The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(53)

“Here.” He took a few tissues from the box on his desk and dabbed at the damp makeup stains on her face. She forced a smile and took the tissues from him.

“How terrible do I look?” she asked.

He touched her cheek.

“You could never look terrible.” He handed her another tissue. “ But . . . you do look like you’ve had an awful day.”

She wiped her face and dropped the tissue in the trash can. When she looked back up at him, she laughed.

“Your poor shirt. I think I ruined it. I’m sorry.”

He looked down at his shirt, which was now mottled by a variety of damp makeup stains. He zipped up his jacket and shook his head.

“No problem. Luckily, it was cold this morning and I wore a jacket that will cover this all up on my way home. And I’m very good at laundry; I bet I can get these stains out.”

He started to open his office door, but this time she stopped him.

“Should we not leave your office together? I mean, with the closed door and all, I don’t want people to think . . . I don’t want to embarrass you or get you in trouble.”

He touched her cheek, just for a second.

“Thanks for that.” He cleared his throat. “Did you drive here? Do you want to meet me outside?”

She adjusted her bag on her shoulder.

“Yeah, my car’s just around the corner. Meet me there in a few minutes?”

He opened the door and went back to his desk.

“See you then.” He tried to say it offhand, for the benefit of the people who might be walking by, so it wouldn’t seem like this was a big deal or like they’d had some big emotional moment. Then he forced himself to look back down at the papers on his desk and not watch her walk away.

As Maddie walked through the hallway to the stairwell, she prayed the whole time she wouldn’t run into anyone who knew her. Plenty of Alexa’s coworkers other than Theo had met her, and the last thing she wanted was for one of them to stop her and force her into a conversation with them, when she felt wrung out and humiliated, after the day she’d just had and then what had gone on in Theo’s office.

She couldn’t tell what part of today was worse: how terrible she’d felt after her interview; Theo rejecting her and trying to button her clothes back up when she’d been convinced he would be thrilled by her little striptease; or her lengthy sobbing fit against Theo’s warm chest and beautiful shirt.

And on top of all that, now she felt like an asshole for not thinking of how her little stunt could affect Theo. She really hoped no one had noticed her walk into his office; the last thing she wanted was for him to get in trouble because of her.

When she made it to her car, she put her head in her hands. What an awful day. After the disastrous interview, she’d texted Alexa and asked if she was busy—she’d known Alexa would be able to talk her through this and make her feel better. But Alexa had said she was just about to go into a meeting in SF with her boss, and was it important? Maddie had lied and said it could wait.

Then she’d had the—she now recognized—unhinged thought that what would really make her feel better was some really hot animal sex with Theo on top of his desk. His desk, at City Hall. In the middle of the day, when everyone was at work. What the hell had she been thinking?

She sat up and put her key in the ignition. Why was she sitting here waiting for Theo to come to her car, anyway? She already felt terrible about what she’d done. Seeing him again would just make it worse. She should just drive away, text him she was sorry, and then ignore him for the rest of her life.

She jumped at the knock on her passenger-side window. Theo. Great timing.

“Oh good, you’re still here,” he said as he got into the car. “I was worried you’d just drive away and leave me here.”

She started the car and pulled out of her parking space. This guy was getting to know her far too well.

“I don’t know why you’d think I’d do that,” she said. He just looked at her and didn’t respond.

“Um, do you want to go to my place, or yours?” he asked when they got to the end of the block.

“Yours,” she said. Her place was unnaturally clean lately, because he’d come over a few times now, so it wasn’t that she needed to clean up for him. It was that she was pretty sure she wanted to abort this whole “telling Theo everything that went wrong today” mission, and just flee back to her own space. He’d managed to get into the car before she’d driven away, but that didn’t mean she had to sit around and confess every one of her flaws to Theo of all people. That sounded like a nightmare she’d had before. Maybe she could walk into his place with him and then suddenly remember a client meeting she had later on today and could run out the door without having to talk about any of this.

“I’m ordering pizza,” he said, looking up from his phone. “The usual toppings?”

Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten since the coffee and half a muffin she’d forced down early this morning. Maybe she would stay just until the pizza came.

“Yeah,” she said. “The usual toppings sound great.”

They walked into his apartment, and instead of immediately asking her questions or pulling her into another hug that she didn’t think she could handle right now, he dropped his bag and jacket in his living room and kept walking down his long hallway to the kitchen. She followed him, expecting him to pull out his bar cart and make her a fancy drink, like he’d done that first night.