Punishment.

Stella: Long story but I have a sort of date tonight; wedding rehearsal dinner, going with a guy I hardly know (and that's putting it mildly), and also the wedding tomorrow (I don't even know). I will tell you the whole story you know I will but the important thing is WHAT DO I WEAR HELP ME!!!

Then she shot Mike another text:

Stella: Black tie optional wedding with a day of notice. Why am I doing this again?

Because, the voice in her head said, he's hot, and you haven't even had a fake date in over a year.

Mike: You're not going to back out on me, are you?

Drew sat in a Berkeley coffee shop, blocks from where he now knew she worked.

Mike: Please don't back out on me. Don't make me go to the buffet.

Of course she was going to back out. She was cute and funny and smart, and he oozed desperation. He didn't usually have trouble getting girls to go out with him. But finding a date for this wedding had been such a nightmare, it was like his own personal punishment for everything wrong he'd ever done to or with women: first there'd been everything with Emma, then when he called Julia she had a new boyfriend, and Carlos's sister had laughed in his face when he'd hinted at her coming with him.