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Messing With Matilda by Cat Lavoie
Published by Cat Lavoie on April 4, 2018
Genres: Chick Lit, Romantic Comedy
Excerpt
I stare at the massive cardboard box leaning against my office wall. Evie bought a bookcase at IKEA last month because her collection of art deco books is overflowing into my office, but she hasn’t gotten around to assembling it yet. It’s not a good look for someone who’s supposed to project a clutter-free image. “When are you going to build your bookcase?” I walk over to her desk and sit in the closest chair. “I almost tripped on it earlier.” Falling flat on my face would have surely made Emma’s article more interesting, but I can’t afford an injury right now.
“I think it’s so cute that your mother calls you Tilly,” Evie says, deflecting my question like a pro. “Are you ever going to let me call you Tilly?”
“Not a chance.” Evie and I have had this conversation before, and I know she’s just trying to distract me as I dial my mother’s number for the twentieth time in five minutes. “Why won’t this woman get call waiting?” I ask the heavens when I’m greeted with an aggravating busy signal yet again. I end the call with an angry jab of my finger and a grunt.
Evie fans out a rainbow of paint swatches on the table in front of her. “I’m sure everything is going to be okay.” She gives me a reassuring smile.
I wish I lived in Evie’s world where everything is sunshine and rainbows and you throw caution to the wind like it’s confetti at a wedding. It’s a miracle we’re friends. I’m a realist who knows that things can change in the blink of an eye and disaster is only a phone call away. “You can’t be sure of that,” I say, picking up a swatch of orange paint so bright I’m afraid it might be burning my retinas. “Are you redecorating a color-blind person’s living room? Who would voluntarily put this hideous shade on their walls?” I put the swatch down and try my parents’ number again with no success. Can you still call the operator to make sure someone’s phone is working? Do operators still exist?
“Who else? Mrs. Murray,” Evie says calmly, and it takes me a few seconds to connect the dots.
“Ah, the client who’s going to put your unborn children through college strikes again?”
Evie nods. “Yup. Apparently, the midnight sky theme that she requested for her living room is too dark and I should have known better. So now it’s all about the sunshine orange daydream, whatever that means.”
Even the most cheerful and optimistic person has something that makes them want to hide under the covers—and for Evie that something is Mrs. Murray, a notoriously difficult client who has our office’s number on speed dial.
“I’m so jealous you’re getting featured in a newspaper,” Evie says wistfully. “It’s so exciting, don’t you think?”
I make a face. “It’s the Messina Messenger, Evie. Not the New York Times. A grand total of five people will read it and then it’s going to line Mrs. Merchant’s bird cages.” Truth be told, if my face was going to be splashed across the pages of the New York Times, I wouldn’t be half as nervous. I’m fine with a million strangers reading about me, but the fact that people I grew up with are going to read it makes me want to lose my morning bagel.
As a professional organizer in New York City, Matilda Hart wages war against chaos and clutter on a daily basis for her clients—and she vows to never let it invade her own well-ordered world.But when her boyfriend decides to deviate from the path she’s been planning for them, Matilda's perfectly structured life begins to crumble. She reluctantly finds herself back in the tiny hometown she fled a lifetime ago—determined to lay low and avoid running into anyone she used to know. So why is she reconnecting with her former best friend and putting up with the bridezilla antics of Amber, her high school nemesis?When Matilda is tasked with keeping the bride-to-be’s heartbroken ex away from the ceremony, she discovers she has history with the man who’s trying to sabotage the wedding. Matilda quickly realizes that teaming up with cute and quirky—but hopelessly devoted—Silas Flynn could be mutually beneficial. He needs help wooing the woman he considers the love of his life and Matilda can't pass up the chance to finally get back at the meanest of the mean girls by assisting Silas in his attempts to disrupt her wedding.Will everything go according to plan for this mismatched pair? Or will working so closely together make uptight Matilda and laid-back Silas lose sight of their common goal?One thing's for sure—things are about to get messy.
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About Cat Lavoie
Cat Lavoie is a chick lit writer from Montreal, Canada. She loves writing fun and quirky romantic comedies and is the author of BREAKING THE RULES, ZOEY & THE MOMENT OF ZEN, PERI IN PROGRESS and MESSING WITH MATILDA.
A fan of all things feline, Cat loves cats and hopes to someday have a house full of them in order to officially become a crazy cat lady. (But one or two cats will do for now.)
If she isn’t reading or writing, Cat enjoys listening to podcasts (mostly comedy and true crime) and watching way too much TV. She fell in love with London many years ago and hopes to go back one day. Cat is currently at work on her next novel.
To connect with Cat and find out more about her books, visit CatLavoie.com and follow @CatLavoieBooks on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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