Will youâ¦date me?
Delilah James, singleton and smoothie-addict, has six months to find a date for her oldest friendâs wedding. Oh, and to prove to her ex, best man Ben, that she has totally moved on since he dumped her out-of-the-blue nine months, eight days and seventeen hours agoâ¦
So, with her two BFFs playing Cupid, Delilah launches herself into the high-tech, fast-paced and frankly terrifying world of dating. Luckily thereâs the hot new guy at work, Adam Sinclair, to practice her flirting on â even if, as a colleague, heâs strictly off-limits!
Yet timeâs running out and date after disastrous date forces Delilah to tell a little white lie â and invent a fake boyfriend! But will her secret crush on Adam ruin everything? Does she even care about Ben anymore? And is it too late to untangle her web of lies and take a real date to the weddingâ¦?
A laugh-out-loud, feel-good romantic comedy perfect for fans of Jane Costello and Mandy Baggot!
The Wedding Date
Jennifer Joyce
Copyright
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2016
Copyright © Jennifer Joyce 2016
Jennifer Joyce asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9781474047449
Version date: 2018-07-23
JENNIFER JOYCE
is a writer of romantic comedies. Sheâs been scribbling down bits of stories for as long as she can remember, graduating from a pen to a typewriter and then an electronic typewriter. And she felt like the beeâs knees typing on THAT. She now writes her books on a laptop (which has a proper delete button and everything). Jennifer lives in Oldham, Greater Manchester with her husband Chris and their two daughters, Rianne and Isobel, plus their bunnies Cinnamon and Leah and Jack Russell Luna. When she isnât writing, Jennifer likes to make things â sheâll use any excuse to get her craft box out! She spends far too much time on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. You can find out more about Jennifer on her blog at jenniferjoycewrites.co.uk, on Twitter at @writer_jenn and on Facebook at facebook.com/jenniferjoycewrites
Thank you to my family for all your support, especially my mum, June and sister, Michelle, who have been patiently listening to me waffle about my writing for quite some time now. Iâm not saying Iâm going to stop waffling or anything, but thank you.
My husband, Chris is another waffle-listener, so massive thanks to him, especially as he rescued me from dating hell back in 2001. Thank you to our daughters, Rianne and Isobel, just for being you. Thank you to Charlotte Mursell and the HQ Digital UK team for helping me to make The Wedding Date into an actual, readable book.
Thank you to the wonderful people Iâve met through social media: Team Novelicious, the authors who take the time to chat to aspiring writers and offer encouragement (it means A LOT. Seriously) and all the book bloggers and book nerds who love to share their enthusiasm for reading.
Finally, thank you to all the readers who have taken a chance on my books. I still canât quite believe people have plucked my book from all the squillions of books on offer. I only hope you enjoy The Wedding Date as much as Iâve enjoyed writing it.
For Chris, dating-hell-rescuer, and our daughters, Rianne and Isobel
Chapter 1
Delilah
Text Message:
Ryan: My, my, my Delilah. Why, why, why Delilah?
Delilah: Bog off, Ryan
Ryan: You and your pussy cat lips!
Delilah: Thatâs the wrong song, you dweeb
I hitch up my skirt â why oh why did I choose to wear the tightest pencil skirt known to man this morning? â and scuttle along the pavement as the bus trundles towards the bus stop ahead. At least Iâm wearing my ballet flats, as even attempting to run in heels would have been impossible. If Iâm honest, the flat shoes werenât part of a logical, well-thought-out plan. I didnât know Iâd be pelting along the main road, eyes fixed on the quickly approaching bus, as Iâd dragged on my pencil skirt this morning, my toothbrush poking out of my mouth as I multi-tasked my getting-ready-for-work. Ah yes. Thatâs why Iâd chosen the pencil skirt. It was the first thing my fingers made contact with as I stuck a hand in the wardrobe, fumbling for an outfit â any outfit â as I brushed my teeth with the other hand. Iâd slept through my alarm (not my fault. Totally the responsibility of Dan the Barman for supplying me with drink after drink the night before. I mean, the guy was just doing his job and everything, but he should have known the consequences, really). So I was running late. Majorly late. And the ballet flats were just there, their sequins twinkling at me from the shoe rack. Iâd shoved them on my feet before hurling my body into the bathroom to spit (in the sink), rinse and dump my toothbrush in the pot on the side.