Give Your Heart a Break

“Give Your Heart a Break” by Helen Peterson

Blurb:

Gorgeous? Check.

Wealthy? Check.

Sweet? Double check.

When Rachel Thomas meets Mason Conner, it seems she has found a man who is everything she’s ever wanted. After years of the single girl life in New York City, she’s due for some luck in the romance department. But with her less than stellar track record, Rachel can’t seem to let go of her past failures to fall too hard.

That is until Mason’s ex-fiancé reappears, determined to steal him back. With more than winning Mr. Perfect’s heart on the line, is Rachel finally ready to give her heart a break?

Excerpt:

I was opening up portfolios when Sydney appeared by my side. “There you are! Where have you been hiding all morning?” Her sugary sweet voice made my skin crawl. Why today?

“I’ve been here all day, Sydney. At my desk. You saw me this morning.” And gave a weirdly enthusiastic wave at me, which freaked me out. I was just waiting for this moment all day. She probably wanted to brag about her new boyfriend or some other mundane thing that I didn’t give a hoot about.

“Right, right. Anywho, I wanted to ask you something.”

She paused, just smiling and blinking at me. “Okay. What?” Was I walking into a trap? Should I run away?

“How is your relationship with Mason going?”

I forced a smile on my face, surely fake, and said, “None of your business. Do you have something important to talk to me about?” My patience was waning.

“Oh, I do,” she said, looking down at her fresh manicure, then back at me. “But it’s none of my business, right?”

“If you have something to tell me, please just spit out. I’m busy and tired and need to get this done before—”

“You’ll want to make time for this,” she said, cutting me off. I noticed then the devilish spark in her eyes. Oh, fuck. I started to get concerned at that moment.

“Fine. Tell me.”

“So, I was at Kittachai in Soho last night. Do you know where that is?” she asked.

I was familiar with the restaurant but had never eaten there. “I’ve heard of it.”

“Well, it’s a super fancy restaurant in the Thompson Hotel. Quite expensive. Anyway, I went with some guy who wanted to take me out. I didn’t really care for him much and I wasn’t going to go, but I am so glad I did.”

“Okay, and?”

“I saw your little hot stud dining with some supermodel hot blonde,” she said smugly. “And to tell you the truth, he seemed smitten with her.”

Before I panicked at what Sydney was telling me, I remembered Mason did a lot of dinners with clients. And since Bradley had called him on our drive back to the city, I assumed he was working through dinner when he didn’t respond to my dinner invite text last night.

“Yeah, so Mason has lots of dinners with his clients. So nice of you to drop by and . . .”

She cut me off again. “I thought that may be the case as well. But you might want to stick around and here this.”

Goosebumps rose on my arms. Where the hell was she going with this? My fingers itched to check my cell phone to see if Mason had sent me a text yet.

“I just happened to run into the girl in the bathroom. Crazy, huh?” So she ran into Mason in the huge city of New York and managed to be in the bathroom with this chick at the same time? A paranoid part of my brain was sending out warning signals. Was Sydney a stalker? What was going on here? “I started making light chit-chat, talking about my boring date, and yadda, yadda. I asked if she was out on a date and guess what she said?”

“What?” I dreaded her answer.

“She said she was!” Sydney practically crowed, her eyes sparkling with happiness. “What’s even crazier—she said her date was actually her ex-fiancé. Wow. Crazy, huh?”

I didn’t say anything, just sat there and felt sick as she continued on. “It was great talking to her. Her name is Emily and she just moved back from Washington, where she moved for a work thing, and now work has moved her back. So, she’s back and here and her and her ex—Mason—are giving it another shot. Isn’t that a special story? She’s beautiful, too. And funny and smart and really personable.”

My heart was breaking listening to Sydney talk. What the hell? His ex-fiancée was back in New York and he hadn’t told me? He was—seeing her again? Was the wedding back on? Why would he take me and my friends to his house in the Hamptons if he was dating Emily? And why was Sydney talking this girl up like she was the next Miss America? My head throbbed, but I forced the tears to stay in my eyes. I couldn’t show weakness in front of Sydney.

“Sorry, Sydney,” I said. “Mason’s told me all about his ex.” I stressed the word, trying to keep my voice calm. “So, you can move along now.”

“So you know all about her, huh?” Sydney was challenging me. “You know that they are getting back together then? Emily told me about how Mason is the love of her life and they’re working on their relationship. Funny, she didn’t mention anything about him having a girlfriend that was in her way.”

With that, she turned on her heel and flounced away. My fears were full blown. Mason having dinner with his ex. Her being back in town, period. Him seemingly not mentioning the fact he was seeing someone. Her wanting him back. A tear slipped down my cheek then, and I was grateful Sydney was long gone at that point. Off to torture another co-worker no doubt.

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**Helen Peterson:

Helen is a native of Toronto Canada who went to college to pursue Marketing . She currently works at a bank as an administrative assistant but her love of writing and telling stories that others can relate to has helped her complete her first manuscript Give Your Heart a Break. Helen has always loved telling a story especially through song, Staring in all her high school musical theatre productions Like Oliver! And Anything Goes. Helen currently resides in Markham Ontario.

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