The Holly and the Ivy

Who'll Hear My Secrets?

For the next several days, Holly jumped anxiously every time her cell phone buzzed, wondering if it was Adam messaging her to call off the wedding.

But though she received plenty of messages from him, none of them suggested that Ivy had told them about the kiss.

Adam: Babe, have ur reindeer ever run over a grandma?

Adam: Babe, r my timbs good for the North Pole?

Adam: Babe, did I leave my sunglasses at ur place? I can't find them.

Adam: Nvm, I was wearing them lol

Holly responded as calmly as she could, trying to sound like her normal self. It must have worked because Adam didn't seem to notice a thing. Though the fact that they had barely spent any time together since the bachelorette undoubtedly also helped. Besides a few lunch dates where Adam asked her loudly and in public about Santa myths, the two hadn't really seen each other.

Instead, Holly was kept extremely busy with wedding planning by her mom and soon-to-be mother-in-law. Fortunately, they also didn't seem to notice any change in Holly's behavior, as they peppered her with questions about the wedding.

The only one who seemed the least bit suspicious that something was off was Mistletoe. But Holly had done a great job coming up with excuses for her odd behavior that seemed to satisfy the elf.

Somehow, there were only two days left before Christmas. The only thing left to do was a final dress fitting. After that, she and Mistletoe were supposed to head back to their apartment for one last night, then travel early in the morning back to the park they had been dropped in. Holly's father was going to send some trusted elves to pick them up and bring them back to the North Pole.

Now, she and Mistletoe were on their way to the dress shop. Alvita had, in fact, worked some kind of magic, because Holly's dress was completely ready when she and Mistletoe arrived at the store. Unfortunately, it was just the two of them-Alvita had to work out some catering details and Noelle had gone home to help Holly's father. Holly normally would have enjoyed spending time with her best friend alone, but Mistletoe was a lot harder to distract when there weren't other people around. And with no distractions, Holly was worried Mistletoe was going to figure out something was seriously wrong.

"Holly!" Chloe exclaimed as they walked in. "You have got yourself one tenacious mother-in-law. I can't believe she managed to get the dress here as fast as she did."

"She's pretty impressive, " Holly agreed.

"Now come with me, and let's put it on," the saleswoman said, grabbing a bagged dress off the rack.

Holly followed Chloe back to the fitting rooms, where the attendant helped her slip into the dress. Well... slip was possibly an understatement. For such a simple-looking garment, it was surprisingly complicated, so it took a while for them to wriggle Holly into it.

"Oh Holly," Chloe breathed once they finally had it on her, "it's stunning."

Holly looked in the mirror and was shocked to find her reflection even more beautiful than when she first tried the dress on. It had already accentuated all her features, but now it looked like it was actually a part of her.

"Shall we show your maid of honor?" Chloe asked with a grin.

Holly nodded. She walked out of the dressing room to find Mistletoe popping handfuls of butter mints in her mouth.

"Oh mur gursh," Mistletoe exclaimed with her mouth stuffed with candy. "Yur lurk amurzing."

"Thanks, Mistletoe."