A Gentleman's Guide to Hooking Up

r u l e # 10

Rule #10 You can always change your mind

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. When you meet someone who threatens to overthrow every rule you've ever set for yourself, maybe it's time to reevaluate.

Some rules are made to be broken, while some girls were born to light up your life. You start out wanting to take her to bed, but now you just want to hold her hand, read her a poem, and hope against hope that she won't ever let you go.

From now on, she's your rule.

......

Jessica didn't pick up her phone.

Jake adjusted the backpack on his shoulder and pressed the doorbell again. The clean, chirpy sound bounced around her mansion, sounding more defeated with each passing second. No one came to the door.

He heaved a sigh, trying not to let the sick feeling of disappointment take over. He had daydreamed about Jessica's reaction, and in his fantasy, she would open her arms for him, preferably wearing something revealing and smelling like the Jo Malone body lotion he had chosen for her, and then she would pout and ask what took him so long.

This afternoon ended in a rather anticlimactic way. She's probably at the children's hospital, he decided, and she's not allowed to switch on the phone because of electromagnetic wave frequencies around medical equipment.

He knew it wasn't true, however. Something in his gut told him that Jessica wasn't doing volunteer work at the hospital.

He was right. As he swerved the car onto his street, his breathing picked up.

Jessica Jiang was sitting right on his doorstep.

She had no makeup on. Her hair was kept in a ponytail under a baseball cap, and she wore a simple gray tee with nothing to reveal.

She looked really nice like this, too. More approachable.

He felt half queasy and half delighted to see her. It had been a while, and seeing her again was like hearing a song from his childhood. He could remember every word and he could sing along without difficulty, and then it would be suck in his head for the rest of the day.

She was a melody, interrupted but not forgotten, always on his mind.

The mixture of emotions didn't sit well with him, and his stomach turned. "Hey, Jess. I was just looking for you."

"I forgot my phone, but I really want to see you," she said. "So here I am."

"Is something wrong?" It was funny how with her, he always assumed the worst. He had no deluded confidence when it came to her. Jessica was boss. She decided what he could have and he prayed she came bearing good news.

"I want to tell you a story if you have a minute."

Jessica was a strange girl he could never predict. Only she could ignore him for so long and then show up unannounced with something quirky like this, but as usual, he was instantly intrigued. He sat down next to her. "I'm always ready for your stories."

She was silent for a while, like she was arranging the sentences in her head. "Okay. Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl," she started. "They had been friends for a while and they got along wonderfully. He was fun, talented, and was the first and only person that got her obsession with Kar-Wai Wong movies. In the Mood for Love and 2046 were her favorites. The first time he accidentally learned that her password was 2046, he guessed right away."

"2046...like the hotel room number? You always pick the same room."

She looked in his eyes and smiled. "They started dating, to no one's surprise. The best and worst thing about him was that he was a...competent person. He was a master at life and he could do very well on his own. He was great at being single.