Drew tossed his bag on the hotel bed and grinned at the view from his window. He pulled out his phone and texted his buddy in L.A., Carlos, who had heard everything there was to hear about the saga of this wedding.
Found a date for the wedding.
Thirty seconds later, his phone buzzed.
Didn’t you swear off women? Like, specifically because of this wedding?
Oh right, he had done that, hadn’t he?
Ok yes but this is an exception.
He investigated the sure-to-be-overpriced minibar. What the hell. He opened a beer and sank down on the bed.
Uh-huh. Where’d you find this one, in between SFO and your hotel? Nothing about you should surprise me. And yet.
He knew Carlos would appreciate this.
IN my hotel, if you can believe it. In the elevator.
Drew took a long drink of his beer and pulled off his shirt.
Let me guess, tall, blond, big fake boobs.
Well, this would definitely surprise Carlos.
Short, black, real boobs.
Drew stripped and jumped in the shower, bringing the rest of his beer with him. This morning he had cursed his Friday breakfast meeting in Oakland with his mentor that forced him to get to San Francisco on Thursday night. Now he thanked whichever god had inspired Dr. Davis to schedule that meeting so early in the first place. And also the one that made him follow Alexa onto that elevator.
Even though he was paranoid about running into another member of the Rogers-Allen wedding party, he took a chance and left his room to get a burrito from his favorite San Francisco taqueria. He pulled his hoodie up over his head as he crossed the hotel lobby, though. No need to take too many chances. Luckily, he made it there and back scot-free.
Fate wasn’t as kind to Drew the next morning. As he got off the elevator in the lobby, he almost bumped into none other than Josh Rogers, who was holding a cardboard tray with two big Starbucks cups in one hand and a paper bag in the other.
“Drew! Oh man, it’s so great to see you!” Josh said, a wide smile on his face.
“Yeah, man, same,” Drew lied, happy at least that Josh’s hands were full and they couldn’t do the full bro hug that he could see Josh wanted.
“You just get here? I just got coffee for me and Molly. Come up to the room and say hi? We’re a little crazy with wedding stuff, but I know we’d both love to catch up with you!”
“Oh man, I wish I could.” Josh was so nice and cheerful that lying to him was like lying to a puppy. Easy and mean all at the same time. “I have to run. I’m heading out to have breakfast with Dr. Davis. He’s at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, you know.”
“Wow, that’s great! I’d love to hear more about what you’re—”
“Sorry, Josh, I don’t want to be late. I’ll catch up with you later?”
“Yeah, yeah, definitely. See you tonight at the rehearsal. Oh, Molly said you RSVP’d with a plus-one? New girlfriend, or . . . ?”
“Yeah, new girlfriend. She’ll be there tonight.”
“Awesome, man! I can’t wait to meet her. Do me a favor and text me how to spell her name? For the place cards, you know.” Josh smiled with a dreamy look in his eyes. “Molly’s been asking.”
“Oh right, of course, of course. I’ll let you know. Gotta run. See you tonight!”
Drew was halfway across the Bay Bridge before it hit him. New girlfriend. Shit.
• • •
Alexa stumbled into her City Hall office at 7:25 Friday morning, hungover from that bottle of champagne and all the cocktails she and Olivia had had at dinner. As she pushed open her office door, her work phone and cell phone rang simultaneously.
She dropped her bag on the floor, set her full cup of coffee down on her desk, and shook her head. “Not today, Satan. I’m not falling for your tricks today. My coffee hasn’t even had time to cool.”
“Talking to our coffee again?”
Alexa looked up to see Theo, the mayor’s communications director and one of her best friends, standing in her doorway.
“I cannot be expected to talk to anyone except my coffee this early in the morning. I blame you for this.” She blew on her coffee in the futile hope that it would cool faster.
“I know you do. Sorry for the early-morning meeting, but the boss gets on a plane to San Diego at eleven, and we’ve got to . . .”
She waved her hand, stopping him.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did bring me doughnuts, didn’t you?”
He grinned.
“I did not bring you doughnuts; I brought doughnuts for your boss, the mayor, who should not eat doughnuts but loves them almost as much as you.”
She pulled a few files out of her bag and grabbed her laptop and the coffee, and they walked toward the conference room.
“Yes, yes, but did you—”
“Yes, I saved a glazed with rainbow sprinkles for you. What are you, a six-year-old girl? You’re the mayor’s chief of staff. You should be eating a chocolate croissant or fresh fruit and granola or something.”
“Six was a wonderful time in my life. I try to keep it alive at all costs, thank you very much,” she said. “Have I ever told you that you look just like a black Clark Kent?”
Theo adjusted his glasses.
“Yes, every time you’re trying to sweet-talk me into being your cheerleader. I’ve got your back during this meeting; no need to butter me up.” He frowned at her. “Today, that is.”
She grinned at him and snagged her doughnut, just as the mayor and his secretary walked into the room.
“Why, exactly, are we here this early, Theodore?” Mayor Emmitt boomed out, before investigating the pink doughnut box.
“You have a trip to San Diego scheduled for the climate change conference this afternoon, and so—”
“Yes, yes, I know, let’s get on with it. Alexa, what’s this thing about delinquent teenagers?”
She locked eyes with Theo, took a long sip of her coffee, and flipped open her laptop.
“Well, sir . . .”
An hour later, she finally managed the second bite of her doughnut as the mayor walked out the door on the way to his next meeting.
“Lex, you know how he is. It’ll take a little time.” Theo handed her the now-lukewarm coffee as they got up to walk to their offices.
She shrugged and tried to smile.
“I know. Thanks for the support in there.”
“Anytime. Did you talk to your sister about this last night? You said before that you thought she might have some ideas for you.”
Alexa shook her head. She’d almost brought it up a few times, but each time she’d gotten too nervous to say anything.
“It wasn’t the right time, Theo. We were celebrating, and . . . anyway, it wasn’t the right time.” She changed the subject. “How was your hot date last night?”
He rolled his eyes.
“Most boring date I’ve ever been on. That woman and I had nothing to talk about. Buy you more coffee and I’ll give you the highlights, such as they were?”
She fought back a yawn.
“Definitely.”
Alexa checked her phone when she and Theo got back from their coffee run. A text from Olivia about her hangover; a few from her best friend, Maddie, about the book they’d both been reading; and one from an unfamiliar 310 number.
2 things: 1) we’re still on for tonight, yes? 2) what’s your last name?
Elevator guy. Tonight. Oh dear God. That hadn’t been some sort of alcohol-induced hallucination?
Shit. A rehearsal dinner and a wedding at the last minute? What was she going to wear?
Yes. Monroe. And if I’m coming to this thing, I need some details about when/where/etc.
“Etc.” meant “What the hell am I supposed to wear???” but she supposed she couldn’t text that to a guy, let alone one she didn’t even know.
Rehearsal dinner @7 at Beretta in the Mission. Wedding @6 tomorrow at some church, reception at the hotel. Btw I told Josh you’re my new girlfriend, just fyi.
She stared at the phone for two full minutes. His new girlfriend? She had to pretend to be his girlfriend?
I had too much alcohol last night for this.
She had a reply almost immediately.
You and your sister celebrated her partnership in style, I see. Did she enjoy my cheese?
She couldn’t help but laugh.
It was HER cheese, and yes, she loved it. Why did you need to know my last name?
She reached for her coffee cup and took a gulp. Thank God she’d gotten the largest size they had.
1) I should probably know my girlfriend’s last name, right? 2) Josh asked for it for the place cards.
She looked up at the knock on her door.
“I was going to check to see if you needed coffee, but I see you’re all set,” her assistant, Sloane, said.
She almost asked Sloane to get her a pastry before she remembered she still had a doughnut sitting on her desk. She took a bite of it. Maybe the sugar would help her figure out exactly why she was going on a fake date with a strange guy tonight.
Oh right, because she’d accidentally said yes, and then Olivia had accused her of being a prude, so now she had to go.
Drew is short for Andrew, I assume? I should know that if I’m your fake girlfriend. I thought you didn’t do girlfriends?
She scrolled through her emails and answered the easy ones as she mentally went through her closet to try to figure out what she was going to wear to this wedding. A few minutes later, Sloane poked her head back through the door.
“Oh hey, your lunch meeting just called to cancel. I rescheduled you for Tuesday.”
“God bless you.” Alexa checked her calendar and saw she was free almost all afternoon.
“She already has,” Sloane said on her way out the door.
Short for Andrew yes (don’t call me that). And, well, long story. Wait, do you work in SF? What do you do? I should know this about my girlfriend.
She took a sip of coffee and another large bite of her doughnut.
No, I work in Berkeley. For the mayor.
Wait, should she really be eating this doughnut if she was going to have to be in a cocktail dress in a few hours? Shouldn’t she be drinking vitamin water or green juice or something?
Eh. She took another bite and went back to her emails.
Are you a lawyer like your sister? I’m a doctor, you should probably know that too.
She laughed. Did this dude think she hadn’t listened to every word that had come out of his mouth the night before?
The whole “wedding of my ex-girlfriend and one of my best friends from med school” thing kind of clued me in there, yeah. I am a lawyer, practiced for a while, am now the mayor’s chief of staff.
But seriously, what the hell was she supposed to wear to this wedding? Time and venue were helpful, but that didn’t tell her everything.
She hadn’t been a bridesmaid a million times for nothing. After a few quick searches of wedding websites for the names Molly and Josh, and Saturday’s date, she came up with their wedding website.
Black tie optional?
Alexa groaned and put her head back down on her desk. Her closet definitely was not built for black tie optional. After a few seconds she sat up and scrolled to Maddie’s name on her phone—if anyone could save her, her best friend the professional stylist could. Who knew non-celebrities used stylists? Not her, until Maddie had started her business.
Long story but I have a sort of date tonight; wedding rehearsal dinner, going with a guy I hardly know (and that’s putting it mildly), and also the wedding tomorrow (I don’t even know). I will tell you the whole story you know I will but the important thing is WHAT DO I WEAR HELP ME
Then she shot Drew another text:
Black tie optional wedding with a day of notice. Why am I doing this again?
Because, the voice in her head said, he’s hot, and you haven’t even had a fake date in over a year.
• • •
You’re not going to back out on me, are you?
Drew sat in a Berkeley coffee shop, blocks from where he now knew she worked.
Please don’t back out on me. Don’t make me go to the buffet.
Of course she was going to back out. She was cute and funny and smart, and he oozed desperation. He didn’t usually have trouble getting girls to go out with him. But finding a date for this wedding had been such a nightmare, it was like his own personal punishment for everything wrong he’d ever done to or with women: first there’d been everything with Emma, then when he called Julia she had a new boyfriend, and Carlos’s sister had laughed in his face when he’d hinted at her coming with him.
He had resigned himself to dealing with what a disaster the wedding and the aftermath would be. Then one power outage and a malfunctioning elevator had saved him, he’d thought. He’d maybe jumped at that solution a little too eagerly, as usual.
Not backing out. Even though . . .
Oh thank God. Sometimes his crazy impulses worked out. He sighed in relief, and his thumbs flew over the keyboard.
No “even though.” Don’t “even though” me. I will owe you so big for this you’ll have no idea. There will be a new Alexa Monroe wing in every hospital in the state. See you tonight then?
I’ll be there. Please just text me ahead of time if we become fake engaged in the next few hours, OK? I’ll have to borrow a ring.
What, you think I wouldn’t buy you a fake engagement ring? You obviously don’t know Drew Nichols very well.
Since I didn’t know your last name was Nichols . . .
He laughed and downed the rest of his coffee.
Point to you, Monroe.
Another text flashed on his screen as he stood up.
;) Running to a meeting. See you later.
Alexa had looked so flabbergasted when he’d told her the details of the wedding. Everyone else in his life knew most of the Josh-Drew-Molly backstory, so he had kind of forgotten how crazy it was that he was in the wedding. And the worst part was that he hadn’t even told her the whole story; he’d actually seemed like a good guy in the story that he had told.
There was no point in telling the woman you were stuck in an elevator with for probably only a few minutes that you’d broken the heart of the nicest person in the world, the snowball that had started this whole avalanche, and you probably deserved all of the looks you’d get all weekend, right? It wasn’t like he’d lied to her; everything he said was the truth, just not the whole truth. It wasn’t like he’d made Josh or Molly out to be evil, had he?
Well, maybe a little bit, but it was only because this no-date-for-the-wedding thing had driven him out of his mind. He should have just bailed on the wedding and looked like even more of a bad guy.
But now he had Alexa Monroe to come along with him and play the adoring girlfriend. He’d forgotten to tell her that adoring part, but maybe he could help that along some by playing the adoring boyfriend and she would get a clue? Shit, he really was going to have to buy her a hospital wing or something.
• • •
“I can’t believe you, Alexa. Where are all your cute dresses?”
Alexa’s “meeting” was with Maddie—first at Alexa’s house so Maddie could inspect her closet, then at the closest mall when her closet was not miraculously stocked with black-tie-optional dresses. Alexa had opened her mouth to plead that she had too much work to do for a shopping excursion in the middle of the day, she could just wear her one little black dress that was sort of wedding appropriate, but when she saw the look on Maddie’s face, she closed it. There was no point in arguing with Maddie when she had that look.
“I have a million cute dresses!” Alexa said as she drove them out to the mall.
“Yes, yes, of course you do,” Maddie said. “Cute WORK dresses, but those don’t count right now. You need cocktail dresses. Don’t you ever go to weddings? I know you do, so where are all of your dresses from those?”
“I’ve been to ten weddings in the past three years,” Alexa said. “I’ve been a bridesmaid in seven of those. I never get to buy cute dresses for weddings; they are preselected for me. And when do I ever need a cute non-work dress except for weddings?”
“What about the other three weddings?”
“I wore that black halter dress that you vetoed to two of them, and to the third I wore a fantastic gold sequined dress that I rented for the weekend.”
Maddie sighed.
“I remember that dress. It looked incredible on you. Well, obviously this mysterious date happened at just the right time. We clearly need to build up your cocktail dress wardrobe. Okay. Now, who the hell is this guy you’re going to a wedding with?”
When she told the story without all the adrenaline and champagne, it sounded even more ridiculous. She finished just as she pulled into the packed mall parking lot. What were all of these people doing here in the middle of the afternoon? Shouldn’t they all be at work? Shouldn’t she be at work?
“This is crazy. Why am I doing this? I should not be dragging you all over town in the middle of the workday and spending money on dresses to go to a wedding with some dude I talked to for fifteen minutes in an elevator yesterday. What am I thinking?” She pulled into a parking space and reached for her phone.
Maddie took the phone away from her.
“Nope. You’re not allowed to cancel. I’m not letting you talk yourself out of this opportunity for a practice, no-stress date that just landed in your lap.”
Alexa sighed and opened her car door.
“The thing is, Mad . . . this guy is out of my league, okay? He’s hot, he’s funny, he’s flirty, and he’s a doctor. I’m your standard short black girl with big boobs and hips who can barely look him in the eye without looking away. I don’t even have the right clothes to wear on a date like this—this is how far out of my league this is!”
The problem with trying to talk about this with Maddie was that the words “out of my league” had never applied to Maddie. She was at least six inches taller than Alexa, with a body like a Barbie doll, light brown skin that always seemed to glow, and hair that looked perfect no matter if she left it curly or blow-dried it straight. Alexa, on the other hand, was short, what people who liked her called “curvy,” and had more than once turned down social invitations because she didn’t have the energy to deal with her hair.
Maddie steered her toward the entrance.
“That’s exactly why you have to go. Nothing is riding on this! Look: you don’t know this guy, he doesn’t live around here, none of this matters. Don’t overthink everything like you always do. You’ll just dress up, eat free food and drink free drinks, and look fucking hot the whole time if I have anything to do with it.”
Alexa rolled her eyes.
Maddie smacked her on her arm.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“I saw that eye roll, and you will look hot, I promise you. And plus, you’ll get two great dresses out of the deal.”
Alexa opened the Nordstrom door and gestured for Maddie to precede her.
“I have one weekend where I don’t have a ton of work to do, and this is how I waste it?”
Maddie threw her arm around Alexa.
“You’re not wasting anything. It’s practice, remember? Plus, from those text messages you showed me, this dude will freak out if you bail on him now.”
When Alexa saw the armfuls of dresses that Maddie brought into the dressing room, she thought about bailing again.
“Maddie, these don’t look—”
“Don’t argue with me. Try them on.”
She was officially an unwilling participant in that Pretty Woman shopping scene. Except she was going to have to use her own credit card at the end of it.
She sighed and stripped down to her bra and panties and pulled the first dress on.
“No, next.” Maddie barely glanced at her in the dress before she vetoed it and pulled another dress from a hanger. “How’s it going with your arts program?”
Maddie knew everything about the program Alexa had proposed to the mayor that morning: a pilot for an arts and writing diversion program for at-risk youth. Alexa had been wanting to start something like this in Berkeley for years, and now she was finally trying to make that dream a reality. It would be a place for teens who had gotten into some trouble to come and find their gifts, to find adults who believed in them, to work hard on something they loved to do, and to get their feet on a different path.
“Well, I proposed it to the mayor this morning, but he didn’t say much. I’m not sure what he thinks. I’m worried.”
She posed in front of the mirror in dress number two. She sort of liked it, but Maddie shook her head.
“Was Theo there? What did he say?”
“That this is just how he is and I should wait and see, et cetera. And I’m sure he’s right. I’m just impatient. You know how important this is to me, Mads.”
“I know.” Maddie unzipped dress number three without even commenting on it. “I bet Theo is right, though. You know how your boss can be.”
When Maddie looked at her in the fourth dress, she smiled and pointed to the shoes that she’d ordered Alexa to bring along with her. Then she spun her finger in a circle, forcing Alexa to twirl. When Alexa caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, her eyes widened.
“Holy shit, I look hot.”
“Mmmhmmm, what did I say?” Maddie had that smug look on her face, but Alexa couldn’t even be mad at it.
How did one little dress make her look like a movie star? It was red, with a neckline that showed just enough cleavage, and a full skirt that floated as she twirled and somehow made her waist look tiny.
“Mads, isn’t this color too bright for a wedding? Doesn’t it make my hips look too wide? Isn’t it too . . . boob-y?”
Maddie shook her head.
“Nothing, it’s too nothing. It may be too expensive, but we’re not going to worry about that right now. This is an emergency. It’s the perfect color on you, and your hips are just the right amount of wide. And all that ruching around the waist means you don’t have to wear Spanx. I know how much you hate them. Do you or don’t you look hot in that dress? Did I not tell you I’d find you one?”
“You don’t have to be so smug about it,” Alexa said, still staring at herself in the mirror.
“Yes, I do. Okay, well, that’s obviously your dress for the wedding, and thank God you have the perfect shoes for it, those gold ones you bought to wear with the gold sequined dress. Now we just need to figure out tonight.”
Twenty minutes later, Alexa handed over her credit card for both dresses and tried not to wince at the bill.
“Thanks for this, Mads,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I don’t know what you’d do without me, either,” Maddie replied.