The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Guillory, Jasmine. The Wedding Party. New York: Penguin Random House, 2019.

The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory, Maddie Forest and Theo Stephens believed they were fooling everyone with a secret relationship they were enjoying in the months leading up to Alexa’s wedding. Even though they believed they hated each other, they had sex together and found it very pleasurable. They decided to allow themselves to have a casual sexual relationship while they were both serving as members of Alexa Monroe’s wedding party. When Alexa confronted Theo and Maddie on the day of her wedding, insisting that they acknowledge their love for each other, Theo and Maddie realized they had been fooling no one but themselves with their secret.

Maddie only went to Theo’s birthday party because Alexa, a mutual best friend, did not want to go alone. She remembered that Theo had been condescending of her and her job the first time she met him. She had never forgiven him. Theo, on the other hand, hated that he had seemed like such a jerk the first time he spoke to Maddie. He wished that she had not taken such an instant dislike to him.

Maddie and Theo connected at the party because they saw that Alexa’s ex-boyfriend, Drew, was there. They had a joint mission that Drew not be allowed to hurt Alexa again. At the end of the evening, Theo offered to walk Maddie to her car. Instead of allowing him to take a ride share home, Maddie insisted he ride with her. She went inside his apartment to make him prove to her that he could dance and the two wound up in bed together.

Maddie and Theo had sex again six weeks later, after they encountered each other at a city council meeting, and then again after Alexa’s engagement party. Maddie then decided their relationship needed rules. Maddie was going to be a bridesmaid in the wedding while Alexa had asked Theo to be a bridesman, so they knew there was no way for them to avoid their sexual attraction to one another. They agreed to meet for sex only after they had spent the day with Alexa, not to go on dates, and above all, not to tell Alexa what was happening.

Maddie and Theo began breaking the rules they had made almost immediately. They reasoned that since Theo worked with Alexa every day, they could see each other at any time. They also went out to eat together when Ben gave Theo a gift card to an expensive restaurant. Theo kept Maddie updated about a campaign for universal pre-kindergarten for which he was trying to get a rally scheduled in Berkley. Maddie told Theo about a job proposition she had that would allow her to host a styling show on television. They discovered they had more in common than they had once believed.

On the day of Theo’s rally, Maddie was there to cheer him on. Protestors disrupted the rally and one hit Theo on the head, giving him a concussion. Maddie went to the hospital with Theo and spent the first night at home with him anxiously watching for signs that the concussion was worse than what the doctors thought.

Theo’s brother, Ben, sent Maddie home some rest the next day. When Maddie returned, she overheard the end of a conversation between Theo and Ben in which Theo was trying to keep his brother from knowing how much he really cared for Maddie. He told Ben that Maddie was the same shallow girl that he had believed her to be. Theo’s words cut Maddie deeply because she believed that Theo had come to know her as a whole person. Maddie lashed out at Theo, who lashed back. They were both too hurt and too confused about their feelings to confront the other.

On Alexa’s wedding day, Alexa called Theo and Maddie’s bluff by locking them in a closet and making them stay there until they had worked out their disagreement. She said they had not been fooling her, that she had known since her engagement party that they were in love with each other. Alexa further informed them she was not going to allow them to ruin her wedding. Maddie tried to brush her feelings aside but Theo admitted to her that he did love her and had not meant the things that he had said about her. In turn, Maddie said that she loved him as well.