Best Man With Benefits

The offices of Here & Now Events sat in the centre of London, just off Berkeley Square in Mayfair, in an elegant Georgian townhouse that had been converted into three floors of meeting rooms, desks and display and storage space.

It was also an absolute hotbed of gossip.

As Nell Andrews climbed the few steps to the front door one Monday morning, juggling a heavy laptop bag on one shoulder and the cup of coffee she held in her other hand, she just hoped that her most recent gossip hadn’t reached the staff yet.

An assistant, hurrying out of the building despite the early hour, held the door open for Nell and she stepped inside into the familiar soft white space, punctuated with occasional pops of bright celebratory colour. Her own office, up in the attic of the building, stuck to just the white walls and some restful neutrals. But they were a party and events company, so a little bit of exciting colour mixed in with the sensible, capable and competent office set-up only made sense. At least that was what Nell’s twin sister and business partner, Polly, told her.

Nobody paid Nell much attention as she made her way past the reception space on the ground floor and towards the stairs, passing the display cabinets holding endless party supply samples, and the imposing floral displays that flanked them, in front of the meeting rooms they kept set up for impressing potential clients.

The white walls held oversized canvases showing images from past events, all in black and white except for the odd detail picked out in vivid colour.

Nell turned her head as she passed the largest one, right by the stairs, showing the four of them together at the launch party for Here & Now, five years ago.

Polly, Fred, Alex and Nell.

All rendered in black and white, except for the pink party hat on Polly’s head, the green bow tie Fred was wearing, and Alex’s purple cummerbund.

Even the photographer hadn’t been able to find anything colourful about Nell to edit in.

The four of them had met at university, where Fred had fallen head over heels for Polly, and she’d kept him dangling at arm’s length while she enjoyed the freedom of student life. Fred’s best friend, Alex, had regularly been engaged as an envoy to try and get a read on Polly’s feelings from Nell, which had brought him into their circle too—especially in second year, when Polly decided it was time to stop playing hard to get, and admit to what everyone else already knew.

Polly and Fred had been madly in love ever since.

And when they announced they wanted to start an events business, after graduation, it had been only natural to bring Nell, Polly’s accountant twin sister, and Alex, Fred’s law graduate best friend, in to round out the team. Here & Now had been born over a bottle of wine and an Indian takeaway in Nell and Polly’s tiny London flat, and from there it had only grown.

Now they had the media mentions, the millionaire clients, the constant referrals from happy customers, the central London offices—and the ever-growing staff.

At the top of the stairs, Nell stepped out into the main office floor—every desk filled by one of those staff members. The office had a constant buzz of chatter, excitement even, as they all went about their days. Organising parties for the rich and famous wasn’t the kind of work which lent itself to quiet contemplation. Even now, Nell could see someone holding up two different styles of champagne bottle piñatas for a colleague’s approval.

Piñatas? Whose party are those for?

Most of their events were rather more classy than that, but maybe a new client had a sense of fun that outweighed their need to impress. That would make a nice change.

The important thing was, the staff all seemed suitably diverted by their jobs and not at all interested in her. Which hopefully meant the news hadn’t got around yet—and even when it did, that nobody would care.

It wasn’t as if she was a regular topic of office gossip, she reassured herself. Her life—unlike the lives of almost everyone else who worked for Here & Now—just wasn’t interesting enough to gossip about. She made sure of it.

Nell had lived enough drama and high emotion in the first eighteen years of her life to last her for the rest of it. All she wanted now was a quiet, boring, content existence.

Something she’d thought she had with Paul. Until this weekend.

There was no real way anyone could know about it yet, was there? Except that the rumour mill at Here & Now was unparalleled, and somehow someone always knew something.

All it would take was Paul telling a friend, who told a friend, who told a cousin, who knew someone who worked at Nell’s office, and there it was. Everyone would know.

It wouldn’t even have to be Paul. One of her neighbours might have overheard. Or the taxi driver who had to have been eavesdropping on Paul’s epic breakup speech, on the drive to the restaurant where, until that moment, Nell had been almost certain he was planning to propose.

Or there was always the other, more exciting, more daring, more fun woman that Paul had left her for.

She’d probably told loads of people since Paul had dumped Nell for her on Friday night.

While Nell hadn’t quite managed to tell anyone yet. She’d spent the weekend holed up in her tiny flat—the one she used to share with Polly, until the business took off and she and Fred bought their gorgeous house together. She’d stress baked, and watched old episodes of calming shows about country life, where the biggest drama involved whether someone cheated to win the farm show.

And yes, she’d cried. Just a bit.

But not for too long.

After all, if Paul was after excitement and drama, he was the wrong guy for her. Better to know it now than later—after she’d said yes to that non-existent proposal, for example.

She’d picked Paul because he was boring like her. Because he was content to stay home on a Saturday night, rather than checking out the latest, hottest club. Because they agreed on everything and never argued. The last thing Nell wanted from a partner was someone who always disagreed with her. Someone she’d spend her life yelling at then making up with.

She wasn’t built for that kind of drama. Not like Polly.

Not like their mother or their father.

Nell had always taken after their grandparents more. They would have approved of Paul, she thought. Until now, anyway.

She made it past the dangers of all the desks, and had almost reached the final, narrower staircase that led to her cramped attic office space—away from all the people, sharing the roof space with the storage area—when she heard someone call her name.

‘Nell! We’re in here! We need you!’ Not just someone. Polly.

And when her twin needed her…well. Nell went running. Always had, always would.

She turned and spotted Polly waving at her from the open doorway of the small meeting room they preferred to use for their Core of Four meetings—the term they used for the four of them as owners. And yes, there was Fred, sitting in his customary chair next to where Polly had spread her files and her empty coffee cups across the polished wood of the conference table. And there was Alex too, standing by the window looking out over the leafy street below, his dark russet hair glowing in the weak sun, his hands on his hips, as if reminding them all he had far more interesting and exciting places to be. Because he always did. Always had, even back at university.

Alex McLeod came from money. And land. And possibly some obscure Scottish title.

None of them were under any illusion that he’d agreed to come in on the business for any reason other than his own amusement. He didn’t need the income the way normal people did—although Nell supposed it gave him a little petty cash for his regular insane adventures.

She preferred to pay her mortgage and add to her pension, but each to their own.

Fred didn’t need the money either, but he did it because this company was Polly’s dream, so that was different.

And anyway, she didn’t like to spend too much time thinking about Alex. She’d done enough of that in university, and she knew that got her nothing except disappointment. Or embarrassment, and having to avoid each other for one very awkward term, until things had settled down again.

Yes, it was a good job she’d got anything to do with Alex out of her system back in second year. Otherwise working with him would be excruciating.

As it was, she could just avoid him as much as possible, and put a mental lock on that one night where things might have been different.

Nell stepped into the meeting room, sat down in her usual seat and smiled at Fred across the table. Polly, practically vibrating with something—coffee or excitement, Nell wasn’t sure—leaned against the back of Fred’s chair, hands on his shoulders, as Alex finally deigned to turn around and give them his attention.

‘We’ve got some big news,’ Polly said, grinning. ‘We’re getting married! And we want Here & Now to arrange the biggest, most amazing wedding ever!’

*

Alex stared blankly at his best friends and tried to make sense of what they were saying.

‘Married. Like…married married?’ Okay, that didn’t even make sense in his own head, and from the derisory look Nell was giving him, he’d just given her another reason to think he was a total waste of space.

He wasn’t entirely clear on what her initial reasons for that conclusion were, but he was one hundred per cent sure that she’d made it—probably within the first hour of meeting him at university.

As he recalled, he’d been pretty drunk. That might explain some of it.

And if there had been a time where he thought he might have convinced her otherwise—a time when she might even have liked him a little bit…well, that was long past too. He’d ruined that one nice and neatly back in their second year.

But today wasn’t a time for dwelling on Nell. Today was about her sister and his best friend.

‘Congratulations,’ he added, belatedly stepping forward to hug Polly, and clap Fred on the shoulder. ‘That’s amazing news.’

‘It really, really is.’ Nell was on her feet too, pulling her twin into a tighter, closer hug than the one he’d given her. ‘You’ll be settled and together for ever.’

It was easy to forget that Nell and Polly were twins sometimes—they were so different as people. But seeing them with their heads pressed together, matching grins on their faces, Alex was struck afresh by how alike they really looked. Same long dark hair. Same bright blue eyes. Same slender shape and same long fingers clasped together now.

Nell had a dimple in her left cheek that Polly lacked—a dimple Alex had seen but rarely, given how little she smiled in his presence—but otherwise they were identical.

Well, apart from the clothes. There was never any confusion in the office about which twin a staff member was talking to. If she was wearing black, perhaps the odd shade of beige, it was Nell. If there was colour—from a brightly hued silk scarf around her neck to neon-pink high heels, and everything in between—it was definitely Polly.

But now he looked closer, the colours and the dimples weren’t the only difference. There was something in the eyes. Polly’s held unbridled joy, whereas Nell’s…

She was sad. Sad that her sister was getting married? That didn’t make any sense.

‘So I’m thinking we can really showcase everything we can do through the wedding.’ Polly disentangled herself from her sister’s arms, settled into her seat and flipped open the first of the folders she’d spread across the table.

Alex laughed. ‘We don’t even get the engagement story first? Just straight to business?’

Polly rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t pretend you want all the gory details, Alex. We all know you’re fundamentally against the very institution of marriage, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to pretend you think it’s a good idea for at least a few months, if you’re going to be Fred’s best man.’

‘Which I haven’t actually asked him yet, darling,’ Fred pointed out sanguinely. It took a lot to ruffle Fred. More than one person in the past—from teachers to women to business acquaintances—had taken that to mean that he didn’t care about anything. But Alex knew better than that.

When Fred set his mind on something there wasn’t anything in the world that would stop him. He’d fallen in love with Polly the first time he saw her at university, and that had been it for him. He’d never hassled or harassed her, or tried to make her feel guilty for going out with other men. He’d just patiently waited until she came to see the world from his point of view, and realised they were meant to be together.

And now they were getting married.

‘Who else would you ask to be best man?’ Alex dropped into the fourth chair at the table. ‘Nobody else has put up with you for the last twenty-odd years, have they?’ Since the day they’d met at boarding school, seven years old and terrified but refusing to show it. ‘Anyway, I’m not against marriage in principle.’

‘Just not for you, right?’ Nell’s tone was acerbic. Whenever they were all in the same place, Alex couldn’t help but feel that Nell thought she saw every inch of his soul and found it sorely lacking.

‘Do you really think I’d be an asset to the marriage market?’ Alex asked, eyebrows raised, and tried not to be insulted when Polly snorted with laughter.

It wasn’t that he was against marriage. He truly believed, for instance, that Fred and Polly would have a wonderful marriage. They complemented each other so well, for a start.

People thought Polly was flighty, but she was just creative. Fred helped her focus her ideas.

And yes, they’d had that whole on-again, off-again thing going on at university, and he’d been party to some ear-splitting arguments between them over the years. But they always made up. Always talked it through and came back together, stronger than before.

He’d had to listen to enough of the aftermath, through shared walls, to know that the arguments weren’t all bad either. They both definitely enjoyed the making up, anyway.

But for him? He’d thought he’d found love once, but…well. He’d been wrong.

These days, he found fun, excitement and adventure a lot more fulfilling than a bittersweet search for an emotion that might never happen for him. Not everyone found their happy-ever-after. And despite what people—Nell in particular—thought, he wasn’t so full of himself to assume he’d be one of the lucky ones, riding off into the sunset with his One True Love.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t thrilled to be giving two of his best friends that send-off.

Best man. He’d never been one before. He assumed it came with a bucketload of responsibilities, though—those sorts of titles always did. And the one thing he did know about the job of being best man was that he got to flirt with the bridesmaids, right?

Bridesmaids. Wait.

‘I assume the lovely Nell will be acting as Maid of Honour opposite me?’ he said, the pieces starting to fall into place. Oh, she was going to hate that.

‘Of course,’ Polly replied. ‘Who else would I choose?’

‘Right,’ Nell said faintly. Alex assumed she was realising the same thing he was. That it was going to be a long, and very busy, few months before the wedding—and they were going to have to spend a lot of time together.

More time than they’d ever spent together since that second year at university, and a night that had changed their friendship for ever.

No wonder Nell looked so horrified.

 

• Text Copyright © 2023 by Sophie Pembroke
• Cover Art Copyright © 2023 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
• Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved.