THE ACCIDENTAL TRADITION: A Christmas Story

One wrong email. Twelve Thursdays. A winter they didn't expect to keep.

In the snow-dusted college town of Maplebridge, sophomore Clara Whitman is looking for a way to survive December. When a misdirected campus email invites her to a volunteer shift she didn’t sign up for, she goes anyway—mostly to avoid the empty ache of the holiday season.

At Evergreen House, amidst the scent of pine and old books, she meets Noah Bennett. Steady and observant, Noah doesn't ask for explanations. instead, he offers a quiet space where she can just be.

Soon, a mistake becomes a ritual. Every Thursday, they meet for cocoa at the Bellwether Café, wrap books for the donation drive, and walk home through the cold night air. They don't exchange numbers. They don't label it. They just show up.

But as finals approach and the semester winds down, the safety of their undefined arrangement is threatened by the inevitable pull of winter break. With the town lighting luminarias against the dark, Clara must will she let this borrowed tradition fade with the year, or is she brave enough to ask for the one thing she’s been afraid to name?.

A luminous, slow-burn romance about finding warmth in the coldest month of the year.