Not Quite by the Book

by Julie Hatcher

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. The words hit differently because the heart in question was mine, and I was determined to stop it from breaking. I just wasn’t sure how.

I, Emma Rini, wanted what everyone else seemed to have already. I wanted the happily ever after. The deep, abiding love I saw in my parents, in movies, in books. I wanted it, but it didn’t want me. On

“If my life was depicted on a massive tapestry, showing all the most important parts in order, beginning to end, her words would be a golden thread running through it all.”

“Is this a parking space?” “It is now,” he said, climbing out.

“You have a sticky note on your bum,” he said. My hands flew behind me on instinct, searching for the little runaway. “What does it say?” I pulled the note free before he could answer. “Sweet treats,” I read. “I wondered where that went.”