Ten Years of Public Breakups, Then He Ran After My Bus novel · Chapter 21 of 40
Chapter 21: Yankee Swap
By the second Saturday in December, the audio had sixty-one thousand views, and strangers were stopping me in the Hannaford.
"Honey," a woman said by the deli counter, "you stay strong."
"Thank you," I said.
"He's a good boy. Anybody who builds a window seat is a good boy."
"How do you know about the window seat?"
"It was in the comments," she said, and patted my arm.
I took my cheese and left.
Paulie and Gordie rented the downstairs of a duplex on Camden Street, and the Friday table held the Yankee Swap there every year.
You brought a wrapped gift under twenty dollars, drew a number from a hat, and stole from each other until somebody cried.
I carried a bottle of wine and a box in red tissue.
The living room was full of people and a tree with no ornaments, only paper chains, because Paulie had spent her ornament money on the veil.
"Don't look at me," I said at the door, to the whole room.
"We're not," said the petty officer, who was.
Eben was already there.
He stood by the bookshelf in a gray sweater with his hands in his pockets, and the room made a very polite space around him.
He lifted his chin to me.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–20 of Ten Years of Public Breakups, Then He Ran After My Bus are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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