#(( while miranda believes in romance

[royalreef]

(( Bonus version of this meme for Bellanda too. No she doesn't believe in either giving anyone any hints out of what her type is, nor letting anyone think about romancing her.

[janewayintersection]

the amount of people who are like "omg i ditched kaidan for garrus after he was mean to me on horizon!!" baffle me. shit on bioware's writing for making shep work with cerberus all you want, but kaidan calling shep out on this and not joining them is NOT the issue. in fact, him reacting like this is why i love him??

he specifically states he trusts shep, just not cerberus. which is the only rational response in that whole entire goddamn game!! like?? you spend all of me1 stopping cerberus operations. they kill several alliance soldiers and admiral kahoku, try to make a rachni army -- they are WELL known for cloning and ais... miranda even outright states she wanted to plant shep with a control chip. there is literally zero reason for kaidan to believe the shep in front of him isn't some cerberus sleeper agent. or an ai. or indoctrinated. or being manipulated (THIS ONE IS CANON BTW). even if he trusts shepard, he doesn't trust cerberus not to pull any of this. quite frankly, i'm baffled more companions don't have this exact, entirely justified concern.

loyalty is important, but blind loyalty is dangerous.

honestly, the crew in me2 is lucky that the illusive man was so weirdly and uncharacteristically insistent on shepard remaining untouched. things could have gotten very bad otherwise.

being best friends with someone, or more notably, being in love with someone, isn't the end all be all magic potion in this world. being in love with someone doesn't mean you should blindly trust their actions. if my significant other joined a terrorist group, you can bet my ass i wouldn't join them! sorry! if anything, it's healthy that kaidan has his own sense of morals and priorities he follows over shepard. he's his OWN person, love shouldn't be something that makes you suddenly give up who you are and what you believe in.

not to mention kaidan is entirely out of the loop for the whole game. his intel states that cerberus is behind the abductions (the horizon incident is partially a result of cerberus' fiddling btw), and that shep has been alive and never even reached out to anyone. he doesn't have the information we the players have. he doesn't know that the illusive man insisted on no control chip. he doesn't know about the lazarus project or its specifics.

and as for the "cheating" discourse if you romance someone new in me2, i do personally believe shep getting with one of the me2 love interests is cheating on their me1 love interest. to shep, they skipped those two years. they wake up as they did during the me2 prologue. no time has passed. and then they immediately get with someone else after one (1) argument with their love interest over them, may i remind you, joining a terrorist group. even if you don't think it's "technically" cheating, it's at the very least pretty trashy and flakey.

if anything, i'm gonna say it! kaidan is more forgiving than i'd be! the fact that he even sends an email saying he still cares and that they can see what happens after this is all resolved is WAY more than i would have done. the fact that kaidan will find out shep got with someone else, and STILL be willing to give shep a chance is like. man. it's saying a lot. i am just saying.

imagine losing someone. you see them literally die as your ship explodes and they burn up in the nearby planet's atmosphere. you grieve. you put yourself into your work. then suddenly, two years, later. they pop back up again. ALIVE. and with a terrorist group. and basically tell you the equivalent of "just trust me bro" despite the fact that while you trust them, you don't trust the terrorist group. so you're like hey, what the fuck. why are you with a terrorist group. and they're like i'm not with them, we just have common goals. and you're like. i'm gonna say it again. i trust you, not the terrorist group. okay?? i can't join you for this reason. please be careful out there, seriously.

and then they immediately jump into the pants of that one guy you knew back on a mission from two years ago.

what would you do?? would you not feel hurt? betrayed? upset? confused?? i'm sorry, i'm completely on kaidan's side. i'd go as far to say that he's far more understanding than he should be in me2.

me3 is all about regaining that complete and undying trust back, and that cerberus didn't fuck around w shep. or that being with cerberus didn't change them. his "loyalty" quest is just visiting him in the hospital and showing him shepard still cares. that they're still the same. that cerberus truly didn't alter them. that there was more going on. that shepard was forced to work with cerberus out of complete necessity and only did what they thought was right. and i think that's neat!!!!

[iri-2]

I Love You Like That

Rating: Not Rated Category: F/F Fandom: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse) Relationships: Mother Miranda/Reader Characters: Mother Miranda, Karl Heisenberg, Salvatore Moreau, Eva

Summary: As a scientist in The Connections, you and Miranda work together in a laboratory. Over time, you develop feelings for this somewhat harsh but seemingly vulnerable woman. One day, she "takes" you to her hometown.

You find yourself falling for Miranda.

A few months ago, she was just a somewhat sharp-tongued colleague who had recently joined. You don't know why you are attracted to her and trap so deeply.

"I think I might have some feelings for you, Miranda." Your fingers tightly gripping the edge of the notepad.

Miranda's scalpel pauses on the corpse. "Why?"

Why?

How would you know? Most of the time, she doesn't seem that friendly towards you. Until recently.

"Lab romances aren't a good idea. Shouldn’t we just focus on researching the combination of the E-type fungus and cadou?" Miranda rejects you directly.

"I knew I shouldn't have told you, you’re too cold to everything." you mutter, the tip of the pen you're holding trembling on the experiment log, leaving messy ink stains.

Several months ago, the leader of The Connections suddenly announced with excitement that they had found a scientist to join the project you were working on.

As the team's most outstanding researcher, you were assigned to the same laboratory as this scientist, in Romania.

Passing through the purification facility at the entrance, you enter the room. You see a woman already dressed in full lab attire, examining a small piece of tissue under a microscope.

"So, you're THE best researcher? You're here REALLY early," the dark-haired woman says.

"You must be Dr. Miranda? I firmly believe that I arrived on time." You try to ignore the unfriendly sharpness in her tone. This new scientist seems to have no understanding of interpersonal communication.

"In my sense of time, you are late." She doesn't lift her head from the eyepiece.

That’s quite rude.

"Okay, first, you’re new. Second, I’m on time. Third, I hope we can get along well at work," you put on your lab coat.

She takes off the slide and finally wants to take a look at you. "That'll take a while."

… For the sake of the experiment's progress, you silently endure her occasional criticism.

She’s mean all the time. She even uses you as her assistant, handing you the used experimental equipment for cleaning.

"For a hundred times, I'm NOT your assistant! I’m a scientist as you." You can't bear it anymore.

She shrugs her shoulders and remains silent.

… One day, she directs her accusations at you again.

"Did you touch my culture dish?" Miranda accuses you without any evidence.

"Why would I touch your culture dish?" you respond, feeling puzzled.

"It's just the two of us here. If it's not me, it must be you. No one else can come in."

"So, you blame me when your experiment doesn't go well?" You're annoyed.

Every time she starts an experiment with anticipation, but after a failure, she becomes unusually desperate.

Her blue eyes dim a bit, and the wrinkles at the corners deepen.

"Sorry." You hear her say the word for the first time.

She looks vulnerable. She has never revealed to you the purpose of her research. However. every time the experiment fails, the gloom in her eyes deepens a bit. She doesn't seem to have only seen biochemical experiments when she looks at the tissues and cells. When the experiment fails, she seems to have lost her most precious thing.

"It's okay," your anger subsides slightly.

In the next few days, Miranda's accusations against you seem to decrease. Once, while testing the biological activity of one kind of cadou, you were about to cut a small piece when Miranda suddenly stopped the next move of your scalpel.

"Put this on." She hands you safety goggles.

You put on the goggles, and soon you understand why.

This type of cadou sprays green slime when stimulated, splattering on your goggles and mask, and it smells awful.

"Well, thanks, Miranda."

"No problem." Miranda says gently.

In the following weeks, she finally treats you completely as a colleague. Sometimes she will leave some very clean culture dishes and test tubes by your side. Once she suddenly appears behind you, tidying up the collar of the lab suit you hastily put on in the morning, and then goes to do her experiment as if nothing has happened.

You have become accustomed to her harshness towards you, and recently her tenderness and concern for you have made you start to worry about her situation. What makes this woman who always uses ridicule and condescension to communicate with others like this? And what makes her depart from her normal behavior?

Sometimes when you observe your chemical reaction, you feel someone looking at you from behind. When you turn around, you only see Miranda writing the experimental report seriously.

… You shouldn't have started caring about her. This has kept your gaze on her for too long, so long that you realize you have fallen in love with her.

But out of professionalism - or more importantly, you still think Miranda will treat you with her cold attitude, just like she has built a defense line in her heart, making your heart break, so you just hold your feelings.

… Six months later, when you place the cells you cultivated under the microscope, you witness unprecedented success.

"Miranda! Come here!" you wave for Miranda to come over.

She observes the cell activity under the microscope.

"These are cells I cultivated with an entirely new serum," you say with joy in your tone.

"Eva…" Miranda murmurs.

"Our project has finally made a breakthrough." You write something in your experiment log.

Miranda looks up, muscles twitching on her face, as if suppressing ecstasy. "You’re better than I thought."

"Let’s just pretend I didn't mention this," you place the notebook on the desk. You regret your impulsiveness. What were you thinking?

Miranda holds the equally cold surgical knife in her cold hand and hovers over the body for a while before continuing with the dissection.

Miranda doesn't speak much that day. At the end of the work, she takes off her lab uniform and speaks to you as if she has made up her mind, "I didn't tell you and most people about my research purpose because people would think I was crazy and that I just needed to find a psychologist,"she continues,"I want you to know my purpose."

"But this is a surprise, and you might not like it."she adds.

"Try me," as someone who has just been rejected, you speak weakly.

Miranda takes a step towards you, and you see her hand getting closer to you, then it lands on your face.

And then you plunge into darkness.

"Wake up, wake up." You hear Miranda calling your name.

"What?" You open your eyes and find yourself leaning on her.

She sees you awake, coughs awkwardly, straightens your body, and steps away from you.

"Is this your idea of a 'surprise'? The best I could think of was that you blindfolded me and took me somewhere, not something resembling a kidnapping." You're a bit annoyed and confused,"How did you make me faint that quick?"

"I did say you might not like it," Miranda avoids your question.

"Where did you bring me?" You glance around, it looks like a vineyard.

"My hometown," she replies.

Miranda guides you out of the vineyard and onto the road.

The houses around are very low, the highest looking like it has only two floors. Some houses have adjacent livestock sheds with pigs and chicks.

The villagers here wear clothes from the last century, some grinding flour, others rolling hay. They stop their activities in surprise when you pass by, and when they see Miranda beside you, surprise turns to fear. They quickly return to their work.

"Don't be surprised, they rarely see outsiders, so they react like that," Miranda calmly explains to you.

"But they seem scared of you," you turn to Miranda.

"Probably because I look different from usual. This village is conservative, and they're not used to new things," Miranda tries to explain.

What is she like usually? Does she wear the same clothes as the villagers? You rarely see Miranda in anything other than a lab coat, and today she wears a simple solid-color cardigan. You can't help but imagine Miranda wearing the villagers' clothes.

"Why don't they go to the outside world?" you mutter.

As you go further, people become scarce until you enter a field where there's no sign of villagers.

"We're here," Miranda leads you to a house.

This house is built against the mountainside, away from the village center.

She opens the door and enters with you. The furnishings inside the house match the vintage theme of the village.

"Is this where you live?" you ask.

"Yes, not used to it?" she gazes at you.

"I just didn't expect someone like you to be so unmodernized," you murmur.

"Come see my lab." She ignores your sarcasm.

"You also have a laboratory here?" The size of this house doesn't look like it can accommodate a laboratory.

She opens a door deep inside the house, leading to a bedroom.

"Well…?"

She goes to a corner and pulls down a switch.

There's a click, and the blank wall in front of you starts moving to the sides, revealing a laboratory still marked by the passage of time.

"I see. But why do you hide the lab?"When you think this woman is strange enough, she still has surprises waiting for you.

She gestures for you to enter her laboratory. A damaged wooden table is scattered with various books and a few black-and-white photos.

You see a photo of a dark haired woman holding a little baby. "Is this you?"

"Yes."You never see her this emotional before, her blue eyes slightly dimming.

"This child…"

"She was my daughter."Miranda's voice carries endless sorrow. "She died when she was ten."

"Oh, I’m sorry, Miranda." You look at her, your voice softens.

"That's why I'm researching the Megamycete; I want to bring Eva back." Miranda's hand holds your arm.

"That's why when your experiment failed, you were like a soul being pulled out of your body?" You feel the coldness of her hand. Has she always been this cold? "I believe you can succeed, our research is progressing well."

Her blue eyes have returned to their original state, looking at you with immense tenderness. "You've helped me a lot. Thank you." She seems to find it awkward to say such things. She lets go of your arm, her cheeks slightly flushed.

She appears so fragile.

"You know, you can tell me directly in our laboratory." You don't think she needs to use "kidnapping" to take you to this village surrounded by deep mountains to tell you this.

"There are still some things that I will let you know here," she doesn't think she does this with great fanfare.

Miranda insists you stay overnight in her bedroom.

"Where will you sleep?"

"I'll rest on the couch." Miranda is about to sit down.

"Miranda?" You call her from the bedside.

"Hmm?"

"I'd like to hear Eva's story."

Miranda freezes in her movements, then stands up and says, "Not many people ask about her."

"If it makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to force it." You see sadness engulfing her again.

"It's okay, I don't mind talking about her." She slowly walks towards you and sits beside you.

"Eva was born in August. I remember it was a hot day, and giving birth to that little one exhausted me." Miranda's gaze focuses in the distance as she smiles.

"Her eyes were blue…"

"Like her mother."

She looks at you gently. "Yes, just like me."

"She was the smartest among her peers, learned things quickly. She got along well with other kids, everyone wanted to be friends with her." Miranda speaks softly.

"She even learned carving from the village carpenter. One day, she excitedly ran home, holding something in her hands, shouting, 'Mom! Look at what I made today!' She raised a wood carving in front of me, which was in the shape of a goat. The head and body were divided into two parts and pieced together. I held little Eva in my arms and praised her for doing so well. She was thrilled."

A wood carving of goat? You seem to have seen something similar in the village.

"She used to visit various houses in the village every day, helping them with chores. She was so energetic." Happiness surrounds Miranda as she speaks.

You listen attentively to her storytelling. This is the most time Miranda talks, maybe too much.

After that, it's not your fault. The day-to-day research makes you sleep very little. In Miranda's gentle voice, it feels like listening to a bedtime story, and you grow sleepy.

Your head tilts to the side, hands on your stomach, breathing steady.

Miranda lifts you gently from the bedside, letting you lie down on the bed. She covers you with a blanket, arranges the pillow, and sits by your side, watching you sleep peacefully.

Lab romances? Sounds fun.

You wake up from Miranda's blanket, and the scent of her woody perfume lingers in the air. Getting off the bed, you walk to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Miranda sits at the dining table.

"Good morning." You lazily reply.

"Your breakfast." She points to the apple pie and fried egg on the table.

"What about you?" You look at the complete apple pie and ask her.

"I've already eaten." She picks up her tea and takes a sip.

"Any plans for today?" You cut a piece of the fried egg and put it in your mouth.

"We're going to Heisenberg's factory."

"Heisenberg's factory?" You question.

"Yes, Karl Heisenberg is my… assistant. He's advanced in bioelectric research."

"Oh, you have 'assistants' here too? I thought I was the only one of yours." You tease her.

"They are indeed my assistants, but you you're different." She awkwardly coughs.

You feel a bit pleased that you successfully teased Miranda.

"Have your breakfast now, we'll head to the factory. It's located outside the village, a bit far." Miranda gestures towards your breakfast.

"Why not 'kidnap' me there? Seems quicker." You take a bite of the apple pie.

"I could, but I prefer you to walk there with me consciously." Miranda finishes her tea.

"What do you mean by 'I could'?"

"Eat your breakfast."

Miranda and you walk on an ancient bridge. In the village, you still feel the strange gazes of the villagers, but after Miranda glares at them, they dare not stare at you anymore.

"Miranda?" You tilt your head to look at her.

"What's wrong?" Miranda softly responds.

"Why do I feel like the villagers are afraid of you?" You ask her.

"We'll talk about it later." Miranda doesn't want to say more.

Outside Heisenberg's factory, wild grasses are overgrown, and abandoned metal parts are scattered in the bushes.

As if predicting your arrival, the factory gate slowly opens, revealing a man standing at the entrance.

He wears a dirty light green trench coat with a tattered wide brim fedora, but his sunglasses are polished to a shine.

"Ah, Miranda, you're here. Welcome." The man opens his arms to welcome you.

"Heisenberg, this is my colleague." Miranda informs him of your name.

"Hello, Miranda said I should show you how bioelectricity works." Heisenberg produces a cigar from behind his back.

"Thank you, Mr. Heisenberg."

In his workshop, you see various large instruments emitting orange lights, indicating their operation. They are quite different from the precise instruments you are familiar with in your laboratory.

You swear you hear a hissing sound coming from some tightly closed doors.

Heisenberg leads you and Miranda into a dimly lit room with many surgical tables. On them lie many gray-skinned… people?

"These are my experimental results." Heisenberg proudly says. You can see excitement gleaming behind his sunglasses.

"Are these people?" You point to one with an iron drill replacing its arm.

"They used to be. Don't worry, I only experiment on them after they've passed away. They've been implanted with Cadou, and with some electric stimulation, they’ll 'come alive'."

Like Galvani's frog experiment?

"Although the electricity used now is external, in ongoing research, I've enabled them to gradually activate their own neural potentials, making them have life activities, just like a resurrection." Heisenberg explains.

Your understanding of bioelectricity is limited, but you listen to Heisenberg's enthusiastic explanations, occasionally nodding along.

"Perhaps this can help with your research?" Heisenberg finishes his grand speech and hands you a development notebook.

"Thank you, Mr. Heisenberg."

"Call me Karl." Heisenberg corrects.

You filter out his self-praise in the report, summarize the key points about the experiment in your head.

Heisenberg finishes his cigar, casually tossing it on the ground and extinguishing it with his boot. Taking a step forward, he places his hand on your shoulder — the glove he wears is oily, much like the messy strands of his long gray hair.

"I believe Miranda wouldn't choose the wrong person. She never used to wander around the village with outsiders." He gives you a positive look.

Your gaze shifts to Miranda, who is staring at your shoulder. "HEISENBERG! I appreciate your help today, but it's getting late. We should go."

"But it's only noon. Don't you want to stay for lunch or something?" Heisenberg asks you with a smile.

"No need. We have other things to do. You should focus on your own tasks," Miranda immediately rejects him.

"Alright, suit yourselves." Heisenberg walks towards his workbench, starting to clean a metal hammer.

"What else do we have to do?" You ask Miranda as the factory gate behind you automatically closes.

"We're going to the reservoir."

"The reservoir? I guess it's not for some leisurely fishing."

"No, just taking a walk."

"So, this is the 'other things' you mentioned. Sounds important," your tone carries a hint of mockery.

Miranda purses her lips. "It's important to me. Perhaps to Moreau as well."

"Moreau?" A new name.

"He's another assistant of mine, living near the reservoir. We can pay him a visit."

You follow Miranda towards the windmill. Does Moreau live in a windmill? That’s so weird.

Miranda leads you into an elevator, descending into a cave-like area.

Wow, this guy lives in a place even more unusual than Heisenberg.

You hear the sound of someone vomiting.

You see Miranda frown.

Sounds emanate from a small house in the cave, like a comedy show. You hear an odd laughter, followed by chewing noises.

Miranda knocks on the door.

A peculiar-looking guy opens the door.

"Mother!"

You see Miranda shoot him a fierce look.

Mother?

"Oh, no Moth… Mo… Mi… Miranda, you came! Moreau welcomes you to my reservoir! Y…You brought a newcomer." This hunched-over guy speaks with a strange voice, containing a gurgling element, reminiscent of fish blowing bubbles.

After the door is fully open, you see his face clearly under the indoor lights. Wow, his features seem… really bizarre. His eyes are swollen, half-closed, his nose is short, and below, his mouth is wide open, with teeth seemingly having a mind of their own, growing in various directions.

Oh, God bless him.

He acts unusually excited, his skinny arms trembling. He invites you into his house. Miranda looks somewhat reluctant, but she follows you inside.

"Miranda, you're actually here to see me. You rarely visit me!" He's excited like a child, reaching out to you. "And you brought a newcomer!"

"Salvatore, stop. She's my colleague, here to help me with experiments. We just came from Heisenberg's place. We need some data on Cadou." Miranda halts Moreau's action.

"W…Wait for me here. I'll fetch the experimental data right away." Moreau rushes into the inner room and comes out with a stack of documents.

Miranda takes the documents and hands them to you. You carefully avoid touching the suspicious green marks on top and put them into your backpack.

Miranda seems ready to leave, and so do you.

"Miranda! Newcomer! Stay for lunch with me." The person with a strange appearance shouts.

"No, thanks, Moreau." Miranda replies coldly.

Moreau leans forward and grabs something. You follow Miranda and turn around, seeing Moreau holding onto the corner of Miranda's cardigan hem, hunches his back, appearing so small and weak.

"Fine. I can accompany you for a while. Let go." Miranda pulls out the hem from his hand, speaking extremely reluctantly, "No lunch."

She looks at you inquiringly. You nod.

"Just one episode, just one episode like always," Miranda tells him.

Moreau tries to jump up excitedly, completely unaware of the stiffness in Miranda's tone. He continues playing his comedy and starts chewing on the cheese on the plate.

You and Miranda sit side by side on the stools behind Moreau, facing the TV. The comedy is amusing, Moreau giggles, and at one point, he accidentally chokes on the cheese, producing a loud cough. Miranda sits straight, showing no reaction to the comedy.

Is this cave well-ventilated? Why do you smell such a strong fishy odor?

You frown in disgust, praying for this episode to end quickly so you can leave this damp and gloomy place.

The unpleasant smell allows you to catch a faint fragrance from Miranda, like her blanket, woody and pleasant — something you like.

After another ten minutes, the fishy smell intensifies. Unable to bear it any longer, you start moving closer to Miranda, attempting to use her scent to mask the fishy odor.

The fishy smell is really strong, and your face is almost buried in her neck. When your nose brushes against her skin, she slightly recoils.

Miranda speaks.

"Moreau, control yourself."

"Mo… Miranda, I didn't mean to!" Moreau immediately apologizes.

After a while, you feel the fishy smell diminish significantly. You turn your head to rest it on Miranda's shoulder. She doesn't move, lets you lean on her.

The episode finally comes to an end, and you feel relieved.

Miranda says to Moreau, "We should go now."

You stand up quickly, ready to escape.

Moreau appears reluctant, and there seems to be tears in his eyes. "Goodbye, Miranda. Goodbye, newcomer."

Before you can say goodbye, Miranda, without looking back, pulls you away, leaving Moreau behind.

Leaving the reservoir, the air suddenly becomes incredibly fresh. You feel like your foggy brain has been liberated.

"Miranda? Shouldn't we go for lunch?" you poke her arm.

"Sure," Miranda nods.

"Are we going to the restaurant in the village, or…?"

"We'll buy ingredients and cook ourselves."

"Getting another meal from the great scientist? Looking forward to it! The apple pie and fried eggs you made this morning were just perfect." You recall their aftertaste.

Miranda smiles at your reaction. "Let's go and get some ingredients."

You can also find me here.

Thanks for reading!

[glitteredrry]

how to lose a guy in 10 days

hello, welcome to the beginning of my romcom h series where i’m just writing harry in to iconic romantic comedies. now it won’t be verbatim (although some iconic quotes are used), so don’t expect that. it has the same plot though. i hope that you love the start of this series. thank you for reading. 💌

summary: a journalist who is in desperate need of a promotion has only has one simple task, lose a guy in ten days. what happens when Y/N meets a man named Harry that she can fool? Oh, but the only thing is he has his own promotion task to complete…he needs to make a woman fall in love with him in ten days.

warning: fluff, angst, & good ole cheesy romance.

wc: 9.2k (grab a snack)

“I’ve acted batshit crazy with this guy, he’s not budging,” Y/N complained to her friends in her living room.

She was at a loss, her only task for promotion was to lose a guy in 10 days. She wanted this promotion not just to have bragging rights that she did in fact lose a guy, but to be taken more seriously as a journalist.

Living in New York, it was hard to get out of the pool of writing small dating articles. Y/N was over these small sections about topics that weren’t going to change the world.

She wanted something more serious. Perhaps covering world news or something in politics. Her dream of being a journalist surely wasn’t where she is at right now. She wasn’t one of those people who were unappreciative of her opportunity, just a woman looking for a change.

So, when her boss opened up the opportunity of getting to write more serious topics, she was willing to do anything. Even if it was using some guy as a pawn. Sitting with her closest friends sharing a bottle of wine, they talked about her journey so far with the task at hand.

“Well tell us about everything that you’ve done, list it from crazy to out of this world,” Miranda spoke up feeling entertained by this situation her friend was in.

Y/N blew raspberries, “well the least is that I made him take care of these nearly dead roses I bought at the store. I told him that they were a representation of our relationship; if they died it meant he wanted our relationship to die.” She said with an evil smile.

“Once I gave him the flowers I then dedicated a song to him.” Laughter filled the small living room.

“What song?”

“You’re so vain.”

“You didn’t!”

“Even added his name in while I was singing. He looked mortified.” She said finishing off her glass of wine and then going to refill it.

“That’s the least? How crazy did you get?”

”Oh I’ve been terrible, you think that he would have blocked me by now. Listen to this one, we were at a game- oh a basketball game. The game was intense, I mean it might have been the best game of the season. I looked over at him,” she looked at her friend Kendra reenacting what she did.

“And said I don’t think I feel so well. The look on his face was something I’ll never forget. He quite literally looked as if he would have rather told me to go to hell than leave the game, but we left.” She laughed. Y/N knew that the actions were cruel, but she also knew that this would be a great story to tell her grandkids one day.

“What else?” Her friends asked on the edge of their seats.

“Well, a small thing is jealousy. Which I thought guys hated but he just takes it and reassures me. I’ve accused him of dating other girls, and looking at other girls; I’ve made him get into a fight with a guy at a fair.”

“Then right when I was about to have sex with him I called his dick princess Sofia. That didn’t go over well but we agreed on another name. I honestly thought that would have done it. It didn’t.” Y/N said reaching inside their popcorn as her friends just looked shocked.

“I called his Mom too.”

A gasp filled the room because they couldn’t believe how far their friend was going.

“Told him that I cared about having an important relationship with her.”

“And that didn’t steer him away?”

“Nope. Nada. Nothing. He just was okay with it! Sometimes I can just see this look in his eyes that he wants to lose it on me, but he doesn’t.” She said in disbelief herself.

“He will break soon, I feel it.”

“Well, what about today?” Her friend spoke up to ask.

“He plays cards with his friends, it’s my day off.”

“That was before he met you.” Y/N looked over at her friend confused.

“He played cards with his friends before he met you. You need to go, ruin boys' night. There is nothing more that men hate than when their friend's girlfriend comes to crash the party.”

It was as if a lightbulb went up in Y/N’s head as her friend Linda was in disagreeing with it all.

“What’s his name?

“Harry.”

“Harry must be a sweet boy why are you trying to break his heart?”

“He’ll get over me, Linda. It’s only 10 days.”

…

Harry was sitting in his apartment passing around a joint with friends. He had finally gotten the chance to breathe without Y/N breathing down his neck. All the nicknames, baby voices, and constant need for his attention were put on pause.

The Y/N he met on night one was a complete 180 of the Y/N he was currently dealing with. The woman he met was this beautiful woman. Someone who was intelligent and witty, it was someone whom he would have felt bad for making fall in love with him just for his personal benefit. The version he was dealing with now was a demon.

Although she did have her moments where he had a glimpse of the person that he originally met; Like when she would hug him and her fluorescent perfume would mix with his beautifully. Or when they decided to watch a game together in his apartment and she was cheering at the screen with him. She did have her good moments, but then again the bad outweighed the good.

He couldn’t complain much because he needed her. She was his only way of being able to move up at the fashion company he worked for. For him to lead the campaign for the new season of the women’s collection, he needed to get a woman to fall in love with him. Harry told his boss that women love him and that he understood women. So, his boss wanted to challenge that by having only one simple request. Getting a random woman to fall in love with him. He was nailing the assignment since Y/N was still around.

“So, Styles. Do you think that girl is in love with you yet?”

“I’ve got her wrapped around my finger. She’s hooked.”

“Have you fucked her yet?”

“There’s no way that he hasn’t.” One of his friends added in.

“Don’t ask me a question like that. She isn’t a piece of meat.” Harry said in all seriousness. He might have not been trying to date the girl, but he wouldn’t let his friends disrespect her. They all knew what she looked like since she had come up to his job…several times.

“Fine…but have you?”

“Well…no I haven’t.” He said while looking at his hand of cards.

“So, you have to deal with her craziness and get nothing in return?”

“I’m getting something in return, and that’s a campaign.” At his words, keys rattled from outside making all the men at the table turn around.

“Booboo bear,” Y/N called out entering with their cat she got them as practice for their future child in hand.

“Oh, hell.” He said under his breath going to stand as all his friends mocked the nickname while trying to conceal their laughs. Y/N let down their cat whom she named Muffin to the ground.

“Honey,” he said opening his arms as she walked inside them. Hugging momentarily, Harry breathed in her scent that he was becoming all too familiar with.

“What are you doing here?” Harry asked breaking away from her and looking down as she smiled up at him. That smile that he was kind of cute…kind of.

“I just happened to be in the area, then Muffin started meowing when I walked in the direction of your apartment. So, I think that she was telling me to come here. She must have missed her, Daddy.” She turned away from Harry to pick up the cat, “you missed your Daddy, sweet girl.” Y/N’s baby voice was on, and the only thing encouraging her to continue was his friends dying of laughter in the back.

“Continue your game. I’ll be like a ghost you won’t know that I’m here. Just dropping off some things.” Pressing a kiss to his cheek, she turned and headed to the kitchen to laugh to herself.

Harry sat back down at the table daring his friends to say another word. Just when he thought that Y/N was going to be true to her word, out she walked with a platter of vegetables no one asked for nor wanted.

“Excuse me, just wanted to bring healthier options,” she looked over to one of his friends who had a wing in his mouth. Staring it down, she took her fingers and yanked it out his mouth, and all of the men gawked at her actions. “Healthy celery, healthy carrot look how yummy.” She said to Harry’s friends as if he was a toddler.

All of his friends looked around at each other not believing how crazy this girl genuinely was.

His friend slowly let her place the vegetable in his mouth and she patted his head, “good boy.”

Harry couldn’t even find the words to say right now. He placed the joint back in his mouth trying to calm his nerves that Y/N was trying to drive through the roof.

Then coughs began to start as she stared down Harry. They progressed from small ones as if she was clearing her throat to overdramatic ones as if she could not breathe. He knew she was being over dramatic, she stopped in the middle of it all, eyeing him down one more telepathically telling him to put it out.. He put it out with a forced smile.

“Thank you, my sweet honeybun.” She cooed.

Then the drama came as she directed her eyes to something across the room.

A blood-curdling scream came from her lips as if someone had stabbed her, making all the men join her not knowing what they were screaming. “Harry, our roses. You killed them, you monster.” Y/N said theatrically moving across the room to hold the nearly dead roses.

“They’re just roses, I can buy you more,” Harry said rushing over trying to calm her. He was not expecting her to have this kind of reaction…well he had planned for this to happen actually. Tomorrow before he came back from work, he had wanted to go buy fresh roses to replace them. His plan failed…clearly.

“What did you just say?” She looked at him with a twitch in her eye. He thought that he could only see something like this in a movie. His mind couldn’t wrap around that this was his life. Out of all the women in the world that he could have picked for this bet, he picked the worst nut in the package.

“These roses were a symbol of our love. Our young, beautiful, festering love. Do you want our relationship to die?” She said with accusation.

“No, honey. I don’t want our relationship to die. Wait-”

“I don’t want to hear another word.” She said huffing as she began to stomp back to the kitchen with the rest of the roses in hand. She took a moment to collect herself. This was slowly driving her to insanity, but she couldn’t help to admit how fun it was to see the different reactions across the room to her antics.

Just as she walked back into the room with a platter full of pretzels, her eyes were on the back of Harry’s head as he motioned to his friend that she was crazy.

Back into character, I goes.

All of Harry’s friends were trying to silently motion to him that she was behind him. As Harry slowly turned around, he watched her slow stride as she approached the table. All of Harry’s friends watched anxiously because this girl was unpredictable.

“Are you saying, I’m some kind of mental person?” Pretzels flew up in the air and came down like confetti. All of Harry’s friends jumped back as they began to vouch for him.

“No, he didn’t say that.”

“He told us he loved you.”

“Right, Harry?”

“I’m in a room full of liars and snakes. If you would lie to me then you would steal from me, and if you would steal from me then you would cheat on me. Are you cheating on me, Harry?” Y/N said with a small fake sob beginning to spill from her mouth. Every man in the room looked at each other confused. It was as if she was flipping through several personalities.

“No, I wouldn’t lie, steal, or cheat on you. Where did you even get that phrase from?” Harry said, going to stand feeling more confused than ever.

“Quite frankly, Harry you would.” She said immediately cutting off her sobs and going back to normal only making the men in the room question her sanity even more.

“I know that you did cheat, I just can’t prove it. First, you let our love roses die, and now I’m a mental person. I don’t want to be with someone who thinks I’m a mental person.” She said moving to collect her purse and the nearly dead roses.

“Goodbye, Harry. I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.” As soon as her back was turned to the men, she smiled. Walking out the door and hearing it shut she felt victorious.

Her assignment was done for good.

There was no way that after that Harry would be trying to come back. Y/N nearly felt bad for all the pretzels that he would have to clean up.

“You can’t let her go, Harry.” His friend spoke up not forgetting about his promotion. Harry on the other hand had the promotion in the farthest part of his mind. He was happy to no longer deal with her shenanigans.

“Let her leave, I’m in hell. I can’t deal with that,” Harry said feeling slight relief at her finally leaving. Her random meltdowns, phone calls, and popping up where he was were over with.

“The promotion.” His friend reminded him. Harry forgot about the task at hand, and he needed that promotion. Jumping up, he began to run out his door. He was wishing on a star right now that he could catch her.

She had finally gotten rid of him.

“Y/N, wait.”

Or so she thought.

She turned her head to see Harry running down the fire escape in search of her. What was it going to take for this guy to leave me alone? She thought. Turning around to face him, she jumped right back into acting mode making her face screw up as if she was pissed off.

“What do you want, Harry? Why are you running back to talk to a mental person?” She asked. Yes, she was acting, but she truly wanted to know why he would decide to come back to find her. Either this guy was falling for her or just like the crazy within her.

“I’m here to apologize. It was cruel of me to call you mental. You just care. I’m willing to do anything to fix it. I messed up. Please, forgive me.” Harry looked down at her with puppy dog eyes that made Y/N’s stomach curl a bit. She felt a slight blush on her cheeks looking at him in this vicinity. It was the same feelings from the first night that they met. Quickly, she broke eye contact trying to push those feelings down.

“I’m not sure that I can forgive this.” Harry watched her lips and how she kept a prominent pout as she said the words to him. It was cute. She was cute. Harry broke himself out of fonding over her and those beautiful lips.

“I’m willing to do anything,” he slowly dropping to his knees on the New York sidewalk, and she couldn’t figure out whether to find this enduring or disgusting. He kept his green eyes on her as he lowered himself to the ground. “Anything, Y/N.”

“Couples therapy?” She asked knowing that there was no way in hell he would agree to that.

“If that will make you forgive me then, yes. I’ll go.” He rose off the ground going to hug her as she twisted her face in confusion as soon as his head was tucked into her neck. Harry breathed in her scent that the wind was trying to blow away, but he could still smell it.

When they broke contact, she looked at him sternly.

“I love you Harrypie, but I don’t have to like you right now.”

With that said she continued her walk down the street until she was able to fetch a cab ride home. Harry watched her disappear in the night, walking back up to his apartment he ended the boys' night. He was left in a room filled with scattered pretzels and a grumpy cat looking back at him. His dreams were filled with a messy girl with pouty lips and a scream that could wake up the world.

…

Couples therapy was hell…well for Harry it was hell. Y/N seemed to enjoy throwing him under the bus at any moment, not only throwing him under the bus but weirdly partnering up with the therapist against him; At the same time, she accused him of trying to sleep with the therapist.

To say the least he left the session with a happy woman, a major headache, and a dent in his wallet. He honestly had a gut feeling the therapist was a fake one she found off the internet. One thing that he wasn’t expecting the therapist to suggest was taking her away for the weekend to go visit his family.

His family was originally from England, but when his Mom remarried they settled in a small town in Connecticut. He felt calm bringing her because Y/N had already formed a bit of a relationship with his Mom. He could tell that Y/N was nervous.

As he turned down the street where he had spent the majority of his childhood, he watched Y/N’s leg shake as the anxiety was creeping down her body. Maybe this was too far? She thought about pulling into the driveway of Harry’s childhood home.

She tried to calm herself with the fact that this relationship was just to get her ahead in life. It was just three more days, and they would both move on with their lives. Once Harry cut off the car, they both climbed out. Harry grabbed their bags to go inside the house. Before they could even step through the door, Harry’s Mom was greeting them with a smile. “My boy,” she called out, going to kiss his cheek.

“Mom this is Y/N. Y/N this is Anne. I shouldn’t even be introducing you two, I forgot that you already have talked.” He said with a smart-ass tone causing Anne to hit him with a small rag she had in her hand.

“Nothing wrong with a little girl talk. Go drop the bags off in your room. Leave Y/N to me.” Harry walked away up the stairs to his room. Anne moved closer to Y/N with a low voice as soon as the coast was clear.

“You know you’re the first girl that Harry has brought home. You’re too are cute. Come on, let’s go introduce you to the whole family!”

Harry’s family was so loving. She loved the dynamic that they had. Anne introduced Y/N to his sister who had much to tell her about the childhood she shared with Harry. Then his grandfather was currently teaching Y/N how to play poker. It was beautiful scenery too with a hidden lake out back.

“When you fold, that means you’re surrendering. Pretty much you’re throwing the towel in before it even starts.” Harry’s grandfather spoke to her.

“Your cards won’t be able to be played.” She was nodding her head trying to wrap her hand around the game's entire concept.

On cue, Harry walked out the back door and immediately found Y/N. He was happy to see her fitting in with his family. He found it cute.

“Look at the poker champion,” his uncle called out making Harry claim the title loud and proud.

“I don’t think you’ll be winning today, Harry. Your girl is becoming a poker pro.” Y/N blushed at Gemma calling her out.

“Is that so?” Harry asked Y/N as he sat down right next to her.

Y/N shrugged her shoulders at him hiding her cards. “I think I can steal that title from you.”

“We’ll see about that. Deal me in.”

With the help of Harry’s family, Y/N just so happened to win over Harry. The night was filled with laughter and accusations of cheating...which she was. Y/N felt something inside of her brewing but she couldn’t tell what it exactly was.

She loved when Harry called her name out each time he accused her of cheating. She loved how he chased her around the backyard when he found out she was indeed cheating. That night she went to sleep with a charming boy, who had a dazzling smile in mind.

…

Today was peaceful. Outside of the city, it felt to Harry as if their energy shifted. His emotions with this girl have been up and down. Right now he felt so infatuated with her that it was overwhelming. He would find something about her each hour that made him laugh harder or smile a bit brighter. They were practically attached at the hip, only separating when needing to go to the bathroom.

Everything was feeling like the first night that he met her. It was something more personal. He wasn’t sure if it was because of them getting to be by themselves or the fact that he had finally brought a girl to his family, and they loved her. He just knew that as of right now he didn’t want to let go of her.

Right now, the pair were cuddled on the couch watching a movie as Harry’s family were running around doing other things. Suddenly, an idea came into his head as he looked at Y/N laughing at a scene.

“Want to go get naked?” He said randomly in her ear causing her to shoot up giving him a wild stare.

Without a doubt, she knew that she was sexually attracted to Harry, but his just randomly saying it caused panic to run through her.

Harry laughed at her reaction purposely teasing her, he watched as her eyes dilated while holding shock in them.

“Sorry, what I meant to say is would you like to go by the lake? We’ll be in swimsuits, I assure you.” Y/N held a hand to her chest blowing out air that she had been holding in.

“Although, if you would like to get naked, I wouldn’t stop you.” Y/N let out that loud laugh that was music to Harry’s ears.

“You’re such an ass.”

“You love it. Are we going?”

“Show me the way.”

…

The cool air hit Y/N’s legs as Harry walked in front of her leading her to the lake. They had a small picnic basket filled with goodies that Harry had decided to pack. Harry turned his head multiple times to ensure she was okay, and she gave him a kind smile right back each time.

They walked down the passageway until they hit the hidden area. Harry turned to face her feeling a bit shy about bringing her here. It was a sacred oasis for him when he would come to visit. It was something that he had to himself since he was a teen. “Welcome,” he said to her as she took in the location.

She never grew up in a small, close-knit town like this. It was a complete contrast from what she was used to. It was always loud noises coming from the city or the busy streets of New York that she had to walk down bumping into people; Here it was silence.

Just the sounds of nature flooding her ears. She felt at peace. “This is gorgeous, H.” Harry felt his face burn. He wasn’t sure if it was because of how soft her voice was while being dripped in pure adoration or because of the nickname she just assigned to him. He was going to just go with the latter.

“Early in the morning, it’s even better believe it or not.”

They sat down their belongings and undressed. While peeling off their clothes, the both of them stole secret glances at each other. Once they were settled in their swimsuits, Harry overlooked her body as her swimsuit hugged her curves.

She was beautiful.

He was beautiful.

His tattoos were melting into his tanned toned skin as she tried not to let her stare linger for too long. “I’m going to head in, you can keep making googly eyes at me.” Harry teased running into the water. This time Y/N was the one to blush. She chased after him not letting him get too far away.

They played innocently in the water, it was childish splashes shared between them, and a game of marco polo. After getting tired of the water, the both of them watched as the sun was gradually setting. Harry was laid across Y/N’s plush thighs as she was snacking on some grapes. As their bodies dried, Harry was in a deep thinking process.

Harry didn’t know how to describe the way that he felt. It was a weird set of emotions for him. He had never had a serious relationship, then when he happens to meet someone that has driven him mad in all of the ways one can imagine; It happens that he is using her for a bet.

He looked up at her as she unknowingly was stuffing her mouth with grapes. “You look like the cutest chipmunk ever,” she looked down at him, as Harry flashed those bunny teeth that caused her heart to throb.

Hitting him playfully, he sat up moving away from her attack. After she finished chewing she began to speak, “they were really good grapes I swear.”

Harry turned his head up focusing on how the sky had become a little gloomy, “Hey, Y/N, I think that we should head out now. I think that it’s going to-” Before he could finish his sentence, the weather did a 180 causing them the laugh at the small sprinkles of water that began to hit them. Sprinkles the turned to hard rain hitting their skin

Quickly gathering their thing, they ran in the direction of his family home as their laughs got lost in the pouring rain. Once, they made it inside they ran upstairs into the bathroom together and locked the door.

“Let me get the shower for you, if you hear someone flush a toilet be sure to jump out,” he laughed to her as he turned on the water. He turned to face her with a smile on his face.

“Who knew things would change so fast,” Harry said with a laugh shaking water out of his hair. Y/N knew that he was talking about the weather, but she couldn’t help but feel emotion spark within her with his choice of words.

This was all supposed to be a silly bet for her to promote to a higher position, she didn’t know that she would have ended up feeling these kinds of emotions about him. She turned from him as guilty tears ran down her face. Harry immediately noticed a shift in the air as she sat on the toilet lid in distress.

”Hey, hey what’s wrong?” Harry cooed kneeling infront of her and moving her wet hair behind her ears, wanting to get a better look at her face.

Y/N looked up at him with red eyes as she tried to explain her emotions without fully giving them away the reason behind her tears. “It’s just this weekend has been so nice, hasn’t it? Your mom is so kind and it’s just your family is so nice. It w-” she cut herself off with a deep breath before she was about to reveal herself.

“My family loves you and I- yes it has been a great weekend. One of the best I’ve had in a while.” Harry moved his hand to her thigh and she looked down at when he was touching her. There was a connection and both of them questioned if the other could feel it.

“A beautiful girl like you is never meant to cry. Can you show me your smile? I love your smile.” Harry spoke to her with a slight rasp in his voice.

“C’mon, you know you want to smile for me.” He said poking her cheek and teasing her as she tried to contain the blush rising on her cheeks.

She showed him a smile…just not the normal one. “That’s a scary smile, I want my girl’s smile.” She pursed her lips before showing her natural smile.

“There we go, think you have some spinach in your teeth though.”

“I do not.”

“You don’t, I just wanted to mess with you,” Harry said laughing as he moved closer.

He wanted to kiss her.

She wanted him to kiss her.

As if they could read each other’s minds, their lips connected in a way they had not before. It was an overwhelming feeling for both of them. They couldn’t understand when the line started to merge.

They both tried their best to keep their lips connected as clothes began to fly off. By the time they hit the shower, they explored each other in the same way how they wanted to on the first night they met. It was the same burning desire running in them, only now they were both in love with each other without fully admitting it to themselves.

…

Saying goodbye was always bittersweet, but it shouldn’t feel like this. After a weekend together like this he wanted it to stay for good, they were infront of her apartment lingering outside not wanting to say goodbye.  

“Well, this is me…” she said not wanting to leave but knowing she would have to.

“I know, kiss goodbye?” She nodded her head wanting the same thing. Pressing a kiss to his lips she moved to move away.

“Bye Harrybooboo,” she said with a laugh using the nickname not to annoy him this time, but just to tease him.

“Bye, honey bear,” Harry teased right back.

Y/N laughed stepping away and walked to the door of her building but stopped hearing Harry shout her name.

“Tomorrow my job is hosting a gala, will you be my date?”

“I would love to. What time?”

“8 on the dot.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

…

Harry looked down at his leather boots while he waited for Y/N to come downstairs. It was finally the night of the gala and he was dressed to impress, not only because he was a representation of the company. He wanted to impress Y/N. He was dressed in one of the suits from the newest collection coming out soon.

Harry waited for her patiently not wanting to rush her but knowing that they were cutting it close. His body leaned against the chauffeured car that he had gotten for them. His nerves were an absolute wreck, he was doing every single thing that he could to distract himself; He fidgeted with each one of his rings and tossed his hair in every which way.

“Hello, Harrybooboo,” all of the nerves fell away before his eyes could even look at her. Just by being able to hear her voice, he felt a calmness.

Looking up at her, he felt as if someone had physically punched him in his chest knocking all of the wind out of him. She was beautiful. He held his right hand over his heart to calm how rapidly it had started beating.

Y/N stood on top of the stairs feeling a bit timid, she had spent all of the time trying to look her best. It was all worth it to see him looking at her as if she was the most prized possession in the world.

Harry observed the yellow silk dress that matched her perfectly. It clings to her body, the body that he had fallen for so fast. Her hair was in an updo showing off her beautiful face. He was completely and utterly gone for her.  As she walked down the stairs he opened the door for her to climb in first.  

“You clean up nice,” she said with a smile before going to greet him with a hug.

“You’re not too shabby either,” Harry said flashing her a toothy grin.

“I’m going to head in, you can keep making googly eyes at me.” She said to him with a teasing smile climbing into the car. Harry laughed at her repeating his words from two days ago.

“Gladly.”

…

The gala was beautiful, and the designs from the upcoming collection were on display. Ranging from jewelry pieces to styled outfits. Y/N was in awe.

She was happy to be here with Harry…although he wasn’t right by her right now. This was still a work event for him so he couldn’t be by her side through it all. They had gotten separated somewhere along the way. She was now looking at one of the styled outfits on display that caught her eye.

“Y/N,” she heard her name called by an unfamiliar voice.

Turning her head, she made out the face to be Harry’s boss from one of her too many visits to his job. “Mr. Bardot, you’re Harry’s boss. Hello.”

“That I am, and you’re his…”

She was never asked this question before, they weren’t technically anything official. It had only been ten days for goodness sake.

“I’m his date.”

“Right, but I’ve seen you lingering around my office more than once. You can’t be just a date.” She swallowed nervously not knowing what to exactly say.

“I guess you could say that I’m more than just a date. Harry and I have a weird dynamic.” She ended her sentence with a peal of nervous laughter hoping that his nosy boss would catch a hint, and go meddle in someone else’s business. Turning back to look at the styled piece, she nearly spits out her champagne at his next sentence.

“Right, I guess things do become weird once you fall in love with someone.” He said nonchalantly.

Turning her head back to him, “l-love? I didn’t say that.”

“Well, that’s what would make it a weird dynamic, right? I mean I’ve been looking at you both since you walked in together. That looked like love.”

Y/N felt as if she was having some kind of existential crisis, it was if she had started questioning everything. She knew that her feelings for Harry were growing rapidly without her even knowing. But love? It was as if everything had come crashing down on her at once.

Even though all the silly gimmicks that she pulled, she had gotten to know him on a personal level. There were real feelings and moments between them. Moments that caused her to have butterflies in her stomach anytime she thought of them. Y/N looked at his boss while she stumbled on her words.

“I think you know deep down. For what it is worth, I believe he feels the same.” With that said he was gone leaving her alone in her thoughts. Swallowing her emotions that were trying to come up, she downed the rest of her drink.

Harry was having a rather sociable night. He’s talked to every important person here that would only further his career. Even an older woman who got a bit too handsy with him. Through it all, he just had one person missing by his side. Harry was on his way to go find her because everyone was soon to be seated.

“Styles,” he heard his name being called. He knew who it was immediately because his boss was the only person to call his last name instead of Harry.

“I met her. The girl is in love with you. Congratulations, the campaign is all yours.”

With that said his boss disappeared into the crowd as Harry stood there trying to process what he had said.

“Y/N is in love with me,” he whispered to himself. Scanning the room for his girl in the yellow dress, his eyes spotted her sitting at a table near the front of the stage.

“She’s in love with me,” Harry said in disbelief. Just as he was about to pick up his heart off the floor and head to her, someone else got in between them.

“Oh, you’re looking at, Y/N.”

He turned to see an older woman watching Y/N along with him. “You know her?” He asked still staring her down.

“I’m her boss, she is one of the star journalists at my company. Right now, I asked her to work on this assignment of making some unlucky guy out there fall in love with her. She had ten days to fool someone, and the stories she has told us are ridiculous. We actually kind of feel for the guy.”

Harry felt his heart drop hearing her boss speak about this unlucky guy. He was the unlucky guy. Her boss kept talking in his ear, repeating all of the things that Y/N had done to him. So, many emotions crashed into his body at once. He felt embarrassed that he was the laughing stock in her life, he felt stupid for not seeing through her behavior then getting played by her, and lastly, he felt betrayed for falling in love with a girl who clearly never felt those feelings.

Walking away from Y/N’s boss in the middle of her talking, he walked to the bar in desperate need of a moment to collect his thoughts.

Little did he know Y/N was across the gala with a smile on her face waiting for Harry as the dinner was about to start, she felt the presence of someone behind her thinking that it was Harry, only for it to be his two friends from work.

“Hey, guys,” she said as they sat down confused as to why they were here.

“Hi, Y/N. We just wanted to ask you something. Harry has worked really hard in the company to finally get where he is; So, if you could just keep playing along with our boss and pretending that you’re in love with him that would be great.” Y/N’s face dropped at his words.

“Yes, he doesn’t need to know anything about the bet. Just smile and convince him that you’re in love.” Harry’s other coworker added in.

Y/N picked up her champagne glass swallowing the remains. She agreed so that they could leave the table and leave her the hell alone.

It was hard to pinpoint one emotion that was running through her body but the main one was at herself. She felt foolish for falling for Harry. All his chivalry, and how she looked at her were all fake. A surge of anger ran through her, ad a person is never more vulnerable than when they’re angry. Anger is only a protective shield to protect the sadness she didn’t feel like showing yet.

It was as if she could feel a burning stare in her neck. When she turned, she could see Harry watching her from across the room. Both of them have hardening stares. Harry’s jaw was clenched as he tried to control himself since this was a work event. Y/N scoffed at him turning away, not even wanting to look at him.

What reason does he have to be mad?

What reason does she have to be mad?

Both of them thought at the same time.

The lights in the room began to dim signaling that it was time to pay attention to the stage. Harry moved through the dining area but ended up getting stopped by the same older woman from before who didn’t know how to keep her hands to herself.

He tried to move away as he heard the announcer introduce the performer for tonight. Just as he thought his night couldn’t get more dramatic, he heard the sweet voice that he is the most upset with right now.

“Yes, let’s all give a hand for this. I’m sorry to impose but I just needed to give a special shout-out to someone. Harry Styles is a hard-working man, a great swimmer, and a real charmer. He cares deeply about his job and is willing to do anything to succeed.” Y/N and Harry stared each other down as if they had become sworn enemies in their short time here.

“I must say, that even though he has many great attributes. Out of all of his many great talents is that he is a hell of a singer. And he has decided tonight to perform for you all. Harry, come on stage and sing your song.” She said with a fake smile as a spotlight found Harry standing in the middle of the room.

Harry couldn’t believe her, clearly, she had found out about his bet and wanted to make a spectacle. He would give her what she wanted. Everyone in the room clapped, encouraging Harry to go.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Harry Styles.” She said with an artificial voice. Adjusting his double-breasted jacket, he moved through the crowd keeping his eyes on her as he walked onto the stage. She placed the mic down on a stool, and began to make her escape. Harry dashed to the stage picking up the mic as she tried to leave.

“Y/N. Y/N don’t leave. You couldn’t dare walk out and not show the world that beautiful voice of yours.” If looks could kill Harry would have passed out on that stage. “Doesn’t everyone want to hear a duet tonight?” The crowd went wild wanting more than ever for the pair to do a song together.

Y/N flashed an awkward smile at the cheers. “Everyone please, give a warm welcome to, Y/N.”

Harry grabbed a mic that wasn’t in use and held it out for her to grab, Y/N wasn’t going to back down at him challenging her right now. So, with a smile on her face, she walked right back up to the stage. As Harry turned to the band asking if they could play a certain song for them.

As the instrumental for You’re So Vain began to play. Y/N was now on stage as Harry nodded his head to the beat. “Oh, that’s nice,” he said on the mic turning to face her.

“You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht.” He said emphasizing his words as he sang. Y/N rolled her eyes at him as she grabbed the free mic from his hand aggressively.

He continued going, taunting her and not really knowing any of the words. This only further upset her because now she needed to correct him. Getting sick of his antics she went to go sing.

“And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner,” she said in a mocking tone really giving the audience a show. Not one that they expected but one filled with drama and tension.

“Harry’s so vain,” she sang into the mic off-key.

“You probably think this song is about you. Harry Styles, you’re so vain.” She dragged out her singing as Harry attempted to talk over her muttering that she was the vain one.

Getting sick of being up here she stopped in the middle to direct her attention to him as if they were in the room alone. The instrumental of the song kept playing as they talked in the mic letting everyone hear them. “You tricked me into falling in love with you. Do you have an ounce of shame?”

“And what did you do? You trashed my place and took me to some fake ass couples therapy so that you, you Y/N could have a promotion. You also made me miss the biggest game of the season.” He said on the mic arguing his side of things.

“Do we hear that ladies and gentlemen, Harry missed a game? I want everyone to know that your sex is lame.” She said in a singsong voice.

“You named my dick princess Sofia,” Harry said arguing back as the audience gasped at the back and forth between them.

“Well, why did you have to bring that up?” Y/N said as the crowd now began to laugh at them. It was a hot mess and everyone was eating up the drama of it all.

“You’re so vain.”

“No, you’re so vain!” Y/N finished off getting sick of all of this back and forth, and threw her mic down to exit stage left.

“There she goes, ladies and gentlemen. Running away, good job, Y/N.” Harry yelled on the mic. As she tried to run through the gala, Harry dropped his mic and immediately ran after her. He wasn’t going to let her get away this easily.

Pushing through the bulky doors of the gala, she ran down the steps trying not to trip on her dress.

Harry was right on her tail, and as he watched her approach the bottom of the stairs he called out for her. “Y/N, just wait. We’re not done here.” He said losing his breath because he just had to catch her.

“No, we are done.” She said turning around. Pointing to him in anger, Harry walked right up to her with a scowl on his face.

“You played me, just to get a campaign. You’re a backstabber!”

“Oh, so you’re innocent? Coming into my life and turning it upside down for a fucking article. Was it worth it?” Harry said in complete anger. He was in love with her, he knew this for certain. Now it all meant nothing. It wasn’t going to go anywhere because she doesn’t have the same feelings as him.

The both of them looked away from each other, Harry had to walk away for a moment gathering this anger inside of him. He didn’t want to yell at her or act this way toward her. He couldn’t help the feeling of betrayal. He didn’t like this feeling. That anger that Y/N started to have was melting down to just pure sadness. Harry wasn’t in love with her. He only had one goal in mind and accomplished it.

“So that’s all I was to you?” Harry said turning around to face her again. Instead of anger being laced through his voice, it was low and full of sorrow. “Just some project to you. Something for you and your coworkers to get a good laugh at?”

“I guess I was just some random girl that you picked out.”

“Your readers are going to love this. What a beautiful twist for you, truly, I hope they love the article.” Harry said with sarcasm dripping in his voice.

“I wonder what the odds are of them liking it, want to bet on it?” She said with a sour tone. Tears began to fill her eyes, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of crying infront of him.

“Bravo, Y/N. Your job was to lose a guy in ten days, and guess what? You just lost him. Congratulations.” Harry attempted to walk away from her for good wanting to have the last word.

“How can I lose a man that I never had, Harry?” With that said she turned around no longer wanting to be here. Harry watched with a heavy heart as the woman that he loved walked away from him for the last time.

…

The last few days for Y/N have been hard. She had ended up writing, and turning in the article wanting to finish her assignment. When she turned in her article, she also notified her boss that she would be resigning. This place no longer served what she needed, and she could see that even though she had completed her boss’ task, her boss wasn’t willing to give her what she had promised. Walking out of the office building for the last time was bittersweet, but it was the next step in her life. Heading to her apartment, she was beginning to pack for her move across the country.

…

Harry had thrown himself into work. Yes, he loved that he had gotten the campaign, but at what cost? It was as if the world was mocking him each time he had to go into his job. Right now, he was giving his opinion on one of the fabrics as his friend approached him.

“Harry, I think that you would like to see this.”

He turned around only to be faced with a magazine. A magazine with his girl right on the front. Well, it wasn’t his girl. She never truly was. Taking it from his hands. He started lipping through the pages, he found her article and began to read it. Once he got to the bottom, what he read shocked him. It was almost as if he could hear her voice.

When I began to write this article, it was to call out all the silly dating faux pas. In the end, I ended up losing someone special to me.

Those same emotions hit Harry. It wasn’t one of anger but what he had initially felt for her. Love. He needed to get to her. Harry refused to go on another day without her because of the mistakes that they both made.

“I need you to look over this, I need to go get my girl.”

Rushing out of his office building, Harry grabbed the helmet to his motorcycle he pulled out of storage to ride trying to get Y/N off his mind. He was thankful that he had it because New York traffic was a bitch. Speeding down the streets of Manhattan. He first arrived at her job hoping that she would be there.

He needed her to be there.

“Sorry, she is not here. Y/N quit two days ago, she is heading to the airport right now to go to an interview across the country.” Her coworkers told him as he cursed himself.

Looking more at her coworker's face he noticed her, “I knew that you weren’t a real therapist.” He said walking away from her and grabbing their love roses that Y/N happened to leave behind.

“She made me do it.” Her friend said smiling at him.

“You owe me money,” Harry called out exiting the building.

He hopped right back on his bike and began his journey to her apartment. Just as he approached her could see her hair as she climbed into the back of a cab. Due to the noises in the city, there was no way for her to hear him calling out her name.

“Shit, I’m not giving up on you,” he said to himself. Revving his bike, he dodged in and out of traffic tracking her cab. Even almost getting her cab mixed up with a sea of yellow cabs. He gained speed as they approached a bridge. Harry could see the silhouette of her head in the back of the cab. Pulling up to the side of her cab, he hit the window, startling her.

“Harry? What are you doing?” She said in disbelief as she lowered her window.

“Pull over, Y/N we need to talk.” He screamed in the wind. He pointed to an area where technically it would be illegal to stop but would make them not stop traffic. Not wanting Harry to die, Y/N kindly asked her driver to pull over. Even though it was an inconvenience, he pulled over. Y/N hopped out of the car as Harry took off his helmet.

“If you’re trying to get yourself killed then you’re on the right track,” Y/N told him crossing her arms.

“Is this true?” He asked in distress holding up the magazine. He needed to hear these words from her. He needed to know that this wasn’t for her to sell some articles and that what she wrote were her true emotions.

“Harry, please. I have an interview-”

“Is this true, Y/N? Please, just answer the question and I’ll walk away forever if you want me to.”

Y/N swallowed her pride and for once put down the shield that she would have normally had up. “Everything that I wrote is real. I would never be that vulnerable if it wasn’t how I felt, Harry.” She said feeling herself get choked up.

“Then why are you leaving me?”

“I need to find a job, Harry. I want to be a journalist, writing real stories with meaning. I can’t do that here.” She said wiping the stray tear that decided to escape.

“I know you have an interview. A journalist like you doesn’t need to travel across the country to find something. You fit in right here. You deserve to be right here. There isn’t a job in New York you could find to love every single part of you.” Harry spoke to her wanting her to see, and understand the talent that she had inside of her.

“Where are you going?” He asked the same question only different this time. Y/N bit her lip because she was at a loss for words. Here was this beautiful soul she had known, and got to love practically begging her to stay.

“I told you it’s the only place I can go if I want to be a real journalist.”

“Well, I think that you’re running away.”

“You can keep these thoughts for the next girl you want to bet on, I’m not running away?” She said going to turn and climb right back in the car.

“Are you going to fold?”

Y/N stops in her tracks.

“If you tell me right now that this, this between us, is a risk for you; And you don’t want to take that risk. I want you to tell me. I need you to look me in my eyes and tell me. Tell me you fold. Because for me, you’re worth every risk. Time and time again I would choose you.” Y/N turned around to face him taking in every emotion across his face.

He wanted this. He wanted them together.

Harry stepped closer to her getting into her space, they were so close yet miles apart. He wanted to taste her lips again. He wanted to breathe in that scent that he fell in love with.

“Lady, what are you going to do? I have places to be.” Her cab driver asked. Harry could look into her eyes and tell that she wanted to say yes. They were worth the risk. His stubborn girl wanted him just as much as he needed her.

Pulling out his wallet, Harry pulled out a large bill and handed it to the driver while keeping his eyes on her. “Take her stuff back to the apartment. She will be riding with me.”

“How do you know what I’ll say?” She asked with a smile dancing on her lips.

“I’m calling your bluff, baby.” At those words, Harry took her face in between his hands, and connected their lips together. He never knew that he could miss a person this much. Y/N was elated at this feeling inside of her. Love was hard and consuming but it was all worth it. She wouldn’t change one thing that happened to lead them to this moment.

Breaking away from the kiss, they held hands as they walked toward his motorcycle. “Look who tagged along.”

“Our love roses. I love you so much, Harrybooboo.” She teased pinching his cheek with one hand as she went to go pick up the roses with the other.

“I love you more, honey. I’m never letting this relationship die again.”

[igetthedisneybox]

Héctor Madrigal

Inspired by @hannahhook7744's Encanto AU, and her own character headcanons.

Third image made using https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1558575

Fourth image made using https://www.dolldivine.com/la-colombiana

Fifth image is a model of one of the Encanto kids I edited.

Héctor’s full name is Héctor Gregorio Madrigal.

His first name means “hold fast”, and his middle name means “watchful”. 

He is the third adopted child of Camilo Madrigal and Marcos Vasquez.

He has straight dark brown hair, light brown skin, and brown eyes. 

He is six years old.

He has two biological brothers, Hugo, older by eight years, and Héctor, older by three. 

He is currently uninterested in romance and sex.

His gift is the ability to turn into animals. His powers work similarly to Camilo’s, and he can only hold a shape for so long. He’s in love with his powers, and uses them mostly to turn into different types of birds, so he can fly.

His door portrays him smiling, with his right arm turning into a wing, and his left turning into a furry, clawed arm, while his forehead sprouts horns.

His room can change sizes, depending on what type of animal he becomes. Similar to Antonio’s room, it has a jungle theme, but instead of there being one big tree, it's almost an entire jungle. His bed and other amenities are at the front of the jungle, by a small pond.

His symbol is a jackalope.

Camilo tries to get Héctor out of his shell more than Marcos, and get him involved in theater and helping the community.

Marcos lets him be more shy, believing that he’d be more social when he was ready. Héctor likes to turn into various animals and sleep in Marcos’ lap.

His birth parents died when he was just a baby, so he has no memory of them. According to his brothers, they were very neglectful, so he has a negative opinion of them.

He and Hugo are both quiet, and get along well. Héctor sometimes feels overprotected by him, but that only happens as he gets older.

José is very loud and hyper compared to him, and so they don’t spend a lot of time together. When they do, José tries to parent him like Hugo and their actual parents do. 

He hangs out with Avila, Amada, Tomás, Rómulo, Mariana, and Zoe. He also stays glued to Miranda quite a lot.

He gets along best with Julieta, Antonio, and Miranda.

He and Miranda love to fly together.

Hugo’s service animal, Pepito the toucan, loves Héctor, and will hang out with him when Hugo doesn’t need him.

He loves fútbol, and is very good at it. He and the other Encanto children will play games literally all day.

He always carries a little backpack on him, full of all sorts of different animal food for emergencies.

He’s naturally very good at swimming, even in human form. He and Amada like to swim together.

His favorite colors are light blue, gray, turquoise, and brown.

[timberllania]

Amaricia Falls - Spring, Year 1 Summary

I've never done one of these, so go easy on me haha

A lot of things happened this Spring in Amaricia Falls. Marriages, births, adoptions, new jobs...

Modena

Karissa moved to Amaricia Falls recently graduated. She started on a tiny shack, and now has a small house to call her own. She met Tracy on her first day, and by the end of Spring, they got married. Lots of luck came to Karissa this Spring, she got a job in the field she wanted (Politics), found the love of her life, and even found a genie lamp!

Davis

Just like Karissa, Lilly had just moved in to Amaricia Falls. She had graduated from college almost two years prior to the move, and had yet to find a proper job. The move must have helped, as not long after settiling down she got a job in Science! Spring treated Lilly really well. She got a couple of promotions, and found a guy she likes, Donte.

Montgomery

Talitha and David weren't total newcomers, as they moved a little after their wedding. Before Spring, Talitha got pregnant with twins, Catherine and Vincent. The babies were born mid-spring. Neither David nor Talitha got promotions in their careers (David in Business and Talitha in Culinary), but they definitely made a bunch of friends.

Greene

Xavier and Wanda both got some romancing going during Spring. While Xavier found someone he believes is The One, Wanda just wanted to hook up a little.

That's not to say romance was the only thing going on. George made some progress in his career in Law, while Xavier and Wanda got jobs in Paranormal and as an Artist, respectively. Wanda even got a promotion already!

Miller (from now on Miller-Sinclair)

For the first half of Spring, Hellen lived by herself. This didn't last for long, as she got married to Miranda, her highschool sweetheart, and they ended up adopting a cat! Miranda started out Spring at her parents house, as a college graduate. She got a part-time job in education, and hopes to go full time soon. Hellen still hasn't been promoted in Show Business, but she knows it won't be easy.

Sinclair

For Zoe and Nicholas, Spring has been very peaceful. Nicholas got a part-time job in athletics, as he couldn't stand doing almost nothing at home being retired. Zoe is still retired, and is enjoying one of her hobbies, sewing. When Nicholas is at home, he is either getting skill points for his job or working on his car, which is almost finished.

Collins

At the Collins' House, not everything was calm, as a fire almost made them lose their kitchen. Cyril and Paloma are basically giving each other the silent treatment, and only focusing on Emma and their jobs. Emma learned all basic toddler skills, and even found out she likes science early on! Both Cyril and Paloma got promoted, in Journalism and in the Slacker career respectively. Paloma really wants a dog, which Cyril is definitely not going to like.

[bellamer]

Man alright I’ve deduced it and here’s who absolutely did and didn’t tell Kaidan about Shepard and Garrus

Garrus- If Kaidan wasn’t on speaking terms with Shepard for joining Cerberus, why would he actively reach out to talk to Garrus ? And if Garrus was too busy to shoot Shepard a “U good” message to his girl Kaidan was definitely the last one on his mind.

Liara- Literally what reason would she have ? I’d assume she was too busy with shadow broker shit and her studying the prothean artifact unless she just did it to be mean because Geena originally rejected Liara for Kaidan and then moved onto Garrus like Kaidan was nothing but in ME3 she still assumes that she still has a thing for Kaidan but I don’t think it was her unless she wanted to be a bitch even though I don’t know how she’d know about Shepard and Garrus in the first place since she was too busy playing with her shiny new shadow broker toys.

Tali- Again, if he wasn’t on speaking terms with Shepard he wouldn’t be on speaking terms with her now matter how much she claims to hate Cerberus. If he didn’t believe his girlfriend why would he believe tali ? Also I can’t see them talking outside of a work basis anyways.

James- He didn’t even know that Kaidan knew Shepard so I doubt he knows their romantic history and he just freshly met Garrus while Kaidan was still comatose in the hospital and depending on how you play Garrus and Shepard might not even rekindle their romance until after visiting Kaidan or whatever. I don’t know, I know it wasn’t this idiot.

EDI- She’s way too smart for that and I can’t understand any scenario where she’d drop the bomb on Kaidan on their mission to mars since that’s the only time they interacted until he officially comes back but that’s way after he already confronted Shepard

Now let me tell you who it could have been:

Dr Chakwas- She cares about Kaidan deeply and even though she did join up with Cerberus she wasn’t officially part of them. She took a leave of absence from her actual job because the Cerberus thing was just a “temporary gig and Shepard needed her” and I can see her visiting him in the hospital and telling him that she knows Shepard and Kaidan had a thing but to not get his hopes up. She might have let it slip so that Kaidan doesn’t find out that hard way and gets hurt.

Joker- Even though he joined up with Cerberus too he technically started “ working” under the alliance again and since EDI only “obeyed” his commands and the alliance was too dumb to figure it out and he still had direct contact with Anderson, I figure he could convince Kaidan to have a drink with him. He probably accidentally let it slip and said that he wouldn’t say more and to just “ask Shepard”

Thane- If Thane is still alive in the play through it’s mentioned that he and Kaidan met in the hospital and while talking he probably let it slip and Shepard and Garrus hooked up but refused to say more once he saw the look on Kaidan’s face, knowing that he misspoke.

Any other answer kind of doesn’t make sense as to who snitched to Kaidan. Like it would take several convoluted reasons to explain to me why Urdnot Wrex, Kasumi, Grunt, Miranda, Jacob or whoever would go out of their own way to tell Kaidan that Shepard moved on like a day after they broke up but whatever

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

This isn’t like the usual posts I make but, I played through Monster Prom Second Term’s True Calling ending, and what the fuck!!?? TToTT I’ve read before that the reason for the True Calling ending is to expand upon Miranda’s character, but why like this?? Why make fun of their own writing and ignore all they’ve already worked up to? :(

Miranda is heavily reliant on her servants and refuses pretty much all work, that much is obvious. She has her serfs do everything for her while she does whatever she ever desires on a whim, lost and aimless and without a clear purpose, but… wasn’t it always implied that she’s that way for a reason? That reason being her father spoiling her with gifts and money and royal privileges. Her parents already conditioned her to see torture, murder and genocide as normal things! I always figured that her talking about true love and romance and romanticising not-so-good-or-healthy fairytale tropes was a part of that, that her parents more or less raised her to be the perfect little princess whose only purpose is to be married off to a prince of another kingdom to strengthen ties or as a peace offering or something (or for political reasons overall? It is strange that a princess would find herself in a high school of a foreign land, hmm…). That would explain why she really has no aspirations, besides love! She was raised to be that way and she didn’t just decide to be selfish one day.

So, how come the game comes out of left field and has Miranda’s own sister yell at her for being selfish and vague??? Suddenly it’s her own fault that she's spoiled with serfs who’ll do whatever she says? Hello, who gave her those serfs???? Yeah, maybe her sisters are crown heiresses or high priestesses but clearly they were taught those roles! Those were roles that already existed, waiting to be filled! And now Miranda suddenly is the only one who needs to figure out what to be all alone?

Worst of all I can’t believe they’d insult their own writing and literally call Miranda flat :( I know that’s the fandom perception of her but this is your own damn game!! You know how you wrote her! Did you not keep track of all you wrote!? Maybe Miranda’s twist (“sweet mermaid princess is murderous”) is open and out for all to see but that hardly makes her flat. She loves tradition and finds it very important, she’s super into silverware and napkin-folding, she loves singing and water sports (water polo and gymnastics to name two) and fairy tales and stories and she dreams of romance and even though her family’s immoral and murderous ways have been hammered into her so hard she doesn’t know it’s not normal to torture and kill serfs, she’s still kind and worries for people and their well-being, even if they’re commoners! She’s not very “bright” in many things but in the Revenge ending we see her formulate and execute a blackmail plot without any serfs at all, which does require intelligence. Dare I say, just like how everyone has a twist in their personality, another twist of Miranda’s is that she can be cunning when she needs to be? I just can’t believe that they’d go and agree with the people saying that Miranda is flat and make a WHOLE SECRET ENDING TALKING ABOUT HOW FLAT MIRANDA IS instead of… I don’t fucking know. Making a route where they feel they’re actually giving her more depth? They’re just lampshading the issue! They’re talking about how they made Miranda into a flat character and how sad and awful that is instead of doing anything about it.

And they could’ve explored so much too. A character lacking direction in life is already a really interesting thing to explore. They could’ve surely done something with her basically being a tool for her family and kingdom! Alas… Maybe it’s silly to get so worked up about a video game but I don’t know. The game made me feel things. I love Monster Prom but sometimes it is a love-hate relationship :/

[iwanthermidnightz]

You know the saying: behind every great woman is a man threatened by her success. At least, that’s what our culture would have you believe, even now, in 2023.

From films and TV series to books and mainstream media, the idea that a woman’s relationship falls apart if she excels too much professionally is everywhere. The latest romance to have fallen prey to female ambition according to various tabloids and Twitter threads: Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn, who recently parted ways after six years together because he reportedly “struggled” with Swift’s career overshadowing his own. “It’s been hard for Joe trying to make it in Hollywood and not quite becoming leading-man material while dating one of the most famous women in the world for six years,” said an anonymous source.

We’ll have to wait for Swift’s next album to gauge whether there’s any truth to these rumours. Their validity, though, is almost beside the point. What’s important – and problematic – is the fact that the myth of men being threatened by their partners’ success is alive and well. Of course, the idea that female power is emasculating has existed since time immemorial. It’s responsible for everything from the panic over “bluestockings” infiltrating higher education in the 18th century to Harvard Law alumna Miranda Hobbes pretending to be an air hostess in order to get a date 250 years later. Books such as 2018’s The Love Gap are predicated on the idea that, if a woman is the higher earner in a relationship, her male partner is liable to feel inferior. The trad wife movement fetishises “traditional” heterosexual partnerships in which wives are submissive to their husbands – and preferably don’t work at all outside of the home – while incels are told that women want alpha Don Draper types, rather than equal partnerships.

Clearly, we still live in a patriarchal society. If female breadwinners are becoming more and more common, societal perceptions about women’s “roles” in relationships are taking much longer to shift.

As for Taylor Swift, I don’t know what personal relationship dynamic she was negotiating with Alwyn, nor is it any of my business, but I do hope that she finds a partner who supports, nourishes and encourages her creatively. A partner who champions her is the least she deserves. It’s the least all of us deserve.

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, beginning:

-Right from the start the vibe is obviously different.

Mass Effect 1 has a slow, exploratory intro. You get to walk around the Normandy and have the option to talk to different characters in the depth you choose. Then you’re dropped on Eden Prime and alternate between combat and talking to survivors.

Mass Effect 2 drops you right into an exploding ship, then into a base under attack. Far more cinematographic, but noticeably less world building and less talking.

Neither is wrong, per se, but I greatly prefer Mass Effect 1.

-Miranda’s introduction centers her sexuality. First you see her back and ass, then you see her stride forward shaking her hips to an excessive degree, all in that cat suit.

This never helps my first impression of Mass Effect 2.

At the start, Miranda’s the only female main character* – next up are Jacob, then Wilson, then TIM. There are other female characters, but they’re all in the background.

So the only prominent female character in the introduction of ME2 is heavily sexualized, much more than the average female character in ME1.

This does not make for a promising start. While it’s not enough to ruin either game, the increased sexualization of female characters through ME2 and ME3 remains irritating throughout. I prefer the greater gender neutrality in ME1.

*Excluding Shepard, who can be either gender

-It’s odd that Miranda blames the Council not listening to Cerberus on their low opinion of humanity. I’d wager Cerberus being a terrorist group is a greater problem.

Then again, at this point Miranda genuinely believes all the cells we destroyed in ME1 are “rogue cells”, so I suppose she doesn’t consider Cerberus to be terrorists.

-The game intro states the attack on the Citadel is officially blamed on the geth and Saren.

This is the line the Council will stick to later when speaking to Shepard – does Shepard ever consider that they’re getting the “official line” treatment because they’re with Cerberus?

There’s no indication of it in the game, but it’s a reasonable extrapolation.

-Why don’t the Collectors target the escape pods?

We know that must of the Normandy crew survives. Ergo, the escape pods make it away.

Shepard was the Collectors target – how did they know Shepard wasn’t in one of the pods?

This can probably be credited to some kind of advanced technology if you want to do so, but it feels like an oversight.

-The Alliance was right to ground Joker. He is the reason Shepard dies – if he had obeyed orders, both he and Shepard could have made it to the escape pods. And since the Collectors didn’t target those, they would have survived.

-What is the popular opinion of the art for the Genesis comic? Personally, I’m not fond of it.

-Shepard still refuses to acknowledge that the Council had a point in the first meeting about Eden Prime. They state that the Council refused to believe one of their spectres could have attacked the colony, and that they wanted evidence so Shepard had to go and find proof.

Why is wanting proof that someone committed a crime before convicting them of it a bad thing???

-The comic skips Feros completely. I suppose that’s reasonable, since it’s main purpose is to let players make some of the major choices that carry over to ME2 and Feros doesn’t have any.

The cipher isn’t critical to any plot points in ME2, so no need to review it.

-The comic takes many poetic licenses.

I was never interested in romancing Liara, but the comic certainly makes it sound like I was.

Benezia also doesn’t die in Liara’s arms – you might not even have recruited Liara at that point. However, the comic always says that she does.

-It also keeps talking about relays into dark space. There’s only one known relay to dark space: The Citadel relay. That’s a major plot point, so odd that it’s not correct.

-It says Saren died believing the Reapers would save him. That’s not true – if you kill him, there’s no indication that Saren expected the Reapers to intervene.

In my playthough Saren actually killed himself, but again this comic is intended for players that did not play ME1. I suppose the game defaults to you needing to kill Saren.

-Since I went neutral on the Council choice in ME1, I did have to choose a councilor in the comic. No neutral option here.

I went with Anderson. At least that way the first human councilor dies a hero, rather than a traitor.

-As many others have said, how does Shepard know that the pistol is missing a thermal clip?

I thought they might have been familiar with some prototype weapons created to use thermal clips and recognized it as such, but Shepard dies only a month after the attack on the Citadel. Feels a bit too soon for thermal clip weapons.

-Ah, ME2 combat how much I dislike you.

Insanity is much harder. My shields are worthless.

-The irony here is rather sad. Shepard (from their perspective) just killed Saren, who preached about how they’re the pinnacle of evolution as an organic and machine intertwined thanks to the enhancements Sovereign gave them.

Now they’re in a lab hearing about how Shepard is a mix of flesh and synthetics. Just like Saren was a mix of flesh and steel.

The game could have really added some depth by leaning into the horror aspect of all this, maybe some fears that Shepard will become like Saren. Shame it did so little.

-The game emphasizes repeatedly, over and over, how Shepard is just how they were before they died.

This is waste of a Chekhov’s gun – the repeated protestations feel like they should result in some kind of dark reveal, but they don’t.

So instead it feels like a plot thread left hanging, and you’re left wondering why the game won’t shut up about it.

-The game doesn’t even try to hide that Wilson is up to something. Every line out of his mouth is suspicious, and most noticeably when he’s in the party you can’t go to the squad menu.

Given you just recruited Jacob, you likely went into it to distribute his powers. So when you go to do the same for Wilson you’ll notice it’s disabled.

ME1 and ME3 handle this better with Jenkins and Anderson.

-And ME2 is already massively downplaying Cerberus’ behavior in ME1. If you go paragon, Shepard says it’s some kind of pro human splinter group they ran into a few times.

Really? No mention of killing Admiral Kohaku? All the experiments? Attempting to use the Thorians and Rachni as weapons/tools? The colony they murdered? The squad of marines fed to thresher maws?It’s just a pro human splinter group?

I’m playing Sole Survivor Shepard. This is ridiculous.

-Once again, ME2 is structuring it so the human female companion is renegade and the human male companion is paragon.

Notably, however, Miranda is cold compared to Ashley’s warmth and Jacob is emotional compared to Kaidan’s logic.

-Miranda first says that it’s fine to abandon the other survivors, because Shepard is the only person on the station worth saving.

Then she says that’s completely fine leaving to you to rot on the station with the mechs if you refuse to go with her.

Make up your mind.

-Very irritatingly, when you speak to TIM you can’t choose any of the investigation options AND go paragon.

Let me find out everything I can and still tell him to fuck off because he’s not trust worthy, damn it.

-TIM claims the Alliance isn’t acting on the missing colonies because they don’t have the resources. Nice of him to throw shade at Shepard for saving the Council – I take it that the lack of resources are because of the ships lost doing so.

Also, this is a lie – the Alliance is upgrading colony defenses. In the description of Freedom’s Progress it notes colony defenses had recently been increased, and later we see the Virmire Survivor doing so on Horizon.

(I’m also reminded of the codex entry where humanity is seen as unusual for having so many colonies without dedicated defenses. Humanity insists this is fine because the Alliance can quickly move to any colony’s defense as needed, but the evidence certainly indicates otherwise…)

-I do believe that TIM genuinely believes Cerberus to be acting in humanity’s best interests here. Cerberus is a pro human group, and this is protecting humanity.

That it also aligns with his long-term goal of obtaining Collector technology is a bonus.

-If you go paragon, the game says you can part ways with Cerberus if you don’t believe what TIM’s telling you. Shame that’s not actually true.

-Shepard asks TIM if Miranda and Jacob are trustworthy. This is recurring question that they’ll ask later companions as well – they spend most of the game making up their mind on the two.

-Why is Freedom’s Progress in the Terminus Systems? I thought the Alliance was settling the Attican Traverse?

-Jacob, if you go neutral (paraphrased): Most Alliance soldiers hate Cerberus on principle.

Jacob, Cerberus murdered an Admiral. And a squad of marines. And a colony. It’s not on principle, it’s for an abundance of good reasons.

[catsarno7024]

ᗷEᒪᒪE

ᑕOᐯEᑎ Oᖴ ᗷEᔕT ᗯITᑕᕼEᔕ ᔕEᖇIEᔕ

COMING NOVEMBER 15, 2024

By Kaytie Marie and Miranda May

https://books2read.com/cobwbelle

❄️ ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕗-𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝔽𝕄ℂ

❄️ “𝔹𝕒𝕕 𝕓𝕠𝕪𝕤” 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕝 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕

❄️ 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕡𝕡/𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕖

❄️ ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕞𝕒𝕤

❄️ 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤

❄️ 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕖/𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕪𝕒𝕞

❄️ 𝕄𝕄

This year, I’m going to celebrate Christmas for the first time.

An odd thing for a half-witch in her twenties to say, right? Maybe for most people, the answer would be yes, but not for this girl. While I’m a half witch, I have no magic. I was raised as a human in a cult my dad married into until two years ago when one of my best witches helped me escape.

One of my guilty pleasures is holiday romance movies, and I want my first Christmas to be just like in the movies. The new dating app, Kissed by Cupid, seems like just the place to meet some new friends to help me meet that goal. I’m not expecting romance from anyone I meet because who wants to deal with all this drama?

Except the men I match with want the romance—with me. It’s hard to believe they genuinely want me, but it’s getting harder and harder to deny my feelings. Add in the strange things that keep happening around me, I can’t help wondering if this is where I’m meant to be.

With my best witches cheering me on, will I find so much more than I was expecting this holiday season?

Belle is a holiday paranormal why choose/polyam romance (MMFMM) in which there will be no choosing among love interests. This book is intended for readers 18+ due to language and content.

#mirandamay #kaytiemarie #covenofbestwitches #whychoose #datingapp #Christmas #fatedmates

[queer-ragnelle]

I would love your opinion on Black Sails! I was never able to finish it (even though I want to). Seasons 1-3 felt linear and natural in the way the characters were driven and motivated. Season 4 changed so much... undoing character growth, scrapping character beliefs for new motives that were narratively weaker, and using way more shock/gore than there had been used previously. I would love to know your opinions on it, and if I'm talking out of my ass on this. Love the show! Would love to finish it. Would genuinely love to hear you do a character analysis, if you felt up to it. Ty!

Hi Anon! I'm going to put this below a cut since it's not strictly relevant to this blog and yet I have much to say about it lol

It's been over a year since I watched Black Sails in it's entirety, but I'll go on record saying it's the best show I've ever seen. I love the writing, the acting, the costuming, the filmography, the music, the everything. It is [almost] perfectly balanced. Ironically I felt season 1 was the weakest and didn't take the same issues with season 4 as you did. My biggest criticism of season 1 involves the plot regarding Max's captivity on the beach. I think connecting her with Anne could've been achieved some other way (or even a similar plot just overall less sexual violence/quicker resolution). But even so, I still stand by that I recommend it, particularly to those who love a blend of historical and fiction/mythic characters.

I would love to see an Arthurian retelling on that scale and with that tone. Starz had produced their show Camelot in 2011, three years before Black Sails, and while that first season also has some issues, I'll forever be heartbroken it wasn't renewed. I fully believe they would have developed Camelot into an epic tale ala Black Sails, particularly with strong female characters and queer storylines. We could've had it all....

On that note, Black Sails was absolutely vital in my journey as an author adapting Arthurian legend in a historical 6th century. The meta about ambiguous storytelling subject to biased perception or outright misinformation and thus misconceptions about people involved in historical events fascinated me. On one hand you have Jack Rackham's obsession with his legacy, almost uncannily aware he's in a story and his limited time to leave his mark. Then there's Charles Vane's hanging in Nassau, when the history books say he died at Port Royal. It circumvents expectations, not with shock value (looking at you, Game of Thrones finale), but in service to the narrative by calling into question the validity of our accepted reality. Beyond that, it seamlessly blends historical figures, the cast of Treasure Island, and original characters created to incorporate more women and people of color into the narrative. Everyone's developed and fascinating and complex with clear motivations and fleshed out backstories (except for Silver, lol, which itself makes him compelling). Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles does similar things. He utilized Saint Derfel as his point of view character to analyze the Arthurian legend through a [semi-]historical lens. But I think Black Sails does it better. It also seems to transcend genre at times. It's adventure and action, but it's got everything from romance between a network of characters in all different Stiuationships to the horror of Flint's past haunting him (literally). And yet it never feels like too much. It doesn't lose track of what it's doing. Nothing set up is dropped or forgotten about. It's frustrating when the goal post moves yet again, but in a way which draws us in closer to the characters and makes us all the more driven to see it through. When another hiccup arises we must overcome, or even a devastating and insurmountable shock (Miranda....), it feels earned. Of course that was liable to happen. How could we have been so foolish to think things would have worked out?

This show gave me permission, and frankly, the determination, to experiment with my own retelling. The people who made Black Sails knew when to stay true to the past, drawing on facts to develop the story in accurate ways (such as utilizing the colony of escaped slaves to bring Madi and her people into the story (which also ties into Treasure Island in which Silver had a black wife!)) and when to follow the rule of cool (Jack Rackham in his definitely-historically-unviable-but-undeniably-cool shades). Literally life changing.

I don't think I could narrow down the characters enough to do a full analysis of one of them, I love them all for different reasons. But I did name my borzoi Long John Silver, so, I kind of have to talk about him, right? Well I think the character's lack of a backstory, ie his unwillingness to disclose it, acts as a surrogate for the viewer. We ride the wave with Silver, thrust into this predicament with the map and the gold and the very culture of Nassau's pirate trade whilst Silver somehow remains a blank slate mystery as he navigates this dangerous world with a quick mind alone. While Flint could certainly be considered the main character, and we're quite often in his head, his memories, his nightmares even, I don't think the viewer's supposed to identify as him so much as with him. Flint is Flint. But we are Silver. (Scary thought lol)

If you couldn't tell already, I'm long winded. :^) So I'll stop here and the real deep dive character analysis happens in my books. Gawain is just landlocked Flint if you squint<3 Thanks for asking about Black Sails! Everyone go watch it.

[cigarettessmokeandberries]

I want a home with you (Miranda Hilmarson x reader)

You don't believe in romance movies, so how come it felt like one with Miranda?

a/n: just some good ole fluff :)

You had spent your day off tidying Miranda's apartment and had spent the last two in the kitchen making her dinner. The kitchen was nearly suffocating with heat as you took the garlic bread out of the oven. The pasta water had boiled over at one point and a paper towel had been slightly burnt against the eye when said water was being wiped up too soon. The air smelled like burnt tomato sauce and the heat was getting to you so you quickly moved to the counter, that was less hot, to finish. The noodles were drained and the, thankfully, remaining non burnt sauce was poured on. You set the table with some plates before gently serving out the pasta right as the door opened. 

Miranda walked into the apartment with a quiet sigh as she took her boots off, her arm resting on the wall as she leaned against it. On her way to the couch, she paused, smelling the scent of dinner. Looking over at the table she chuckled softly at the sight of your pulling her chair out with an upward quirk of your lips you tried to hide. 

“What’s this?” Miranda's voice was raspy from the day, a hint of exhaustion evident, as she walked over to take her seat after throwing her coat on the back of the couch.

“I thought I’d try my hand at cooking,” The words are followed by a soft kiss to the crown of Miranda's head, her blonde hair tickling your lips. “It didn’t work out too well, but it's edible! I think…” Miranda let out another chuckle as you mumble out the last sentence.

“It looks great, babe” Miranda's eyes shone with a hint of adoration as she stared into yours. She smiled like a love sick idiot before digging into her dinner. 

—

Dinner had passed faster than you had hoped. Conversation followed by Miranda's many compliments made it enjoyable but pass quickly. You were sure the food was below average but enjoyed her doting. 

You stood by the sink, washing the dishes as Miranda freshened up. You scrubbed the plate lightly, getting the grime off and were in the process of drying it when Miranda walked back into the kitchen with a smirk in her eyes in reaction to you at the sink. 

“Don’t say it.” You cut her sentence off before she had even opened her mouth. Miranda holds her hands up in faux surrender with a coy smile. 

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” The words leave her mouth in an exclamation as her hands fall back to her side. It only takes her a few steps to reach the counter and, when she does, she leans over it and gently grabs your chin with her thumb and forefinger.

“I was going to say-”

“Don’t say it.” 

“You're my lovely-” she uses her fingers to nod your head lightly 

“Miranda…” Your cheeks begin to flush.

“little homemaker!” Her lips meet your forehead in a sloppy kiss, leaving a wet stain you feel behind, as her teeth shine through her lips. At least she hadn’t said ‘housewife.’ 

“You’re blushing!” she chuckles as she lets go of your chin and leans against the counter, her red tank top clinging to her wet skin. Oh, how you wish you could have washed her hair and maybe even lathered soap- nope. Miranda is her own woman and you are her partner, no need for any of that homely shit. 

“Because I spent the evening in this kitchen,” the words lose their momentum as they leave your lips and you're pretty sure Miranda’s smile only got wider. 

“You like it.” she sings as she walks around the kitchen counter, her long arms wrapping around your waist like some stupid scene from a romance movie. Why did it feel good? No, this is stupid. You wiggle your way around in her arms, coming to face her, before furrowing your eyebrows dramatically. 

“I do not.” Despite your attitude, your arms wrap around Miranda’s shoulders as hers settle around your waist. Miranda backs you up against the sink, the marble cold, while she rubs soft circles into your back. The warmth coming from her hands is nothing compared to the raging fire burning on your cheeks as she smirks lopsided at you. 

“Mhhm,” comes from her throat as she leans down to place a chaste kiss against your slightly chapped lips. There, this was definitely not like a romance movie because they never have chapped lips! You do not enjoy these homely moments! But the way her hands were rubbing your back and how her lips fit so perfectly into yours and the way her eyes were shining at you- no, you do not like homely moments. 

“Then why are you blushing, and I know it's not the heat.” Miranda's words tap you back into reality and you let out a sigh through your nose, shaking your head. 

“You make me blush, I just love you.” Although true, that wasn’t the reason you were blushing and Miranda’s raised brow told you she knew too. Miranda was pressed against you after enjoying a meal you had prepared. Miranda was rubbing your back after you were standing over the stove and over the sink and it felt so nice, too nice. Miranda came home and had all her time to spend with you. Miranda was holding you in the kitchen like that damn scene from some stupid romance movie and you felt so loved. You felt wanted. You had even tidied up the damn house. Who were you kidding, you loved these moments.

______________________________________________________________

[bellabrooks1510]

NEW RELEASE!

ᗷEᒪᒪE

ᑕOᐯEᑎ Oᖴ ᗷEᔕT ᗯITᑕᕼEᔕ ᔕEᖇIEᔕ

By Kaytie Marie and Miranda May

Now Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

https://books2read.com/cobwbelle

❄️ ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕗-𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝔽𝕄ℂ

❄️ “𝔹𝕒𝕕 𝕓𝕠𝕪𝕤” 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕝 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕

❄️ 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕡𝕡/𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕖

❄️ ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕞𝕒𝕤

❄️ 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤

❄️ 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕖/𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕪𝕒𝕞

❄️ 𝕄𝕄

This year, I’m going to celebrate Christmas for the first time.

An odd thing for a half-witch in her twenties to say, right? Maybe for most people, the answer would be yes, but not for this girl. While I’m a half witch, I have no magic. I was raised as a human in a cult my dad married into until two years ago when one of my best witches helped me escape.

One of my guilty pleasures is holiday romance movies, and I want my first Christmas to be just like in the movies. The new dating app, Kissed by Cupid, seems like just the place to meet some new friends to help me meet that goal. I’m not expecting romance from anyone I meet because who wants to deal with all this drama?

Except the men I match with want the romance—with me. It’s hard to believe they genuinely want me, but it’s getting harder and harder to deny my feelings. Add in the strange things that keep happening around me, I can’t help wondering if this is where I’m meant to be.

With my best witches cheering me on, will I find so much more than I was expecting this holiday season?

Belle is a holiday paranormal why choose/polyam romance (MMFMM) in which there will be no choosing among love interests. This book is intended for readers 18+ due to language and content.

#mirandamay #kaytiemarie #covenofbestwitches #whychoose #datingapp #Christmas #fatedmates

[aleriaya-reads]

ᗷEᒪᒪE

ᑕOᐯEᑎ Oᖴ ᗷEᔕT ᗯITᑕᕼEᔕ ᔕEᖇIEᔕ

COMING NOVEMBER 15, 2024

By Kaytie Marie and Miranda May

https://books2read.com/cobwbelle

❄️ ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕗-𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝔽𝕄ℂ

❄️ “𝔹𝕒𝕕 𝕓𝕠𝕪𝕤” 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕝 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕

❄️ 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕡𝕡/𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕖

❄️ ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕞𝕒𝕤

❄️ 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤

❄️ 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕖/𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕪𝕒𝕞

❄️ 𝕄𝕄

This year, I’m going to celebrate Christmas for the first time.

An odd thing for a half-witch in her twenties to say, right? Maybe for most people, the answer would be yes, but not for this girl. While I’m a half witch, I have no magic. I was raised as a human in a cult my dad married into until two years ago when one of my best witches helped me escape.

One of my guilty pleasures is holiday romance movies, and I want my first Christmas to be just like in the movies. The new dating app, Kissed by Cupid, seems like just the place to meet some new friends to help me meet that goal. I’m not expecting romance from anyone I meet because who wants to deal with all this drama?

Except the men I match with want the romance—with me. It’s hard to believe they genuinely want me, but it’s getting harder and harder to deny my feelings. Add in the strange things that keep happening around me, I can’t help wondering if this is where I’m meant to be.

With my best witches cheering me on, will I find so much more than I was expecting this holiday season?

Belle is a holiday paranormal why choose/polyam romance (MMFMM) in which there will be no choosing among love interests. This book is intended for readers 18+ due to language and content.

#mirandamay #kaytiemarie #covenofbestwitches #whychoose #datingapp #Christmas #fatedmates

[book-lover791]

ᗷEᒪᒪE

ᑕOᐯEᑎ Oᖴ ᗷEᔕT ᗯITᑕᕼEᔕ ᔕEᖇIEᔕ

COMING NOVEMBER 15, 2024

By Kaytie Marie and Miranda May

https://books2read.com/cobwbelle

❄️ ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕗-𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝔽𝕄ℂ

❄️ “𝔹𝕒𝕕 𝕓𝕠𝕪𝕤” 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕝 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕

❄️ 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕡𝕡/𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕖

❄️ ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕞𝕒𝕤

❄️ 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤

❄️ 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕖/𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕪𝕒𝕞

❄️ 𝕄𝕄

This year, I’m going to celebrate Christmas for the first time.

An odd thing for a half-witch in her twenties to say, right? Maybe for most people, the answer would be yes, but not for this girl. While I’m a half witch, I have no magic. I was raised as a human in a cult my dad married into until two years ago when one of my best witches helped me escape.

One of my guilty pleasures is holiday romance movies, and I want my first Christmas to be just like in the movies. The new dating app, Kissed by Cupid, seems like just the place to meet some new friends to help me meet that goal. I’m not expecting romance from anyone I meet because who wants to deal with all this drama?

Except the men I match with want the romance—with me. It’s hard to believe they genuinely want me, but it’s getting harder and harder to deny my feelings. Add in the strange things that keep happening around me, I can’t help wondering if this is where I’m meant to be.

With my best witches cheering me on, will I find so much more than I was expecting this holiday season?

Belle is a holiday paranormal why choose/polyam romance (MMFMM) in which there will be no choosing among love interests. This book is intended for readers 18+ due to language and content.

#mirandamay #covenofbestwitches #whychoose #datingapp #Christmas #fatedmates