Page 35 of Party Favors

She nodded. “Yes.”

My grandmother had found an article about how to divide up potential friends and mates and had taught it to me like gospel. She said that men were easy to put into categories. The first question to ask was whether or not you would have two drinks with him. The second was if you would let them babysit your puppy for a couple of days.

A man who was no to both was a person to stay completely away from.

Someone who was a yes and a no might be good for a fun time, but you should probably steer clear, as you didn’t need people you couldn’t trust in your life.

A no and a yes was someone who wasn’t very fun and, while responsible, probably wouldn’t make for a good long-term relationship.

I was supposed to be searching for a man who was a yes to both questions. Someone I could talk to, someone I would trust, someone who was a lot of fun but who took their responsibilities and me seriously.

Max was someone I would want to get two drinks with, and I would leave a puppy with him for any length of time.

Vella didn’t ask me how I rated him on that scale. Given the smug look on her face, it seemed like she could already tell what my answer was.

She let me off the hook, though, and instead asked, “Did you google him yet?”

“No. Why would I?”

Her mouth went wide in disbelief. “I looked up my barista this morning and the UPS guy who delivered packages today at the office because you never know. And I’m not interested in dating either one of them. What’s Max’s last name?”

I probably shouldn’t have told her, but I said, “Colby.”

She got her phone out and started furiously typing. “I’m ... not finding anything. As far as I can tell, he has no social media presence whatsoever. I am both impressed and disturbed.”

That was weird. Not a picture or anything?

I got my own phone out and tried spelling Colby several different ways, just to make sure. She was right. Nothing.

“Maybe he just really values his privacy?” But even as I said it, I knew that couldn’t be the case, given that his phone didn’t have any security on it. I briefly considered the option that he might be an international spy or something and had to hide his true identity, but again, his phone would have had a password.

She asked, “You said he dated around a lot? Shouldn’t one of those women have posted a picture of him? What about a more serious relationship? A girlfriend?”

“He said he had a serious girlfriend for a long time but that she cheated on him,” I responded. “Which implies that there is a man out there hotter than Max Colby, and I’m not sure I can accept such a mythological thing as being a possibility.”

“Max is a mythological creature,” she said as she finished off the last of her cookie dough. “I don’t know what to tell you. You should definitely ask him about it, though, because I would like to get totally off the grid, too. Anyway, I’m going to bed. Have fun with your unicorn when he calls you.”

She padded off, stopping in the kitchen to throw away the wrapper before going to her room.

I thought about what she’d said—that Max had done this deliberately because he wanted to see me again. And I just couldn’t reconcile that with how the evening had gone. Wouldn’t he have said something if that were true?

Then a truly horrible thought occurred to me.

If Vella was wrong and his actions hadn’t been intentional ... when he got back to his apartment and realized that I had his coat and his phone, what if he thoughtI’ddone it deliberately?

That I had kept his things on purpose so I could see him again?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I’d stayed up way too late working on a mood board for Hyacinth’s birthday party. It was so easy to assemble my ideas, as I knew exactly how I wanted things to look, but I needed to run everything past Claudia before I presented it to Hyacinth and Marie. I had a chef/caterer in mind who specialized in delicious Italian dishes and a baker who made the most incredible cakes; I knew both were more than capable of filling in last minute. For a substantial fee, of course.

Because it had been a few years since I’d been a teenager, I went online to do research for what Hyacinth might enjoy.

It occurred to me that Nico’s youngest sister, Princess Serafina, was close in age to Hyacinth, so I looked up some of the princess’s interests. Her favorite American band just happened to be a local one called Silver Cup. I made a note to get in touch with their manager in the morning. If they had availability, they would be perfect for the event.

Staying up most of the night meant that when my phone rang at seven o’clock in the morning, I was completely out of it.

“Hello?” I mumbled.

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