One Snowy Morning

Mistletoe

"Merry Christmas!" my aunt said as she answered the phone on Christmas morning bright and early at nine am, "We wish you were here!"

"I wish I was there too," I said back, putting the phone on speaker so I could continue getting ready, "What are your plans for today?"

"We are just gonna watch movies and open presents in the morning, and then I am going to spend all afternoon cooking a meal that we are going to eat for three days straight because I made too much," she said nonchalantly, making me laugh, "What you are doing today?"

"I am going over to a friends house since his family was nice enough to extend an invitation when they heard I was spending it alone," I replied, trying to kind of skirt over the fact I made plans. She would be happy that I wasn't alone, but she would be even happier to heard I was going to a boy's house.

"What's his name?" she asked after a brief pause, probably shocked that I never mentioned a boy and then was spending Christmas with one.

"His name is Asher," I replied, "I met with a couple weeks ago, and we have hung out quite a few times since."

"I'm glad you're making friends," she said but put the emphasis on friends making me roll my eyes, "I'm sure you'll have a great time."

My aunt was the person that I trusted most in life, and the plan that I came up for part of Asher's gift was kind of scary, so I decided to run it by her.

"Hey," I started, "Is it normal for a girl to make a first move? Is that weird?" I held my breath as I waited for her answer. I still had the mistletoe from the tree at their house, and my idea was to pull him aside some time at their house and make a move. I had no idea how it was going to go, so I planned to do it near the end of the night, that way, if it went badly, I could bolt.

"Holly, you don't need to worry about if that's weird," she said softly, and I could picture her smiling, "If you want to shoot your shot with him, then do it. If he rejects you, he can go fuck himself because he lost a beautiful, talented young woman."

"Thank you Aunt Mel," I said feeling a sense of peace come over me. It didn't matter if he rejected me because I still had a family that I loved.

"You go get him," she said softly, "Call me tonight and tell me how it goes, okay?"

"Okay," I said back, "Enjoy the movies for me okay? You know that I love Charlie Brown."

"Will do sweetie. I love you," she said back, ending our conversation.

"I love you too," I told her before hanging up the phone and letting out a deep breath, looking at myself in the mirror.

-----

"You look wonderful," Jen said pulling me inside their house and taking my coat from me before I could even register what was happening.

"Thank you," I replied, slipping off my shoes, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too," she replied before walking over and placing her hands on my shoulders, "Thank you for joining us this year. It's going to be so much fun."

"I should be thanking you," I replied, reaching up to gently squeeze her wrist, "You gave me a place to go."

"Nonsense," she said, "Let's go join the others in the living room before they start without us."

"Start without us?" I asked as I followed her, but stopped when I saw a mountain of wrapped boxes around the tree. By the way Carol was eyeing them, I could tell I came a little later than I should have.