Page 14 of Happily Never After

To Do:

- Background check on Nicole’s obstetrician

- Call ice cream shop

- Review West Coast applicants

Dinnerwith her father had left Claire in a heightened state of stress. She had woken up that morning in the walk-in closet, one leg in a pair of Luke’s cargo shorts while carrying a footlong dill pickle. If she wasn’t careful, the sleepwalking was going to get out of hand again.

The air conditioning in the corner of the warehouse cranked noisily. It was only ten a.m., but the temperature had already hit the eighties.

Claire gripped the edge of the whiteboard and flipped it over, revealing notes on the upcoming Los Angeles proposal. Less than five weeks separated them for what promised to be the biggest, splashiest project of their entire career. That needed tobe her focus; not whatever retaliation may or may not be coming from ESA.

“Did we get a response from the city about the permit?” She held her breath.

Mindy smirked. “Yes, as of this morning, we officially have a permit.”

All the breath rushed out of her lungs. “You should have led with that. Thank god.”

Mindy slid a pen into her topknot and leaned forward. “I can’t believe you convinced the city of Los Angeles to let you change the Hollywood sign.”

Claire smiled. “Only for one evening. Well, until Brad inevitably changes his mind.”

“Brad,” Mindy muttered with a groan.

“I’m going to start adding an extra dollar to our hourly consulting fee every time he alters the plan.”

Much like the groom-to-be, every part of the proposal had been a colossal pain in the ass.

Brad was Claire’s first (and if things continued to be this vexing, only,) non-local client. He had hounded her and the business for months following her kidnapping, offering larger and larger sums of money. She had only given in because he was Luke’s friend. But his proposal grew more elaborate every day. Normally a proposal fit neatly into one three-ring binder. Brad’s spanned six.

His bride-to-be was Karen Rager, a forty-year-old accountant for a Los Angeles hospital. Despite the memefication of her first name, she was a sweet, level-headed, lovely woman who ran charity 5ks and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. It would be a second marriage for both of them. She grounded Brad, a fifty-year-old movie producer.

“It still bothers me that we couldn’t observe them on a date,” Claire muttered. Happily Ever Afters had a rigid screeningprocess involving intense social media stalking, sweeping for online dating profiles, background checks, and more. Being three thousand miles away from their latest couple had forced her to compromise.

Mindy whipped the pen out of her hair and chucked it at Claire. “Hey. Not everyone is a serial killer. Luke vetted him. You trust Luke, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah. So let’s go over the order one more time. First, lunch at the restaurant where they had their first date.”

“Check. Solar Flare. Pre-planned four-course lunch. They’ll be the only ones on the outer deck of the restaurant. The chef confirmed the menu last week.”

Claire put a checkmark next to Solar Flare on the whiteboard. “Great. Then, a limo ride to the Santa Monica Pier, where they will play Skee-Ball and then ride the Ferris wheel, where the bucket truck containing the a cappella quartet will serenade them at the top.”

Mindy smiled broadly and clasped her hands. “Amazing. Then the gardens with the ice cream cones?”

“Yes, then they’ll go to the Getty Gardens where an associate will deliver the absurdly expensive and obscure ice cream from Karen’s hometown in New Jersey.”

“And by an ‘associate,’ you mean you?”

“Probably,” Claire conceded.

“Great. Then the horses?”

Claire nodded and pointed to the board. “I’m guessing the Los Angeles traffic will make the trip to the ranch excruciatingly long, which is why they’ll be in the limo with a bottle of champagne and Karen’s favorite movie.”

“You really think she won’t be suspicious with all this trouble?” Mindy lifted her eyes from her tablet. One brow arched skyward.

Claire shrugged. “It’s their dating anniversary, and Brad has a long history of over-the-top dates.”

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