Page 6 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)

Starlight Cinemas is like something out of an old classic movie. It’s the kind of theater that you’d usually see with boarded-up windows and a dusty sign in a town you pass through on the way to somewhere else. But not this one.

It’s hopping tonight. Tons of people mill about in front of the marquee, which is decked out in green garland and red ornaments and lit up against the night sky, their hands tucked deep into winter coats.

Cora buys May’s ticket, adding a “To thank you for letting me stay!” as she hands over her card, and Alex buys mine before we head inside. Everyone is still all snacked out from our road trip, but, in a shock to absolutely no one, Alex heads to the concessions line anyway.

“This is my favorite Christmas movie,” Cora tells us, beaming down at her ticket, which reads IT ’ S A WONDERFUL LIFE .

May reaches out to place a hand on Cora’s shoulder like she can’t believe it.

“You have good taste. This is the best Christmas film ever made….” Finally May is off to the races, talking about how she just took a whole film class at Pitt on holiday movies alone.

She finishes up, saying, “My sisters are always ragging on this movie. It drives me crazy!”

Cora’s jaw drops at that. “I don’t care how cheesy it gets at times. It’s a perfect story.”

I don’t hear what they say next, though, because just then Alex pops up beside me with an absolute vat of popcorn. Pieces stream onto the floor as she shoves a few handfuls into her mouth to make some room at the top.

“You got the goods?” she asks me, and I peek over my shoulder to make sure the cashier at the snack stand isn’t looking before quickly opening my coat to reveal an inner pocket holding two boxes of smuggled M&M’s.

“Hey!” May yells, startling Alex as she’s grabbing them. Popcorn kernels fly everywhere.

“What?” Alex asks, tearing the top of one open with her teeth.

“Support your local small business! Buy your candy here. This town survives on the holiday season,” May says, giving Alex and the candy she’s poised to dump on top of the popcorn a disapproving look.

“I spent twenty-four dollars on tickets and twelve dollars on a large popcorn that probably cost them a quarter to make. Not to mention I tipped the guy behind the counter a five! What else do you want from me?” Alex asks.

May shakes her head in disappointment.

“I promise not to smuggle a Christmas tree into town, okay?” Alex jokes, and a smile creeps onto May’s lips, even though she tries to hide it.

“Now, come on, we’re going to miss the movie we paid forty-eight dollars for,” Alex says before dumping the two boxes of M&M’s into the popcorn and corralling us all into the warm, dark theater.

May heads into the row first, and I pull Cora up from behind me to shove her into the row in front of us. She looks back and widens her eyes at me before she stumbles down the aisle, then takes a seat next to May.

Jeez. I’ve seen Cora around a few different girls she’s liked or dated through college, and she’s always been so cool and collected. So sure of herself, just like she was with me. But now, with May, she’s tripping over her own two feet and sweating bullets even though it’s thirty degrees out.

Which means… she must really, really like this girl.

Maybe May is Cora’s Alex.

“Just relax,” I whisper, motioning with my hands for her to chill.

Which, coming from me , is honestly a little ironic.

I plop into the seat next to her, and Alex, lovingly cradling her giant popcorn, sits on the end.

She leans across me to catch Cora’s eyes and then pointedly flicks her gaze down to May’s arm slung over the armrest between the two seats. Hold her hand, she mouths.

But all Cora does is shake her head back at us, panic filling her eyes.

“Here, then, just offer her some of this,” I whisper, stealing Alex’s popcorn and handing it to Cora.

Alex gives me a look. “What good is that going to do!?”

“I don’t know! The matchmaking is more your thing!” I reply defensively.

Alex snorts. “So you could scheme enough to get them sleeping in the same house together, but you want Cora to what ? Hand-feed May popcorn like a Roman emperor? Or should she just baby bird it right into her mouth?”

“Shhhh… it’s starting,” I say before she can really crack herself up.

Cora passes the popcorn back to Alex as the theater darkens around us, and the screen switches from modern HD ads for soda to a crackling black-and-white.

I snuggle under Alex’s outstretched arm as the opening credits begin to roll and prepare to forget about matchmaking schemes and grad school for at least a few precious hours.

After the movie, we spill out the doors and into the cold. Alex twirls me down the ramp under the marquee while the four of us fumble the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne.”

“That was so good! Babe, did you love it?” I ask Alex, my heart still feeling all warm and toasty from the ending.

She tugs on my hand, and I spin back into her for a kiss. “I loved it,” she says, holding me close.

“I cannot believe that’s the first time you two have seen it,” May says. Cora steps up onto her toes behind her to shake her head in mock disapproval, but then she smiles.

“I’ve never experienced it in a theater like that,” she says, clutching at her chest like she’s trying to hold all her feels in. “It makes it even better. I might have to come back next year just to see it like this again.”

“I’ll save you a ticket,” May replies. And this time instead of nervously avoiding her eyes, Cora gives her a cute smile. Progress.

We flow down Main Street with the rest of our fellow cinemagoers. The snow clings lightly to the wreaths on the streetlights.

“Guys!” Cora shouts, smacking me excitedly in the stomach with one hand and pointing across the street with the other. “Street chestnuts! I’ve always wanted to try them.”

We follow the delicious smell across the street, and Cora orders a large sleeve of them, which we take into the bookshop right next to the cart. As we enter, Christmas bells jingle overhead, and a sweet old man lets us know to shout very loud for him if we need any help.

“Here we go,” Cora says, peeling a chestnut before popping it into her mouth. Her excitement immediately falters, though, the second she bites down on it. “Oh my God,” she says, before spitting it back out into her hand.

“What!?” May says in disbelief. “They’re delicious!

” She reaches in and peels one like a pro before trying a bite to confirm they’re not spoiled or something.

“Yeah, that’s a you problem. They’re delicious.

I’ll do the honor of finishing them off.

Let’s find you some water.” She swipes the bag out of Cora’s grasp and then heads down an aisle.

Cora follows her, but Alex and I stay behind.

We head down a different aisle toward the back corner of the store. Alex’s footsteps are soft on the wood floor behind me.

“Kind of makes me think of our first kiss,” she flirts. I glance over at her with a smile and see her fingers trailing along the spines of the books. She pulls me down the next aisle and then right into her, so our bodies are pressed together against the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

“Maybe you could remind me,” I whisper as she leans in. She’s still grinning as our lips meet.

“We should… just go back… to the room,” she whispers in between kisses.

“We can’t… ditch Cora,” I reply, forcing myself to pull away from her before adding, “But I wish we could.”

“Fine. We’ll hang out for a bit longer. Then you’re all mine.” She presses her forehead against my own and then laces our fingers together to pull me back up the aisle toward Cora’s and May’s voices.

“… but it would be cool to own my own bookstore one day,” Cora says as we round the corner to find them both flipping through children’s picture books on two beanbags.

“I’m in,” I reply, even though she’s talking to May.

Cora looks up at me from the mini beanbag she’s sitting in, like she forgot we were here.

“Meet back in Pittsburgh in ten years?” I ask, half kidding, half serious. I get my master’s. Cora does her internship. We both work for a few years and then open a cute indie in the city. Sounds like a dream.

“I’m there,” Alex adds, plopping down into the third beanbag on the floor. “Why don’t we just start right after graduation, though?” She looks at me and I look at Cora.

Why is this completely out-of-reach, fictional scenario making me sweat?

“Because I have my internship starting right after graduation,” Cora replies quickly, and I give her a grateful look. “Plus, is Jim’s tip money really going to be enough to back us?”

“You’d be surprised,” Alex replies with a sly grin. “The people love me.”

Cora shakes her head, amused.

“Hey, Cora and I were thinking about grabbing a late-night snack from next door since the chestnuts were inexplicably not a big hit. You guys want to come?” May asks.

“Yeah, s—” I start, but then Alex subtly squeezes my hand, reminding me where we left things up against the bookshelf.

And the matchmaking, of course.

“Actually, I think we might turn in early. You guys go ahead.”

Cora and May both nod, and this time Cora looks much less deer-in-the-headlights than when she left the inn with May earlier.

We all head out the door and into the snowy streets, and I take Alex’s hand as we watch May and Cora head in the other direction, their shoulders lightly bumping into each other. They’re already so absorbed in conversation, they forget to say goodbye.

“Almost traded me for a burger and fries,” Alex says, shaking her head. I snort and look up at her teasing gaze.

“Come on, Blackwood,” I say, standing on tiptoe until my lips lightly graze hers. “We all know I wouldn’t trade you for anything.”

I know after the awkward moment at the bookstore that I have to tell her about the grad program.

I just… can’t figure out how to do it in a way that she understands I’m not trading her for London, or choosing anything over her.

That I’ll do anything to make it work. That I never want to lose her.

But I don’t want to lose out on this opportunity, either.

Somehow, I have to find a way to make both work.

Maybe this town can send me some Christmas magic.