Page 14 of Breakaway Hearts

She lets out my second favorite laugh—the one where she’s trying to pretend she doesn’t find me funny but can’t help herself. My absolute favorite laugh is the one that makes her throw her head back. The one that seems to come straight from her belly. It’s the rarest one, and I always feel like I accomplished something special when I get her to laugh like that.

“Let’s get some food,” she says. “I’m starving.”

We rush through the nippy air into my car and speed off toward one of our favorite spots, a diner just on the outskirts of her neighborhood that serves milkshakes and French fries, along with a host of other greasy, guilty-pleasure foods.

I park, and we make idle small talk while we grab our usual booth seat in the back. It’s away from prying eyes and ears, and it also has a vintage jukebox within a few feet of our seats. Callie digs into her purse for a few quarters and puts on some classic rock before joining me.

“Phew,” she says as she sits across from me at the table. “What a day. What a long day.”

“Something happen?”

“No. But you try handling a room full of eight-year-olds on a Friday. I’m only twenty-five, but I feel like I’m about eighty by the end of some weeks.”

The server, a teenager by the looks of it and maybe a new hire, comes by our table with a water pitcher and almost spills all of it on me when we make eye contact. He stutters out an apology and tells us he’ll be right back to take our orders.

“There’s always something with you, isn’t there?” Callie says with a grin as we watch the kid scurry away.

“Another reason why you love me.”

Two tiny spots of pink appear on her cheeks, and she scrunches up her face. “Speaking of which… are you still sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah. I am.” I nod, folding my arms on the table. “I really think Sienna will realize she made a mistake if she just sees me with someone else for a while. We were getting serious, and I think she got cold feet and bailed. But if she was jealous last night, it’s because she still has feelings for me. All she needs is a little reminder of what we could’ve been.”

“Okay.” Callie chews on her lower lip, her delicate fingers tapping out a rhythm on the faded table. “Well, if we’re gonna do this, there’s a lot we need to talk about. We got away with improvising last night because there weren’t too many questions, but that won’t work if we’re really trying to sell it.”

She digs in her bag and pulls out a notepad, and I can’t hide my grin.Diligent as always.

I lean forward just as the server comes to take our order. I ask for my usual—an egg white omelet and bacon—and Callie orders tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. We get a chocolate milkshake to share.

“Alright.” Once the kid walks away again, I sip my water before downing it completely. Nerves make me thirsty, and it wasn’t until the water touched my tongue that I realized just how anxious I am about this whole thing. It’s wild. It’s a crazy idea.

But if it works, it will be worth it.

“Okay,” Callie says. “Where should we start?”

“Backstory?” I suggest.

“Backstory, perfect.” She pulls out a pen, clicking it open.

“How about this?” I tilt my head to one side, speaking as I think. “We’ve known each other for a long time, obviously, and while you were helping me get over the breakup with Sienna, we realized that we’re actually perfect for each other. I mean, you and I have good chemistry, we like to banter, and we can spend a lot of time together without ever getting bored. We won’t have to fake any of that.”

Callie holds her pen above the paper but doesn’t write anything down yet. Her tongue traces her lower lip as she gazes at the blank page for a second before looking at me.

“That all sounds good.” She clears her throat, the hint of a blush rising in her cheeks. “That all comes naturally, you’re right, but there’s more to a relationship than that. We should probably set some boundaries and expectations on… um, PDA.”

“Oh. Right.” I run a hand over my jaw. The waiter comes and drops off our food, and we both dig in as we ponder the question.

Kissing Callie.That definitely doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world, but my stomach twists at the thought of endangering our friendship. I guess I’m already kind of doing that with this whole fake-dating scheme, but we’ve seen each other through so much and know each other so well that I’m not too worried about it. No matter what, she’ll always be Callie, and I’ll always want to protect her and have her back. Nothing could change that.

“I mean, it seems stupid to assume we won’t be put into positions where we’ll need to be physically affectionate,” she says, dipping her grilled cheese in her soup. “I want you to feel comfortable.”

“I wantyouto feel comfortable.”

She laughs and grabs for the milkshake at the same time as I do. She nabs it first and takes a long pull on the straw.

“So what do we do?” she asks, sliding the milkshake over to me.

I swirl the straw, pursing my lips. “Well, you’re right. Kissing in public will be inevitable in order to really convince people. To make sure we’re both okay with everything, how about we come up with some safe words?”

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