Mistletoe.
Kissing someone under the mistletoe id one of those old fashioned Christmas traditions that, whilst still prevalent in a whole host of christmas movies, seems to have fallen somewhat out of favour in recent years. It’s rare these days to find mistletoe hanging in houses, however for Natalie it had always been the first sign of christmas in her household, and had always held a special bit of magic. As a child her Dad had always bought mistletoe on the first of December to hang above the doorways of their house and their parents would use it as an excuse to kiss at every opportunity.
She used to think it was disgusting and gross and would cover her eyes and make fake gagging noises whenever her parents would kiss under the mistletoe. However as she got older she started to see the beauty and magic in it as well. She would still roll her eyes in mock disgust or exasperation whenever they did it, but it was mostly out of habit. She had begun to appreciate the fact that her parents were still madly in love with each other even after decades of being together.
Natalie had seen how much it had hurt her best friend when his parents had split up when they were both teenagers and she had never felt more grateful for her parents sappy displays of sentimentality, even if it was tinged with the tiniest bit of guilt for her best friends sake. That year she even forgot to act disgusted when her parents would kiss under the mistletoe. She hoped that one day, when she got married, her and her wife would be just as in love with each other as her parents were.
It was only once she actually started dating that she realised how truly rare her parent’s love was. After countless of first dates that went nowhere and failed relationship number three, none of which had ever lasted long enough to even make it to a Christmas, she was starting to lose hope of finding love like that. She had resigned herself to a life of just herself and her cats. At least until Megan had barrelled into her life, quite literally, seven months ago. What had started as a spilled coffee and several apologies had led to an almost instant connection, and just a few weeks later they had started dating.
Now they were at the point where they weren’t quite living together, but they were staying at each other’s flats most nights of the week. This morning however, Natalie had left her spare key with Megan when she went to work, deciding that the other woman should get to have a lie in given that it was her day off and she had been working late the night before in order to get things ready for her company’s countdown to christmas. Plus she knew that Megan would likely return to her flat that evening, and this would save some of the hassle given that she was likely to be working late herself that evening.
By the time Natalie managed to finish work that night it was fairly late and she was exhausted. She stopped off to get them both a takeaway on her way home and finally stumbled through the door at around 9pm. Megan greeted her in the doorway to the kitchen with a kiss and she couldn’t help but smile into it. Their night was fairly normal, takeaway on the couch in front of netflix, however Natalie noticed that Megan kept kissing her. That wouldn’t normally be anything of note, they were a very affectionate couple, however Natalie noticed that tonight it seemed to only happen when they were stood underneath a doorway.
After the sixth or seventh time it had happened she was starting to get confused about what was going on. Megan must have seen her confused face after the last unprompted kiss in a doorway because she just smiled softly and said “Look up.” It took Natalie a few moments to work out what was different about the flat, and then it suddenly clicked in place. Her face broke into a wide grin and she whispered “Mistletoe.” It was a few more seconds before she could get over her shock to get any more words out, but even then all she could manage to get out was “When…? What…? Why…?”
“You were talking about it the other day, about mistletoe on the first of December and how much the tradition menat to your parents and to you, and you got that look that you get whenever you want something but you’re too afraid ask for it.” Megan explained.
Natalie stared at the woman stood in front of for a few moments, overwhelmed with a sudden slew of emotions. Instead of replying she pulled Megan in for a kiss, hoping that she could convey every little thing that she was feeling into that one single action. In that moment, kissing the woman she loved under mistletoe on the first of december, Natalie was convinced that she was going to marry Megan one day.
A Place of Mine 