Elves with Benefits (Reindeer Falls)

“Yeah,” he replies, seemingly unmoved by my speech. “But I’m not giving them to you.”

Excuse me? Clearly, I was right. This is just another trick—

“These tickets are for you to give me.”

I’m completely confused when he slaps down the first ticket. I realize that they aren’t actually kissing booth tickets at all. They’re Christmas violation tickets. Really nice ones, like I think someone used his design software to create a replica of a Reindeer Falls ticket, but with a tiny red-headed elf added in.

And the violations themselves? Well, those say things like, “Was a Dick,” “Shouldn’t Have Left,” and “Contempt of Christmas.”

“Wait.” I stare at the tickets, then back at Ryan. “You wrote yourself a contempt of Christmas ticket?”

“That’s what you said to me when you walked out. And it struck a chord, because you were right.”

I stare at him, my heart pounding. Because you were right are the three best words in the English language next to I love you.

“Worse,” he adds, meeting my eyes, “I was in contempt of love.”

I gasp.

“For real?” I ask him, eyes wide.

“Yeah, shit, that was fucking cheesy wasn’t it?” He runs a hand through his already messy hair, fisting a bunch of it in exasperation as he paces in front of me. “I can do better than that. Let me think.”

“No, no.” I nod encouragingly, waving a hand in the air. “Don’t stop. Keep going.”

“I was an asshole,” he says. “I couldn’t see what was right in front of me. I was so wrapped up in what I thought I should be doing with my life, so sure that this town, that meeting you, was just a shiny fucking distraction from the real world, that I didn’t get it. Because you know the real world, Maggie. You’re not using this place to escape it. You’re here because this place is the best version of the real world that exists. And you know why that is?”

“No?” I reply, still staring at him while my brain and my heart compete with each other over the reappearance of Ryan Sheppard. My brain not quite sure any of this is real, my heart telling that bitch to shut up.

“Because you’re here,” he says, stepping closer to my booth. “You make Reindeer Falls what it is, and you make it the best version of that, every day. This town never meant anything to me before because you weren’t here. And, more importantly,” he adds, even though there’s a strong chance that I’m actually deceased and this entire exchange is just a ghostly hallucination, “wherever you are, Maggie Harrison, that’s where I want to be. Because I love you.”

I stare at him. I stare at him and his captivating blue eyes, at his perfect mouth, and I know, without a doubt, that I’ve found my home.

And it’s not Reindeer Falls.

It’s him.

I lean forward in my booth, reaching forward to grab him by the front of his shirt and pull him closer. “I will go ahead and kiss you even though these are not valid kissing booth tickets because that is absolutely the hottest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

And then I do kiss him.

I kiss him as the clock chimes in the background, as snow falls from the sky.

As the bells on my hat jingle, making me the happiest elf in the land.

* * *

The End