The Proposal Plan

by Charlotte Phillips

  ‘Amanda’s totally right,’ Gabriel piped up, and the stylist flushed with pleasure. Two birds with one stone, he congratulated himself. Look interested and keep Amanda on side at the same time.

  There was a ratcheting sound as Amanda expertly flipped through the clothes on the rail. ‘Something a bit more tailored,’ she was saying. ‘You’re so tiny you just look swamped in these floaty designs.’

  Lucy disappeared back behind the curtain. Gabriel absently flipped through an email about a case he’d just taken on. It looked as if it might be more complicated than he’d first thought, he’d better request some more information. Then, glancing briefly back up, he froze, the phone held aloft. When had Lucy got legs like that?

  Lucy had a fragile silhouette, making a mockery of the fact that her life revolved around the creation of cakes and pastries. But rather than make her look skinny as loose clothes often did, the scarlet shirt she wore now clung in all the right places. The nipped-in cut showed off her tiny waist and with it she was wearing a pair of figure-hugging black cigarette pants. His mouth felt suddenly dry, as if it were full of sawdust, and he automatically took a swig of the very inferior sparkling wine.

  ‘Those trousers aren’t really Lucy’s style,’ he heard himself say. ‘Tell her, Lu, you run a bakery. That kind of thing isn’t practical.’

  Both women totally ignored him. ‘Try them with these, Lucy,’ Amanda said. ‘More definition and height.’

  Lucy stepped into the nude platform heels and he inadvertently pressed ‘Send’ on the email he’d only half written. The extra height from the shoes made her legs go on for ever. She was looking at him for approval and he floundered to get the words out.

  ‘Very nice,’ was the best he could manage.

  ‘Perhaps some evening wear next…’ Amanda said and held a gold satin dress up against Lucy. Even on its hanger he could see it fell a good three inches above the knee and his heart lurched involuntarily in his chest.

  ‘That’ll never work,’ he remarked.

  Amanda turned to him in exasperation. ‘A bit more positive input wouldn’t go amiss, Gabriel. Know a lot about styling someone, do you?’

  ‘It’s all because he likes to go out with stereotypes, Amanda,’ Lucy said loudly, making sure Gabriel could hear her. ‘“Arm candy” is the phrase, I think. He likes his women to wear killer heels and fitted tops and skinny jeans, don’t you, Gabe?’ she teased him. ‘I’m the polar opposite of your type, aren’t I? How could I ever look good in something your exes would wear?’

  She turned to Amanda. ‘I’m not really a woman in Gabriel’s eyes,’ she said. ‘More of a female-yet-one-of-the-lads hybrid.’

  ‘A ladette?’ Amanda grinned, glancing smugly at her own very satisfactory feminine reflection in the mirror behind Lucy’s.

  ‘Yes, a ladette! Exactly!’ Lucy laughed at him from across the room. ‘You’d no sooner put me in that dress than you would one of your rugby mates, eh, Gabe?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I just meant it’s… well… it’s different from the kind of thing you usually wear, that’s all.’ He struggled to justify himself.

  ‘That’s the whole point of a styling session —to push boundaries and try new things so you can emphasise your good points,’ Amanda pointed out knowledgably. He was beginning to actively dislike the woman. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this uncomfortable in female company.

  He was glad when the pair of them disappeared behind the curtain. He hadn’t counted on this. He’d expected Lucy to have a fun hour or so trying things on while he did a bit of work. He hadn’t banked on Amanda pushing clothes on her that his own girlfriends might wear. His Lucy most certainly did not look like girlfriend material in his head and she shouldn’t be looking like it in reality.

  The curtain swished back again and she sashayed out towards him, her confidence growing before his eyes. The gold dress flowed against her skin and clung to her every contour. The mirrors made it worse—he could see her from every angle. He tugged at his collar, which suddenly felt unbearably tight, and beads of sweat broke out on his brow. Lucy had curves. She had a tiny waist and long, long legs, and skin that was the colour of double cream. She smiled at him, waiting for an opinion, and all he could feel was shock that she could look so grown-up, so… sexy. He felt a sudden rush of longing deep inside and his face must have given it away because a puzzled expression crossed her face.

  ‘What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?’

  He looked at her face, her eyes wide. His mind whirled. He recognised this feeling of course; he had it all the time. Pretty much whenever an attractive woman came into his field of vision. He just wasn’t used to having it about Lucy. In his mind he had her very comfortably pigeonholed as Best Friend, and he’d known her for so long he realised he never even usually noticed how she looked. It seemed the wake-up call planned for Ed was working on him, too.

  You’re jealous! The thought came from nowhere with the force of a sledgehammer, making him feel dizzy. This was just about Lucy getting married ruining their friendship, wasn’t it? Was it really? He mentally shook himself, noticing her crestfallen expression, and forced himself to speak.

  ‘You look beautiful, Lu. I love it.’

  ‘You had a weird look on your face.’

  ‘I guess I’m more used to seeing you in T-shirts and jeans.’

  ‘I think it would benefit from some good lingerie,’ Amanda interjected, holding up a beautiful black bra and knickers set, adorned with delicate silk and lace. ‘What size are you, Lucy?’

  Gabriel almost choked on the foul sparkling wine. He had to get out of here. Now.

  ‘I have to, er, make a move,’ he blurted out suddenly, holding up his phone like an idiot. ‘Urgent. Work thing. Can’t be helped. Sorry.’ Aware he was now gabbling, he snatched up his jacket to create a diversion.

  Lucy looked momentarily surprised, but, delighted as she was with her transformation, her attention was quickly diverted by the clothes Amanda was holding. She walked briefly over to him, the heels emphasising her legs even more. He fought to keep his eyes off them. ‘No problem, Gabe, I’ll call you later,’ she said. She flashed him an excited smile. ‘Thanks for organising this—you’re such a good mate!’ She looked up into his face for a moment and her smile faltered. ‘You know, you work too hard. You have dark shadows under your eyes.’ She ran a fingertip across his left cheekbone and he felt his skin prickle deliciously as if it might burst into flames at her touch. Her scent, something light and floral, enveloped him. He felt as if his senses were sharpened to a needle point, as if every nerve in his body were standing on end.

  Amanda saw him to the lift, leaning in close enough to whisper in his ear. ‘Call me,’ she said, giving him an inviting smile. He was glad when the metal doors slid shut between them.

  He left the store as fast as he could, relishing the fresh air on his burning face as he walked to the car. As he drove home he barely saw the road, barely noticed the other cars or people. One person filled his head. This was a whole different ball game. And he had no idea how he was supposed to play it.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘SO YOU went clothes shopping with a woman, what, have you lost your mind?’

  Gabriel slung a towel round his neck and took a swig from his water bottle. Playing a couple of games of squash with Joe, a work colleague, he intended to beat the tension out of himself with physical exertion. So far it wasn’t working.

  He hadn’t been able to focus now for two days. Whenever he tried, his mind was invaded by Lucy: how she’d looked, how she smelled, how her skin felt when she held his arm. He couldn’t remember a woman making him feel like this since Alison, and even she was now beginning to become a blur. To his dismay it was beginning to dawn on him that the reason he didn’t want Lucy to get married had less to do with the impact on their friendship and more to do with the fact she was marrying someone else.

  You want her for yourself, his mind whispered, and it seemed h
e was powerless to crush that thought. When he remembered Alison now his mind seemed to have sideslipped into comparison mode, where her smile was lovely but Lucy’s smile made every cell in his body tingle. Alison’s blonde hair had been silky and pretty but Lucy’s insane curls made him want to tangle his hands in them and never let go.

  ‘Not in the sense you think,’ he panted in reply. He leaned against the wall and towelled the sweat from his face. ‘She’s going to propose to her boyfriend. There’s some kind of leap year thing where women are supposed to be allowed to propose marriage instead of men. I was helping her pick some clothes out.’

  To his surprise, Joe nodded. ‘My sister did it. She asked her husband to marry her eight years ago on February twenty-ninth. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance.’

  Gabriel ran his hands distractedly through his hair. ‘Thing is, Lucy’s a friend. More of a sister really—we grew up together. But watching her showing off in these clothes… I never really noticed before just how stunning she is. Now I can’t stop thinking about her. And I’m meant to be helping her plan this proposal to the guy in less than two weeks’ time. Right now I feel like I want to knock his head off if he goes anywhere near her.’

  Joe stared at him as if he were mad. ‘You are kidding me, right? You need to see the new girl in the office. That’ll soon get your mind back on track.’

  Gabriel buried his face for a moment in the towel. He felt no spark of interest whatsoever in the new girl in the typing pool. But two weeks ago he would have already been dating her. He felt as if his life had been turned upside down.

  ‘Maybe you’re right,’ he said, more to placate Joe than anything. ‘I haven’t dated for a few weeks. Every waking moment’s been taken up with the Pryor case and this thing with Lucy.’

  ‘Course I am.’ Joe clapped him encouragingly on the shoulder as they walked back onto the court. ‘Get the proposal out of the way and things will get back to normal. She’ll have a wedding to plan and, trust me, you don’t want to get within a hundred miles of a woman doing that.’

  Gabriel picked up his racket and smacked the squash ball with every ounce of strength he had. The thought of Lucy marrying Ed was beginning to make him feel ill.

  ‘Lucy, darling, you look as beautiful as ever. It’s so good to see you.’ Gabriel’s mother Elizabeth swept Lucy into a tight warm hug, and Lucy momentarily closed her eyes so as to soak up every drop of love in it. She thought for the hundredth time what a lovely person Elizabeth was and felt that age-old pang of childhood jealousy against Gabriel for having such a supportive close family when her own home life had been such a shambles.

  ‘These are for you.’ Lucy handed over the white cardboard box she had brought with her. Elizabeth lifted the lid and exclaimed delightedly at the sight of the cake selection inside. Billowing swirls of jewel-coloured meringue nestled alongside delicately decorated cupcakes.

  ‘Lucy, they’re marvellous. Although just one of them is more pudding than I normally eat in a week! You are kind. Gabriel’s told me all about how well you are doing. We love hearing about the shop—I’m so pleased it’s such a success.’

  Lucy followed her as she led the way through the cool hallway to the large kitchen at the back of the manor. She met Gabriel’s eyes behind his mother’s back. He shrugged apologetically but she shook her head at him and smiled. She adored Elizabeth, and thought it was wonderful to have a mother to whom you could entrust all the tiny details of your life. Her own mother had been totally preoccupied by her own life and problems and Lucy had never been able to confide in her. The kitchen was warm from the Aga with a huge scrubbed wooden table and a kind-faced woman of about fifty preparing the lunch.

  ‘This is Angela,’ Elizabeth said. The woman turned from peeling vegetables at the sink and smiled at them. ‘Angela’s an absolute treasure,’ she confided to Lucy as they returned to the sitting room, having deposited the cakes in the kitchen. ‘Keeps the house perfect and cooks for us when we need her to. Like today. I’m more than capable of rustling up scrambled eggs for Gordon and myself, but it’s such a joy to have someone else cook the more demanding meals now.’

  The lunch proved to be delicious, the multitasking Angela serving them all as effortlessly as she had apparently cooked the meal. Lucy realised she was having a wonderful time; she really did feel as if she’d come home. She supposed Gabe must feel like this every time he came—how lucky he was.

  ‘How are your parents, Lucy dear? Do you see much of them?’ Lucy felt a stab of embarrassment that Elizabeth knew what a nightmare her mother and father were.

  ‘Not really. Christmas and birthday cards, you know. The occasional phone call.’ Exactly the way she wanted it. She had total control now over her own life, the polar opposite to her awful childhood years. ‘My mother’s in Las Vegas now with her latest husband. Number three. And my father’s up in Birmingham. A friend of his offered him a job. Nothing like the work he did for you, of course.’

  Elizabeth nodded politely.

  ‘Hospital porter, I think he is now,’ Lucy added vaguely. ‘It suits me, to be honest, that they’ve both moved away. I have my own life now and that’s the way I want it.’ She smiled at Elizabeth. ‘It’s lovely coming here, though. Reminds me of the fun Gabriel and I had as kids.’ She’d changed the subject swiftly and effortlessly. God knew she’d had enough practice at avoiding discussing her parents.

  After lunch, Gabriel and his father had coffee in the drawing room, and Elizabeth asked Lucy to accompany her on a walk in the gardens. They strolled arm in arm.

  ‘It’s looking lovely.’ Lucy admired the beds and the well-kept lawn. She could almost see herself and Gabriel kicking the old football around here when they were little. There were some fantastic trees to climb on the estate too. She smiled to herself. She’d been such a tomboy.

  ‘How kind of you to say so, dear. I don’t do so much of it myself these days, of course. Gordon has a man come in a few times a week in the spring and summer. Keeps it up together. Less to do in the winter of course.’

  They walked on in silence for a moment. Elizabeth seemed faintly tense and Lucy couldn’t help thinking she’d asked her to come for a walk deliberately so that they could talk privately. She had no idea why that might be.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ she asked curiously.

  Elizabeth smiled at her. ‘Not especially, dear. I just wondered how Gabriel is. I know he tells us he’s fine but I can never really get any information out of him. I was hoping you could give me some insight. Do you think he’s happy?’ She sighed. ‘We don’t see as much of him as we’d like these days.’

  Lucy looked at her in surprise. She’d always thought of Gabriel as very close to his parents.

  ‘Yes, of course he is. He’s done so brilliantly at work, you know. He’s ahead of his time. He’s quite well known in legal circles, I think. And he has an incredibly busy social life.’

  Elizabeth didn’t miss the implication. ‘Still no one special, then.’ She sighed again. ‘I do worry about him so. When he lost Alison he was still very young. Young enough to start again. She was such a lovely girl, I knew it would take him some time to get over it. But he’s never even once brought a girlfriend to meet us since.’

  Lucy patted her hand reassuringly, thinking that the word ‘lost’ just didn’t really cover it. It was Elizabeth’s shorthand for the fact that Gabriel’s first love, his college sweetheart, had died in a car accident the year after they left university. She knew he’d been devastated at the time. But as the years had passed he had never opened up about it beyond the bare facts, not even to her. Eventually he had stopped talking about it altogether and Lucy had taken her cue from him and avoided the subject like the plague for fear of upsetting him. Gabriel behaved as though Alison had never existed at all. Until you took a closer look and realised that he’d simply spent every relationship since making sure nothing like it could ever happen to him again. None of his girlfriends were ever allowed to get close enough for them to mea
n anything to him. Elizabeth was right: after ten years he really hadn’t moved on.

  She did her best to be reassuring. ‘He’ll settle down one day, Elizabeth. I’m sure of it. He just seems… I don’t know… happy with the way things are at the moment.’

  ‘You know, Gordon and I always hoped you and he might end up…’ Elizabeth spoke wistfully, then quickly pulled herself up short.

  Lucy jumped a little, as if she’d taken a whiff of smelling salts. She felt the heat of an unexpected blush creep slowly upwards from her collar and was momentarily flustered. A long-buried memory surfaced and she tried her best to push it back to the depths of her mind from where it had come. The very idea of her having a relationship with Gabriel should be laughable. She was sure Gabe would laugh out loud at the suggestion. She certainly shouldn’t be having this reaction. Heart rate increasing, temperature rising. She felt embarrassed and hoped fervently that Elizabeth wouldn’t pick up on how agitated she was.

  The truth was there had been a time, long ago, when her feelings of friendship for Gabriel had become something more. Only in her mind, of course, never his. She pondered for a moment that you never realised the true value of something until it had gone. She had learned that when Gabriel left for university all those years ago. Up until then he’d been hers. Two years older. Protector. Brother. His mother had a dislike of boarding school, instead sending Gabe to a nearby prep school. Lucy, of course, had gone to the local primary school. Their education was a world apart, just like their houses, their parents, their backgrounds, but none of it had mattered to them. They had remained close despite and, she thought now, perhaps because of their differences. Each was everything the other needed. She had been an antidote to his stuffy school atmosphere and her sense of fun had brought him respite from the intense studying it had demanded. He had been her port in a storm. The rows and upheaval at home had gradually worsened through her teens and she’d found herself relying on him more and more. His reasoned thinking had encouraged her to consider the long term, to believe that it wouldn’t be like this for ever, stuck in a village in the middle of nowhere with her warring parents and no means of escape. One day she would have her own life and she would be free.