Page 63 of Merry Kissmas

“Okay.Okay.”I step down from the bed, peeking into the bathroom.“I was wrong, it’s not a rat.”

“What is it then?”Her eyes are wide and filled with fear.

“A mouse.”

She groans.“Not much better.”

“I find it a little more comforting.”I shake out my body and look back at her.“Okay, get ready.Full disclosure, I have no idea what I’m doing here.”

“What?”she practically screeches.

I jump in front of the door to scare the mouse.It runs out of the bathroom.Brynn screams and scares it back my way, but I try to block its path.

“Open the door,” I shout.

She screams, hopping off the couch and running on her tiptoes to the door.“Please no friends.Please no friends.”She closes her eyes in blind faith.

I chase the critter, and I don’t react when he circles around Brynn.Good thing her eyes are closed because she doesn’t want to see this.Having nowhere to go and giving up his new home, he scurries out of the villa.I take the door from Brynn, slamming it.

“Is he gone?”she says, her eyes still closed tightly.

“He is.”

Her head falls back, and I expect her to feel relieved, but she runs by me and back onto the couch.“We should do a full sweep.”

“He left,” I say, walking over to her.

“Maybe he came in here with a friend?”Her voice is pleading.

I groan.I don’t want to go on a search for another mouse.I want to sit on this couch and make out with her.“You said his friends were outside.”

She shrugs.“We don’t know how mice think.”

“Clearly they’re geniuses according to you.”I take out my phone and put on my flashlight.

“Look under the furniture too,” she says.

So I do, because I’ll do about anything to get this over with and get back to her being my sole attention.

“The bed!”she shouts.“Don’t forget the bed!”

I turn back around, and she shrugs.

“Sorry, just want to make sure.You’re doing great.”She raises her fist in the air like “go team.”

I check the rest of the villa, thankful it’s small.When I come back to the couch, Brynn finally sits, bringing her knees up to her chest.

“No friends.”I sit next to her.

“Good.Thank you.”

I slide my hand under her bent knees and pull them to rest over my lap.

The mood from under the mistletoe has been destroyed by a small rodent.

Thanks a lot, mouse.

I place my hands on her foot and massage it.

---