Page 17 of Breaking Emily's Rules
“Don’t cancel it.” I waved my arms around in the other direction. “What if I mean it?”
“Hear that, Universe? She saidif.” Marjory cast her eyes heavenward. “She’s not thinking this through.”
I stood. “I’ll tell you what I want. I want you all to stop thinking about me as good ol’ dependable and steady Emily. I’m not a vacuum cleaner. I’m ready to be a wild woman now. Take a risk.” There. I’d said it out loud. It didn’t sound as crazy as I thought it might.
“Oh, Julia, look what you’ve done,” Luanne shook her finger.
The Daughter of the American Revolution stood up now, hands on her waist. “I’m merely a conduit to the past. We all have our path to take. I’m happy if this leads to personal insight.”
“But there’s nothingwrongwith being sensible,” Grammy said, practically wringing her hands.
“Nothing wrong at all,” Luanne agreed.
I crossed my arms. “Did I say there was anything wrong with it? It’s just that maybe, for the first time in my life, I want to do something crazy. Something none of you would expect of me.”
From now on, I was going to do what I wanted, when I wanted, like Molly. No more Little Miss Perfect.
I’d show my family. I’d show everyone I could, at a moment’s notice, if the mood so struck me, be a wild woman.
CHAPTER4
Emily
“let me getthis straight. Your great-grandmother, your namesake, was a pilot.” My oldest friend, Rachel Harwood, leaned across the booth and touched the official pilot’s license, still wrapped in the plastic Julia had put it in.
I was still a bit surprised I’d been able to wrestle it out of Julia’s hands. “What do you think? Are you going to laugh, too?’
“Laugh? Why would I do that?” Rachel stirred her coffee. “Please. Let me just have a nice whiff of your leaded coffee. This decaf is killing me.”
I pushed my mug over and let Rachel take a nice long sniff. She obviously wanted me to feel sorry about the awful caffeine withdrawal, but I couldn’t dredge up even an ounce of pity. Rachel had switched to decaf because she was eight weeks pregnant.
It was Monday morning, and we were sitting in a booth at The Drip, one of my favorite places in town. Nothing could cheer me up like the strongest coffee in the Bay Area.
“You don’t want to tell me that she doesn’t sound anything like me?”
“I didn’t expect you to have anything in common with a woman who lived in the first part of the last century,” Rachel said with a mini eye roll.
“Don’t you think she sounds wild and carefree?”
“Sweetie, women in that time were never wild and carefree. Get a clue.”
“But she was a maverick, for her time.”
“She sounds like she was bored,” Rachel said. “When you can’t vote, can’t work, can’t get birth control, I guess you get a little stir-crazy. Lesson learned.”
“I can’t believe you’re not impressed. I know I am. And from now on, I’m going to be a wild woman, too.”
Rachel froze and closed her eyes for a second. “You’re going to be a—what?”
“You heard me. I’m going to take chances and throw caution to the wind, and most of all, I’ll be the most impractical person you’ve ever met. Rachel, meet your new best friend. I’m going to be fun and carefree. Like aRebel Without a Cause, but not so James Dean-y. I think you’re going to love me.”
“Where is my Emily and what have you done with her, you impostor?”
“I’m the new and improved Emily.”
Rachel put her hand on my arm. “Don’t let Greg do this to you.”
“This isn’t about him. This is all me.”
