MY CHRISTMAS ROMANCE

CHAPTER 24: OPEN HEARTS AND COLORS

This chapter is dedicated to my little sis @VividhaVinod She's the one who inspired me the rangoli 🤩 Thank you for your inspiration and for your constant support! You're as beautiful and unique as a rangoli! I love you ❤😘🎄

"Penelope, get a grip!" I try to encourage myself – yes, I'm talking to myself, but this treehouse has witnessed much more craziness after all this time.

"Come on, Penelope!" Another rush of tears climbs up from the wrench inside my chest to escape my eyes at the sound of my name. It brings me back to Theone, when he's called me by my full name a few hours ago, and I definitely prefer 'Penny' rolling out of his deviously soft lips.

I've made no progress since I've run to this treehouse one or two hours ago. I'm not sure; I don't know what time it is, yet the cold is starting to invade my skin, even with my dad's thick insulation of the walls and my mom's extra cover wrapping around my curled-up figure.

I have to get out of here; I have to go to the Christmas dinner, but first, I have to stop crying. I have to take a decision. I know Theone has left me time, yet I won't be able to face him and pretend everything is fine, even less putting up more lies.

But how can I take a decision? It should be easy. I've had a plan, and I've planned to just stick to it. Yet this plan hasn't included Theone, and even less his declaration – I would have never expected that he could be romantic and in love, certainly not with me. 

This seems as surreal as witnessing Santa's flying sleigh, and this only sounds like a disillusion waiting to happen when coming back down to earth. I know it, and even if I've gone over and over the question, I always come back to what I've told him: it would be a disaster. 

Thus the choice should be easy; I should tell him that I don't want him, yet the crushing beats of my heart would never allow me to pronounce those words and watch the light disappear in his clear eyes.

Besides, there is another question: would pushing Theone away be choosing Aden? Through my spiraling thoughts, it hasn't really seemed like this. 

I've been so sure that I've been in love with Aden all this time. He has everything I could ever wish for; he's perfect. But now that I could have my perfect romance – because he's been about to tell me everything I've dreamed to hear, even if I haven't listened – it isn't fulfilling, overjoying, over-the-moon like I've expected. 

It's perfect, yet it lacks something, maybe the most important, and the kiss has made me realize what has been echoing somewhere in the back of my mind through a little whisper, of course in Theone's voice. This kiss, it's been everything I've planned, and I have no doubt Aden is a good kisser; his lips are sweet and really smooth, even softer than Theone's, yet they haven't erased Theone's taste.

I always come back to Theone. I would have never imagined that he could make me feel so much. His words, and just every moment shared with him, are replaying again and again in my head, and every thought, memory, and question are flying around, making my head dizzy like a snowman inside a shaken snow globe. Actually, I'm even suffocating, as it's a tempest growing inside the snow globe, and I'm stuck inside the glass with no escape.

I wish Theone could appear, just like yesterday, just like everytime... He always has the right words, and often, he doesn't even need words. I would be content with just the glimpse of his left dimple. But he won't come. 

I've really messed up this time, and I think – no, I know – that I've hurt him; I've seen it clearly in the jade shades of his eyes. So I'm alone now, with my dilemma, my spiraling thoughts, and no right answer.