Chapter 86

Why Not Breakup?

Christmas was coming, whether I wanted it or not.

Mariah Carey was playing in on every speaker, and each of the small shops along the street were decorated with red and green ribbons. Starbucks was serving their annually seasonal drinks (btw, they all tastes the same), and the sweet smell of baked gingerbread wafted around every corner.

Everyone was welcoming the Christmas spirit, except me.

And it wasn’t just my work that was getting me down.

I knew trying to yield any results before Christmas would be hopeless. It would take a miracle to make that kind of progress in a week, and it was a little too late to ask Santa.

I swallowed a mouthful of my pumpkin spice latte as I worried: Where on earth was I going to spend Christmas?

For most people, it’s a no-brainer. They were going to go see their families. All in all, Christmas was the festival for families.

But my family was just a headache to deal with every year.

Last night I found a dirty package in my mailbox from my parents. It came with a postcard that said, “Sweetie, we’re sorry we won’t be able to spend Christmas with you this year either. We’ve reached a critical stage of our research, but we still made sure to get you a gift.”

I wasn’t surprised when I opened the package.

It was a stuffed penguin.

I was used to my parents being unreliable around the holidays, but the sight of the penguin made me smile bitterly.

Dear G*d, I was 27 years old! They’ve been sending me a stuffed penguin for Christmas for the past decade! I wasn’t a child anymore!

My parents were both biologists. More specifically, they studied penguins. They fell in love on an icebreaker headed to Antarctica for research. Most researchers would get sick of the environment after a few months, but not my parents. Both of them preferred the company of animals over human society.

They were practically made for each other.

The only time their marriage was in jeopardy was when they left Antarctica for my education. After they came to New York, they were lucky they found a boarding school that would accept someone as young as three months old. If they were stuck in the city, they would’ve divorced for sure. Fortunately, as soon as I was entrusted to the school, they happily returned to Antarctica, where all of their problems vanished.

Since then they’ve rarely visited human society. The only contact I have with them is a Christmas card attached to a stuffed penguin. They probably considered the little birds to be their children, not me.

Christmas has always been hard for me. No one wanted to be alone while everyone else was out throwing reunions with their loved ones.

But this year, I had the opposite problem. Instead of being left alone, I was invited to too many gatherings by too many people.

The first two years I dated Vincent, we went to his parents’ house. He was from a big family with religious parents. Ever since I was first invited to one of their Christmas parties, I’ve fantasized about having such close and loving family members.

Now, it was hard to say how much of my “love” for Vincent was just love for his family.

This year, he invited me to his family party again, but I definitely didn’t want to spend the holiday with the man who betrayed me.

Then Cinder invited me to go to a ski resort in Switzerland.

We went to the same girls’ boarding school when we were younger. I was there because of a scholarship opportunity while she was there because her father made huge donations to the school’s library. Before Vincent, I spent all of my Christmases with her.

Her family was huge. Her father had been married four times, so his number of children was in the double digits, and that’s not even counting the illegitimate ones. Her entire family got together for Christmas, and it was always a good show. Sometimes, Cinder went home to see the fun for herself, but this year, it seemed like she wanted something more laid back.

Now Nick was inviting me… Given everything he was going through right now, he needed a friend to keep him company. This year, he was planning on taking a cruise! The ship was set to depart from Greece and sail along the Mediterranean Sea. Nick was such a romantic man. It was a shame Tim didn’t appreciate that.

And then there was Aaron’s invitation.

He had actually invited me to spend Christmas with him.

I just couldn’t figure him out. He acted like he’d mentioned it on a whim, which made me wonder if it was another one of his lighthearted jokes.

Like men who talk about marriage just to win a woman’s heart, even though they didn’t want to get married at all. All they wanted was to play with a woman before throwing her away.

Like Vincent.

“My mom asked when we were coming over.” Vincent asked. “She said she had an extra gift for you since we just got engaged. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably my great- grandma’s wedding ring. It’s a family heirloom.”

“Well…” I started to panic.

Vincent’s mother Lisa was a very nice woman. She was traditional, warm-hearted, and selfless when it came to her family. I would’ve loved to have a mother like her growing up. She’d shown me her precious ruby ring. She’d worn it on her hand for almost 30 years, ever since Vincent’s father proposed to her with it.

That ring symbolized their family history. I could never wear something like that…

I didn’t want to go with Vincent at all! If I visited his family’s home as his fiancée, then I’d be taking advantage of those kind people. As much as I hated Vincent for cheating on me, I never wanted to hurt his family. They were good people.

But how was I supposed to avoid spending Christmas with them?

Then it hit me.

We’ll break up!

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