Page 4 of The Holiday Honeymoon Switch
“Meghan Markle started dating Prince Harry this year.”
Ivy sighs. “Yeah, but that means he’s no longer available formeto date.”
“You’d want to date Prince Harry?” Holly asks.
“Sure, for a couple of weeks. I’d date anyone for a couple of weeks. Especially a prince.”
“I have no idea what that’s like, serial dating. Is it so fun?”
“You’re a serial monogamist. Correct read?”
Holly ducks her head. “Correct. I dated the same guy all through high school, and Matt and I met during frosh week. So…yeah. You’ve got me pegged.”
“Well,chacun à son goût,” Ivy says. “I promise. I’ll never judge you.”
“I promise I’ll never judge you, either.” They lock eyes for a moment and the promise is sealed.
“And we’ll always be honest, the way you were with me about D’Arcy.”
Ivy rustles around in her woven bag. She takes out a hair elastic and hands it to her new friend. “Your hair,” she says. “It’s getting a little…”
“Thank you.” Holly grabs the elastic. “Bad night to choose to straighten my hair. It’s so humid in here! I’m a frizzball.”
“That’s why I went with a braid.”
“Same curly, wavy, doesn’t-really-know-what-it-is hair?”
“The very same.”
“Want to know one good thing about 2016, Ivy? Us meeting.” Holly smiles as she ties back her hair, and Ivy smiles back—and they both agree for years to come that the night they met was the most fun they’ve ever had at a Christmasparty.
1
Ivy
December 16, 2024
New York City
“Andthat’swhen I knew we were going to be friends forever,” Holly says, holding up a glass of Sancerre to toast Ivy, her maid of honor. Ivy thinks her friend looks so happy and gorgeous, standing there at the head of the table in the holly-leaf-green dress they found on sale at Saks. The same shopping trip where Ivy had discovered the perfect cranberry-hued jumpsuit on a clearance rack. They had laughed at the absurdity of it: two people who were ambivalent about Christmas dressing in coordinating holiday outfits.
Ivy feels emotion gathering like a glowing ball of stardust in her sternum. Holly looks so hopeful and expectant,standing there with her glass raised. Ivy feels the urge to make the biggest wish possible with all that stardust inside her, a wish that her friend will have the charmed life she deserves, the one she’s always wanted, the one she’s been planning for the past decade.
“I already had my soulmate in Matt,” Holly continues—and now Ivy has to fight to keep the supportive, well-wishing smile on her face. To her, Holly has no flaws—at least none that are deal-breaking and friendship-ending; Ivy knows no one isactuallyperfect—but she has never been able to grasp what Holly sees in Matt. This is the one secret she has kept from her best friend since deciding the first night they met that radical honesty was going to be their policy. It’s kind of a big one, though. Considering the ways in which disliking your best friend’s partner might cause more and more complications over the years makes the ball of starry joy in Ivy’s chest morph and twist as it slinks its way down to the pit of her stomach. “And after the night I met you,” Holly is saying, “I had a soulmate best friend, too. How lucky can one person be? Thank you for always being there for me, Ivy, through the planning of this wedding, and literally everything else for the past eight years. I can’t imagine my life withou—”
“To Matt and Holly!” Holly’s mother, Barbara, cries, jumping from her seat and cutting her daughter short. “Cheers, cheers,santé—or should I say San-ta! To the happy couple and their Christmas wedding!” There’s a shocked beat ofsilence as the guests process the fact that the mother of the bride has interrupted her daughter’s rehearsal dinner speech like she’s orchestra music and Holly is Matthew McConaughey at the 2014 Oscars. Ivy keeps a big smile pasted on her face, but the nerves in her stomach start doing a wild dance. She has always felt protective of Holly, but at moments like this she feels helpless to protect her. Then Holly’s brother, Ted, seated to Ivy’s left, nudges her gently. “Typical Barbara power move,” he says out of the corner of his mouth. “You know she’s just jealous that you’ve always been there for Holly in a way she’s never allowed herself to.” Ted’s wife, Mingzhu, shoots Ivy a sympathetic, knowing smile, and Ivy is reminded that Holly does, in fact, have some excellent people in her corner. She manages to lift her glass and toast along with everyone else at the table, while forcing herself to believe that a happy ending for Holly really is possible.
Except Holly is now banging a knife on her wineglass and looking a little mad. The dissonant sound quiets the guests around the large harvest table at Cote. “No, no,wait,” she says determinedly. “I’m not finished. I’m the bride, everyone has to do what I say for the next twenty-four hours,at least.”
“Cheers tothat!” Ivy calls out.
“Ivy,” Holly says firmly, “planning the most festive, most Christmassy wedding possible with you at my side has been a dream come true andso much fun.” She holds her friend’s gaze for a moment, her eyes dancing. Ivy knows what she’sreally saying. It should have been torture, but eventually the shock wore off that Holly had agreed to get married at Christmas. Her reasoning had been that if she went along with the December date Matt and her mother were pushing, she’d be able to have a holiday season honeymoon and spend Christmas in Hawaii with her new husband, thus managing to forgo all the Beech family Christmas parties and events she always finds so disappointing. Plus, she would get home from the honeymoon in time for New Year’s Eve with her bestie, meaning this wedding date offered the best of all worlds. After that, Ivy threw herself into helping to plan a festive wedding with joyful, somewhat ironic abandon. A mini mince pie and mulled wine cocktail hour while a gospel choir sang Christmas carols? Check. Secret Santa wedding favors that guests could fight over?Yes.Hiring an actor to make a surprise Santa visit at midnight? Happening. Filling the venue—Lotte New York Palace—with bauble-strung Christmas trees? You know it. Hiring two acrobats to perform in a giant thirteen-foot snow globe, glitter falling constantly over the pair as they put on a showstopping routine? Okay, so Holly and Ivy couldn’t make that one happen, but all Holly had to do was whisper the words “giant snow globe” and they’d both start laughing uncontrollably.
“I’m so grateful for you, Ivy,” Holly says. “And I know that you, like Matt, are going to be in my life forever.” Now hereyes shine with tears. “I couldn’t imagine my life without you, Ivy. Thanks for everything.” Once this round of glass clinking is over, Holly turns to Matt, who is sitting to her right. But he’s fidgeting with his dessert fork and there’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Ivy wonders if he’s still hungover from his bachelor party a few nights earlier, when, she happens to know, he ended up naked at the top of the Empire State Building.He’s such a schmuck, Ivy can’t help but think. Except Holly is staring down at her sweaty, uncomfortable-looking fiancé like he’s theMona Lisaand she’s just arrived in Paris for the first time and rushed straight to the Louvre. “Matt, tomorrow is the day we’ve dreamed about practically since the moment we met—when we just…” She places a hand on her heart, and her berry-red nails shine in the candlelight. “We knew. We gazed at each other over that mud pit and weknew. I’m so excited to become Mrs. Carter. Well, I’m not going to take your name, but I’ll be Mrs. Carter in my heart, okay? I’m so excited to spend the rest of our lives together, starting tomorrow. I love you.” She looks down at him expectantly, clearly waiting for him to stand and join her, lift his own glass, make his own speech—but Matt just keeps flipping his fork over on top of the tablecloth like it’s a competitive sport. As the awkward silence stretches, he finally looks up at Holly. He looks startled, as if he just noticed her there.
“Oh.Thanks. That was really nice. Um, I…” He clears histhroat, loosens his tie as if it’s suddenly choking him. “Right. Yeah. Shit. I’m supposed to make a speech tonight, too.” He stands and grips the back of his seat. Ivy can’t help but notice his knuckles have gone white. Across the table, D’Arcy, still his best friend, looks sweaty and uncomfortable, too. But when he sees Ivy looking at him, he shoots her a suggestive eyebrow waggle. Although they only dated for a few weeks eight years ago, and the best thing about their relationship was that it led Ivy to Holly, D’Arcy still goes around telling anyone who will listen that Ivy is his ex. After a few drinks, he also says she’s “the one who got away” and “an absolute minx in the sack.” Ivy looks away from him, fights hard to get back that sense of happy hopefulness for her friend. Meanwhile, Matt is still clearing his throat and fiddling with his tie.
“Mom, Dad, thank you for planning this dinner.” His parents beam at him proudly. “It was great. Eight courses, all meat or meat-adjacent. My dream meal.” Ivy, meanwhile, being the only vegetarian in attendance, got six courses of green salad and one very sad stuffed pepper. Even the dessert contained gelatin, and she’d had to leave it untouched. “And Ed and Barb, thank you for…well, you know, everything. You’ve been so great.” His voice wobbles, and Ivy is surprised by the sudden show of emotion. He’s acting weird, even for Matt. He dashes at a tear with a clenched fist, holds up his glass, says “Cheers, I love you all!” in a wobblingvoice. The table clinks glasses again, and no one seems to notice that Matt’s glass is empty—and that he didn’t even address his bride-to-be. No one except Ivy. She sees it all and feels sick to her stomach.
