Chapter One
New York City
Present Day
There was an unopened box of Smith’s Sweets salted caramel chocolate chip cookies waiting for Noelle Lewis in her kitchen cabinet.
In the dimly lit bathroom of Galactic Karaoke in Koreatown, Manhattan, Noelle hastened to unravel what felt like a yard of toilet paper, and she handed it to her client, Sheree, who stood at the bathroom sink, crying tears of anger because her cousin was ruining the joint bachelor-bachelorette party for Sheree and her fiancé, Justin.
“I don’t know why she’s here,” Sheree grumbled, accepting the wad of toilet paper.
She swiped at the running mascara that now streaked her brown cheeks and looked at her reflection in the mirror.
She emitted a weary sigh and turned her tearstained face back to Noelle.
“Why bother showing up if you don’t even like me or my fiancé?
She’s drinking up all the liquor that she hasn’t lifted a finger to pay for, and she’s being a bitch to Justin’s friends, but she thinks she’s flirting.
Lord knows why I let my mom guilt me into choosing her as my maid of honor. ”
“They say that weddings bring out the worst in people,” Noelle said gently.
Secretly, Noelle had to admit that Sheree’s cousin Raven was a bit much.
Earlier at dinner when Sheree had introduced Noelle to the rest of the bridal party; her fiancé, Justin; and Justin’s friends, Raven had looked Noelle up and down with pursed lips like she’d just finished sucking on a sour straw.
And for the past twenty minutes, Raven had hogged the microphone and was currently making her way through Rihanna’s catalog.
Her off-key rendition of “Rude Boy” was terrible enough to make someone’s ears bleed.
It didn’t help that she insisted on attempting to dance like Rihanna while she sang. She needed to sit down, expeditiously.
But it wasn’t Noelle’s job to fan the flames of drama. She was here to smile and seamlessly adapt, all in an effort to make the bride’s life easier. It was why she’d pulled Sheree into the bathroom when she’d noticed her eyes brimming with tears.
“Listen, you don’t have to let Raven ruin your night,” Noelle said, taking Sheree by her shoulders and looking at her head-on.
“Think of the bigger picture! In a couple months, you’ll be married to the love of your life and living happily ever after.
One drunk cousin won’t ruin that for you, will she? ”
Sheree sniffled and allowed herself a small smile. “I really do love Justin,” she said. “I can’t wait to marry him.”
“Of course you can’t.” Noelle beamed, satisfied that she’d managed to lift Sheree’s mood.
She reached into her purse and retrieved a tube of mascara.
She always brought mascara, disposable spoolies, and makeup remover with her on nights when she had a wedding or wedding-related event.
Brides tended to cry a lot. Noelle didn’t judge.
Most brides were stressed the hell out and barely sleeping. Also, it wasn’t her job to judge.
She instructed Sheree to widen her eyes and look up as she reapplied mascara to her lashes and wiped away the residue of makeup on her cheeks. When Sheree shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, Noelle shrugged off her leather jacket and draped it around Sheree’s shoulders.
“No more tears,” Noelle said. “Not when you look so beautiful.”
Sheree looked at her reflection again and glanced at Noelle sidelong with a smirk. “You’re good at this. I see why you have a five-star rating.”
Noelle smiled and shrugged, like it was no big deal.
But truthfully, she took a lot of pride in her five-star Bridal Bestie rating.
Noelle wasn’t one of Sheree’s oldest friends, and she wasn’t a wedding planner or a wedding crisis manager, for that matter.
She’d been hired by Sheree to be one of her bridesmaids.
Sheree, a twenty-nine-year-old workaholic accountant who struggled to find time outside of the office to make friends, found herself in a tricky predicament when her outgoing fiancé Justin wanted all five of his line brothers as groomsmen.
Sheree chose three cousins and her old college roommate to make up her bridal party, but she needed a fifth bridesmaid.
Through the bridal grapevine, Sheree was made aware of Bridal Bestie, a website where a person could contract a professional stand-in to act as a bridesmaid for their wedding. That was where Noelle came in.
After passing a thorough background check, Sheree was able to sift through the agency’s available professionals in the area.
There must have been something about Noelle’s profile that Sheree liked, because she took the next step, which was to request an agency-arranged meeting with Noelle.
They got coffee in order to feel each other out.
Then Sheree chose the Ultimate Best Friend package, which meant that in addition to being a bridesmaid in her September wedding, Noelle was contracted to attend tonight’s bachelor-bachelorette party, as well as Sheree’s bridal shower next month in August.
The story that Noelle and Sheree had agreed to tell was that they’d met a few months prior at a Lagree class and had quickly become close friends.
Justin knew the truth, of course. But the rest of Sheree’s family had easily accepted the tale because Sheree attended Lagree religiously.
Noelle, however, hadn’t ever heard of Lagree before meeting Sheree, so she’d watched countless YouTube videos of people bending themselves into pretzels on workout machines just in case anyone asked her a question about the class.
So far, Lagree hadn’t come up, and it probably wouldn’t. But Noelle liked to be prepared anyway.
“Come on, let’s head back,” Noelle said, urging Sheree toward the bathroom exit. “You’ve got more singing to do. Maybe you can sing ‘We Found Love’ if Raven hasn’t already.”
Sheree laughed and smiled at Noelle gratefully as she followed her out of the bathroom and down the dark hallway back to their private karaoke room.
One of Justin’s groomsmen had managed to steal the mic from Raven, and he was belting out “Don’t Leave Me” by Blackstreet.
The other guys were surrounding him and singing backup.
Raven stood in the corner of the room with her arms crossed, glaring daggers.
Noticing that they’d returned from the bathroom, Justin rushed over to Noelle and Sheree. He wrapped his gangly arms around Sheree and sported a lopsided, drunk smile.
“Everything good, babe?” he asked. Sheree grinned up at him and nodded. Justin looked over Sheree’s head at Noelle. “Thanks for helping her, Nola.”
For a second, Noelle considered correcting him.
But he was drunk, and it honestly didn’t matter if he got her name right.
She wasn’t a permanent fixture in their lives.
She’d been working with Bridal Bestie for almost two years, and sometimes when she got along really well with a client, she wondered what it might be like if they tried to be real-life friends.
One of the reasons she was so good at this job was because she didn’t struggle to connect with other people.
In her high school senior year superlatives, she’d been voted Most Friendly.
But it was a lot harder to make friends as an adult.
She’d long ago lost touch with anyone from the University of Maryland, and lately she saw less and less of her best friend and roommate, Tati, because she spent most nights at her boyfriend André’s place.
Noelle was happy for Tati. She was blissfully in love and had finally found her person after kissing one too many frogs.
But Noelle still missed her. Both things could be true.
Sheree would probably be cool to hang out with in real life. But these days, Noelle was more concerned about the money.
She’d had various side hustles over the years.
Bartending, cater waiting, walking dogs, babysitting toddlers, walking dogs while babysitting toddlers.
Being a hired bridesmaid was by far the easiest and highest-paying side gig she’d ever had.
With her side gig money, her paychecks from her main job at Hidden Gems Books, as well as doing food delivery and rideshare driving, combined with a bit of financial aid and private loans, she almost had enough money to go back to college and finish her bachelor’s degree. Finally.
Suddenly, across the room, an argument broke out between Raven and the groomsmen. While Sheree and Justin went to intervene, Noelle checked the time on her phone. 12:03 a.m. Her contract stated that her services were no longer needed after midnight, so her work here was officially done.
When there seemed to be a break in the bickering, she approached Sheree, lightly tapped her on the shoulder, and whispered, “I’m sorry, but it’s after midnight, and I’m going home now.
” She lowered her voice another fraction.
“Um, I just want to remind you that the remaining fee for tonight is due tomorrow by twelve p.m. and you can pay directly through the website. I’ll send you the receipt to reimburse me for my ride home. ”
“Oh, of course, of course!” Sheree twisted around and gave Noelle a firm, warm hug. It felt nice. Even if their friendship was pretend. “I’ll pay everything asap. Get home safe.”
Each Bridal Bestie client was different, but what they had in common was that they needed Noelle’s help in some form or another. People with big social circles weren’t in need of her services. More often than not, her clients were a little lonely.