature of all types, especially fantasy and supernatural stories. At fourteen, she published her first online story (not counting fanfiction, of course), and now focuses on writing feel good novels and short stories.
For more information, visit instagram.com/ajmorrowbooks.
ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC
JMS Books LLC is a small queer press with competitive royalty rates publishing LGBT romance, erotic romance, and young adult fiction. Visit jms-books.com for our latest releases and submission guidelines!