Maddie drove over to Alexa’s house with a bottle of wine in her purse. It was two weeks and a day before the wedding, and Alexa had called her in a panic twenty minutes ago. She was pretty sure Alexa was starting to lose it. Honestly, Maddie was impressed Alexa hadn’t lost it until now.

Hell, Maddie was starting to lose it, too. In two weeks she would have to see Theo again, be in close quarters with Theo again, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to handle it. She’d tried hard for the past week to pretend he didn’t exist, that the two of them had never existed, but she’d failed miserably at that. No matter how much she told herself they were doomed anyway, he’d never respected her, she’d been too good for him, none of it helped her feel better.

“Hey!” Alexa answered her front door with a glazed look in her eyes, her hair falling out of the messy bun on the top of her head, and what looked like red nail polish on her cheek.

“Hey,” Maddie said, as she looked her friend up and down. “What was it you needed help with?”

Alexa pulled her inside and shut the door.

“Thank God you’re here.”

Maddie followed her to the living room, which had tiny pots of paint, ribbons, and other weird objects strewn all over the floor. Was that a bowl full of dirt?

“Have you taken up . . . crafting?”

Alexa plopped down on the floor and motioned for her to follow.

“The better question is, why didn’t I take up crafting years ago? I’m trying to make our fucking wedding favors, because my mom says we have to have wedding favors, and I’ve already had one million fights with my mom about this stupid wedding, and I couldn’t even deal with fighting her about this, so I said yes, of course we’re having favors, I’ve already taken care of that, so now I have to take care of the fucking favors!!!”

Maddie slowly pulled the bottle of wine out of her purse and got up to get some wineglasses.

“Okay, so what are we making?”

Alexa picked up a tiny glass container and scooped some dirt into it with a spoon.

“Mom showed me a long time ago this thing in Martha Stewart Weddings about people giving terrariums as wedding favors, and she said it was so cute and you know how much I love Martha and how I still think about that amazing shawl she wore when she got out of jail, but OH MY GOD, I wish the woman never existed right about now, because I bought little things to put the dirt and the plants in, but the plants all look stupid and I think they’re dying and you need to help me, Maddie.”

Maddie took the half-made terrarium out of Alexa’s hand and put the full wineglass in its place.

“First, drink some of that.”

Alexa took a gulp of wine and closed her eyes while she swallowed.

“Okay, that’s a little better. Now what?”

Maddie took out her phone.

“Now I order us pizza. Pepperoni and black olive?”

Alexa nodded.

“Even better. Now what?”

Maddie picked up one of the glass whatchamacallits.

“Now let’s make some fucking terrariums.”

They sat there for the next hour, drinking wine, scooping dirt into tiny bowls, and decorating the dirt with tiny plants.

“Thank you so much for coming to help me, Mads. How are you feeling about the whole job thing? I’m still furious at them for not hiring you.”

Maddie grinned. Nothing like a ride or die friend.

“Oh, my client Maya is, too. She called me yelling the day she found out. I thought she was going to quit her job. Instead, I just got her to promise to do a seminar for the series I’m planning with that women’s organization you hooked me up with. I’m going to do styling sessions for women there twice a month, and we’re going to pull in other local women to help out and do events and give them job search advice.”

Alexa narrowed her eyes.

“You know I’m in, too, right?”

Maddie laughed.

“Obviously. That wasn’t even a question.” She took a sip of wine. “But really, I’m doing okay. I’m proud of my audition, I gave them the best of me, and if that’s not what they wanted, I wouldn’t have been happy doing the show anyway. But I’m really glad I had the opportunity; it helped me realize one of the things that was missing in my life. And I’m excited for this new plan.”

Alexa got up and brought back another bottle of wine.

“I am, too. And I’m really proud of you.”

They smiled at each other as they clinked glasses.

Maddie picked up one of her completed terrariums and turned it around to look at it from all sides.

“Lex, I have to tell you something.” She paused and looked up at Alexa. “I think we’re going to get a very bad grade on this science project.”

Alexa giggled.

“This is like old times, isn’t it?”

Maddie looked at her best friend, the joyful smile on her face just the same as the one the first day they’d met, and she couldn’t stop tears from coming to her eyes.

“It is just like old times. Oh, Lex”—her voice caught—“I’m going to miss you.”

Alexa pushed aside all the plant life on the floor and plopped down next to Maddie.

“What do you mean, you’re going to miss me? I’m not going anywhere! I’m not getting married and moving to Married People Land! I’m still going to be Alexa Monroe, I’ll still be right here, I’ll still be your best friend, husband or no husband!”

Maddie tried to stop her tears from falling, but there was no stopping them now.

“I know, but still, it’ll be different! I’m so happy for you, and I even think Drew is almost worthy of you, but it’s like when we graduated from high school and I didn’t know if we would be the same people when we saw each other again. What if you’re a different person after you get married?”

Maddie shook her head and wiped her eyes with the bottom of her shirt.

“Sorry, you’re trying to do these damn favors and I’m sitting here crying all over you. I’m just weirdly emotional this week.”

Alexa put her arm around Maddie.

“I am ALSO weirdly emotional this week. I almost sobbed over poor Theo when he came back to work on Monday.”

Theo was back at work already? That seemed too early, from all the reading she’d done.

“Oh, he’s back at work? Um, how’s he doing?” Maddie picked up her own wineglass and sipped the remainder slowly.

“A lot better. He’s far from a hundred percent, but he definitely looks better than he did the weekend after, when he looked depressed and was in a daze the whole time, and could barely put a sentence together.”

Theo had looked depressed and in a daze the weekend after? Huh.

“Yeah, I bet that weekend was really hard for him. But can he handle being back at work?”

Alexa nodded.

“He says he still has a constant headache, and he gets a lot of printouts of emails and memos in very large fonts now, but he said being at home got really boring, especially since he couldn’t read or watch TV. He still looks off, though.”

She really shouldn’t ask. She shouldn’t be having this conversation at all, actually.

“He looks off how?”

Alexa dropped a handful of succulent leaves in some dirt.

“Not sure. Just sad, I think.” Alexa shrugged. “Maybe I’m just imagining it. Or maybe it’s because he’s had a headache for over two weeks straight. I’d look depressed all the time if I’d had a headache for that long, too.”

There was a knock on the door, and Maddie jumped up.

“I bet that’s our pizza. I’ll get it.”

God, she wished she could talk to Alexa about Theo. But even if she’d been ready to tell Alexa the secret she’d been keeping from her for so long, she couldn’t tell her now, just weeks before her wedding, the one she and Theo were both in. She couldn’t throw chaos into the middle of her best friend’s wedding like that. She needed to get her mind away from Theo and back to Alexa.

Drew came home an hour later and found them sprawled on the floor with dirt everywhere.

“You’re home early!” Alexa jumped up and ran to kiss Drew. He dropped his bag on the floor and wrapped his arms around her. They were still so happy, so excited to greet each other, even when they’d just seen each other that morning. Maddie turned away from them with tears in her eyes. She wanted to be that happy.

Just a few weeks ago, when she’d walked into Theo’s apartment, he’d picked her up and spun her around until they’d fallen together on the couch and laughed so hard they could barely speak. She’d been that happy when she was with Theo.

She was in love with him. She’d been in love with him for weeks. Maybe even months.

She couldn’t believe she’d fallen in love with fucking Theo Stephens. This might be the stupidest thing she’d ever done in her life, and that included that time she’d worn a white romper to an outdoor festival. He was pompous and full of himself and constantly had a stick up his ass.

But he’d also talked her down from a crisis, wiped her tears when she’d cried both from joy and sorrow, laughed with her for hours, spent days working with parents to help them feel comfortable speaking at the rally, stopped to talk to every dog he saw, and taught her how to moonwalk.

She loved him, spreadsheets and all. She’d meant it when she’d said she loved him in the middle of the night. Part of her had known that all along.

Had he meant it when he said he loved her?