The Dating Playbook Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2021 by Farrah Roybiskie

  Reading group guide copyright © 2021 by Farrah Roybiskie and Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Cover design by Daniela Medina

  Cover illustration by Elizabeth Turner Stokes

  Cover copyright © 2021 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First Edition: August 2021

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Rochon, Farrah, author.

  Title: The dating playbook / Farrah Rochon.

  Description: First Edition. | New York : Forever, 2021.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2021010574 | ISBN 9781538716670 (trade paperback) |

  ISBN 9781538716663 (ebook)

  Classification: LCC PS3618.O346 D38 2021 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010574

  ISBN: 978-1-5387-1667-0 (trade paperback), 978-1-5387-1666-3 (ebook)

  E3-20210603-DA-NF-ORI

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Discover More

  Reading Group Guide Book Club Discussion Questions

  Q&A with Farrah Rochon

  Bonus Scene

  About the Author

  Also by Farrah Rochon

  Praise for Farrah Rochon and The Dating Playbook

  In memory of my big sister and best friend,

  Tamara Denise Roybiskie.

  You remain forever in my heart.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  A strident clink pierced the crisp, late October evening as Taylor Powell tapped her fork against her champagne flute.

  “All right, ladies. Get those glasses in the air!”

  She topped off her friends’ drinks, then emptied the last of the prosecco into her glass before holding it aloft. Turning to Samiah Brooks, she said, “To you, my kickass friend. May this genius phone app you created set the tech world on fire!”

  “Hear! Hear!” the third member of their trio, London Kelley, hailed as their champagne flutes met high above the fragrant Tex-Mex feast on the table.

  The light of the setting sun shimmered through the pale yellow wine as Taylor brought the glass to her lips. Its rays, reflecting off the tranquil aquamarine waters of Lake Travis, provided just enough warmth to make their decision to dine on an outside deck commendable instead of foolish. Tonight’s celebration warranted a full-fledged dinner at one of Austin’s most renowned restaurants.

  Its menu prices reflected its prestige, which accounted for the cement block that had settled in the pit of Taylor’s stomach.

  She shouldn’t even be here. After having to choose between making the minimum payment on her Mastercard or having her Internet disconnected—the Internet won out—Taylor had decided to skip this week’s girls’ night out. She’d had her excuse primed and ready, but then Samiah texted the news that her new phone app would be featured at some swanky tech conference. She’d asked Taylor and London to help her celebrate. What kind of friend would say no?

  A friend who knows she can’t afford this shit! That’s what kind!

  Taylor swallowed another gulp of the pricey wine.

  “So I have a question.” London gestured to Samiah with the shrimp she’d just plucked from the platter of fajitas. “I don’t want to sound like a complete Luddite, but now that your app has been chosen for this fancy-schmancy conference, what does it mean in the real world?”

  “It means she’s about to make money money.” Taylor rubbed her thumb over her fingertips.

  “It will take some time before I see any real money money,” Samiah said. “But this is a big deal, ladies. Big. Huge.”

  “Are you purposely quoting Pretty Woman?” Taylor asked.

  Samiah stuck her tongue out at her. “Always with the jokes,” she said. “Seriously, this could be life-changing. The conference chooses only ten candidates from thousands of submissions to present during the Budding Stars Showcase.” She directed her attention at London. “It’s like a surgical intern being invited to present a paper at the American Heart Association’s annual conference.”

  London straightened in her chair and flicked imaginary dust from her shoulder. “I presented as an intern.”

  “Of course you did,” Taylor said. “You may claim to be a pediatric surgeon, but we all know you’re really Wonder Woman.”

  “Wonder Woman is sitting at this table, but I’m not her.” London held her hand up to Samiah for a high five. “You are killing it, girl.”

  Taylor could hardly believe the three had only met three months ago after learning they were all dating the same guy. It had been her first and only date with Craig Milton, aka Craig Walters, aka Craig Johnson—and those were only the aliases they knew about. An instant sisterhood had formed between herself, London, and Samiah, and they’d made a pact to spend some time working on projects that brought them joy instead of worrying about dating apps or trying to find a man.

  Their weekly night out ever since was damn near medicinal—a
heavy dose of much needed support, understanding, and camaraderie none of them had realized they needed.

  Samiah had completed the phone app she’d been working on for years and, because she was an overachiever, had also snagged herself a cutie, her coworker turned boyfriend, Daniel Collins.

  “I won’t claim success until I’ve secured funding for the Just Friends app,” Samiah said. “Winning this spot in the showcase gets me one step closer. What about you?” she directed at London. “Fill us in on your project’s progress.”

  “I’d rather drink more wine.” London signaled their server, who’d just cleared the table next to theirs. “Can we get another bottle of prosecco and another order of the combo fajitas?

  “I had back-to-back surgeries today,” she explained once the server left. “This is my first meal since the banana I ate for breakfast.”

  Equal parts panic and dread clogged in Taylor’s throat. She wasn’t the best with numbers, but she could handle simple math. With another thirty-dollar bottle of wine and forty more for fajitas, tonight’s dinner had just crossed the two-hundred-dollar mark. And that was before tax and tip. Their practice of splitting the bill evenly meant she was looking at eighty dollars. That was more than her grocery budget for an entire week!

  With their six-figure salaries, Samiah and London could easily afford to drop a C-note on a single meal without batting an eye. Meanwhile, Taylor was blocking calls from bill collectors like a thirsty match on Tinder.

  “Umm, hello? Taylor!”

  She startled at London’s fingers snapping just inches from her face.

  “Huh? What?” Shit. If their concerned frowns were anything to go on, they’d been trying to get her attention for some time. “I’m sorry,” Taylor said. “What?”

  “I asked about your project. How is it going?”

  “No,” Samiah interrupted. “Before you get to that, you still owe us the full story behind your first and only day at the homeschooling job. And how it ended with you being arrested.”

  “Oooh, you’re right,” London said. “Okay, you heard her, lady. Spill it.”

  Taylor dropped her head back and groaned at the deepening purple sky. She would rather cover their entire dinner bill than talk about her humiliating stint in jail. She’d spent less than three hours behind bars, but that was long enough to convince her that nothing mattered more than her freedom. She felt claustrophobic just thinking about that holding room.

  “Didn’t we already discuss this?” Taylor asked.

  “You haven’t told us anything, except that you ran over a lawn chair with your car,” London said. “So what happened? Did one of the kids call you ugly? Talk about your mama?”

  “Oh, stop it. It was nothing like that.”

  “Then what was it?” Samiah asked, her words drenched with concern. “When Daniel and I bailed you out of jail, I could tell you were in no mood to talk, so I didn’t ask. But I’m asking now. What happened, Taylor? You said yourself that the opportunity to teach that phys ed class was too good to pass up.”

  Taylor shrugged. “The parents didn’t think I was the right person for the job, that’s all.”

  “So you ran over one of their lawn chairs?” Samiah asked.

  “That was a misunderstanding.”

  The server returned with the second bottle of prosecco and another steaming platter of fajitas. Taylor prayed the arrival of more bubbly would steer their attention away from her.

  She should have known better.

  “Explain the misunderstanding,” London said as she topped off their glasses. “How’d things go from ‘Sorry, you’re just not the right fit for the job’ to ‘Bitch, you’d better get out of that chair if you don’t want tire marks up your ass’?”

  Samiah and Taylor both burst out laughing.

  “Yeah, it sounds as if we’re missing a few details,” Samiah said, dabbing at tears of mirth with her dinner napkin. “Didn’t you curse out one of the kids too?”

  “I never cursed out any kids. However,” Taylor continued, “I may have used a few choice words without realizing the kids were just a couple of feet behind me.” She raised her hands in defense. “I apologized to the kids! But, of course, little Jack or Ted or whatever his name was went tattling to his mom.”

  “And the lawn chair?” London asked.

  “It was a mistake! I was backing out of the driveway—which was long and winding and not the easiest thing to navigate when you’re upset because you’ve just lost out on a job.” Her shoulders sagged. “I didn’t even see the chair. I explained it to the police officer, and the parents even backed me up on that. They knew I didn’t purposely roll over the chair.”

  It was just her freaking luck that a police cruiser happened to be driving by as she backed over that stupid piece of lawn furniture.

  “Besides, I wasn’t arrested because of the chair. I was arrested because my car had an expired license plate tag, and I had a few unpaid parking tickets.” More like a dozen, but who was counting? Well, other than the city of Austin.

  Now that she thought about it, luck had been on her side. She’d gotten off easy, only having to pay a fine along with the unpaid parking tickets. Sure, she’d maxed out her Mastercard, but it was worth it to get out of that stank-ass jail cell.

  “I also didn’t lose out on the job because I rolled over the lawn chair,” she admitted. Taylor sucked in a deep breath and released it. This was the part that left a sour taste in her mouth whenever she thought about it. “They wanted someone with a college degree.”

  The cement block in her stomach grew heavier.

  “The woman who initially offered me the job claimed that it was dishonest of me to withhold that I didn’t have a degree, but she never asked! How is it my fault that she goes around making assumptions about a total stranger’s educational background? I was like, excuse you, lady!”

  “Well, I can see where she’s coming from,” London said. “Public school teachers are required to have a degree, so it stands to reason homeschool teachers would as well.”

  “No, that’s just—” Taylor started, but she realized she didn’t have a rebuttal. “Whatever. If I’d known they wanted someone with a degree from the very beginning, I would never have gotten my hopes up about the job.”

  Her face grew fiery as the familiar frustration bubbled to the surface.

  She had done everything she could this past year to take her fitness consulting business, Taylor’d Conditioning, to the next level. She’d studied the top Instagram fitness influencers, researching their journeys and trying her best to mimic their success. She just knew she would crush it, especially after coming up with the idea to use her background as an Army brat to specialize in boot camp–style workouts. She used all the right hashtags, offered free online fitness classes. She’d even started going live in her InstaStories—something she detested. But she couldn’t seem to break free from the pack.

  Back in August, someone recorded the confrontation they’d had with Craig, and the video had gone viral. Taylor thought she’d finally hit gold. It wasn’t the most ideal way to get her business on the map, but beggars couldn’t be choosers and all that.

  Alas, her fifteen minutes of fame had barely lasted the full fifteen minutes. After coming out of that viral video debacle with only a handful of new clients, she’d been forced to accept an astoundingly hard truth. Not everyone with an Instagram account or YouTube channel became famous. If she wanted Taylor’d Conditioning to succeed, she would have to do it the hard way.

  Her chest tightened. It did that whenever she considered the idea she’d been gnawing on for the past few weeks. Well, for the past year, if she were being honest.

  “I think I want to change my goal,” she blurted.

  “Really?” London asked. “So you don’t want to grow Taylor’d Conditioning?”

  “No, I do! That’s always my goal. I just…I guess I want to go about it a different way.” She thought about chickening out, but she knew both Samiah and Lond
on would hold her accountable. They wouldn’t allow her to use the eight hundred reasons she had locked, loaded, and ready to fire at the first hint of fear.

  Before she could talk herself out of it, Taylor said, “I’m thinking about going back to school to get my degree in fitness and nutrition.”

  There. It was out in the universe. No going back.

  “Ah, okay. That’s cool,” London said.

  “Good for you,” Samiah followed.

  That’s cool? Good for you? Did they not understand how freaking terrifying this was for her?

  Then again, why would they? Neither of them knew about her complicated relationship with school. They were both ridiculously smart women who had probably breezed through high school and college. She doubted they had any concept of the fact that for some people, the thought of sitting in a classroom was enough to make one break out in hives.

  “This is a big deal,” Taylor said. She put a hand to her knee to stop it from bouncing under the table.

  “Of course it is,” Samiah said. “You’ll be working full time while going to school, right? You should try bullet journaling to help organize your schedule. I’ve heard it helps you stay on track.”

  “It’s not about my schedule. It’s about…about the stress of it all. Going back to school would be a huge deal for me. It’s…Just forget about it,” she said.

  “We’re not going to forget about it. The whole point of this project is to help each other achieve our goals. If your goal is to get your degree, we’re going to help you do that.”

  Taylor wondered how far that offer of help extended. Would they be willing to complete all her assignments and take the tests for her? Because that’s what she needed from them.

  Stop! If you’re going to do this, you’re going to do it on your own.

  Once she decided to do something, she rolled up her sleeves and got things done. A bootstrapper, through and through.

  But was this the right move for her?

  “I’m still not sure this is something I even want to do,” Taylor said. “I’m thinking about it, that’s all.”

  “Maybe you should do more than just think about it,” London said. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but a degree will open a lot of doors for you. You could find something even better than that homeschooling job.”