Page 16 of Seven Rules for Breaking Hearts

“I’m a mechanical engineer. I work at JPL.”

My eyebrows shot upward. “What, like NASA?” That was what JPL usually referred to: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory tucked into the foothills in La Cañada Flintridge. As in, the people who kept putting rovers on Mars.

He withheld a smile, but his dimple gave him away. “Guess I’m more than just a pretty face.”

Oh my God. We were flirting.

I pinched my straw between my fingers and took another sip, sizing him up. He wasn’t wrong about the pretty face thing—he was easier on the eyes than I remembered. Enough so that I wouldn’t mind breaking a rule or two. And just like that, the idea started to fall into place. We’d be spending more than enough time together over the course of the next two weeks. It would be easy to slip him into a few pictures for my socials under the guise of various wedding events. The question that remained, then, was whether he’d go for it.

As though he’d read my thoughts, he gestured vaguely with his beer and asked, “And what about you, what’s up with all those rules for breaking up, or whatever?”

“Breaking hearts,” I corrected him, plucking the lime from my drink.

He arched a brow as he watched me bring the lime to my lips and suck on it. “Broken many lately?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Considering you run a podcast about it, I have a feeling you do tell.”

“Touché.” My drink was nearly empty. I tossed the lime rind onto a napkin and fidgeted with the stem of the glass, twirling it on its coaster. “I’m on a heart-breaking hiatus.” It was an answer, but it wasn’t an explanation. There was no reason for him to know any more than that. He didn’t need to know about the ten-month dry spell, or the plan to abandon the rules.

But I seemed to have piqued his interest anyway. He folded his arms on the bar. Like he wanted to call attention to how nice the curve of his forearms was. I followed the dusting of golden-red hair and the freckles that trailed to his wrist, where they were abruptly cut off by the worn leather band of an Apple Watch. “Seeing someone?”

“No,” I said, maybe too quickly, my eyes cutting up to his face. But I might as well go for it. “Why? Are you interested?”

He breathed a laugh. “I can tell you what I’m not interested in,” he said, pushing off the bar and grabbing his beer. He tipped it at me in a wordless cheers. “Being another anecdote on that show of yours.”

With that, he turned to leave. The shift caught me so off guard that for a moment, I only stared after him, my mouth slightly agape. I didn’t understand why, but he was pulling away like a wave pulling back from the shore—too swift and decisive to give me enough time to react, to prevent this conversation getting swept off in the current. “What if I promised you wouldn’t be?” I couldn’t promise that; it just slipped out, but I’d say whatever it took if it meant getting my story.

He turned and walked backwards, his shoes crunching on fallen dates from a nearby tree. “I wouldn’t believe you.” Smiling, he spun back around and headed toward the cabana.

Embarrassment creeping over me, I cast a furtive glance at the people seated around the bar, but they didn’t seem to be paying any attention. I didn’t understand what had just happened. Maybe I’d done something to put him off. Maybe I had bits of lime in my teeth. I ran my tongue over them, but nothing felt out of place. Which meant I must have said something wrong. He didn’t believe me? Well, fair was fair, considering I’d been lying through my teeth, but I didn’t expect him to call me on it.

I pushed my empty margarita glass forward to indicate that I’d finished with it. I could easily redirect my efforts elsewhere. Half an hour ago, Declan wouldn’t have so much as crossed my mind as an option—well, that wasn’t true, considering the completely involuntary thoughts I’d had yesterday after our exchange in the hall, but that wasn’t important. I hadn’t even run the idea past Jo yet. Still, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something about his reaction was worth investigating further. It wasn’t the reaction I was used to, and that made things interesting. Interesting was good.

Shrugging it off, I flagged down the bartender to order a tequila shot.

From: Miriam Casitas ([email protected])

To: Jo Hernandez ([email protected])

Date: Jul 16, 8:13 AM

Subject: Our Partnership

Hi Jo,

Congratulations on your recent engagement. On behalf of our team at S&C, I’d like to wish you success and happiness in this new adventure. Please keep us in mind for your wedding night apparel.

News has reached us of yesterday’s Patreon post and your potential rebrand. While S&C respects your decision to take the podcast in a new direction, it’s unclear to us whether our mission to empower women to embrace their sexuality will continue to align with your message. With that in mind, we’ve decided to put our partnership with Seven Rules on hold for the time being.

We hope this is not goodbye and that we will find a way to work together in the near future.

Best,

Miriam Casitas

Social Media Coordinator