Page 1 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)

I push through the heavy wooden doors out of the Cathedral of Learning, my last exam of the term finally complete. The weight in my chest lifts just enough that I can finally tilt my head back and enjoy the falling snow.

For about half a second, that is.

A blast of below-freezing wind hits me square in the face, and I quickly burrow into my scarf. I zip up my jacket to conserve my body heat and power walk across the street, my watering eyes scanning the throng of students for my girlfriend.

I stop dead when I see her leaning against the outer wall of the coffee shop wearing ripped Levi’s, Converse, and an unzipped, forest-green bomber jacket over a white T-shirt.

Because of course she’s practically naked during a freeze warning.

“Alexandra Elizabeth Blackwood!” I yell as I hurry over to her. My mittened hands land on her forearms. “Where’s the scarf I knitted for you last year?”

“Babe, it’s red.” She motions to her offensively unseasonal outfit. “It would mess up the look.”

“You know what’s really going to mess up ‘the look’?” I ask, already unraveling my own red scarf from around my neck.

“ Your red scarf?” she asks, a snarky smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

“Frostbite,” I reply, looping it around her neck a few times. “Smart-ass.” I tug it tight.

“Okay, well, you don’t have to choke me with it,” she says, pulling at it until it loosens. “Besides…” She steps closer, dipping her head down until our cold noses graze. “I can think of another way you could keep me warm.”

She kisses me, and she’s not wrong. Even after three years together, her familiar lips still send a warm tingle all the way down to the tips of my toes. I slide my arms in under her open jacket and up her back, melting into her as other students pass by us on the sidewalk.

God, I’m going to miss this.

I’m going to miss her .

“Wow. Rub it in,” a voice interrupts. Both of us pull back from our kiss to see our friend Cora. She flips one side of Alex’s scarf behind her. “Nice scarf, Blackwood. Very festive combination.” She heads inside the coffee shop before Alex can retort.

“And on that note…” Alex shakes her head and looks pointedly at me. “Let Operation Get Cora Laid commence.”

“Alex!” I slap her playfully on the shoulder.

“Okay. Okay. Operation Get May and Cora Together,” she corrects.

“Better.”

“Intimately.”

I roll my eyes and peck her on the cheek before pulling her through the coffee shop door.

The gold bells on the wreath ring dully as a wave of warm air wafts over us, and I think the only one more thankful for it than me is Alex, who lets out a full-body shiver as she shakes the snowflakes out of her hair.

I pause a second to take a deep, audible breath, and a smile spreads across my face.

“God, I love a coffee shop during the holidays. The garland, the lights, the specialty drinks with the candy canes poking out of whipped cream…”

“Come on, Hermey,” she says, slinging her arm over my shoulders. She flicks her head toward Cora, who is waving us over to the register.

“Hermey didn’t even love Christmas. He wanted to be a dentist,” I reply as we make our way over.

“I knew that,” Alex says defensively.

My jaw drops as I point an accusatory finger up at her.

“I knew you fell asleep during Rudolph !”

She wipes a hand down her face to hide her guilty expression, but lucky for her, Cora interrupts as we walk up beside her.

“And also whatever these two want,” she says to the cashier, motioning for us to step up in front of her.

“Payment for our services, huh?” Alex jokes, nudging Cora.

“Just order before I change my mind,” she says, digging her wallet out of the pocket of the oversize denim overalls she found at a local flea market we went to in the fall. They could never replace her beloved striped parachute pants, which ripped beyond wearability, but she’s making do.

Who would’ve guessed the three of us would be caught dead shopping together after Alex was the one to catch me when I thought I was falling for Cora? But life works out weirdly sometimes, and somehow Cora became our best friend.

I watch as she fans through different pockets of her wallet, her hands moving almost too quickly. Too nervously?

“Cora, you good?” I ask, stepping off to the side with her. She nods.

“How’d the interview for that literary agency go?” I ask her as Alex leans forward to place her intricate holiday drink order.

Cora blows out a big breath. “I think it went well? I hope it did. I need that internship. I heard they end up hiring at least one of their interns right out of college every year.”

“Reading queries and book pitches all day does sound like your kind of job.”

She widens her eyes in an unhinged sort of way and places a hand on each of my shoulders, squeezing hard.

“Molly. This isn’t just my kind of job . It’s my dream ,” she says with a mix of excitement and desperation in her tone.

“Well, as someone who spent four creative writing classes listening to our classmates gush about how good your writing is, I’m sure you’re going to get it,” I reassure her. “And since you got the interview over with today, now we get to just chill all winter break.”

“Yeah… nice and relaxing and calm.” She lets out a strangled laugh. “Not at all worried about our trip on Friday… Zero worrying happening over here.”

“Cora, it’s going to be fine ,” I say, grabbing ahold of her hand. “Better than fine. It’s going to be—”

“Moll?” Alex interrupts, peeking over her shoulder at me.

“My usual,” I respond, but she eyes me.

“You were just nerding out over the peppermint drinks!”

“I just like to be around them! I don’t want one,” I say, and she shakes her head at me before ordering my usual vanilla latte with oat milk. Extra hot.

I turn back to Cora. “It’s going to be great , okay?”

She heaves a heavy sigh, not entirely convinced. “Wait. Speaking of worrying, weren’t you supposed to hear back from King’s—”

I smack a hand over her mouth, shushing her.

“Molly,” she hisses, her eyes widening as they flick past me to Alex, who is thankfully having a full-blown conversation with the barista about whipped cream. “You still haven’t told her? What, are you going to text her from the plane?”

“No, I mean… maybe? Could I do that?” She gives me an incredulous look, and I quickly wave my hand. “Never mind. Anyway, I haven’t even gotten in yet! It’s not worth—”

Alex clears her throat, and the two of us quickly straighten up. “Listen, don’t mean to interrupt your whispering, but, uh…” She points to the credit card clutched in Cora’s hand.

Cora moves to go pay, and Alex raises her eyebrows at me, her green eyes filled with questions. “All good?” she asks.

“Yeah. She’s just nervous about the trip.”

She nods, but I can tell she doesn’t entirely buy it. Damn it.

After we pick up our drinks at the bar, the three of us find our way to our usual table by the window that looks out onto Forbes Avenue. The cars driving by outside turn the fresh white snow into brown slush almost instantly. Alex’s knee knocks into mine as we slide into our chairs.

“Okay,” Cora says, running her hand nervously through her pixie cut. “So, like… what’s the plan for this trip?”

I look at Alex and she looks back at me, the corners of her mouth pulled down anxiously.

As far as she knows, there is no plan, because she can’t keep a juicy secret to save her life. And if Cora finds out what I have in mind, she’ll immediately put the kibosh on it.

So I do the only thing I can. Mirror Alex’s anxious expression and play it off like there is no plan at all.

“Great.” Cora drops her elbows onto the table and sinks her head into her hands in exasperation. “You guys don’t even have a plan.”

“Well, uh… We don’t have a plan plan per se,” I start, hoping Alex will jump in, but instead, when I look over at her, she’s nose deep in her coffee cup.

My eyes get as big as quarters as I watch her loudly slurp the whipped cream off the top of her drink.

“Babe,” I whisper, jabbing an elbow into her side.

“ Ow! What? I have to get it all before it melts! Cora didn’t pay eight bucks for…” She stops talking when she finally glances up to find Cora looking like she’s already given up completely on any chance of experiencing happiness ever in her life.

“Oh my God. Okay, Cora. First of all, why are you giving freshman-year Molly?”

“Hey!” I interrupt, but she continues with her spiel as Cora lifts her head.

“You’re Cora Myers. You’re captain of the rugby team, your grades are almost as good as Molly’s, which is basically impossible, and you’re also somehow, like…

one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

You don’t need a plan. May would be crazy not to be into you.

And once you guys are together in the magical land of Barnwich, the Christmas capital of Pennsylvania, it’ll happen naturally. ”

“Okay, all those things are great. Like, for real, I am pretty amazing….” She fake flips her nonexistent long hair over her shoulder.

“But none of that means that May likes me. We’ve had one class together this semester, and even though we talk, she’s never asked me to hang out before this. And she had the whole semester.”

“Look, I know May. We’ve had class together—”

“I’m not sure your one-day-a-week weight-lifting sessions count as a class,” I interrupt.

She holds a finger up to me. “It was for credit. A credit. So it’s a class. And the fact that we were lifting buddies just means I got to know her even better,” she finishes, but Cora still looks like we’re trying to sell her on Santa being real.

“She invited you to her hometown over Christmas Eve, Cora!” I tell her.

“She invited all of us,” she replies.

“Yeah, because we’re your best friends and she wants you to feel comfortable. Pretty sure she’s not interested in forming a throuple with me and Molly,” Alex says, getting a laugh out of all of us.

“Okay, even if that is all true, which I’m not admitting it is, shouldn’t we still have like… some sort of plan?” Cora asks, taking a sip of her drink.

“You don’t need a plan when I’m around. I’m like Hitch. The ultimate wingman.”

“Yeah, I mean, look how well you did getting me and Molly together,” Cora jabs, and I almost spit out my coffee.

“You always manage to find some way to dredge that up, huh?” Alex shakes her head, but a smile plays on her lips. I can tell she’s thinking back to freshman year like I am, how she was supposed to be helping me get with Cora, but instead swept me right off my dang feet.

I was already in love with her before I even realized I liked her.

As Alex continues bragging about her wingwoman prowess, my phone buzzes on the table. I scoop it up to see a new email notification.

King’s College MFA Decision

The second I see the subject line, my heart starts pounding so hard that I have to remind myself to breathe.

Luckily, Cora and Alex are still joking back and forth, completely oblivious to me nearly passing out.

Me, Molly Parker , possibly invited to be a part of one of the most prestigious MFA programs in the world that could open doors most people don’t even dream of wedging their foot into.

Okay. Here we go.

I curl over and hold the phone down near my lap under the table before tapping to open the email, which says…

King’s College of London MFA program is pleased to inform you…

I GOT IN!!!

But that means… Shit… Now I really do have to tell her.

Alex’s hand slides onto my leg.

“Moll? You booked the room at the inn for this weekend, right?” Alex’s voice cuts through the fog swirling in my brain right now. I look up at her but can’t seem to form words. “Babe? Everything okay?” she asks, her hand squeezing my thigh. I quickly click my phone off.

“Uh, yeah. I got us into the inn. Sorry. Just…” I wave my hand. “My mom is asking for a recipe for Christmas dinner.”

“Ooooh. Which one?” she asks, her green eyes lighting up.

“The… avocado brownies we made for Noah’s birthday,” I say, quickly tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and hoping she doesn’t remember that my mom’s cherry pie is a Christmas staple in the Parker household and any other dessert on the table would be seen as blasphemy.

Alex nods and turns back toward Cora, and the two of them continue scheming away on a plan that seems to involve a reindeer, three Christmas trees, and an axe, which will somehow end with Cora and May kissing.

I watch Alex throw her head back to laugh, and my heart sinks as I look at the face I’ve fallen more and more in love with since the night we first kissed in the library.

Soon, the guilt overwhelms me, and I have to pull my eyes away to the lingering bubbles of foam floating in my coffee cup.

I hate lying to her but not as much as I hate the thought of telling her the truth. That now I know for sure, by this time next year, I’ll be living an ocean away.