Maddy glanced down, expecting something pointless, a group chat notification, or her mum asking something about the wedding. Instead, she saw her email app slide a notification across the screen.
And a name. Eva Givens.
It was like someone had slapped her.
Maddy stared at it, her thumb hovering above the screen, feeling her face grow unpleasantly hot. Should she open it? Of course. Eva was her wedding planner. It might be something about her wedding to the person who was, without a doubt, the love of her life. She had to.
The email was exactly what it should have been.
Hi Maddy,
Just confirming final details for the day…
There was no mention of anything else. No reference to the hen night. It was all timelines and suppliers and seating arrangements, written in that same capable tone Eva always used when she was working. It was completely, utterly normal.
So why did Maddy feel sick?
Because just seeing Eva’s name had done something to her. Lightning had hit her, a lightning she was starting to recognise, to connect to Eva Givens.
It was ridiculous. It was an email.
Maybe she was just scared Adam would find out? Maybe that’s why she was so… But, find out about what? He wouldn’t care because it didn’t matter. It was one, two seconds? You could kiss yourunclefor that long. Well, maybe not quite your uncle, but a good friend. A close friend. On the lips for two seconds. It could happen. Adam could have seen it with his own two eyes and given no shits. It was that inconsequential.
Maddy scrolled through it, forcing herself to focus on the words. The logistics of a day she had spent months planning, a day that was now only weeks away from actually happening.
This was real. This was what mattered. She was nodding to herself, feeling okay.
Until her brain played the moment back for her.
It wasn’t even a rerun of the kiss. Just the feeling of being under that table. Of the way Eva had looked at her, and the way she had looked back. The crackle of energy shooting back and forth between the eyes of Eva Givens and Maddy Kind.
Maddy locked her phone and lowered it slowly, her grip tightening slightly around it. Nope. Still fine. C minus.
‘I’m back.’
Maddy flinched slightly at the voice, looking up to find Adam back at her side again.
‘Hi,’ she said. She forced a smile. ‘Just had an email about wedding stuff. Final details.’
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Anything I need to…’
‘Nope. Just confirming things we’ve already decided.’
He leaned against the bar beside her, nudging her lightly. ‘Couple more weeks, and you’ll be stuck with me.’
Maddy let out a soft laugh. ‘Oh, god, imagine.’
‘You love it.’
‘I do,’ she said, because she did. In the way she understood love. As a choice. As work. She knew who Adam was, to his core. She had put in the time to know him, to build their life together.
Anything else was a trick of the light.
Adam grinned, satisfied with that answer, and launched into a summary of whatever conversation he’d just escaped from. Maddy nodded in the right places, smiled when she was supposed to, and let his voice fill the space.
Maddy took another sip of her wine and focused very carefully on Adam’s voice. This was what was real.
Whatever that feeling had been with Eva, that lightning strike, it wasn’tlife. It couldn’t be.
