Free Six Rules: Book Two in the SIX Series by Randileigh Kennedy

they’re supposed to pay every
time there is a bill. I’m not a crazy feminist or anything, but I’m just saying
that I work too, so I don’t see why you should be paying for all the expenses.”
               “Doesn’t that make me less appealing? My mom would be
horrified if she found out I let a woman pay for dinner,” he said with
conviction.
               “Well then I’ll be sure not to bring it up at your family
dinner,” I teased. “Rule number four: you have to watch sappy movies with me,
even if it annoys you that I cry at them.”
               “Oh no, is this our first rule to rule death match?” he
asked sarcastically. “We both had one about crying.”
               “Look, I promise to uphold your rule not to cry for no
reason. I'm not that girl. But you must understand that it is literally
impossible for me not to cry while watching The Notebook. But instead of just
crying haphazardly, we can pause the movie repeatedly and we can discuss how
moving and emotional the whole story is,” I said dramatically.
               “Wow, that sounds like every man's nightmare,” he teased
back. “You can cry while we watch The Notebook, but you have to promise
you won’t just be crying on a random Tuesday afternoon because you were just thinking about The Notebook. Fair compromise?”
               “Yeah, I can work with that,” I said, shaking my head in
agreement.
               “What is it with you women and that movie?” he asked,
picking up his fork once again for another bite of pie.
               “We can discuss it in depth some other time. Moving on to
rule five: you have to give me an honest opinion when I ask you how something
tastes. It makes me crazy when everyone says something tastes great when it
could clearly taste better.”
               “But then you have to believe me when I tell you,” he
responded. “Don’t ‘girl’ your way out of it and think I’m lying when odds are,
I really do think it’s fine.”
               “Fair enough. Rule six: don’t fix me. This one is
important. If I’ve had a bad day, just be the good part of my day. Don’t tell
me what I could have done differently, or what will make it better.”
               “I can’t imagine you needing to be fixed,” he replied,
staring up into the sky. “I kind of like you as you are. Uptight and unsure of
me.”
               I threw my fork at him. "I am not uptight," I
said defiantly.
               "But you're still unsure of me?" he asked
sincerely.
               “Do you really think this whole thing will work?” I asked honestly.
“I mean, usually people get to know these things about someone else slowly. Are
all of these rules sucking the fun out of it?”
               “Is The Notebook any less romantic the more you watch it?”
he asked inquisitively.
               “No, it’s perfect every time, even though I know exactly
how it ends.”
               “So maybe putting all of this out there from the
beginning, all these rules, maybe it’s just our own version of romance,” he
responded. “Nothing else has worked for us, right? This way we both call the
shots. We already know exactly what we want and what we’re going to get.”
               I appreciated his optimism, I really did. But just because
we wrote something down on a napkin, it didn't make any of those things true. I
liked the logic behind it, sure. But logic and love were two very, very
different things.

 

Chapter 9

 
               The
whole idea of meeting Greyson’s family tonight really freaked me out. It was
way too soon for this. Last night we were just deciding to even get into this
relationship, sorting out all of our rules and such. And now tonight it was as
if we were already a real couple. I felt like I still didn’t know much about
Greyson, other