Page 55 of Party Favors

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The next day, Max texted me.

Thanks so much for yesterday. I had a great time.

I debated on how to respond to him. When Vella texted, I would usually answer right away. But if I replied immediately, he might think that I had no life. Which I didn’t, but I preferred he not know that. If I waited, then maybe he would believe I couldn’t text back because I was oh-so-busy.

I spent so long struggling with what to do that not choosing became the choice. I didn’t respond for three hours. And I settled on:

You’re welcome.

Super profound and eloquent. I wondered whether I should thank him, too, but he might read too much into that. This was better.

Maybe.

I didn’t know.

That made me sigh very loudly because one of the reasons I’d said “just friends” was to avoid situations exactly like this one. I didn’t want to play games with Max. Not only because I was bad at it and didn’t know or understand any of the rules, but because I wanted to hang outwith him and have fun without wondering if I was sending out weird and/or mixed signals.

Or obsessing over what it would be like to kiss him.

Because I had come to the conclusion that he would be very, very good at it. Vella shared my opinion and offered to find out for sure.

Max sent me links to Sunny’s social media accounts and I spent a long time poring over them. This always made me feel slightly stalker-y, but it was really helpful.

Sunny was a second-grade teacher and loved her job. Her Instagram feed was full of bright and fun pictures, most of them with her cute husband. She seemed to embody her name, grinning and bubbly in every photo. Her wedding surprised me—there was a sharp contrast to her other pictures. Her reception was refined, elegant ... uptight and stuffy. It wasn’t what I would have chosen for her. I wondered how much of an influence her in-laws had played in those decisions.

Because Sunny was the opposite of straitlaced. There was a picture of her doing a keg stand on her honeymoon.

I scrolled down and time came to a complete stop. The earth no longer rotated on its axis. The sun faded out of existence.

There was a picture of Sunny with Max at her reception.

He was in a suit.

“Wow,” I breathed. He looked supernaturally good all the time, but in a suit?

The world was not ready for that.

I had to close down the tabs I had open so that I didn’t comb her accounts for more pictures of him. I had what I needed, and despite suited Max distracting me, I had enough to create my plan. I didn’t even bother with a backup because I was pretty sure the theme I had settled on was going to appeal to her.

It might not be what her stuffy in-laws would have chosen, but this was Sunny’s baby shower, and I was going to make sure she would have exactly what she wanted.

Monday morning was unbelievably busy. I had worn one of my new Copy-Kat dresses and it made me feel like I could do anything. Claudia started the day off with a mandatory meeting for the entire staff, which included a grumbling Vella, who wasn’t fully awake yet.

When everyone was seated, Claudia stood up. “Thank you all for coming.”

“Some of us didn’t have a choice,” Vella muttered, and I shushed her.

“I’ve started working my connections and have set up several meetings this week with new potential clients, mostly individuals with private events,” Claudia said. “I will be sending around a link to an in-house document with all of the pertinent information so that we can start preparing our pitches.”

This flew directly in the face of what Adrian wanted for Elevated. I knew it would make him mad, and part of me wondered whether or not I should contact him. But he was the one who’d run off to Europe and left Claudia hanging.

If he hadn’t wanted this to happen, he should have stayed here and done his job.

Again, that feeling of disloyalty made me uncomfortable. It didn’t help matters that I was on Claudia’s side. I thought it was a good idea to find new clientele because it would help our company to grow.

“And along those lines, I was contacted this weekend by a former colleague of mine. She is currently organizing an event that she would like us to assist on. Ambassador Preston Wainscott and his wife, Fiona, are celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary. This will be the social event of the year, and my former colleague reached out because she needs help, as she’s had some issues with her vendors. This will be an excellent place to showcase our capabilities and find new clients. I wanted to pitch for this event when I first heard of it, but ...” Her voice trailed off and we all knew what she meant but didn’t say.

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