Ten Years of Public Breakups, Then He Ran After My Bus novel · Chapter 22 of 40
Chapter 22: Midnight Mass
The Catholic church on Pleasant Street held midnight Mass on Christmas Eve with every light on and the heat turned all the way up.
It smelled of wet wool and candle smoke, and the pews were full to the back.
My mother had taken the aisle seat in the fifth row, in her good black coat, with a missal.
Linwood sat beside her.
He was a lifelong Methodist and held his hymnal upside down for the first three minutes without comment.
I sat on his other side.
Eben sat next to me, in the one jacket he owned with a collar.
"Between you and God," my mother had said, in the vestibule, and had looked at the four of us in a row with great satisfaction.
She had meant it literally.
The organ began.
The choir came down the aisle in white robes, carrying candles, singing in a language I'd learned at my grandmother's table.
I knew the words, and I sang under my breath.
Beside me, Eben stood very straight and still, holding his hymnal in both hands.
I looked down.
His knuckles had gone white.
I noted it exactly: the pale bones under the skin, the thumb pressed so hard against the cover that the nail had turned yellow.
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.
← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend