Page 101 of Party Favors

“Oh, you are.”

“It’s only been like, two weeks,” I said, finally fixing on an argument she couldn’t refute. “That’s not long enough to fall in love with someone—that’s an antibiotic cycle.”

“Did you tell Max?”

Somehow my heart beat even faster and I was having a hard time swallowing. I could actually feel sweat breaking out on my lower back. “That I love him?”

“No, that you’re going on this ‘date,’” she said, making air quotes with her fingers.

“Not technically. I had him on speakerphone and he heard Adrian saying something about it. Max basically congratulated me.”

“Of course he did. He’s a good guy. He was sacrificing his own wants for yours. He probably thinks you have real feelings for Adrian and is trying to nobly step aside so that you can have what Max thinks you want.”

Her words struck me and I had to sit down on the corner of her desk as I considered them.

Vella’s tone softened. “He didn’t respond like a fairy-tale prince. He didn’t stop you. You wanted him to tell you not to go, that he lovesyou, too. You were playing a stupid game and now you’ve won a stupid prize—the man of your dreams stepping aside so you can be with someone who isn’t worthy of you.”

“You play games all the time.” It wasn’t much of a defense against what felt like very accurate and true statements, but it was all I had. I felt like I was about to collapse in on myself. What had I done?

“Right. And do you see me in a healthy, happy, long-term relationship? No. Which is good for me, but not for you. You want that fairy tale.”

I did want it, but it seemed so far out of reach.

Impossible.

“What did Max say after he told you to go out with Lumpy?”

“He said he had to get to a meeting and he had to go.” My voice sounded like I felt—disconnected, worried, unsure.

“At six in the morning?”

“No, it was like, nine.”

“Did you forget about those pesky little things called time zones between here and California? If it was nine o’clock here, it was six there.”

I had forgotten about the time difference. Had he just woken up? Maybe that was why he’d sounded so strange.

The phone rang and Vella picked up the receiver and immediately hung it back up.

“Aren’t you supposed to answer that?”

“In a minute. I just want to know what you’re going to do now that you’re stuck between a rock and a hard cheese.” At my blank expression she said, “AdrianStoneand MaxColby? Instead of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, I substituted it withrockanda hard cheese.”

“Colby is not a hard cheese.”

“I stand by my joke. Just like I’ll stand by you no matter what choice you make. The right one or the stupid one.”

The phone rang again and she said, “I better get that and blame the disconnect on a technical problem.” She picked up the receiver. “Thank you for calling Elevated. This is Vella, how may I assist you?”

Part of me noted that I’d never heard her be so nice or professional before. The rest of my mind was a morass of confusion. She had hit me with so many bombs that I was still reeling from the blows.

That it had been a mistake to say yes to Adrian.

That some part of me had secretly been testing Max.

I headed back to my desk. I hadn’t meant to test Max. It was what had happened, though. I had wanted him to tell me not to go out with Adrian.

It really rubbed me the wrong way that I had done it. My dad used to give my mom all kinds of tests to “prove” that she was a good wife to him. She always fell short, never reaching the impossible standard that he’d set, always failing.

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