Copyright © 2019 Jasmine Guillory

Cover design and illustration © by Vikki Chu

Author Photograph © Andrea Scher

The right of Jasmine Guillory to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in this Ebook edition in 2019

by HEADLINE ETERNAL

An imprint of HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by arrangement with Berkley,

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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eISBN 978 1 4722 6499 2

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About the Author

Jasmine Guillory is a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School. She is a Bay Area native who lives in Oakland, California. She has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake recipe for every occasion, and upwards of fifty lipsticks.

Visit Jasmine online at jasmineguillory.com and twitter.com/thebestjasmine.

Praise for The Wedding Date, Jasmine’s acclaimed debut novel:

‘What a charming, warm, sexy gem of a novel. I couldn’t put The Wedding Date down. I love a good romance and this delivered from the first page to the last. . . One of the best books I’ve read in a while’ Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author

‘[An] effervescent, witty, and sexy novel, which serves as a reminder that romantic fiction doesn’t need to be a guilty pleasure – it can just be a straight-up pleasure. . . sometimes it’s liberating to read a book not just for a happy ending, but for the joy it contains on every single page’ Nylon

‘The Wedding Date brims with personality. It’s funny, deeply honest, and above all, truly swoony – the kind of all-consuming romance where you hold your breath with delight as two wonderful people start to find each other, like the best possible version of real life. We can’t wait to read more from Jasmine Guillory’ Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, bestselling

authors of The Royal We

‘[An] incredibly delicious meet-cute. . . Guillory keeps this contemporary romance fresh with well-drawn multicultural characters navigating the perils of long-distance relationships’ Booklist

‘Will charm rom-com fans’ Kirkus Reviews

By Jasmine Guillory

The Wedding Date

The Proposal

The Wedding Party

About the Book

Maddie and Theo have two things in common:

1. Alexa is their best friend

2. They hate each other

After an ‘oops, we made a mistake’ night together, neither one can stop thinking about the other. With Alexa’s wedding rapidly approaching, Maddie and Theo both share bridal party responsibilities that require more interaction with each other than they’re comfortable with. Underneath the sharp barbs they toss at each other is a simmering attraction that won’t fade. It builds until they find themselves sneaking off together to release some tension when Alexa isn’t looking.

But as with any engagement with a nemesis, there are unspoken rules that must be abided by. First and foremost, don’t fall in love. . .

To my sister,

Sasha Guillory,

who always listens to my dreams.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful from the bottom of my heart for so many people for all their help, advice, cheerleading, and support. You’ve all played a role in bringing this book to life, and I can’t thank you enough.

Team Berkley: you are all a dream come true. Cindy Hwang, you’re not just a fantastic editor, but you believe in me more than I believe in myself. Jessica Brock and Fareeda Bullert, I’m happy every day I get to work with you. Angela Kim, Kristine Swartz, Erin Galloway, Craig Burke, and Jin Yu, you’ve all gone above and beyond for me in every way possible. Megha Jain, Marianne Grace, Kayley Hoffman, and Vikki Chu, thanks so much for everything you do for my books. And a huge thanks to Jaci Updike, Lauren Monaco, Andy Dudley, and the incredible Penguin Random House sales team across the country.

Holly Root, you are the best agent any writer could ask for. I don’t know what I would have done these past few years without you by my side, and I don’t even want to think about it. And thank you to Alice Lawson for everything you’ve done for me and my books. Thank you both for answering my many (many) questions, and being incredible partners in my career.

Reese Witherspoon and the entire Hello Sunshine team, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for my books, and especially for introducing them to so many enthusiastic readers.

Writers and those in the publishing world are some of the most generous people I’ve ever encountered. Amy Spalding and Akilah Brown, you’re two of the first people I ever talked to about writing, and your support then and throughout these past few years is a big part of what got me here. Thank you to Roxane Gay, Heather Cocks, Jessica Morgan, Robin Benway, Tayari Jones, Ruby Lang, Alexis Coe, Esmé Weijun Wang, Sara Zarr, Nicole Chung, Jami Attenberg, Liz Lopatto, Rainbow Rowell, Daniel Ortberg, Nicole Cliffe, Laura Turner, Caille Millner, Stephanie Lucianovic, Samantha Powell, Melissa Baumgart, Kayla Cagan, Lyz Lenz, Maret Orliss, Margaret Willison, and Rachel Fershleiser for all your support, advice, enthusiasm, and reassurance. I’m so grateful for all of you.

I have the best friends in the entire world. Simi Patnaik and Nicole Clouse, I love you both so much. Janet Goode, I’m happy every day that I have your friendship. Jill Vizas, I’m so happy that you’ve been a constant in my life for over thirty years. A huge thanks to Melissa Sladden, Jina Kim, Julian Davis Mortenson, Nathan Cortez, Lisa McIntire, Nanita Cranford, Joy Alferness, Sarah Mackey, Maggie Levine, Sara Kate Wilkinson, Kate Leos, Lyette Mercier, Kyle Wong, Ryan Gallagher, Sarah Tiedeman, Veronica Ades, and Toby Rugger for your friendship and love.

Wellesley College and all of her alumnae: I’m grateful every day I have you in my corner.

Special thanks to Matt Kagan, Sybil Grant, and Annette Majerowicz. Everything I got right about comms work is because of you; we’ll call everything I got wrong poetic license.

Librarians and booksellers: you’re the best people! Thank you for the love you have for my books; your enthusiasm has meant so much.

And to my family: I am so grateful for your support and love throughout the many ups and downs. Thanks to my huge extended family on all sides and extra thanks to all my cousins, who are always there for me.

Mom, Dad, and Sasha, I love you all so much.

Thank you to all my readers. I’m overjoyed at how you’ve embraced my books, and I hope you love this one, too.

Chapter One

MADDIE FOREST DIDN’T WANT TO GO TO THIS BIRTHDAY PARTY. SHE didn’t like parties in the first place—they were always too loud, there were always annoying people who she had to pretend to be nice to, and there were never enough snacks. But she especially didn’t want to go to Theo Stephens’s party. It was likely to be as boring, self-important, and pedantic as the guest of honor.

But, unfortunately, one of Theo’s best friends was her best friend, Alexa, and Alexa had asked Maddie to come with her to the party. Alexa’s brief fling with some doctor in L.A. had just ended badly, and Maddie could tell she was still upset about it. So instead of being either snug at home in a caftan watching House Hunters and eating delivery pizza, or out somewhere with Alexa, drinking wine and eating fancy pizza, she was looking for parking in one of the worst neighborhoods in San Francisco in which to find parking.

“Don’t worry, we don’t have to stay all night,” Alexa said as they circled the block. “I know you’d rather be watching HGTV, but I couldn’t skip Theo’s birthday and I wasn’t in the mood to come alone.”

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.

Theo put his arm around Alexa and started walking toward the bar, leaving Maddie to follow them.

“Come with me. The bartender is supposed to be serving my friends first, but we’ll see if that actually works.”

Five minutes later, both she and Alexa had gin and tonics in their hands. Thank God they did, because Alexa forced her to circulate around the party.

“Come on, there’s good networking here! See, I told you not all of Theo’s friends are bros; there are lots of women here. I bet you a drink you can pick up a client or two at this party. Did you bring your business cards?”

Maddie rolled her eyes at her best friend as she pulled her card case out of her jacket pocket.

“You trained me well. Of course I brought them.”

She followed Alexa around the room and watched her network.

“Four weddings to go to in the next month? Oh God, I’ve been there!” Alexa said to the girlfriend of some friend of Theo’s. “Thank God I had Maddie—I had no idea what to wear to any of those weddings, and now with Instagram, you can’t wear the same dress to all four weddings or people will think you only own one dress. Maddie helped me find outfits and negotiate all of the weird dress codes people come up with.”

“Oh my God, the dress codes!” the woman said. “What does ‘beach chic’ mean? Or ‘farm formal’? Those are just two of the annoying dress codes for these weddings, and I have no idea what these people want from me. Just tell me if I need to wear a cocktail dress or if I can wear a sundress! Heels or cute sandals or comfortable sandals? I don’t know!” The woman turned to Maddie. “So what is it you do? Is she right that you know what these dress codes mean?”

Maddie launched into her elevator pitch.

“I’m a stylist, which means I help people find outfits for all sorts of events, whether it’s work or weddings or anything in between. And yes, I’ve successfully dressed clients for those exact dress codes and ones that sounded even wackier.”

Alexa grinned at Maddie. See, this was when having a wing woman was key. Who cared about having one to help out with men? It was for this kind of stuff where having Alexa by her side and pumping her up was most important. Alexa walked off to join Theo, while Maddie went in for the kill.

Ten minutes later, Maddie presented Alexa with a gin martini.

“We have an appointment next week,” she said. “Thanks for that.”

Alexa grinned back at her.

Just then, a tall white guy in a button-down shirt, who was way too attractive for his own good, came up to their group. Oh God, yet another bro.

“Alexa?”

Wait a minute. From the look on Alexa’s face, this wasn’t just yet another bro. Why did she have that look on her face for some guy that Maddie didn’t recognize?

“Drew? What are you doing here?”

This was Drew? No wonder Alexa had been so upset when their thing had fizzled out.

Maddie looked from Alexa to Drew. It was her turn to be a wing woman. She plucked Alexa’s martini out of her hand, grabbed Theo by the arm, and pulled him over to the other side of the bar.

“Who the hell is that, and why did you . . . Oh!” Theo stared at Alexa and Drew, who had moved into the far corner of the bar. “That guy she went to the wedding with?”

At least Theo caught on quickly.

“Yeah, it’s definitely that guy,” Maddie said.

“What’s he doing here?” Theo asked.

Maddie sipped Alexa’s abandoned martini.

“I have no idea, but he sure seemed happy to see her.”

Theo turned to her.

“Do you think she’s okay over there? Do we need to go rescue her?”

The one good thing Maddie could say about Theo was she knew he was firmly on Team Alexa.

Maddie looked over to the corner of the bar. Alexa did not look like she wanted or needed rescuing. At least, for now.

“She’s okay. She knows we’re here if she needs us.”

Neither of them moved. They obviously had to stay close by. Just in case Alexa needed them. But they couldn’t keep staring at Alexa and Drew; that was creepy. They both turned away from the corner of the room at the same time and looked at each other. Maddie tried to think of something to say.

“So, Maddie,” Theo said, “watching any good TV lately?”

She spent a moment trying to decide if she should give him the real answer and let him make fun of her, or list all the boring and stressful prestige TV shows she knew a pretentious guy like Theo would be into, just so she didn’t have to deal. Sure, she wouldn’t be able to have a conversation about any of those shows about terrible men doing terrible things in very poorly lit rooms, but men usually didn’t care about having an actual conversation about their favorite TV shows; they just wanted you to listen to them talk about them.

Hell with it. She didn’t care enough about Theo’s opinion of her to lie to him.

“I watch a lot of House Hunters these days, actually.”

He laughed. Served her right for actually engaging in conversation with Theo.

“I love House Hunters,” he said. Wait, what? “I’m kind of obsessed with it. The people infuriate me, and look, I know the whole thing is fake, but I don’t care!”

That was a surprise.

“You? Watching House Hunters? You don’t spend all your time watching C-SPAN or documentaries or all of those shows about drug dealers or whatever?”

He shook his head.

“I deal with enough depressing and stressful stuff at work.” He took a sip of his drink and shrugged. “Okay, fine, I have been known to watch a documentary or two in my time, but . . .”

Maddie pointed at him.

“I knew it!”

He shook his head and put his hand on her shoulder.

“But, as I was saying, I only do that when I’m in a really bad mood and want to lean into it. Otherwise, it’s lots of house shopping and renovating shows. I find them so soothing.”

Well, that was something she never would have expected to find out tonight.

“There you are!” A black guy in jeans, a black T-shirt, and very cool sneakers bounded over to them. “Happy birthday, dude.”

“Oh, so my little brother finally shows up,” Theo said as he smacked hands with his brother. “How many hours late are you this time?”

“Hours?” The brother looked at Maddie for support. “Back me up on this, beautiful woman I’ve never met before—I’m, like, barely an hour late.”

Maddie grinned despite herself. Theo’s brother had definitely gotten the lion’s share of the family charm.

“ Well . . . as much as I want to be on your side here, brother of Theo whose name I don’t know, from what I was told, the party started at eight, and it’s now almost ten, so . . .”

“That’s ridiculous. No party starts at eight. No brother of mine would have a party that started at eight. You must be mistaken.”

He reached out and shook her hand.

“And I’m Benjamin Stephens, but my friends all call me Ben, and I hope you and I will be friends.”

Theo sighed.

“Maddie, this is my brother, Ben. He’s shameless. Please feel free to ignore or snub or smack him whenever he says something worthy of one of those things. Ben, this is Maddie. She’s Alexa’s friend. Please don’t embarrass me more than you already have.”

Ben slapped his brother on the back and grinned at Maddie.

“Anything for you on your birthday. Speaking of, what are you drinking? I’ll get you another.”

Ben turned and looked over at the bar.

“Oh, wow, they have some great bourbon here!” He made a beeline for the bar without waiting to hear Theo’s answer.

Theo opened his mouth to shout after him, then shook his head and turned back to Maddie.

“Well, that’s my brother. I swear he’s not always like that.” Theo shook his head. “He’s usually worse.”

Maddie looked at Theo’s brother, now talking animatedly to the bartender.

“He seems like a lot of fun . . . in small doses.”

Theo laughed.

“He’s a lot of fun in big doses, too; it’s just that I usually need to sleep for three days after a night of drinking with him. That time we went to Vegas together . . .” Theo let out a long breath. “I think I didn’t leave my apartment for a solid week afterward.”

Maddie was just about to ask another question when Theo’s eyes widened and he nudged her. She looked around, just in time to see Alexa and Drew walking toward them, holding hands. She turned back to Theo and widened her eyes at him and nudged him back.

Theo and Maddie shared a grin as Alexa introduced both of them to Drew and his friend Carlos, who was also randomly in San Francisco. She absolutely didn’t need rescuing, their eyes said to each other. Theo had definitely never shared a joke with Maddie before.

Alexa was beaming. Oh, wow, she had it bad for this guy. Theo narrowed his eyes as he looked at Drew. Alexa had never told him exactly what happened at the end there, but Drew had better not hurt her. Right now, though, he looked very happy to be reunited with Alexa, so Theo would reserve judgment on him for now.

Maybe he’d get Maddie another drink. Would that make her smile at him again? Just then, his brother joined the group.

“You didn’t tell me what drink you wanted, so I just got you bourbon,” he said. Great timing, Ben.

Theo grabbed the drink from his brother and took a sip. His brother was forgiven; this was really good bourbon. And he probably didn’t need to push it with Maddie—one smile was enough.

For some reason, Maddie had hated him basically on sight. Okay, he was pretty sure part of the reason was the stupid way he’d asked her about her job the first time they’d met. He hadn’t meant to sound like such a jerk. Fine, he had sounded like a jerk, but she hadn’t even let him back up and explain what he’d meant and had basically called him a pompous asshole. Whatever, he and Maddie would have never gotten along anyway. She was the cool, hot, party type, and he was the kind of guy everyone thought watched C-SPAN in his spare time.

He glanced up at his brother, talking animatedly to Maddie. She was smiling at him. Of course she was. Ben always managed to charm everyone.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. Sure, it was Saturday night, but he could just check his work email for a second.

“Theo!”

He turned to see who was shouting his name and grinned to see two old friends near the door. He slid his phone back in his pocket.

“Alexa, yell at my brother if he gets annoying. I have to go say hi to some people.”

He caught up with his friends Julian and Lindsey over by the bar. A few minutes into their conversation, Maddie walked by, presumably on the way to the bathroom. He reached out and touched her shoulder.

“Oh, it’s you,” was all she said when she stopped.

It was very irritating that Maddie was the only person he could talk to about this Alexa thing, but she was just going to have to deal with it.

“Yeah, it’s me. Want to bet how long it’ll be before they make some excuse and take off? I give it less than an hour.”

She tossed her head and laughed. Why did it feel like every man in the bar turned to look at her when she did that? Yes, she looked incredible in that hot pink dress; even he could admit that. But he got the feeling she was laughing at, not with, him.

“I’d never take that bet.” Yep, she was laughing at him. “I’d be surprised if they were still here in thirty minutes, though Alexa’s tendency toward unnecessary politeness might force her to stay longer than she wants to.”

He pulled out his phone and turned on the stopwatch.

“For science.” He grinned at her. Amazingly, she grinned back before she walked away.

He shook off thoughts of Maddie and turned back to his friends.

In exactly forty-one minutes, Alexa came over to him.

“So, um . . .” She was definitely blushing. “I think we’re going to take off.”

He did everything possible to hold back a laugh.

“You and Maddie are leaving early? Okay, well, thanks for coming, and . . .”

She smacked his arm, and he finally let himself laugh.

“You’re such a fucking asshole. No, not me and Maddie.”

He leaned in for a hug.

“He’d better be nice to you. See you Monday.”

When Alexa and Drew walked out the door, Theo looked around the bar for Maddie. She was in a group with Julian and Lindsey, but she was looking right at him, and they grinned at each other. After a second or so, Maddie looked away from him and back at Lindsey. Okay, well, he guessed that was the one day in five years Maddie would be nice to him. Now that Alexa was gone, he figured she’d leave any minute.

But every time Theo glanced around the bar for a glimpse of hot pink, she was still there. After an hour or so, Theo saw Ben walk over to her group. He wandered over, too, just to make sure his brother wasn’t causing any trouble.

“Hey, man!” Ben said. “I was just saying to these guys that we should go dancing. I know this great place in SoMa. Let’s go!”

Yep, Ben was trying to cause trouble, all right.

“Have a fantastic time, and give me a call tomorrow to tell me all about it,” he said.

Ben turned to Maddie.

“Maddie!” Ben said. “We’re all talking about going dancing. Want to come?”

She shook her head.

“Thanks for the invite, but I have work to do tomorrow. I have to go. Theo, happy birthday.”

She didn’t lean in for a hug, so he didn’t, either.

“Thanks, and thanks for coming. I saw you talking to Lindsey and Julian. Did you get another possible client?”

She nodded.

“I think so. And also maybe your friend Fiona.”

“Oh good, Lindsey and Fiona are both great. Glad this may have been profitable for you.” What a weird and businesslike thing to say at the end of a party. What was wrong with him? “See you around.” No wonder she thought he was uptight; even with a little too much bourbon tonight, he sounded so stilted around her.

She smirked at him and turned to walk out, when he thought of something.

“Wait. Did you drive here?”

She turned back to him.

“Yeah, I’m just a few blocks away.”

He checked his pockets for his phone and keys.

“Let me walk you to your car.”

She shook her head.

“No, you don’t have to do that. I’m fine to walk by myself. I don’t want to drag you away from your party,” she said.

He hesitated. He wanted to insist, but he couldn’t tell if she said that because she didn’t want him to feel like he had to walk her to her car, or if she said it because she was sick of him and really didn’t want him to walk with her. But the Mission could get weird on weekend nights, with too many marauding bands of bros. Well, he’d ask one more time and then let it go.

“Honestly, it’s no trouble. You’re not dragging me anywhere. Plus, it gives me an excuse to disappear when Ben is hatching his plan to move to a second location, which is always a bad idea.”

She shrugged and turned to the door.

“Suit yourself.”

He waved to Ben and followed Maddie out the door. He was glad the party was over. He’d had fun, and he was even sort of glad Ben had harassed him into having one. But his ideal birthday would be spent at home on his couch with a good movie on TV and a large pizza on his coffee table.

The cool San Francisco night air was refreshing after the stuffy, beer-scented heat of the bar, and he breathed it in as he walked with her down Valencia. They walked in silence for a block or two, until they turned onto one of the quieter streets.

Okay, now the cool San Francisco night air was just flat-out cold. He hunched his shoulders against the wind.

“Did you have a good birthday party?” she asked, just when he thought she wasn’t going to speak to him the entire walk.

“I did. I got coerced into having the party in the first place; I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not a huge party guy.” She laughed and he joined in. “But it was fun to see so many people who came out. Maybe I’ll do it again in another ten or so years.”

She laughed again.

“And I’m glad Alexa ran into that guy, though I’m still not quite sure what I think about him.”

Maddie nodded.

“I’m not sure what I think about him, either, but I did appreciate the way he was looking at Alexa all night like he’d won an amazing prize.”

That was a really good way to put it.

“You’re right. Okay, that makes me feel a little better about him.”

She turned to him and raised her eyebrows.

“Wait, did you really tell me that I was right? I’m stunned.” They walked by a streetlight that showed him the smile on her face. He smiled back.

“I have a lot of faults, but I’m good at acknowledging when other people are right.”

She stopped next to a black hatchback and gestured to it.

“This is me. Thanks for walking me to my car. Um, have a good night.”

He nodded at her and stepped back onto the sidewalk.

“You, too.”

While she got into the car and started it, he leaned against the street-cleaning sign and pulled out his phone. He had no intention of going back to the bar—Ben would just harass him into going dancing, and Theo had reached his party limit about an hour ago. Ben had known him all his life; he was used to Theo disappearing from parties when he’d had enough. Even his own parties.

He opened an app to get a ride back to Berkeley. Ugh, there was a five-minute wait for a ride. Hopefully no one thought he looked threatening hanging out in this residential neighborhood for the next five minutes, waiting.

“What are you doing? Why are you still standing there?” Maddie had started to pull away and was now shouting at him out the window of her car.

“Waiting for a ride home,” he shouted back. “Someone’s coming in”—he checked his phone—“now it’s six minutes? Why do these apps have such problems with time?”

“You’re not going back to your party?” She was looking at him like he was some sort of alien, which made sense. Maddie was probably used to all those life-of-the-party kinds of guys who he’d always seen as foreign to him.

He shook his head.

“The party is mostly over. I told you, Ben’s trying to get people to go dancing, and I’m not in the mood.”

She closed her eyes for a minute, probably trying to conceive of how someone like him existed. Another car pulled up alongside her car, and the driver made that Are you coming out? motion. Maddie nodded at her and turned back to him.

“Get in.”

Wait, what? Was she going to take him back to the bar, or . . .

“Come on, someone wants this spot. Get in! I’ll take you home.”

Well hell, if she wanted to save him a thirty-five-dollar ride home from San Francisco to Berkeley, he wasn’t going to say no. He quickly canceled his ride request and opened her passenger door.

“Thanks, Maddie, I appre—”

“No need to thank me. It’s fine. I’m going the same direction as you are, and it’s cold outside. I saw you shivering while we were walking to the car. Why don’t men wear jackets?”

She glared at him as she leaned forward and turned the heat on in her car.

“I do wear jackets! Sometimes. It was so warm when I was getting dressed today, and it felt ridiculous to put something warmer on when I was walking to BART to come out here this evening.” The warm air coming out of her car heaters felt really good right now. “Though, that’s definitely one of my faults—I’ve lived in the Bay Area for a long time; I should know it’s always at least ten degrees cooler in San Francisco than it is in the East Bay, and it gets really cold at night, but I never prepare for it.”

Why was he still talking about the weather? He shut his mouth and settled into the passenger seat.

He glanced in her direction. She certainly didn’t look happy to have him in her car. She was right that they were going in the same direction, but this was the first time he and Maddie had ever been alone together, and she really didn’t seem to be enjoying the situation.

He didn’t know what to talk about with her, or if he should talk at all. They’d been getting along well tonight, strangely, but he didn’t want to push his luck.

“I’m surprised you watch House Hunters,” he said. “I would have thought you’d watch Project Runway or all of those fashion-y shows.”

Here he was, pushing his luck.

She shrugged.

“Oh, I watch it mostly because everyone expects me to have seen all of the episodes. But it feels like work, not relaxation.” She sighed. “You know what the most relaxing show of all time is?”

He sat up straight and turned to face her.

“No, tell me.”

The peaceful smile spread across her face.

“The Great British Baking Show. It’s the best.”

Unfortunately, this time he couldn’t chime in about his love of the show.

“I’ve never watched it, but people have told me that. What do you love about it?”

They merged onto the Bay Bridge, along with many other cars. Thank God he’d come up with something to talk about; they’d be here for a while. He relaxed into her passenger seat.

“Well, it’s a competition show—in Britain it’s called The Great British Bake Off. I don’t know why it has a different name here.”

He turned to her.

“I know this! It’s because of Pillsbury. It has a trademark for the term ‘ Bake-Off’ in America, so they had to change the name.”

She nodded.

“That sounds like the kind of thing you would know.” Yep, he’d pushed his luck just a little too hard. Was it his fault he loved trivia like that?

“Anyway, I like it because even though it is a competition show, the contestants are so kind and gentle with one another. It’s such a soothing show.”

He nodded.

“Sounds good. I’ll have to watch it.”

Silence descended on the car again, but this time he didn’t try to fill it. They burst out from the tunnel on the lower deck of the bridge, and he saw the white tower of the Bay Bridge glowing in the darkness. He loved this part about coming home from San Francisco at night.

“Why didn’t you want to go dancing with your brother?” she asked him.

He laughed. If she only knew either him or Ben better, she’d never ask that.

“I wasn’t in the mood.”

She turned to him with one of those annoying grins she always sent his way.

“Oh, I get it. You can’t dance. It’s okay, not everyone is blessed with dancing ability. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Oh hell no. He would not let this stand.

“I can too dance,” he said. Maybe a little too loudly.

She chuckled.

“Sure you can. It’s okay, you don’t have to prove anything to me.”

He shook his head.

“I know I don’t—I don’t need to prove anything to anyone—but I’m a fucking great dancer.”

She nodded.

“Mmmhmm.” She gestured to the freeway signs up ahead. “What exit?”

For some reason, her attitude was really getting to him.

“University. I’m near the North Berkeley BART station. And you can mmmhmm however much you want, but I speak the truth.”

She changed lanes to follow his directions. He tried not to watch her expression too much. He didn’t want to look like he was staring at her. But when a smile hovered around her lips, he found himself smiling back. Why? He had no idea.

He pointed at his building. Finally.

“This is me. Thanks for the ride. Remember: I can outdance you any day.”

She pulled up in front, and he opened his car door and jumped out. Thank God he was home. He needed to go inside and sober up.

As he walked up the pathway to his building, he heard another car door slam, and he looked behind him to see Maddie standing on the sidewalk.

“You really didn’t think I was going to let you end this conversation without me making you prove your alleged dancing prowess, did you?”