“We are not engaged,” I said. Anger rose up from my toes and burned my throat and cheeks. “You cheated on me for months, heck, years, for all I know. Go home, Bobby. My life is none of your business anymore.”
“We’ve been together since high school, Pepper.” Tears welled up in Bobby’s eyes. “I got down on one knee.”
“I thought we settled this.” I sighed at the wreck of a man with whom I had spent so many years of my life.
“Yeah, that’s before I saw you with this jerk.” Bobby’s mood switched back to drunken anger. “How long have you been cheating on me? How could I have not seen this? Best friend, my eye. You’ve probably been sneaking around on me for years.”
Bobby moved until he was chest to chest with Gage and roared into Gage’s face. Gage was a good man. He remained calm and stood his ground. The only sign of any emotion was the way he held his hands. If Bobby tried to strike, Gage was ready.
I’d never seen Bobby hit anyone. He wasn’t that brave, but then again he was drunk. I stepped in and pushed Bobby back a few steps. “Just because you cheat, doesn’t mean everyone does, Bobby.” I kept my voice deliberately even. “Where’s Cindy? Is she next door waiting for you?”
I pointed across the street. Five years ago all I wanted was to make Bobby happy, and living close to his favorite watering hole was one of many things that Bobby liked about me. I had been so happy he’d wanted me close. What a fool I was.
You know, I always thought of myself as a strong and smart woman. Okay, awkward and uncoordinated also applied to me, but when it came to Bobby, all my smarts had gone out the window. Instead of demanding that he treat me right, I had done everything I could think of to make it work—even spending countless nights at a bar when I hated the whole scene. It was a classic trap, I suppose. One I hoped not to fall into with Gage or any man ever again.
“Bobby, what’s going on?” Cindy Anderson approached from the side of the parking lot closest to the bar. She tugged her light jacket close to her neck. Her blond hair lifted and blew in the breeze as if she were a heroine in a movie. Cindy was my polar opposite. She was petite and curvy. Her face was round with high cheekbones and large blue eyes. She wore curve-hugging skinny jeans and six-inch stiletto-heeled leather boots. I couldn’t see what top she wore, but it was a safe bet that it was a tight-fitting tee that showed off enough cleavage to attract every man in the bar.
“This so-called best buddy of mine has been screwing around with my girl,” Bobby answered her. It was obvious from his expression that he didn’t realize who he was talking to.
“What? No, honey.” Cindy wrapped her perfectly manicured hands around Bobby’s bicep. “I’m not seeing Gage. Are we, Gage?” Confusion showed in her streetlight-illuminated face. “He’s dating some other girl. What was her name again, Gage? Samantha or something, right?”
“He was in the car with Pepper.” Bobby narrowed his eyes and fisted his hands.
“Well, of course, he was, honey. They’re friends. Aren’t you, Pepper?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “We’re friends.”
“See? So there’s no need to get so upset.” She patted his arm. “I’ve got eyes for no one but you, baby.” She kissed his cheek. “Come on, let’s go back inside. Tony is running up the pool table and you’re next to play.”
Just like that, Cindy had his attention, drawing him away from us and back to the bar.
“I’m sorry, baby,” Bobby said to Cindy. “I came out for a smoke and got distracted when I saw Gage’s car in Pepper’s lot.”
“It’s okay, sweetie,” she said as they left the parking area and crossed the road. “I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Wow,” I said as I watched her manipulate Bobby.
“Sorry about that,” Gage said, his expression grim. “Let me walk you to your door.”
I glanced one last time at the entrance of The Naked Truth. “I think it’s time I found a new apartment.” I punched in the building key code and Gage held the door open for me. We made our way up three flights of stairs in the four-story walk-up.
“Don’t let Bobby make you do anything you’re not ready to do,” Gage advised. “He’s all bluster. I can handle him.”
I lifted one side of my mouth in a half smile as I unlocked my apartment door. “Thanks, but I only moved here because that’s what Bobby wanted. It’s time I found a place where I want to live.” I turned to face Gage. He stood just outside the threshold of my door. His handsome face was filled with emotions I couldn’t read.
The tension in the silence between us was electrifying. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in?”
He reached up and smoothed a wayward lock of hair behind my ear. “You’ve had a heck of a day.” He leaned in and planted a soft, sweet, closed-mouthed kiss on my lips. “As much as I want to come in, I’m going to stop right here and say good night.”
“Oh.” My disappointment showed in that single word.
“Your life without Bobby is too new.” He straightened. “Let’s take this slow. I promise I’m not going anywhere. Okay?”
“Okay.” I felt stunned.
“Good night. Pepper.” Gage planted another lingering kiss on my mouth. “Call me if Bobby bothers you again.”
“Okay.” I felt like a parrot but my mind was somewhere around my toes.
He cupped my cheek. “You are a very special person, Pepper Pomeroy. I’ll call you tomorrow. Good night.” Just like that Gage stepped back, shoved his hands in his coat pockets and walked down the hall to the top of the stairs. He paused but didn’t turn around. “Sweet dreams, Pepper.”
“Good night, Gage.” I said, and closed the door as he headed down the stairs. I locked the door and leaned against it. My mouth tingled and my heart beat fast. I don’t know if it was from the encounter with Bobby or the evening with Gage.
I decided to blame it on the evening with Gage.
* * *
The next morning, while I was looking at apartments for rent listed on the Internet, I received a phone call on my Perfect Proposals number.
“Perfect Proposals, this is Pepper Pomeroy, how can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m Alexander Bath. I was at the proposal you put together for Keith Emry. Well done by the way.” His voice was gravelly and he sounded like an older gentleman.
“Thank you, Mr. Bath,” I said, and grabbed a pen and a pad of paper. “How can I help you today?”
“I would like to hire you to help me propose to my girlfriend. We’ve been together ten years. I want to make this thing unforgettable. She deserves it for putting up with this old man for so long.” He laughed and you could hear the deep rattle of an ex-smoker.
“My fee list will depend on the type of proposal and the necessary planning. Are you looking for something over the top?”
“Exactly,” he said. “Over the top. I like that.”
“Good, because I specialize in unforgettable, over-the-top proposals. What did you have in mind?”
“I want to propose during a parachute jump.”
Okay, that caught my attention. “That certainly is over the top. Tell me why you want to propose while jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?”
That made him chuckle again. “I take it you’ve never jumped.”
“No,” I said with a smile and leaned back in my office chair. “I rather like keeping my feet on the ground.”
The sun shone into my windows in broad patches that warmed the wood floors and let me see the dust motes dance in the beams.
“You’re not much of a risk taker, are you, then?”
I thought of the way I broke up with Bobby and started Perfect Proposals—both gutsy moves for a girl who could just as easily be living with her parents. “I’m getting better at it. Tell me about your girlfriend. Is she an adrenaline junkie?”
“It was actual
ly Dominica who got me into parachute jumping. I’d turned thirty-five. I made a bucket list and parachuting was near the top of the list. Dominica was the jump instructor. She took me tandem with her, and the rest is history.”
“Wow, that’s a great story.” I wrote as fast as I could. “So where is your favorite place to jump? What kinds of things would she like, such as hobbies or mementoes of your life together? Do you intend to propose in midair or just before you take the plunge? I’m thinking just before you take the plunge makes the most sense. Jumping off the plane hand in hand after she says yes and you put on the ring feels very symbolic to me. Wait, no, then your friends and family couldn’t see.”
“Unless they jumped, too.” His voice was filled with laughter. “Yeah, no, that’s never going to happen. My mother hates to fly.”
“She wouldn’t go up for your engagement?”
“No, and worse, she’d kill me if my dad got to see me get engaged and she didn’t.”
“Hmmm.” I tapped my pencil on my lips. “Maybe we could do a helmet camera.”
“Let’s not put my family or Dominica’s in the plane. It would spoil the surprise.”
“I can see that.” I nodded in agreement. “Let me ask a few more questions.”
“Sure, I’m open to brainstorming. You’re the expert here.”
Alexander let me quiz him for an entire hour as I listed out the must-haves and maybes and “wouldn’t it be cool to have . . .” ideas that came to me. I promised him a quote by the end of the day, and if he approved, I’d send him a contract to sign and return with the first third of the price as down payment. Breaking the invoicing into thirds was my father’s idea. It ensured the client had skin in the game from the start. The second part of the invoice happened twenty-four hours prior to the proposal event, that way I had at least two-thirds of the money before the event in case the gentleman chickened out or the woman said no and the guy went home disappointed.
The saying no possibility was the trickiest part for Perfect Proposals. We hadn’t had a woman say no yet, but that didn’t mean that it couldn’t happen. I had to figure in for the risk that the guy would get cold feet and call it off at the last minute, in which case my contract was written so that he owed me 100 percent of the deposits and my billable fees. There was also a full-page addendum detailing what happened if the woman said no. All liability was waived at that point. The last thing I needed was for someone to blame the event for the proposal recipient’s negative response. My contract lawyer—who was also my uncle, Pete Pomeroy—said it would be too easy to blame me for a no when the question was popped. In fact, he recommended that the couples be screened by a professional counselor before I put down my first deposit on the materials.
At this point in my new business, I did most of that screening by talking to the girl’s friends and family, and if I had to, I would come up with a reason to interview the girl herself. I took my cue from those makeover shows, and trusted friends and family to let me in on the girl’s life so I could see how she really felt.
Since I was in the business of surprises, it was sometimes hard to find the right balance to get the information I needed without ruining the surprise. If there was any question or doubt on my part, I had the prospective groom spend an hour with my counselor friend, Connie White, for evaluation, and then the prospective bride’s best friends were brought in to screen as well. If a woman wasn’t all that happy in a relationship, the girlfriends would know before the boyfriend ever found out.
It worked for me, and Connie liked the supplement to her income.
Doing an event like Alexander’s proposed jump meant more time at an airport. When my sister’s fiancé, Warren Evans, asked me to stage his proposal, it had been at an airport in his private jet. The proposal had gone swimmingly, but the memories weren’t all good. I had found my first dead body in the executive airport. After finding the bridal shop salesperson dead yesterday, I was nervous about revisiting any place that reminded me of murder. I mean, what if there was another dead body? Or worse, what if he expected me to jump out of the plane with them?
That made me wonder, would Cesar, my videographer, be willing to jump and record the entire drop? I’d have to call him and see.
I had reached for the phone when I got another call. The caller ID came up with the number of a current client, Mary Ketchum. I picked up on the second ring. “Perfect Proposals, this is Pepper Pomeroy, how can I help you?”
“Hi, Pepper, its Mary, how are you?” She sounded chipper.
I leaned back in my seat and the chair creaked.
“I’m doing well, Mary. What’s up?”
“I saw in the paper that you found another body yesterday.”
My chair creaked again as I sat up straight and lifted my chin high in the air. “Wait, I’m in the paper?”
“It’s in the Daily Herald,” Mary said. The Daily Herald was the daily newspaper for the Chicago Northwest suburbs, and it concentrated on local news. “On page two. They don’t list you by name, but they have a shot of the crime scene. You know, one of those vague shots that shows police activity and a general area without showing any details? Anyway, I noticed you in the background. There is only one reason you would be in the shot.”
“Maybe because I was in the area?” I suggested. Really, murder did not enhance the proposal event business; quite the opposite, actually. “I was with my sister who was wedding dress shopping.”
“Oh, sorry,” Mary said, and I heard the crinkle of the newspaper closing. “I thought you should know you were in the paper. I hope it doesn’t take away any of your business. Anyway, people who know you know what good work you do.”
“Thanks, Mary. I appreciate it,” I said sincerely. “How are you? Do you have any more specific ideas for your event?” Mary had contacted me last week. She wanted to show the world that gender roles meant nothing when it came to a marriage proposal. She wanted to ask her boyfriend, Joe, to marry her on video in the hopes that it would go viral.
I worried about going into something with the intention for it to go viral. It was always best to simply record the moment and let it be organic and real. I’d counseled her on that point right from the start. She agreed but had been insistent that I help her plan a big proposal. She wanted to do something crazy cool and just knew in her heart it would get lots of views.
Not that I would mind. A viral video would really help my bottom line. But as far as I could tell, no one really knew how to make something go viral. It either took off or it didn’t. I had promised to give her the best proposal she could think of that worked for her and her relationship with Joe, and that was what I was going to do.
“I’ve been thinking about your advice, you know, going with something that Joe likes and that reflects our relationship.”
“Okay.”
“We love black-and-white movies. Joe is a huge film buff. Maybe we could do something with that.”
“Oh, that’s great!” I said. My thoughts grabbed onto the idea and rolled with it. “Do you go to the Music Box Theatre?”
“Yes, it’s his favorite special night out.”
“Perfect.” I whirled my office chair in the sunlight. “I once did a corporate event there, so I know a few people. Do you have a favorite movie?”
“Something romantic?” She sounded unsure. “Or an old spaghetti western.” That made us both laugh. “Well, men aren’t into romantic movies so much, are they?”
“True,” I agreed. “I suppose we could riff off The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” I brainstormed. “It is sort of the theme of life, isn’t it?” We both laughed again.
“He would certainly never see a proposal coming,” she joined in.
“I’m so glad you have a sense of humor,” I said. “Let me work on it. Have you thought about whether you want to get him a ring?”
“I’m still figuring that out. A good fri
end of mine proposed to his boyfriend and they exchanged watches. But a watch isn’t really Joe’s thing.”
“Does he wear dress shirts and ties for work?”
“Yes, he works for a corporate bank.”
“You could get him diamond cuff links or a tie tack.”
“Fun idea,” she said. “But I don’t know. I might just get him a ring. But if I get a ring, what kind of ring do you get a guy when you propose? Boy, this proposal stuff is harder than I thought.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “No wonder girls let guys do this.”
“You’re trying too hard,” I said. “Stop over-thinking and simply go with your gut. You have good instincts, Mary.”
“Okay.” She blew out a long breath. “I’ll do some snooping in his closet and see what would work best for his wardrobe.”
“You can always ask his family,” I said. “Part of the proposal event is to have family and friends in on the secret. You may want to start there, especially since you hope this goes viral.”
“Right, okay.” Mary was quiet for a moment. “I suppose then I need to go see his mother. You know, instead of asking his father for his blessing, I should go ask his mother.”
“I bet she would be thrilled.”
Mary laughed. “You don’t know much about mother-in-laws, do you? Just kidding, Joe’s mom is great.”
My phone buzzed and I glanced at the call waiting. It was Detective Murphy. “Okay, Mary, I’ll get going on the movie theme and get back to you next week. Will that work?”
“Yes, thanks.”
I hung up with Mary just in time to pick up the call waiting. “This is Pepper Pomeroy.”
“Hello, Pepper.”
“Detective Murphy, how are you? I understand you made the Daily Herald.”
“Not me. They got a nice picture of Officer Flynn. I’ve learned to spot a photographer from half a mile away and tend to keep out of their shots.”
“Apparently I don’t have the same talent,” I said as I stood up and stretched. “What can I do for you?”
“I need you to come down to the station and answer some questions.”
Bodice of Evidence Page 5