The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(85)

“Sir, I just want to say that I’m sorry about what happened with the rally. I’m the one who pushed to have it in Berkeley, and I blew off the people who predicted we’d have issues with protestors. I should have done a much better job on contingency plans. I know it hurt the campaign, and I take—”

The mayor’s laugh rang out.

“Please don’t tell me you take full responsibility for some violent protestors; the chief of police was in here telling me the same thing, and he’s not even the one who got hit over the head. He feels awful about what happened to you, by the way.”

Alexa had told him the chief of police sent him an apology, but he hadn’t really believed her.

“I appreciate that, but I really should have—”

“No more apologies! You should have talked to him, yes. He should have staffed the rally better, absolutely. But it’s over and done with, and both of you will do better in the future. And yeah, I’m not going to lie to you and say we got great press out of it, but a lot more people know there’s a ballot initiative for universal pre-K on the November ballot than they did two weeks ago, that’s for sure.”

Theo hoped his face didn’t show how relieved he felt.

“Well, I’m glad my concussion could help the cause.” He stood up. “See you at staff meeting.”

On his way back to his office, he ran into ten more people, all of whom hugged him and asked him how he was doing. After a while, he wished he had a little card he could hand everyone. “FEELING MUCH BETTER, THANK YOU. STILL HAVE A HEADACHE, CAN’T READ MUCH FOR A WHILE, BUT HAPPY TO BE BACK AT WORK.”

He poked his head into Alexa’s office. She had a bakery box sitting on the edge of her desk.

“What’s in that box?”

She glanced up from her computer.

“Oh, just leftover cake. Drew and I did a cake tasting this weekend, and I have some leftovers to share.”

Cake tasting. For her wedding. Shit.

“I’m the worst person in the world. I can’t believe you’ve spent the past two weeks doing my job and your job when it’s less than three weeks before your wedding. No wonder you need me to pull myself together.”

She laughed at him.

“You’re exaggerating again. You aren’t the worst person in the world; let’s reserve that label for the guy who hit you over the head, causing me to have to do my job and part of your job for the past week and a half.”

He plopped down in the chair in front of her desk.

“Okay, fine, I’m the worst bridesman in the world. I’m sorry. I should have been more helpful, Lex.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“You had a concussion—give me a break. Plus, I don’t really know what you could have done. I mean yes, I had to do a wedding dress fitting while I was on conference calls the entire time, so keep your fingers crossed that I told them the right stuff to fix and the dress doesn’t come out a size too small or with brand-new ruffles around the bottom or whatever. But other than that, this wedding thing hasn’t been as stressful as everyone says. It’ll be fine.”

He reached for the box.

“I want to see this cake.”

But when he popped the box top open, it was row after row of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.

“It’s not cake, come on. Who does a cake tasting less than a month before the wedding? I can’t believe you bought that. We had the cake even before I had the dress. You didn’t think I’d get you cookies to welcome you back?”

He grabbed a cookie as he stood up.

“Thanks. You’re the best.”

She grinned.

“I know. Everything went okay when you went to talk to the boss?”

He hadn’t even told her he was going to do that.

“Yeah. Just like you said.” He shook his head. “I always thought I had to be perfect, I could never make a misstep, or everything would come crashing down, but I guess I was wrong about that? I could have been fucking up for years!”

She laughed and reached for a cookie.

“See? It’s never as bad as you think, Teddy.”

He thought about that on his way back to his office. Was it as bad as he thought with Maddie, too?

He sighed. No, that was different. He’d proved himself to his boss. The only thing he’d proved to Maddie was how right she’d been about him all along. He never should have said those things to her. He’d been hurt and scared and lashing out, he realized now, but why did he have to say the handful of things he knew would hurt her the most?

He sat down at his desk.

Maybe if he apologized to Maddie, it would make him feel a little bit less like a piece of shit?

His phone rang. Oh thank God, he had work to do.

Maddie drove over to Alexa’s house with a bottle of wine in her purse. It was two weeks and a day before the wedding, and Alexa had called her in a panic twenty minutes ago. She was pretty sure Alexa was starting to lose it. Honestly, Maddie was impressed Alexa hadn’t lost it until now.

Hell, Maddie was starting to lose it, too. In two weeks she would have to see Theo again, be in close quarters with Theo again, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to handle it. She’d tried hard for the past week to pretend he didn’t exist, that the two of them had never existed, but she’d failed miserably at that. No matter how much she told herself they were doomed anyway, he’d never respected her, she’d been too good for him, none of it helped her feel better.