“Just have a party,” Armand said. “Good music, good food, drinks, they’ll do the rest.”
“Maybe I will,” Hailey said. She worried her lower lip. But where was she going to find at least six single men to bring to a party?
Duh. Mad. She crossed to where Mad was getting the rollers out of her hair. She looked cute, the springy curls popping up all over her head like a woman from the fifties. All she needed was a cute kerchief or headband to complete the look. Maybe a sparkly butterfly barrette.
“So cute!” Hailey exclaimed.
Mad pouted. “I look like I stuck my finger in the socket.”
Tara, her stylist, looked miffed. “I’m not done yet.”
“Oh,” Mad said. “That’s good.”
Tara went to work with a blow-dryer, bringing more body to Mad’s hair. Hailey watched as Mad transformed from tough and spiky to soft and feminine. With the right makeup, and if Mad would stop curling her lip—
“What?” Mad barked, making Hailey jump. “Why are you just standing there? Don’t you have makeup to put on or something?”
Hailey smiled, all teeth, from her pageant training. As soon as Tara switched from the hair dryer to conditioning mousse, Hailey got right to the point.
“How many guy friends do you have? Besides the guys I met at basketball.” Mad had already informed her those guys weren’t the marrying type.
Mad quirked her lips to the side, looking at the ceiling. “I dunno. I never counted.”
“There’s that many?” Hailey asked, new hope for her wedding planning business blooming. So many love matches! All of her friends would find their happy-ever-afters!
Mad listed them all. “The basketball crew, the guys I play softball with, the guys at the dojo. Twenty, twenty-five guys.”
“You have twenty-five guy friends?” Hailey exclaimed in a near shout.
“It’s no big. Just guys I hang with. We’re not telling each other deep dark secrets. We just do stuff together.”
“Have you ever…”
“What?”
Hailey lowered her voice. “You know, dated any of them?”
Tara stopped doing Mad’s hair and quirked a brow.
Mad flushed. “I told you, it’s not like that. We hang out.”
“You like?” Tara asked, gesturing for Mad to look in the mirror.
Mad stared at herself for a long moment before finally saying, “Doesn’t look like me but whatever.”
“It looks like your best you,” Hailey said. “We’re doing makeup for her too,” she told Tara.
Mad frowned.
“Can I ask you a question?” Hailey asked while Tara pulled out the makeup case.
“What?” Mad asked.
“With any of those guy friends, did you ever feel—”
“No!” Mad snapped. She raised her voice above the din of the salon. “Can someone take Hailey? She won’t stop bugging me about my guy friends.”
Hailey huffed. “Really, Mad, your manners could use work.”
“We can’t all be beauty queens.”
“You’d never make it at a pageant,” Hailey muttered.
“Ooh, burn,” Mad said, shaking her fingers and blowing on them like she was cooling them off.
Hailey made the rounds, quietly inquiring on the male friend situation, only to find, disappointingly, that Mad was the only one with any guy friends at all. She had high hopes for her Happy Endings Book Club friends. Not just for business purposes. She was a romantic, and she wanted someone princely to sweep them off their feet. But where to find a prince?
After they finished with hair, makeup, and nails, they hopped in a waiting limo to a soundstage in Queens where the corporate party was being filmed. Ever since she’d become friends with Claire, she’d had numerous limo rides. It still didn’t get old. She felt giddy and excited every time. There was even champagne chilling for them.
“Yes!” Mad said. “I could use a drink to take the edge off. That salon was stressful.”
Hailey found salons relaxing. Someone else doing all the work of making her pretty while she just lounged in a chair. Mad looked gorgeous. She’d never realized how delicate her features were until she wore her hair like that, the soft halo of loose curls framed delicate cheekbones, doe-brown eyes, a small upturned nose, and cute little chin. She wore a black pants suit, though Hailey had tried to lend her a dress. Hailey had wanted to do a full head-to-toe shopping trip when she’d heard about the sad state of Mad’s wardrobe, but Mad had shut that down with a quick, “Nah. Pants suit is fine.”
“It was worth the effort,” Hailey told Mad. “You look gorgeous.”