The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(2)

Alexa must have been desperate to have her there, because she’d told Maddie if she came, she would wear whatever Maddie wanted. There were few things Maddie loved more than when she got to style conservative Alexa in something edgy and force her to branch out.

“I’ll protect you from the bros. Just give me the nod whenever you want to take off,” Maddie said.

“Not all of Theo’s friends are bros!” Alexa said. “Not even most of them. There are just a few who rub me the wrong way. His brother should be there tonight—he’s kind of a bro, but also hilarious and Theo’s opposite. You’ll like him. Anyway, thanks for coming. I know this isn’t really your thing.”

Maddie sped up as she spotted a parking space down the street.

“You’ll pay me back for this next time I need a buddy. Just don’t make me wear a shift dress and a cardigan that time, please.”

Alexa looked down at herself as Maddie pulled into the parking spot.

“Speaking of, are you sure about this outfit? I have way too much cleavage with this dress.”

Maddie turned off the car. Too much cleavage? Please. Alexa had been corrupted by her conservative work wardrobe, and now she thought even the hint of a breast was shocking in public, especially if she was around people who knew she was the chief of staff to the mayor. Her dress had barely any cleavage, come on.

Well. Okay. That wasn’t quite true. But it was barely any cleavage in comparison to other dresses Maddie could have put her in.

“I’m very sure. I’m a professional, remember? That dress has just the right amount of cleavage for a Saturday night out at a bar.” She checked her makeup in her car mirror. Yes, she’d put the perfect amount of highlighter on her brown skin; just enough so she looked like she’d been at the beach earlier that day, but not so much that she looked like C-3PO.

She got out of the car and linked arms with Alexa.

“And stop tugging at that dress. You look fantastic. Let’s go dazzle these men.”

When they walked into the bar, Maddie surveyed the crowd. Lots of jeans and hoodies, as she’d suspected. She shook her head and followed Alexa to the back of the bar, where the party presumably was. Oh, yep, there was Theo. The one good thing about Theo: you could always count on him to dress well. He had on well-fitting dark jeans and a soft blue button-down. He greeted Alexa with a big hug.

“You made it!”

“Happy birthday! I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Alexa said as she hugged him back.

Theo pulled back from Alexa and saw Maddie, and the grin dropped from his face.

“Maddie.” He nodded at her. “Thanks for coming.”

“Theo.” She nodded back. Ugh, she guessed she had to say it. “Happy birthday.”

He raised his eyebrows and smirked at her.

“Thanks. I’m delighted you’re here.”

She and Theo both knew he was as delighted to have her here as she was to be here.

She’d first met Theo three years before, at Alexa’s birthday party. Theo had recently started as the mayor’s communications director, and when Maddie had seen both how cute he was and his excellent pin-striped shirt, she’d thought maybe there might finally be a spark between her and one of Alexa’s nerdy friends.

She could not have been more wrong.

After a few minutes of chat about what kind of pizza and beer they should order, she’d asked him where he’d been before coming to the mayor’s office.

Theo had sat up a little straighter.

“Well, after I left Harvard,” he’d started. Ugh, of course he was that guy. He went on to talk for ten straight minutes about himself.

Finally, he’d climbed out of his own asshole and asked her where she went to college. When she’d said she’d started at the local community college and then moved on to UCLA, he responded with, “Good for you!” in the most condescending way possible. Then he asked what she did. When she told him she was in the process of starting her own personal styling business, he’d asked, “Why would anyone pay you to help them get dressed?”

She’d looked at him and smiled.

“You know, I couldn’t decide how you’d react to that. I was torn between condescending to me about my career, or mansplaining my job to me. Considering the rest of our conversation, it was touch and go which one it would be, but you landed on the first. Congratulations, I guess, on being so predictable.”

While he tried to find a comeback, she’d moved to the other side of the table to talk to someone else. She didn’t often let herself be that bitchy anymore, but few things infuriated her more than when people looked down on her job.

They’d barely spoken to each other since that night, even though they were both frequently in the same room because of Alexa. Why she was so close to Theo, Maddie would never understand.

Maddie shrugged. She didn’t care about Theo or any of his ill-dressed friends; she was just here to help her best friend recover from that Drew guy she’d clearly liked a lot more than she was willing to admit.

“Who wants a drink?” Theo asked.

Alexa’s hand shot in the air.

“I’m not as quick on the draw as Hermione over here, but I want one, too,” Maddie said. If she was going to be here, she might as well get a free drink out of this.