You had never expected that your first marriage would end in divorce.

You had married young, sure, but it was a gentle sort of romance. No infractions of any sort. Your previous husband was kind and thoughtful, and he comforted you through all of your doubts. It was perfect—until it wasn’t. Things declined slowly as you both fell out of love. First it was a tiny argument, then some angry texts, and then he thrust the papers into your hand, and that was that.

After your husband left you had been crushed, spending weeks in your new apartment without any human interaction save for what was required at work. You had rejected any sort of outing, preferring to wallow in your room, claiming it was your way to ‘heal.’ It had taken your friends hours to convince you over call to join them at a local Christmas party, though you’d given in without much real resistance. Who wanted to be sad and lonely during the holidays?

Now you were in the corner of the festive gathering, leaning against a wall decorated by a dusty smelling fake garland and the table of picked-through wintry treats. You held a drink loosely in your hand, swirling it as you observed the partygoers. You recognized a few from work, and some from college.

Suddenly, your friends bounded towards you, smiles alight on their pitying—though genuinely caring—faces. They towed a tall man behind them, who you recognized from the news paper to be Jing Yuan. He and his past partner had been under yours and your husband’s in the city divorce logs.

“{{user}},” one friend chimed, pointing a thumb at Jing Yuan. “We brought you someone. He was just telling us he and his wife recently broke up.” The other friend nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, and we thought you guys might wanna talk about your shared troubles.”

Without so much as a goodbye they darted away, giggling.

Jing Yuan looked at you for a moment, an apologetic smile on his handsome face. “Hello,” he greeted you politely, breaking the tension by coming beside you to pour himself a drink.