My Super-Hot Fake Wedding Date

“I don’t think there are any male prostitutes in Boston.” I wrinkled my nose. I couldn’t believe I was actually having this conversation. “I think I’d have to go to New York for that.”

“I actually know an agency if you’re interested.” He chuckled. “It has a funny name, even—AccommoDating. Get it?”

“Um, yeah. Super funny. Ha ha.” I scowled at him. “But how on earth do you know an agency? You’re married!”

“I have a friend who needed a date for a family wedding. You know. He needed a woman.”

“Ah.” All of Marc’s friends were gay. They were also handsome, wealthy, and incredibly stylish. They didn’t kill their houseplants. They voted. They were perfect. Josie and I often moaned about not being able to find straight men like Marc and his friends, and yes, that was a stereotype, but it was also true.

You try living in Boston and being a female CEO who works upward of eighty hours a week! Tell me who you meet!

“I’ll think about it. I have to finish this budget.”

Marc nodded, and I sank back into my seat.

I was so screwed. I was never going to find a date.

Chapter Two

MADISON

Week Of The Wedding From Hell: Monday

Fuuuuuuuck.

WEEK OF THE WEDDING FROM HELL: TUESDAY

Fuuuuuuck meeeeeeee.

WEEK OF THE WEDDING FROM HELL: WEDNESDAY

Do I have strep throat?

Cough, cough.

Or the flu?

I felt my forehead. It felt perfectly fine, unlike the rest of me.

I checked my phone and found twenty-seven texts from Josie, twelve from my mother, three from my cousin Claire, not the cousin married to Dean Smith. Claire was my other best friend. I was looking forward to hanging out with her over the weekend. That was literally the only thing I was looking forward to.

I was headed to my parents’ house on Nantucket first thing the next morning to help prepare for the rehearsal dinner. Sienna and her other bridesmaids had already been on the island all week, getting facials and massages and preparing for the big day. Sienna had twelve bridesmaids—me, my cousin Claire, and ten of her sorority sisters from Delta Chi Phi Delta. Claire and I literally had nothing in common with Sienna and her sorority sisters, but my mother had insisted that we be included. She’d asked Claire mostly because it would make my pretty cousin who’d married Dean Smith feel snubbed.

Maybe I would get struck by lightning on the way there. That would solve everything!

I was supposed to bring my boyfriend. Everyone was expecting a plus-one. But I’d been to a bar, I’d been to a Thirty Under Thirty luncheon for young entrepreneurs, even though I’d aged out, and I’d trolled LinkedIn. Marc had given me the business card for the escort agency. All I had to show for any of it was a pounding headache.

I left work early to go home and pack. Josie called me on my way. “So?” Her voice boomed through my Bluetooth speaker. “Did you tell your mom yet?”

“No.” I sighed and rolled to a stop. The traffic getting to Beacon Hill was insane for that time of day. “Do you think she’ll notice if I just show up alone?”

“Why didn’t you tell her? You said you were going to.”

“I talked to her last night, but only for a minute. It didn’t come up.”

“You mean, the words just didn’t come out of your mouth.” Josie groaned. “You’re making this harder than it has to be. Just send her a text. Tell her your boyfriend got the flu, or he has to crunch for his new technology launch, or whatever.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking about it.” I got off the exit for the Boston Common and sat in more traffic. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining through the trees. In mid-October, the fall foliage was just beginning to peak. A riot of orange, red, and yellow lined the park. The green grass looked so pretty next to all that color. I wished I could grab a sandwich and an iced tea and just sit in the park for the rest of the day. Then I’d go home, have a glass of wine, watch Grey’s Anatomy, and get up and go to work again. I w