Cheat With My Boyfriend Best Friend

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.

used to my parents being unreliable around the holidays, but the sight of the penguin made me

They’ve been sending me a stuffed penguin for Christmas for the past decade!

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

that would accept someone as young as three months old. If they were stuck

a Christmas card attached to a stuffed penguin. They probably considered the little birds to be their children,

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

had the opposite problem. Instead of being left

people.

his parents’ house. He was from a big family with religious parents. Ever since I

say how much of my “love” for Vincent was

family party again, but I definitely

me to go to a ski

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

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

to keep him company. This year, he was planning on taking a cruise! The ship was set to depart from Greece and sail along

there was Aaron’s

actually invited me

acted like he’d mentioned it on a whim, which made me wonder if it was another one of his lighthearted

even though they didn’t want to get married at all.

Like Vincent.

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