Chapter 38
To Do:
- Make this the best proposal yet
- Find a way to sneak into ESA meeting
A cramp twistedClaire’s side as she ran from one end of the previously vacant storefront to the other for what felt like the fortieth time this hour. She arranged the freesias again, rotating them so that they caught the glow of the Edison bulbs strung in a crisscross pattern above.
The custom designed West Haven Escape Room sign had come down. The reception desk where Claire had checked the couple in had been disassembled and hidden. An eight-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower had been quickly hefted into the room. False greenery was arranged to mimic the Parc du Champ de Mars. The reminder of Paris didn’t sting quite as much now that she was on better terms with Luke.
The false ceiling was broken down, revealing pictures of the couple over the years hung from the rafters, slowly spinning in the breeze from the HVAC system. Mindy was fighting with dozens of white pillar candles that refused to stay lit. If no one ended up on fire by the end of this, it would be a miracle.
Speaking of miracles, there hadn’t been any retaliation from ESA after Claire sleep-tagged their frat house. Either they were regrouping and planning something truly horrible, or they didn’t know she was responsible for it. Every day that inched by since the attack was a small eternity. What would they do next? She really needed to infiltrate the meeting to find out what they were up to. But how?
There was time to worry about all that later. For the moment, she had a happily ever after to create. Even if it was in danger of catching on fire and/or collapsing into a pile of trash at any moment.
Nicole stood in the corner, remotely monitoring the cameras they had stashed in the escape room and snapping pictures at opportune moments.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” she whispered reassuringly to Claire.
Claire nudged a fire extinguisher behind the fake greenery. Every part of this proposal had been a chore. The venue had sprung a leak and sustained significant water damage the week before the proposal. The groom-to-be had gotten a black eye from a charity softball game. Mindy had tripped and knocked the Eiffel Tower over. They had superglued the two halves back together, but it was leaning precariously despite the fishing wire that Claire had secured it with.
And yet, despite all the aggravation and chaos, it was lovely. Easily one of the most creative proposals they had done to date. The puzzles were carefully thought out, every detail designed with the couple in mind.
She and Mindy had spied on the clients, Dr. Jerry Weaver and Sarah, while they had a date night at Dave and Busters. The couple was fun-loving, sweet to each other, and very clearly in love, if a bit over-competitive at Skee-Ball. As an added precaution, Claire had also called the state board of medicine. Luckily, Dr. Weaver didn’t have any open investigations into his license. She had done everything she could to make sure this couple was the real deal. And they were. She could feel it.
Behind the locked door, Dr. Weaver, an emergency department physician at a local hospital, was helping his soon-to-be fiancée crack open a safe.
“We only have four minutes left,” Sarah said from one of Nicole’s monitors, glancing anxiously at the clock in the corner of the room.
“Plenty of time. What were the numbers from the periscope again?”
“Four-eight-nineteen.”
“Wow, our anniversary date. What are the odds?”
The odds were very good indeed.
“Why don’t you try those on the safe?” Jerry asked.
“Good idea.” Sarah deftly twisted the lock back and forth with her long fingers. She was the first chair cellist for the West Haven Orchestra. “This is the best date night ever, by the way. I didn’t even know this place was here.”
“It’s new,” Jerry said as he paced behind Sarah. He had grown steadily paler over the last hour.
“It opened! We found the key!”
Sarah leapt into Jerry’s arms. He smiled.
“Let’s make sure it works.” He gently set her down and gave her the key.
Nicole sprang into position, crouching to the side to make herself as inconspicuous as possible, camera at the ready. Claire sat the ring box on top of a table and scuttled underneath it, hiding behind the tablecloth. Mindy joined her a second later, still clutching a candle.
When the door swung open and Sarah cried out in victory, Claire watched through a hole in the cloth as Jerry picked up the box and tucked it in his pants pocket. Mindy peered out a hole next to her. Unlike most of the proposals they had done this year, everything was perfectly intimate—no family, no friends, just the couple and their magical moment.
“Oh, man, that was crazy. What an adrenaline rush. We should do another—wait. Was all of this here when we came in? Is this like part two of the escape room?” Sarah asked, spinning around and walking back to the door they had just come out of. She walked as gracefully as she played, as though she were gliding on air.
“This is the only door. Miss?” Sarah called, clearly looking for Claire.
Sarah spun around and finally noticed Jerry kneeling under the Eiffel Tower.
Her hands flew to her mouth, and the look of surprise was unmistakable.
Claire’s gaze was glued to the Eiffel Tower. Surely it would hold. It had to. If it broke apart and concussed the couple, she could kiss whatever was left of her career goodbye.
“Sarah,” Jerry said simply, holding one hand out to her.
Sarah ran across the room. “Yes. Yes, a thousand times yes.”
She dropped to her knees and threw herself into his arms.
“But I didn’t even ask you yet,” Jerry laughed, glasses askew from the impact of his now-fiancée. “You have to let me ask.”
Sarah stood back up, wiping at the happy tears that had sprung up. “Okay, okay, fine.”
Jerry launched into a story about the first moment he knew he was in love with Sarah, which involved a lost patient and a large tub of water balloons. Was it her imagination, or was the tower leaning a little more? Hurry up, Jerry.
Claire’s phone buzzed in her pocket. They had forty local applicants to look over. Although they had lost a client and a potentially beautiful proposal over the alleyway incident, couples were still applying. It had been days since she’d seen a reference to herself as an alcoholic in the West Haven Times. Maybe the press really had moved on.
Wait a minute, was something burning?
She glanced at Mindy. The candle in her hand had seemingly re-ignited. The ends of her willowy black hair were on fire.
“Oh my god,” Claire whisper-screamed.
Mindy’s mouth was frozen in an O of surprise. Claire took off her shirt and beat Mindy with it until the flames receded. The smell of burned hair was growing stronger, and it did not fit Claire’s vision for a Parisian proposal. She pulled a perfume tester out of her purse and squirted Mindy with it.
She slapped Claire’s hand.
“Would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?” Jerry asked, apparently unfazed by the kerfuffle unfolding behind them.
“Yes!” Sarah called.
Claire’s heart grew in her chest. She had almost missed the “yes.” Damn faulty pillar candles. These were going straight back to the trading company.
Claire shuffled back into her shirt, elbowing the underside of the table and almost swearing. When the couple broke apart, she stepped out from under the table and gave them another minute before walking over with their coats and Sarah’s purse.
“You have a reservation in twenty minutes at Barrel Twenty-One,” she said, handing over their personal effects and a bouquet of freesias. “And congratulations.”
The happy couple wandered off to dinner, leaving a void in the room. As the front door closed, the Eiffel Tower fell over and snapped into two pieces. At least it waited.
“Get some good shots?” Claire asked Nicole as she texted a member of the crew she had hired to help set up and tear down.
“Amazing ones,” Nicole said, coming over to Claire and quickly flipping through a few on her camera. “They’re going to look great on the blog.”
“You are so good at what you do, Coli.”
“Thank you. So are you,” she said and gave Claire a hug. “Do you have any good candidates coming up?”
Claire climbed a stepladder and cut the fishing wire from the wall. Mindy stood by the entrance, frowning at the ends of her hair. “We do. Sorry, Min. Can you grab the Tupperware boxes by the door? Thanks. She turned back to the task at hand and addressed Nicole. “There’s a hiking-themed one, a Christmas village flash mob, a luxuriously decorated rooftop proposal. I would love to do them all.”
“Maybe once all this settles down, you’ll be able to take on a few more clients at a time,” Nicole said, shoving some fake greenery into a storage bin.
“I really hope so. I’m tired of men blowing up my cars and threatening me. They’re not going to be happy about my midnight spray painting escapade. One way or another, this is going to end.”
“It sounds like we need to schedule another Code Purple.” Nicole met Claire’s eyes over a clump of freesias.
“I think you’re right. Girls only. Thursday night.”