“Poor woman? Poor Ben! I worked on the seventh floor! That was a lot of stairs to climb up and down if I wanted to run out to grab coffee.”

Theo finished his drink, still laughing.

“Anyway, no, I don’t want to date your coworker. Things are complicated enough in my life right now as it is.”

Ben’s head snapped toward him.

“Complicated how? Other than work, I mean. There’s more to life than work, Theodore. Like, what were you doing last Friday night? At home getting work done, I bet.”

Last Friday night flashed through Theo’s head. That had been when Maddie had come over to celebrate getting a preliminary interview. She hadn’t left until a very good start to the next morning. He couldn’t keep the smirk off his face.

“Wait just a minute.” Ben pointed at him, his mouth wide open. “WAIT a minute. What is that look? Who is it? Why are you keeping this from your little brother?”

Theo knew he shouldn’t tell Ben. He would never be able to keep this to himself.

“No one. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ben poked him in the chest.

“Stop lying to me. You know I know you’re lying. Tell me. Who is she? Where did you meet her? Why didn’t you tell me before when I was going on and on about Caitlin?”

Theo knew he should hold out, but a) he’d had too much bourbon at this point, and b) he was honestly dying to tell someone.

“Okay, fine, but you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

Ben looked at him sideways.

“Why? Why is it such a secret? Is she famous or something?”

Theo shook his head.

“Just promise.”

Ben shrugged impatiently.

“Fine, fine, I promise, now tell me.”

Theo grinned.

“It’s Maddie. Alexa’s friend. You met her at my birthday party last year.”

Ben slammed his hand down on the bar. Everyone turned to stare, of course.

“The hot one? That Maddie? The one who I tried to get to go out with me and who was so mean when she blew me off it made her even hotter? That Maddie?”

Why did his brother have to be like this? Theo put his head in his hands.

Ben poked him in the side.

“Seriously. That Maddie?”

Theo nodded and sat up.

“Yes, that Maddie, but can you please shut the fuck up about it? It’s a secret, and I clearly never should have told you, but now that you know, can you just pretend that you don’t and we can both move on?”

Ben shook his head silently.

“Wow. I’m impressed.” He grinned at Theo and took the cherry out of his drink. “But wait. Why is it a secret?”

Theo shrugged.

“Neither of us wants Alexa to know; it would make everything even more complicated. You know how Alexa is; she’d be thrilled, which would make it really awkward when this thing eventually blows up. Maddie doesn’t even like me, so the whole thing won’t last that long, but . . .” But the sex was great, so he didn’t care.

Ben snapped his head around.

“No, don’t stop talking. You were about to say something interesting there.”

Theo grinned and waved at the bartender for another drink.

An hour and a half later, Theo felt his phone buzz in his pocket as he walked out of the BART station in Berkeley.

You home? I had a very annoying day. Can we sit on your couch and make fun of all of the people on house hunters and then take our clothes off?

Oh thank God. He texted Maddie back.

Absolutely. Walking home from BART now, should be home in ten min. I also had an annoying day, and I’ll warn you, was just in sf drinking with my annoying little brother, so I’m drunk and hungry and ready to do all those things

I’ll pick up pizza on the way. Be there in 30 min

Well, this was turning out to be a much better Friday night than he’d anticipated.

Thursday night, Maddie was right at the beginning of her nightly dish-washing routine when her phone rang. Washing her dishes every night was the only real habit she’d ever managed to keep on the housekeeping front. And it was only because a few years before, her cousin had bet her that she couldn’t wash her dishes every day for a month. Out of sheer competitiveness, Maddie had done it, and the habit had stuck.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and hit speaker.

“Hey, Mom. You’re on speaker. I’m washing dishes.”

“Hey, girl,” her mom said. “Why are you always washing dishes when I call you?”

Maddie scrubbed out her coffeepot and set it upside down on her dish drainer.

“Because you always call me when I’m washing dishes! How was your day?”

Her mom laughed.

“Oh my God. Did I tell you about all the dick pics?”

Well, that was something she didn’t expect to hear from her mom.

“Um, NO. Who is . . .”

Her mom laughed harder.

“No, no, not to me. Some jerk was sending unsolicited dick pics to one of the patients.” Her mom was a social worker at a local hospital. “She asked me for advice, and I told her to just block his number, but her friend had a better idea, and they spent like twenty minutes finding other, and um . . . much bigger pictures on the Internet, and then texted all of them to him. Maddie, I had to go into the hallway, I was laughing so hard.”

Maddie and her mom both went off into peals of laughter. Maddie had forever been impressed that her mom almost always managed to find something humorous in her difficult job. She’d gone to school at night to get her social work degree when Maddie was growing up, and had been doing this work for almost twenty years now. At this point, nothing could faze her.

“What happened next? Did he text her back?”

Her mom was still chuckling.

“Yes! He said ‘Why would I want to see all of that?’ And then she said, ‘Why would I want to see your little thing?’ And then she blocked him. It was amazing.”

Maddie described her relationship with her mom by saying they were like the black versions of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, except without the rich Gilmores to fall back on. Granted, her mom hadn’t been as young as Lorelai when she’d had Maddie, but the single mom–only child bond thing was still very accurate. Vivian had worked hard all of Maddie’s life to make sure she had every possible opportunity.

“How was your day?” her mom asked once they’d stopped laughing. “Any fun clients? Didn’t you have that chef today?”

“Yeah, the chef was today. She was great. Super nervous at first, but she ended up really liking the stuff I found for her for the photo shoot.” Maddie turned off the water and dried her hands. “So the station manager called today again about that TV show.”

Her mom cheered.

“Yes! What did he say? Are they ready to hire you immediately? I knew this job would be perfect for you. It’s like they came up with it with you in mind! When I think about all the ways you helped me prepare for job interviews when you were just a teenager, it still amazes me. You learned to sew and everything! You’ll be so good at this.”

Her mom had been Maddie’s first styling client, sort of. She’d been turned down for a string of secretary jobs while Maddie was in middle school, and Maddie had told her mom it was because her clothes were all old and ugly. She still felt terrible about how awful she’d been to her mom as a teenager. But eventually Maddie’d gotten her head out of her ass and helped her mom find new interview outfits she could afford.

Her mom got the next job she interviewed for.

“Slow down, they haven’t even seen me in person yet!” Maddie said. “I’m going in next week to talk to him, but he made it clear that this is the first round of a long process. He did tell me more about the job—they want it to be an afternoon show, one of the ones that come on between when the soaps end and the news begins. I think they’re still figuring out some stuff about it, but Maya sang my praises, so he seemed excited to talk to me.”

Maddie had been excited to talk to him, too, though she had played it cool. She was trying hard not to get her hopes up, but that was hard with the way her mom talked about this job like it was already hers.

“I can’t wait! My baby is going to be on TV. I’m going to tell the whole world to watch your show. Just think of how much the women will learn from you! People need someone like you to help get them where they want to go; clothes are so important, even though everyone tries to pretend they’re not.”

Maddie shook her head and dried off the inside of the coffeepot so it would be ready for the next morning.

“Slow down, Mom. Not that I don’t agree with you, but I haven’t even met with them yet. I’ll keep you posted, though.”

“Mmmhmm.” Maddie knew her mom hadn’t paid attention to a single word she’d said. The fantasy of her daughter on television—even just local television—would sustain her for weeks. “What about boys? Anybody I need to know about?”