Best Days We'll Never Know

A Make-Up vs. A Break-Up

The New York Maker's Faire is in full swing. Everyone's walking among the booths, checking them out. There's rides, food, all the staples that say you're at a Faire, stay as long as possible.

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"The Mario Brothers." Luigi says to the woman in the ticket window, who gives them their passes.

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"The Mario Brothers." Mario says to the woman in the ticket window, who gives them their passes.

Luigi's eye catches a familiar looking booth and points,

"Isn't that the booth for Pauline's dad's campaign?"

Mario's eyes widen, "You think we should check it out?"
Luigi shrugs, "Why not?"

Sure enough, there she is, passing out flyers, talking to people about signing up to vote, 100% in her element.

She looks amazing.

"Jump Man?" she calls suddenly, startling them. "Is that you?"

Mario throws his hands up in a, "what can you do?" gesture, but she just moves right in and hugs him.

"5 years after high school, and this is where we end up." Pauline notes.

"Yep. Small world, huh?"

Pauline points, "Can I steal you away from your brother long enough to catch up?"

Mario looks at Luigi, who nods, so Mario says, "You got 10 minutes.", so she leads him over to a food booth.

As they dig in, Pauline goes right into it,

"It's nuts, isn't it?"

"Absolutely." Mario agrees. "I've...kind of been watching your Cornell updates and all the crazy things you've been doing on the campaign trail."

"How are you doing, by the way?" Pauline asks. "How's everything been going since Luigi's accident?"

"Forget me." Mario shakes his head. "I saw you and Michael are engaged? Did I forget to buy you an engagement gift?"

"Yeah, about that..." Pauline starts, but Mario's clearly focused on something else.

"You wanna know something crazy?" Mario asks, and after a beat, Pauline nods. "The night we graduated from high school, me and Luigi opened our letters in your bedroom."

Pauline's eyes widen, "Oh yeah?"

"And if we'd been accepted..." Mario trails off.
"You'd be at Cornell with me right now." Pauline finishes, but before she can speculate, Mario reminds her,

"But we weren't."

"Nope." Pauline agrees.

"Where is Michael, anyhow?" Mario suddenly says, giving Pauline whiplash. "If he's gonna marry the future mayor, he's gotta pose for pictures, no?"

"Uh, actually..." Pauline starts, then blurts out. "We broke up."

Mario's mouth drops open, "What? Why?"

Pauline shrugs.

"I'm so sorry." Mario says. "That's...awful. Or is it?"

"It's...fine." Pauline waves it off. "It took me a while to get used to it, but..." she shrugs again. "Guess he didn't have what it takes to be a part of all this." She gestures to the booth behind her. "Not like you and me, you know?"

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"Come on, I have a booth set up! Please just let me in!"

Mario's ears pick up the voice immediately as he follows it to the entrance.

"Please! I'm supposed to be in there right now, and I absolutely cannot miss it! Let me in!"

"Pauline?" Mario calls out, making the brunette turn around sheepishly.

"Um...hi?" She looks at him. "You grew a mustache?" then repeats, "Hi...again."

"What's going on here?" Mario asks.

"Besides being unable to get to my campaign booth?" Pauline says. "I was...surprising you. But it...didn't quite work. Hit traffic like you wouldn't believe, and I literally just got out of my car 5 minutes ago." Pauline gestures around them. "I didn't know they'd canceled my booth!", then looks at Mario, smiling. "But you got a demo spot for your prototype! That's amazing!"

"Wait." Mario's finally connecting the dots. "You're telling me you got stuck in traffic and lost your booth...your dad was okay with you leaving the campaign to come down here?"

"Not exactly." Pauline admits. "Well, yeah, he was, but...let's just say this is gonna cost me big time. You might not see me again after tonight." She jokes. "But it's worth it."

Mario tilts his head, "Huh."

"I also got your voicemail." Pauline says. "And while politics will always be my first love...you're the one I don't want to get away."

Mario breaks out into a smile, then steps right up and kisses her like he means it.

She wastes no time wrapping her arms around him and kissing him back.

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"You remember the last time we were here?" Mario says when they somehow make their way back to her house.

"When you told me you and Luigi got rejected from Cornell." Pauline replies.

"When I called you the one that got away." Mario adds. "And you said Cornell would be lucky to have us. And you were right. You're always right."

"But you didn't take me up on my offer." Pauline reminds him.

"We didn't need to." Mario says confidently. "Because we found our own way."

"Oh come on..." Pauline blushes.

"No, don't 'come on' me!" Mario insists. "You know, all this time I was wondering if I made a mistake in not fighting harder for us to be together."

Pauline looks at him, surprised.

"Because I thought I wasn't good enough for you, and that you were doing all these amazing things while me and Luigi were toughing it out in the real world, and it didn't seem fair to ask you to be a part of all that. But now..." he trails off, then says,

"We got our plumbing certificates, survived years at the Wrecking Crew, and came out of it with our own company, logo and all! Things I never dared to hope we'd have in the face of getting rejected and letting you go."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means..." Mario sighs. "It means I know exactly where I'm headed in life, for better or worse, and that's with my brother." he looks at her apologetically. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"Yeah." Pauline agrees, surprising Mario, making her laugh and hold out a hand.

"Friends?"

Mario smiles back, and holds out a hand, "Friends."

They pull each other into a hug.