The Heartbreak Hypothesis

16 - girlfriends and bridesmaids

"Madison!"

Noah. Thank god.

He came barreling out of the house, stopping just short of crashing into the butler. "Nigel," Noah greeted in a plummy voice I'd never heard him use before. Then he grabbed my arm.

And jerked me inside.

"Ow—" I started to say.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" Noah asked, steering me down a sprawling entranceway that gave way to an even larger foyer. Twin double staircases spilled from the second level, a mezzanine that looped around the entry lined with limestone busts. The glass ceiling let in torrents of golden daylight. The whole place was white and bright, the glittering details dripping in gold.

I tried not to gape. "I was driving," I said matter-of-factly, retrieving my phone with the arm Noah wasn't clutching.

Sixteen missed calls.

That wasn't good.

"Did someone die?" I wondered.

"They might after this," Noah grumbled while I ... gawked.

If the outside of the Bennet's home made me want to cry, then the inside almost sent me into cardiac arrest. We walked through the never-ending corridor, practically racing from one side of the house to the other. I felt like I was in a museum. Or a castle. I'd thought that my parents' home was nice; my mother had made sure it was, despite it costing my stepfather a double mortgage. But nice was an understatement when it came to the Bennet estate. The entire place oozed old money, from the white marble flooring to the original eighteenth-century ceiling roses, not to mention the gold-plated furniture with matching floral designs that just had to be custom.

"Is that framed in real gold?" I asked of the family portrait displayed above the fireplace in a lounge we passed. A lounge. There was more than one.

"So you know how Dex says dumb things when he's nervous?" Noah asked, ignoring my ogling.

I continued ogling while I murmured, "Only when he's nervous?"

"And how he gets really nervous in front of Holly?"

I groaned. "Did he propose?" And was that a cinema room we just passed?

"James' mother was going over the guest list," Noah continued, speaking as quickly as his feet moved as he steered me through the maze of glitz and glamor. "She saw your name next to his plus one, and she sort of asked Dex how James knew you, and Holly was there, and Dex got flustered, and—"

"This is a really long story." And a really big house. Was house even the right word?

"Well, long story short ..." Noah came to a crashing stop near what I took to be the vestibule. Foyer. It was another foyer. Noah grimaced as he said, "Dex told James' mom that you're James' girlfriend."

"You mean ex-girlfriend. Or ex-fling—whatever—"

"No, Madison." Noah let go of my arm. He eyed me like I was a stray dog that might bite. "I mean girlfriend. As in, currently-dating-and-has-been-dating-for-three-months girlfriend."

The world slipped out from under my heels.

"Wait." I gaped. "What—"

"Madeline?" A beautiful woman with dark brown skin poked her head out from another endless corridor to the left, that one lined with abstract artwork. She wore a knee-length rose-colored dress and a white sash that read Mother of the Bride.

"Madison," Noah corrected, pushing me forward. "But yes, this is her. Isn't she pretty?"

He was totally trying to flatter his way out of being murdered.