“What are you doing?” I asked. “Packing for Hawaii?”

“No. Not yet. I’m just throwing something in there. I don’t pack until the morning I leave.”

“Really?” I sat in front of my monitor. “I need like a whole day to pack.”

“That’s because you’re deciding what to bring. I know what to bring. I just bring everything I came with.”

I smiled, pulling up the spreadsheet I’d started working on last night. “So do you have a second?” I asked.

“Yes, or I wouldn’t have answered.”

“I know we’re not doing this thing until you’re back on the mainland somewhere, but I was thinking we should probably work out the baseline. You know, so we’re ready when we meet.”

“A baseline?” she said. “For what?”

“For the dating thing. So we do it right. This has to be a controlled experiment. We need to replicate the pattern that leads to the outcome we keep getting. How long the dates need to be, what we need to do on the dates, where we need to go. We have to make sure we hit all the common denominators.”

“Oh,” she said. “Good idea. You’re so organized.”

“I need to be in my line of work. I started a spreadsheet. I can send it to you when I’m done.”

“Okay.”

“All right, so we have to do a minimum of four dates,” I said, “over the course of one month. Does the length of time matter for each date?”

“I think it has to be at least two hours.”

“Maybe we should shoot for three hours, just to be safe?”

“Okay. Three hours works.”

“Or longer. The dates could definitely be longer. You know, if that feels organic of course.”

“Sure.”

I smiled. “Is there anything that we absolutely have to do?” I asked. “Something that’s been the same for all the qualifying dates? Like they’ve all been dinner dates or something?”

“They’ve all been different.”

“Okay. Mine too,” I said.

“Do we have to kiss?” she asked.

“I did kiss all my dates at least once,” I said.

“Me too,” she said. “And they always kiss me first.”

“Okay. So we have to kiss once, and I have to initiate it. Open-mouthed or -closed? Either has been enough for me.”

“Open. So you kissed Brad’s girlfriend? Is that weird now?”

“Not really. It was a closed-mouthed kiss and I don’t think either of us particularly enjoyed it. It was sort of like kissing my sister?”

“Ha.”

“So I’m assuming since you only kissed a few of them once, sex isn’t a prerequisite?” I asked, as professionally as possible.

“If it was, I would not agree to it for the sake of this experiment. Just so you know.”

“Just being thorough. It’s not a prerequisite for me either. And same. Gross.” I made a shiver noise. “I’m a sex-on-the-fifth-date kind of guy,” I said. “So you’ve lucked out.”

She was laughing.

“All right,” I said. “So we have to have four dates over the course of a month, one a week, a minimum of three hours each, we can do any activity, we have to text or talk daily, and I have to kiss you at least once.”

“Yes. I think that’s everything.”

“So four dates, one kiss, and a breakup.”

“Four dates, one kiss, and a breakup,” she agreed.

“I’ll get this typed up. Let me know if you think of anything else.”

“Okay.”

This felt like the moment the call could have ended, but instead she said, “So what did you do today?”

I grinned. She didn’t want to hang up.

I leaned back in my chair. “Well, I did the same exact thing I did when I woke up yesterday—drank my coffee while staring morosely at my personal billboard. Walked Brad. Worked for a few hours, then I took my little brother for driving lessons—Oh, I forgot. I also made you something.”

“You did? What?”

I leaned over my keyboard and hit send on the draft I had waiting.

“I’m going to hang up so you can look at it. Check your phone.”

CHAPTER 5 EMMA

Justin sent me a picture of a graphic. The second I opened it I almost choked on my laugh.

So Justin Dahl has invited you to break a curse with him. Congratulations!

We know that you have many options when it comes to curse breaking and choosing the right partner can be difficult, which is why we’ve gone the extra step and provided you with some reviews.

» “Justin was a wonderful gentleman. And I met my husband Mike after we broke up! 10/10 would break up with him again. —Sabrina B.”

» “Justin smells very nice and even my cat liked him, and my cat doesn’t like anyone. Highly recommend. —Karina S.”