The Worst Best Man

Three years before the main story begins, twenty-five-year-old Max Hartley wakes hungover on the morning of his older brother Andrew's wedding to find a text: Andrew cannot marry his fiancée, Carolina "Lina" Santos, and wants Max to break the news. The text credits Max with helping Andrew "see the truth" during a drunken bar crawl, but Max cannot remember what he said. He delivers the message to Lina in her dressing suite. She reads it, concludes Max's words triggered the cancellation, and orders him out. Max carries the guilt into the present, believing he caused his brother to abandon the wedding.

Three years later, Lina works as a wedding planner in the Washington, DC, area. At a wedding she coordinates, she meets Rebecca Cartwright, CEO of the Cartwright Hotel Group, who is impressed by Lina's composure when Lina improvises a fix after the groom's friends shave off his eyebrows. Rebecca hints at a business proposition.

Meanwhile, Max and Andrew work at Atlas Communications, a marketing firm run by their mother, who insists they collaborate as a team. Max resents the arrangement and wants to prove his individual value, especially because his ex-girlfriend Emily left him after meeting Andrew and finding Andrew the more appealing brother.

Lina's situation grows precarious when the dress shop where she rents office space announces it is closing in sixty days. When Rebecca offers her the chance to compete for a director of wedding services position at the Cartwright with a $100,000 salary, Lina sees it as a lifeline. Rebecca devises a weeks-long interview: Two candidates will each prepare a presentation with help from one of the Atlas marketing associates. The plan derails when Rebecca introduces Andrew and Max. Lina panics and pretends not to know either brother. She arranges to work with Max while Andrew is paired with the rival candidate, telling Max she will handle the pitch herself.

Their collaboration begins with open hostility. Lina's cousin Natalia and her assistant and best friend, Jaslene, urge her to channel her resentment into petty revenge. At a Brazilian restaurant, Lina tricks Max into eating extremely spicy malagueta peppers. Max lures her to a capoeira class, a Brazilian martial-art form blending dance and combat, by implying he is experienced; Lina, who learned moves from her older brother Rey, kicks him off his feet. Their dynamic settles into escalating provocation laced with grudging respect.

Professional outings generate personal tension. During a cake tasting, Lina brushes crumbs from Max's face and they share a charged moment before she pulls away. At a wedding rehearsal, Lina becomes emotional while standing in during vow practice, and Max covers for her by claiming she has allergies and taking her place. He reveals that Emily left him after meeting Andrew, and Lina begins to understand the roots of the brothers' rivalry.

Lina orchestrates a reckoning by inviting Max to her family's grocery store, Rio de Wheaton, under the pretense of a consultation for Natalia's upcoming wedding. She reveals his identity to her assembled family: her mother Mariana, brother Rey, and aunts Viviane and Izabel. After initial hostility, Max delivers an impassioned speech describing Lina's ideal partner as someone full of life who adores her and makes her let her guard down. Natalia privately warns Max that the person he described is Lina's worst nightmare, hinting at her deep fear of vulnerability. When Lina dances samba, Max watches mesmerized and abruptly leaves, shaken by his attraction. He confides in his best friend Dean, a lawyer who warns that pursuing Andrew's ex will keep Max trapped in his brother's shadow.

Lina's fear of vulnerability traces to college, where she caught a manipulative boyfriend named Lincoln with another woman and broke down publicly in a crowded dining hall. Her subsequent career as a paralegal ended when she was fired after crying over an error during a trial. She channeled her skills into wedding planning, viewing it as her second chance, funded by her mother's and aunts' savings.

A weekend trip to scout a venue in rural Virginia forces unexpected intimacy. When Lina's car breaks down, they end up at a couples retreat, posing as partners to secure the inn's last room. In an exercise where partners share wishes, Max asks Lina to open up and see the potential between them. He also reveals that Emily once called him "the off-brand version" of his brother. Lina responds with equal vulnerability, explaining that showing emotion carries disproportionate consequences for her as an Afro-Latinx woman and advising Max to stop measuring himself against Andrew. She tells him she is no longer angry and likes him, a lot.

That night, Lina says she is open to companionship but not a serious relationship. They sleep together. The next morning, Max takes her to a hidden field of tulips, but the intimacy unsettles Lina, who pulls back during the drive home.

Over the following weeks, they maintain a secret relationship while collaborating on the pitch. Max shifts their concept from "wedding godmother" to "wedding concierge," recognizing the original theme required Lina to be someone she is not. The secret unravels at the Cartwright's restaurant when a manager who is Andrew's childhood friend recognizes Lina as Andrew's former fiancée while Rebecca is present. Lina retreats to the restroom in tears. Max follows and talks through the door until she lets him in, telling her she is "still a badass, tears and all" (287).

Lina meets Rebecca alone and tells the full truth. Rebecca empathizes, drawing a parallel to her own experience inheriting her CEO position, and continues the interview process. Separately, Lina's mother urges her to "Live your life, not ours" (296) and build a future on her own terms.

The equilibrium shatters when Andrew catches Max and Lina kissing at the bridal shop. He accuses Max of pursuing Lina as part of their rivalry, then reveals the truth: Max never discouraged Andrew from marrying Lina. On the night before the wedding, Max talked about honeymoon destinations; Andrew fabricated Max's involvement in the text to deflect his parents' anger. Rather than uniting them, the revelation triggers Max's deepest insecurity. He tells Lina he cannot be her second choice and ends the relationship. Lina is heartbroken but refuses to beg.

They communicate only through formal emails until presentation day, when Lina delivers a flawless pitch and Rebecca offers her the director position. Andrew visits Lina to apologize, revealing he is leaving Atlas Communications and acknowledging he rode on Max's coattails. Lina accepts the job and secures a role for Jaslene as assistant wedding coordinator.

At Natalia and Paolo's wedding reception, Lina delivers a toast declaring that love requires dropping your shield for the right person. Max, listening from across the room, has an epiphany: It does not matter whether he is Lina's first or second choice, only that he is the right choice. On the rooftop garden, he tells Lina he was wrong to walk away, echoes the language of his earlier speech at the family store, and declares his love. Lina reciprocates: "You're neither my first choice nor my second choice. You're my only choice" (355). They kiss and commit to a future together. At the doorway, Lina's mother collects a twenty-dollar bet from Tia Viviane, revealing she had been betting on Max all along.