Page 121 of Party Favors

He smiled and held up his hand. “I’m not old enough to be a ‘sir.’”

What was I supposed to call him, then? If I said “Mr. Crawley,” he might tell me it was too formal, or he might be upset if I used his first name. I wasn’t sure what the right move here was and I could feel sweat beads starting to form.

Thankfully he moved the conversation along. “It is kind of you to volunteer to help out. This certainly doesn’t fall within your job description.”

I knew it might not be a good idea to tell the CEO of my company that I was partially doing it for a promotion that I had been promised.

So I settled on, “I like being a team player.”

He nodded. “Good. And it was nice to see you.”

I let out a sigh of relief when he walked away.

A few minutes later Adrian arrived and I saw that he had Colette with him. I smiled at him, and when he caught my gaze, he smiled back and pointed at Colette. I gave him a thumbs-up. I was glad that they had apparently worked things out.

I was in and out of the kitchen to see where I could help out the most for the next little bit. When I reentered the ballroom, I was shocked to see Sunny talking to Topher Crawley. What was she doing here? Her in-laws had to be friends with the Wainscotts. I could see them being part of the same social circle.

She seemed to notice me at the same time, and her face became more animated. She kept pointing at me and smiling, but Topher Crawley’s expression fell the longer she went on.

What was that about?

It was weird seeing her here, like different parts of my life were all converging at this one party.

Too bad Max wasn’t here, too.

Then ten seconds later, I saw him. Like I’d somehow personally conjured him up. And he was Tuxedo Max again. I internally swooned at the sight of him. It was a good thing there were five hundred other people at this party. He was drinking a glass of champagne, his free hand in his pocket. He looked bored and annoyed.

I walked over to him, barely able to contain my glee at seeing him. “Max?”

“Everly?”

And the sound of utter shock in his voice made me think that he wasn’t quite as happy to see me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Working. What are you doing here? Did Vella tell you where I was?” Had he come looking for me? Because he couldn’t wait another sixteen hours to see me again? That was sweet.

But his body language and panicked expression told me that he hadn’t been searching for me. He was surprised that I was here.

“Your company is not in charge of this party.” He made it sound like he had specifically checked.

“No, the ambassador used Melissa Morgan Events as the planner. And Melissa Morgan is a friend of Claudia’s and asked us to help out because it had so many moving parts that needed to be taken care of. You met Claudia, remember?”

The panic on his face got worse.

“What is going on with you?” I asked. Hadn’t he just told me yesterday that he wanted us to be better about communicating, not shutting down when something happened?

“We need to go somewhere so that we can talk,” he said, and the urgency in his voice made me want to dig my heels in and stay put. He was hiding something from me and I didn’t like it.

Before I could say as much, Sunny was there hugging me hello, and somehow Max appeared even more freaked out.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, sounding delighted to see me.

“I’m working this event.”

“Well, what a coincidence! Max didn’t mention that you were hired to work his dad’s party.”

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