Mona is an orc bouncer at a Portland strip club who bounces an unruly city councilman one night and is fired from her job. Her best friend, Tiffany, suggests that she should spend a few days at Tiffany’s brother’s cabin in the mountains to settle herself and think about her next steps. Mona’s retreat is interrupted when Joel shows up unexpectedly in a blizzard.
Joel is Mona’s best’s friend’s brother and her first love, but fifteen years ago, he dumped her without a word of explanation. Now he’s newly divorced and snowed in along with Mona and his cat. Joel has unresolved feelings for the one he let get away fifteen years ago. Mona has a burning desire to punch Joel in the face.
They’re stuck together in his cabin until the snow clears, and mice ate a hole in the air mattress, leaving them with only one bed to share. Will love melt the barriers between them, or will Joel end up buried in a ravine?
Tropes: One Bed, Monster Romance, Forced Proximity, Open Door Romance, Best Friends Brother, Working Class Heroine, Working Class Hero.
Trigger Warnings: Strong allegories to the caste society of the USA and mistreatment of non-citizens, Mentions of Sex Work, Sexual Content.