Pete groaned, dragging her hands down her face. “Six weeks before our wedding.”
Maggie’s stomach pitched. She thought about the logistics immediately — flight refunds, hotel refunds, travel plans already paid for, vendor deposits that would be a nightmare to recover. The ripple effect of it all pressed in on her chest, the kind of adult chaos that couldn’t be fixed with a laugh. It was money, time, expectation — an avalanche of headaches disguised as one flat sentence.
“Fuck,” she said, wrapping an arm around Danica’s shoulders. “Do you need listening or problem-solving?”
“Just comfort for now,” Danica said, burrowing her face into Maggie’s shoulder. Pete caught Maggie’s eye and looked so miserable that Maggie reached out to set a hand on her shoulder, too.
The suite stilled for a moment, and Maggie was selfishly grateful to be holding two of her friends while her own heart was aching as well.
Her gaze drifted to Izzy and Kiera, who were glowing with a dangerous kind of glee. Definitely not the mood of the moment. “Why do you two look like you just committed a felony?”
Kiera went crimson, lips twitching. Izzy leaned back, smug as a cat. “Nothing.”
Pete’s head snapped up. “Wait, that does not answer the question.”
Danica sniffled and let Maggie keep an arm around her shoulder as she glanced toward Izzy and Kiera.
“Now’s not the time,” Kiera whisper-scolded Izzy.
“You set a date,” Danica announced, all of her bad mood thrown off like a blanket. “You picked a date for your wedding?”
They both nodded, positively beaming.
A flurry of excited yelling erupted from the couch and then all five of them were on their feet, hugging and yelling and gushing over the emerald-cut sparkle on Kiera’s finger.
“When?” Pete asked, hugging Izzy so fiercely her feet were lifting off the ground.
“Last night.” Kiera glanced toward Izzy.
“Immediately after Kiera went down on me,” Izzy announced.
Kiera yelped, smacking her arm. “Oh my god, Izzy. You cannot tell people that part.”
“I think it adds important context,” Izzy said serenely.
“No, what’s the date you chose?” Danica said, shaking her head.
The group erupted — shrieks, cackles, embarrassed and amused giggles until the tension broke like a dam. Izzy and Kiera pulled up their phone calendars and pointed to a July date nearly two years in the future. Everyone was teasing and laughing and celebrating, and Maggie felt it bubbling up inside her too, the absurdity of it all — the lost venue, her own mess with Gwen, and now this. She doubled over, wheezing.
And before she could stop herself, she blurted, “And I had sex with my ex-wife last night.”
The laughter screeched to a halt.
Pete froze, mouth open. Danica’s hand moved to her chest like she was reaching for pearls to clutch. Kiera blinkedrapidly. Izzy’s eyebrows looked as though they might raise right into her hairline.
“What?” Maggie demanded, defensive now. “Don’t look at me like that.”
But instead of shock, Pete just gave a low whistle. “I think that means you three owe me ten dollars each.”
Danica pressed her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose. “Pete…”
Izzy shook her head. “No way, last night wasmybet. I won.”
Maggie frowned. “Wait. What are we betting on?”
“When you and Gwen were going to get over your own egos and just admit that you’re too in love to separate,” Kiera explained, holding up her hands like Maggie was holding a weapon. “I didn’t bet, but we were all pretty confident.”
“How did you know we were separated?” Maggie asked, her voice rising in confusion.
