The Museum of Heartbreak Read Online Free PDF

right when you both least expect it. You’re like Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club , or maybe, even though you didn’t know each other beforehand, Monica and Chandler in Friends , and before you know it, you’ll be totally head-over-heels smitten with each other.”
    â€œI don’t even know who those people are. You and your old movies and television shows . . .”
    â€œYou know Friends ! Besides, John Hughes’s movies are classic!” I said.
    Audrey looked unconvinced.
    â€œOkay, think of Eph’s parents’ meeting instead. It’s like a happy Wuthering Heights ! The way they were both rushing across campus during a thunderstorm, and the leaves were falling and whipping all over the place around them. And then they fell into each other—literally!—and Ellen dropped all her sketches in a puddle, and George stopped to help her pick them up, and they huddled under George’s umbrella and dashed into a coffee shop where they talked for hours and hours.”
    I sighed happily. I loved that story.
    â€œI’m not sure things usually work like that, Pen . . . ,” Audrey started.
    â€œListen.” I gripped her arm. “Someday, you’ll tell your and Gregory’s kids, ‘Once upon a time, I was drinking this splendid kale smoothie’ ”—I mimed gagging and continued—“ ‘and over the top of my glass I locked eyes with this handsome boy across the room, also drinking a kale smoothie, and I didn’t know it then, but it turned out to be your father! And so we had kale smoothies at our wedding and they were disgusting but we lived happily ever after!’ ”
    Audrey started to reach for Barnaby, but I got to him right in time, clasped him dramatically to my heart.
    â€œOh, Jesus,” Audrey muttered, starting to laugh.
    â€œRemember, Vivien, we’re settling for nothing less,” I said grandly, reminding Audrey of Vivien and Delphine’s vow. “Nothing less than absolute, one hundred percent, soul-stirring, Anne-and-Gilbert-meant-to-be, Jack-and-Rose-forever-and-ever, one true love. Nothing less.”

Dinosaur sketch
    Adumbratio dinosaur
    New York, New York
    Cat. No. 201X-4
    Gift of Ephraim O’Connor
    THE NEXT NIGHT, I HOPPED down our wooden steps, admiring my new silver striped socks. While having an uninterrupted eight hours for our Twin Peaks marathon hadn’t panned out (Eph wanted to get in some skating “while the weather was still nice,” a reason I said made him sound like an old man), his family was coming over for dinner. I smelled garlic and tomato sauce, bread baking in the oven.
    â€œMom? Do you need help?”
    Eph’s mom, Ellen, peeked around our kitchen door frame instead, a glass of red wine in her hand. Her red hair actually rippled, and even though she had this artist thing going on, she wasn’t dippy; instead she was wearing a cool black dress and clunky motorcycle boots and an amazing chunky bright orange-and-red beaded necklace.
    She always reminded me of a Pre-Raphaelite painting. She was the most beautiful person I knew.
    â€œPenelope! Hello!”
    â€œHi, Mrs. O’Connor! I didn’t know you guys were here already.” I gave her a hug.She smelled light and flowery, but not in a way that made you sneeze.
    â€œYour mom says dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”
    â€œEph here?” I asked.
    â€œSetting the table. I’m sure he could use some help.”
    In the dining room Eph was staring intently at a place setting, picking up the knife and putting it on the right, outside the spoon, then picking it up and placing it on the left again.
    â€œHopeless,” I said, reaching around his waist and placing the knife back on the right, nudging the spoon out.
    He handed me the rest of the silverware, then man-spread in a chair while I rearranged all the place settings he