Page 36 of Your Rule to Break

She turns to me, giggling, cheeks turning red—could be from the chilly air, the wine, or maybe she’s embarrassed.

I don’t break eye contact as her laugh dies out—I swear, her eyes have me under some sort of spell. The air between us is sparks and electricity. When I think she’s going to stand up, get off my lap, she puts a piece of my hair between her fingers.

“You’re always playing with my curls. Figured it’s my turn.” She plays with a few strands, before putting her whole hand through my hair.

I’m frozen. I’m afraid to move my hand, jostle her, or ruin the moment.

Fuck. Why does that feel so good?

I hold back a moan because, while that’s my first reaction to her hand running through my hair, I know that is one hundred percent not something I should be doing in public.

“Now you’ll be thinking aboutmyhands,” she says, her mouth too close to mine. We keep doing this, ending up in this position, but neither of us are giving in.

Someone drops silverware at another table and the clanging sound has Emilie up and back in her seat like she was never in my lap.

“Let’s make sure we have a good one.” She grabs my phone to look at the selfies we took. Emilie swipes for a few seconds and then pauses, before giving the phone back to me.

“Good?” I ask.

“Good,” she replies, her voice almost flat.

I don’t know what it is, but something’s changed. The air feels stale compared to the crackle I felt a minute ago.

I will Emilie to look at me, but she doesn’t. No matter how badly I want her to.

Chapter 20

Emilie

Me

no to that caption

Zack

come on it’s so good

she’s got a thing about pepe (cacio e pepe)

no to the dick joke via social media caption

how about this

i've got a pepe for your cacio

that’s just another dick joke

fine, I'll be good

and by good i mean boring

excited for your dinner?

with my sister and all herfriends?

not really

call me after?