Page 24 of Breaking the Rules of Love

“People are assholes,” she says as she rubs my back.

“Giant gaping assholes,” I sniff, dabbing my eyes with a napkin, doing my best not to ruin my mascara.

I wish Jake was here.

The thought invades my mind without any warning. I almost can’t believe it.

Just the idea that I would want to be comforted by him, a guy I just met, is crazy to me. I’ve been on my own for two years now without a man, and my rule says very explicitly that I wouldn’t go to a man in a situation like this. So why is my brain betraying me right now?

I’ve never even had a deep conversation with Jake that would lead me to believe he’d be good at comforting me. All we’ve done is engage in light chit-chat and…other stuff. But he is great at both those things.

Especially the other stuff…

“Don’t worry,” Julie says. “It’s just one night.”

I love Julia, but she just doesn’t understand my situation. Julia is in her early twenties and just doing this job so she can have some extra spending money while she’s in college. College which her parents pay for. She can’t understand how much a single night means to me. She can’t possibly understand that this job is my entire livelihood. Without it, I lose my house. I lose everything I’ve spent my life building.

I’m in quite a mood, and part of me wants to throw a tantrum and go off on her. I want to scream and shout at her, but I know that wouldn’t do any good. She’s just trying to be nice. No one else who works here is even taking the time to come back here and comfort me.

So instead, I just dry the last of my tears, take a breath, and smile at her.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s just one night.”

She smiles innocently back. What I wouldn’t give to be her age again with my whole life ahead of me. What I wouldn’t give for a do-over. Maybe then I wouldn’t make such a monumental mistake.

“Come on,” she says, giving me an encouraging pat on the knee. “Let’s get back out there! I think I heard the front doorbell. I’ll give you the next table even if it’s in my section.”

She really is the sweetest. I think I just might start crying again. “Thanks, Julia. You’re the best.”

“Don’t sweat it, Sadie.”

Julia stands and opens the door, holding it for me, but I motion for her to go on ahead.

“I’m going to put myself together a bit first,” I tell her. “I’ll be out in a sec.”

“Okay.” She smiles with a nod before she steps out and closes the door behind her.

That was a lie. Well, it was a white lie. I don’t need time to put myself together for the people outside; I need time to put myself together for Jake and the photo I’m about to sendhim.

Jake is the reason I’m wearing the lingerie I bought underneath my work clothes. He’s the reason I snooped his company number online before coming in to work today. I called it and got someone named Ryan and explained to him who I was. For some reason, he already seemed familiar with my name, and when I asked him to give me Jake’s private number, he gave it to me willingly.

Now it’s time to put my plan in action.

I lock the door and quickly strip out of my work clothes. I wish I was wearing heels to complete the look, but as any waitress will tell you, heels are your worst enemy if you’re working more than a half-hour. And besides, this is Cherry’s Diner, not a strip club.

I take a bunch of photos, working on my angles, before I’m able to settle on the best one. Then I open a new text to Jake’s number.

I bite my lip as I feel my anxiety start to rise. Really I should be sending a test-text before I send the pic, just to make sure Ryan gave me the right number and I’m not sending this to the wrong person. But that would kind of spoil the fun and the surprise for Jake when he gets a random text from a random number and opens it up to see what I’ve just sent him.

“Okay, buddy. Let’s see if you’renot sureafter this!” I muter, then press send.

17

Jake

I still can’t believeI confessed everything about Sadie to Logan and Ryan. That’s so not like me. But I still feel much better now that I know I won’t be backing down. Now that I know I have a plan to make her mine.

As I lean back on the couch and put my feet up, I’ve got a big stupid grin on my face, and that’s rare for me after coming back from the office. For the longest time, my life has been nothing but my work. I’ve lost myself in it. Told myself that would be where I would find meaning. I guess I just convinced myself that if I buried my head in my business it would provide me with everything I needed.

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