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“How was your date at the wine bar on Wednesday?” Mom asked.
Julie pressed the phone to her ear and curled up in her bed. “Oh, it was excellent.” She tried to sigh happily. “Tom is very knowledgeable about wine, and he knew the pastry chef, so we got free dessert.”
Mom, naturally, was excited by the word “free.”
Tom Yeung, boyfriend extraordinaire, had taken on a life of his own. Yes, he was still organized and neat and worked as a pharmacist at a hospital, but he wasn’t a taco-hating killjoy who frowned a lot.
It was fun to have a pretend boyfriend, and Mom ate it all up, though perhaps it was time for Julie to end her so-called relationship...
No. She didn’t want to deal with her parents’ disappointment.
But she’d kept this up for a while. It was mid-December now, more than a month after her only date with Tom. She hadn’t talked to him since, but that didn’t stop her from inventing stories about him.
“You must ask him to come to Ashton Corners for Christmas,” Mom said.
“I think he’s spending the holidays with his parents,” Julie said.
“It doesn’t have to be Christmas Day. It can be Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. Whatever is best for him. But we must meet your new boyfriend. Since he’s so devoted that he made you jook when you were sick and stayed with you for two days, I know he will make time for your family.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll ask.”
Unfortunately, Mom did not drop this topic. She called every day, reminding Julie that she very much wanted to meet her new boyfriend.
That Saturday, Julie was working at Ossington Cider Bar when Charlotte and her friends walked in. They came here somewhat regularly, but it had been a while since their visits had overlapped with Julie’s shifts, and as luck would have it, she was the one serving their table today.
Charlotte ordered the driest cider on the menu, then said, “Do you know whether your boyfriend will be able to join us for Christmas?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Did Charlotte suspect Julie was lying about Tom?
God, Christmas really was going to suck this year. Thanksgiving had been bad enough—and that had been in Toronto. Cranky Charlotte would be all cutesy with her boyfriend, and Mom and Dad would keep bugging Julie about her lack of a respectable career and asking why Tom wasn’t there—and maybe they, too, would wonder if he wasn’t real.
Well, Tom was very much real. He just wasn’t her boyfriend.
For good reason.
But if he came to Ashton Corners, it would distract everyone from Julie’s supposed failures in life. They’d be proud of her for catching a wonderful man like Tom.
Mom and Dad adored Mike, but Tom could speak Cantonese and he was a pharmacist, which likely rated above financial advisor on their ladder of success.
Ugh. Her parents and their ridiculous ideas of success. Pharmacist might still be below neurosurgeon, but it was pretty high up there.
What if she asked Tom to come with her?
She shook her head as she walked away from Charlotte’s table. That was a silly idea. Besides, surely he had something better to do for Christmas than accompany Julie to Ashton Corners for a few nights. After all, they’d only gone on a single bad date.
But what if...
Perhaps she’d ask him, just in case. If he said no—which he likely would—she could honestly tell her mother that she’d asked. Then sometime in January, she’d tell her family that they’d broken up, but she’d rather continue the ruse for a little longer.
Because Julie was no longer the underachieving daughter, working as a waitress and living with a roommate and single at thirty.
With Tom, she had a level of respectability in her family that she’d never had before.
* * *
Tom Yeung was sitting in his living room, reading the novel that had won last year’s Governor General’s Award for fiction and sipping a cup of jasmine tea. It was his day off, and it had been a good day so far. He’d finished his laundry and his weekly grocery shop. He’d also mopped and dusted, and now he was rewarding himself with a break.
His phone rang, and to his surprise, Julie’s name flashed on the screen. He’d never intended to talk to her again, but he hadn’t deleted her contact information.
What did she want? A recommendation for a stain remover pen?
“Hello?” he said as he set down his book.
“Hi, Tom! It’s Julie. Do you remember me?”
“Of course.”
“You didn’t try your best to put our date out of your mind?”
“It was the first date I’d had in a long time, so it was hard to forget.”
“Right. Well, I have a big favor to ask of you. You can say no. I totally understand. But hear me out, okay?”
He had no idea what to expect. “Okay.”
“I’ve told my parents that you’re my boyfriend because you’re exactly the sort of guy they’d love for me to date. The lies kind of got out of control, and now they’d like you to come to my hometown with me for Christmas. And I’d like you to come, too, since it would distract them from my many failures.”
“Your many...failures.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not like you were impressed by my life, either.”
“I wouldn’t say that. It’s just not the kind of life I’d enjoy living myself.”
“Whatever. I’m sure you have plans for Christmas, but—”
“Where is your hometown?” he asked.
“A few hours from here. On Lake Huron.”
“Who will be there?”
“My parents, my sister, and her boyfriend.”
“What days would you like me to visit?”
“December twenty-fourth to twenty-seventh, but that’s flexible. Are you seriously considering it?”
He knew it was crazy, but yes, he was.
“I’d arranged to have a few days off at Christmas,” he said, “in exchange for working New Year’s. But my parents are now going out of the country because my uncle is sick.”
In addition to being worried about his uncle, he was disappointed he’d have to spend Christmas by himself.
“I’m surprised you care about Christmas,” Julie said.
“You figured I’d be the Grinch?”
“No, but holiday spirit doesn’t seem like your thing.”
The truth was that Tom quite liked Christmas. His parents were Christian, and so they’d always celebrated it, but when he was six, they’d arrived in Canada in early December. He remembered the drive from the airport, snow falling outside the windows. He’d never seen snow before, and it was magical. His parents had fussed all over him, afraid he would catch a cold as he ran up to their new house and grasped piles of snow in his bare hands. They had a yard with snow! They hadn’t had that in Hong Kong.
A few days later, he’d been in his new school, knowing only a few words of English. There had been a lot to adapt to, but the one thing he’d loved from the beginning was winter, plus all the Christmas stuff at that time of year.
The idea of a small-town Christmas sounded idyllic to him, even if it meant spending more time with Julie. Meeting her family was a bit frightening, too, but it sounded as if her parents would like him.
“I’ll go,” he said. “Do you have a car? We can take mine if you don’t.”
“Really? You want to spend Christmas with a stranger’s family?”
“You’re not a stranger.”
“I’m basically a stranger. Who likes mayo and corn on the cob.”
“I’m sure I’ll manage.”
“I don’t understand.”
He sighed. “I don’t want to be alone at Christmas, and this is the best I can do, okay?”
“I love your enthusiasm.”
“Thank you.”
“If we could take your car, that would be great. Would you be able to drive my sister and her boyfriend as well since none of us have a car? We can all meet at your place.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. This was already overwhelming.
“Alright,” he said. “What should I bring for your family?”
“Just something small for my parents. By the way, they think you’re an expert on wine and friends with a pastry chef.”
“I’m...what? What else have you invented about me? Please provide me with a list. And I sure hope you didn’t tell them that we watched The Bachelor together.”
She snorted. “As if I tell my parents about reality TV. They receive an edited version of my life. Fine, I’ll get you a list.”
Perhaps this was a mistake.
“Remember,” Julie said, “you’re supposed to act like my boyfriend. Pretend you adore me. Pretend you think my koala hat is cute, rather than an affront to sensible fashion.”
“I never said that.”
“I could see it in your eyes.”
“No, you couldn’t.”
She sighed. “Look, if we bicker sometimes, that’s okay. My sister and her boyfriend bicker, and nobody believes they aren’t in love. Still, you’re going to have to make a bit of an effort.”
“Okay,” he said.
“But at the same time, don’t forget we’re not actually together.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem.”
“I doubt it’ll be a problem for me, either, but I thought I’d make that extra clear.”
Well, that was a slight blow to his ego, but not at all surprising.
Would this be better than spending Christmas alone? He wasn’t sure.
However, he’d already agreed to it, and he didn’t break his promises.