Breaking the Rules (The Dating Playbook #2)

by Mariah Dietz

“Maybe not all loves are supposed to. Maybe some are meant to end, teaching us lessons about ourselves and life.”

“If you haven’t realized how well I know you, how close I pay attention—then you’ve been pretending for a while.”

“Just because people don’t last forever doesn’t mean the feelings don’t.”

“Our words are weapons, and our actions are grenades, and we keep aiming them at each other. I don’t want to hurt you, and I can’t take being hurt by you, so one of us has to pull the pin and let it blow up before it takes us both down.”

I nod, my chest heavy as a myriad

I

“Lincoln, this…. We’re…. This doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t change anything.”

“We just crossed the mother fucking Rubicon. Everything has changed.”

“I need you. I need you to stay here and have some fucking self-preservation. I need you in ways I’ve never needed anyone—in ways that scare the hell out of me. I need you because I don’t feel like myself without you.”

“Astra indlinant, sed non obligant.”

“It translates to the stars incline us, they do not bind us.”

“We have our own free will. No star, god, or other power can force us to do anything.”

But, with you, it matters. Everything matters.

I worry about that with you because I know you’d ruin me if you ever left.”

Don’t let their demons define us.”

“Stay here, Rae, and stain it all. Stain everything.”

“You make me want to fix the whole damn world.”

“There’s this impossible balance we’re all working to find: being tough without being too masculine, smart without being arrogant, kind without being a pushover, beautiful without being prissy, and successful without being aggressive.

This massive pendulum is constantly in flux, and the joke is on us women because everyone is constantly judging us—and more often than not, we’re our own toughest critic.”

“I’m in this. I’m all in, and I know if I’d told you how I felt after your accident, this would be easier, but I want this. I want you and me and us. And I’ll pull your weight and mine until you’re ready.”

“Fuck the rules. We make our own rules.”