“Even though you thought this would have been vastly improved by the addition of roasted garlic?”

He took the jar of red pepper flakes from her and sprinkled them on his own slice.

“It would have been vastly improved by the addition of roasted garlic, but that’s not the point.”

She shook her head but didn’t argue. She was starting to like roasted garlic on everything now—not that she’d ever tell Theo that.

But when he reached for his pizza, she pushed his plate to the other side of the coffee table.

“Why is that shirt still on? You can’t eat pizza wearing that. You’ll get grease all over it!”

He blushed and dropped his hands to his knees.

“Oh. I’ve never been here before; I didn’t want to act like I could just walk into your house and start throwing my clothes off.”

Maddie started to roll her eyes, and then she realized he was serious. That was unexpectedly charming.

“Theo. I’ve walked into your house and thrown my clothes off numerous times. It’s your turn to return the favor.”

He grinned and unbuttoned his shirt.

“Well, if you put it that way.”

She waited until he’d taken off the shirt and carefully draped it over the back of the couch.

“Plus, I love that shirt. It would be a travesty for it to get ruined by my favorite pizza toppings.”

He looked down at his pale blue T-shirt and then back up at her with an injured look on his face.

“What, you don’t like my T-shirt? You don’t care if I get pepperoni grease all over it? Its feelings are hurt.”

She pushed his plate closer to him and he picked up his pizza.

“It’s going to have to get over those hurt feelings. Or it can choose to make you drape a bunch of napkins over it before you eat. The shirt can call me a snob all it wants, but it’s from Target, and your other shirt is Paul Smith. I know which one is easier to buy again.”

He put his arm around her and leaned back against the couch, pulling her with him.

“I got it on sale. A city salary doesn’t usually extend to Paul Smith. I was going to ask how you knew where my shirts come from, but then I realized it’s your job to know. Though I’m impressed that you know men’s brands, too.”

She relaxed against his chest. Even though she’d been freaked out when he’d called, it was sort of nice to have him here on her couch, for once. Just as long as he didn’t open any drawers. God only knew what would fly out at him.

“Only some of them, but I’m learning more. I have some clients who have more of a masculine style of dressing, so I’ve been trying to learn a lot more about menswear over the past few years. I’ve found them some great stuff.”

He reached for the glass of wine she’d poured him and took a big swallow.

“That’s awesome. Do you ever think you’ll start to work with men, too? I bet lots of men around here could use you; you know what terrible dressers they are.”

Maddie never would have guessed a year ago that the Theo who thought she couldn’t rub two brain cells together would be sitting here on her couch giving her compliments. Or that she’d be sitting next to him, in the circle of his arm, pouring him more wine. Maddie of a year ago—hell, Maddie of a few months ago—would die laughing if someone told her this.

Alexa of present day would simply die if someone told her this. Maddie wished she could tell Alexa just to see the look on her face.

She wasn’t going to. But still.

“Oh, plenty of men around here need to hire me—that part is true. But I’m still trying to really establish myself. I don’t want to dilute my brand too much in the beginning. Plus, I don’t like to do something unless I can really throw myself into it; I would need to know a lot more about menswear to start that. And also, I really like working with women . . . I’m not sure the same would be true for men.”

He laughed and pushed the hair away from her face.

“You’re probably right about that.”

He inhaled a second piece of pizza and flopped back against the couch.

“You want another slice?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“In a minute, but please, don’t get up and get it for me. I barged in on you here tonight. I refuse to let you keep being so nice to me.”

She shrugged.

“I heard you had a bad day, so I thought you deserved a little something, but don’t worry, I won’t let it happen again.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“What do you mean, you heard I had a bad day? Outside of what I told you, you mean?” She looked down at her pizza. Shit, he wasn’t supposed to know she already knew about that. “Oh Lord, you heard about the Twitter thing? You don’t even pay attention to local politics. If you heard about it, the entire world must have!” He dropped his head into his hands.

She patted him on the head.

“No, really, that’s not it. I saw it accidentally, just because I follow Alexa on Twitter, and I had some downtime this afternoon and was clicking around, and . . .”

That was a lie. That wasn’t how she knew. She’d started following a bunch of local news reporters on Twitter in the past month, just so she would know what he meant when he talked about work.

“I’m so mad at myself. I never do shit like that, but this guy has had it in for me for a long time, and I finally snapped. The mayor just laughed it off, but I still don’t know if he was serious about that. What a nightmare. No wonder I was so distracted that I left my keys at work.”

Maddie ran her fingernails over his short hair, again and again. He closed his eyes.

“That feels nice. You shouldn’t reward me for being a jackass.”

She pushed his head into her lap.

“You weren’t a jackass, you were just pushed to the brink, that’s all. I’ve been there. I don’t blame you.”

The weird thing was that if this had happened just a few months ago, she would have laughed at smug, mansplaining, know-it-all Theo being publicly humiliated. Now she just felt bad for him.

He swung his legs up onto the other end of the couch.

“That makes one of us, at least. I never should have let that guy bait me in the first place, but I’m just so fucking sick of guys like that thinking I don’t know what I’m talking about.” He sighed. “The problem is, people like me can’t get away with blowing their fuse at work. Ever. One false move and it could all come tumbling down. I know I have to work twice as hard and be twice as good, but sometimes that just really gets to me.”

She could relate.

“I get it. Sometimes it really gets to me, too. But don’t you think you have enough credit with your boss by this point that he won’t fire you for popping off at a reporter one time?”

He shrugged.

“I mean, I hope so. But I’m always paranoid about stuff like this.” He sat up. “My brother thinks I’m neurotic about everything because . . .” He shook his head. “Well, for a lot of reasons we don’t need to get into. But I’ve been like this for a long time now. I always feel like I can’t take a step out of line.”

She and Theo were very different people, but she really got how he felt.

“Yeah. Other people get the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong or when they have an off day, but we never do.”

He looked up at her and nodded.

“Yeah, exactly. Sometimes we just have to explode, you know?”

That part, she was good at.

“Oh, I know.” They grinned at each other.

“That’s one of the reasons I got into this kind of work: we have to prove ourselves over and over and over again, and maybe you think it’s stupid, but the clothes you’re wearing while you prove yourself matter. I know you’re going to say they shouldn’t matter, it should all be about abilities and qualifications, et cetera, but that’s not how it is, especially for women of color, and we have to work with the world we live in.”

He shook his head.

“I don’t think it’s stupid, and I wasn’t going to say that. I totally agree with you. You see what I wear to work every day. I know this stuff matters.” He looked down. “You know, Maddie, I’ve been meaning to . . . I don’t think your work is silly or frivolous or any of those things. That first time we met . . .” He let out a breath. “I mean, speaking of a time I was a jackass. Before that I didn’t know stylists even existed, so I didn’t understand what you meant. I know I asked you about it in the worst way possible. But I don’t want you to think that I ever thought—or think now—that the work you do is somehow less than.”

Oh. Wow. That was something she’d never expected to hear from Theo Stephens.

She squeezed his hand.

“Thanks for saying that. I really appreciate it.”

He squeezed back.

“Sorry it took me so long to say it, and that I had to have a very public humiliation that reminded me how insufferable I can be first. I guess that’s why I waited years to say it; I was so pissed at how true what you said about me was.”

She opened her mouth to deny that. The weird thing was, she didn’t think it was true anymore. Though . . . it had felt pretty true at the time. She bit her lip, and he laughed at her.

“See? You were about to try to make me feel better, but you couldn’t lie to me.”