The Girl Who Read The Dating Manual

rule ten: family doesn't end with blood

If you want to know why my updating schedule is about to get whacked, read the author's note at the end. You may proceed...

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Dedicated to xStarlightSecrets. This dedication has been a long time in the making, but thank you so much for all the support on my books. Your comments always make me smile :)

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Soundtrack:

Night of my Life by Damien Leith - pretty much the whole chapter has that feel-good vibe

rule ten: family doesn't end with blood

"Okay, you cannot actually like this," Jamie said.

I threw a piece of popcorn at him mindlessly, refusing to drag my eyes away from the soap opera on the screen.

Romeo was confessing his love to Blair, something I'd been waiting for for weeks, ever since he caught her eye at the party and admitted to his then-girlfriend Claire that he was in love with her cousin. It was only a matter of time.

"Hush, James," I told him.

"Oh, come on, it's obvious she's going to turn him down because she is faithful to her cousin and he's only using her to siphon money from her father's account," he replied.

Up on screen, Blair slapped him in a way that made my own cheek tingle, and my jaw dropped at his correct prediction as she told him how faithful she was to her family, and that her cousin's heart was broken.

"And the plot thickens," Jamie said as it cut to an ad break, examining his nails.

"How did you know that?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Maybe because I've seen the same regurgitated plot on a million of your other soap operas."

"Oh, stop sassing me with your TV mumbo-jumbo and get me more popcorn," I replied.

The last I'd seen Ava, she had ducked into the room for a nap, and Chance was over by the bench on his phone, seeming completely disinterested in the bliss that was my favorite soap opera. Jamie had decided to join me on the couch for some TV watching, and I was currently introducing him to a local English soap opera, Lust for Love. You can judge me all you like, but you can't deny the comedy gold and the drama that comes along with it.

Just then my phone rang, and I sighed and picked it up from the table. "Hello?" I asked.

"Hey, love," Will said. "Look, I just got off the lunch shift at Rive La Belle and was wondering if you and the guys wanted to go down to Shiver Blitz and meet the gang."

I thought about our mutual group of friends in London, and how well they'd all hit it off together. Especially Ava and Shae, Will's best friend. "Sure," I said. "That sounds great."

"Meet you in forty-five?"

I smiled. "Definitely."

It had only been three nights since the big blowout at the Winchester household, and though Will had kept pretty quiet on the subject, he had admitted that since the night he'd been receiving nonstop calls from his mother, who clearly had nothing better to do than try to make amends with her son. We'd kept pretty hush on the subject, trying not to bring it up so as not to dredge up bad memories, but I was still hurt over her rejection and her words. She had talked of me as if I were a 'passing phase'; something he would get bored with. I knew better, but the words still stung.