Page 113 of Party Favors

“Do you mean ‘talk,’ as in it should have air quotes around it?” she asked hopefully.

“No. Well, maybe.”

“Here.” She set her tray down and dug into her purse and produced a tube of lipstick. “Hold still.”

Before I could react, she was applying it to my mouth.

When she finished I asked, “What did you just do?”

“That shade is Ruby Woo by MAC. This’ll get Max where you want him. Red lipstick makes men think about sex.”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t everything do that?”

“Good point,” she responded. “And earlier the other cater-waiters invited me to a party and I wasn’t going to go but now I think I should. So you will have privacy.” She waggled her eyebrows at me and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Thanks, I think?”

“You’re welcome. And Everly, there’s something I want you to know.”

“I already had the sex talk years ago.”

She frowned. “No, that’s not it. It’s important to me that you are aware of the fact that it is a special burden being right all the time.”

I laughed again.

“Plus, I hope you appreciate how much this means you’ve grown,” she said.

“In what way?” I asked, keeping an eye on Max, who was still watching me with that look that made my insides burn and shiver at the same time.

“You started out wanting the prince but you chose the pauper.”

“Like you said, the part of Kat’s life that appeals to me the most is her being with the man she loves.” Max was my fairy-tale prince, too good to be true, and none of the rest of that stuff mattered.

We both noticed Sunny making her way toward us and Vella said her goodbye. “I’m going to help pack up the rest of the stuff in the kitchen and get my money. I am going to need a full report later.”

“See you later,” I said.

“Everly!” Sunny hugged me for like, the fifth time that day. “You did amazing. I am so sorry about those extra guests. I asked Margot repeatedly for all of her guests’ names, told her about the head count, and she still did this.”

“I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t notice,” I said, a bit disappointed.

“Oh! I only know about it because Max filled me in on all the details. Part of me wonders if she did it intentionally just so that things would fall apart, but you didn’t let that happen.”

“Do you really think she’d do that?”

“I’m not who she wanted Todd to marry and she uses stuff like this to prove to him that he should have married someone more like them. But you showed her up today. In fact, before she came downstairs, she was complaining to Todd’s sister that the shower was going to be cheap and tacky, but she shut up as soon as she walked in the room and hasn’t said a word about it since.”

I was gratified for both me and Sunny. “I just hope that you enjoyed yourself.”

“Like I keep telling you, it was absolutely perfect. If you don’t mind, I am going to recommend you to all my friends.”

“I would love that! Thank you!” Maybe I could bring some new clients in to Elevated. That would definitely make Claudia happy.

“Excellent. And, just to let you know, I transferred over your fee. And I didn’t make a mistake—I sent you twice what you asked for. I should be paying you three times but Max said that might be insulting or something, I don’t know why, so I’m tipping you a hundred percent and I hope you’re okay with it because I will close my bank account down before I let you send that money back to me. You deserve every penny.”

“Sunny, I couldn’t possibly—”

“Nope! I’m not listening. I one-upped my mother-in-law, who wanted me to fail, and I have this perfect memory of most of the people I love being here to celebrate with me. And I don’t mean to be pushy,but I would love for you and me to grab lunch sometime. I have enjoyed getting to know you and I think we should be friends.”

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