A Pretend Proposal. Jackie Braun

sound, well, pathetic, she amended quickly, “What I mean is, nothing that can’t be rescheduled.”

      Or recorded on her DVR. Yes, her social life was that pathetic.

      “Terrific.”

      The relief she heard in his voice left her as curious as what his “unorthodox proposal” might be. After all, Thomas Waverly struck her as the sort of man who was always in control and only asked questions whose answers he already knew. Yet, he was acting very much like he needed her rather than the other way around.

      They made arrangements to meet at an Italian restaurant where the highly rated menu came with equally high prices. Elizabeth had eaten at Antonio’s exactly once, and then, since she’d gone with a girlfriend, she’d ordered only a bowl of soup. Everything else was beyond her budget, especially once a glass of wine had been factored in.

      After hanging up, she paced her living room, absently stopping to pick up the magazines that Howie had knocked off the coffee table with his tail. The dog paced alongside her, his tongue lolling out from his open-mouthed grin.

      “I’ve got an hour before we meet.”

      Howie panted, as much from his recent exercise as from the heat. The house had no air-conditioning and wouldn’t for the foreseeable future. She didn’t have the extra funds in her household budget for that kind of luxury. Everything she had, she poured into her work.

      “An hour,” she repeated. “That’s not a lot of time. I need to make the most of it.” She let out a laugh that was brittle with nerves. For her benefit as much as the dog’s, she added, “I’ve worked my way through the alphabet when it comes to donors. Obviously, at W, I’m getting a little desperate.”

      Howie stared at her, as if he suspected there was more to those nerves than desperation on behalf of the nonprofit she’d started from scratch a decade before.

      “I need to do something to make Thomas Waverly sit up and take notice.”

      When Elizabeth sat down in front of her laptop, the dog laid his head on her knee. She planned to print out a batch of success stories from Literacy Liaisons’s client list. The testimonials were proof of how life-changing learning to read could be. But as she perched on a chair in front of the computer screen, she fiddled with the ends of her hair and became distracted. She was due for a trim.

      “Maybe the next time I see my stylist I’ll ask about a perm. What do you think, Howie?”

      The dog lifted his head from her leg. She swore he looked confused, and no wonder. Why was she thinking about this now?

      “Never mind.”

      Howie continued to stare at her.

      “Look, I know this isn’t a date.” She patted his broad head. Again, for his benefit as well as her own, she said, “But it never hurts to look one’s best. Dress for success and all that.”

      With that in mind, she snatched up the phone and dialed her best friend’s number, sighing with relief when Melissa Sutton picked up just before the call would have gone to voice mail. It was hard to catch her very social friend, even on her cell.

      The two women had been tight since college, even though they seemed to have little in common with the exception of their commitment to battling illiteracy, which was why after a stint as a packaging engineer, Melissa had showed up at Literacy Liaisons, willing to take a significant cut in pay for rewards of another kind.

      The similarities ended there. Where Elizabeth was reserved and, admittedly, a bit of a wallflower, her friend, who was nearly as petite as Elizabeth, managed to stand out. It wasn’t only her infectious laughter and bawdy sense of humor that caught men’s attention. Mel was a bona fide head-turner. On more than one occasion, Elizabeth had witnessed her friend’s effect on men. It was almost comical the way they fawned over her and catered to her every whim. If only that kind of charisma could be bottled up and sold.

      “I have an emergency,” she said in a rush.

      “My God, Elizabeth, what’s wrong?”

      “I need some of your clothes.”

      “My clothes?”

      “I have an important meeting in roughly an hour and nothing suitable to wear.”

      “You’re having a fashion emergency?” Mel’s laughter boomed. “I think I need to sit down.”

      “It’s not funny.”

      “Sorry.” Her friend’s tone turned serious. “It’s just I’ve never had you call to borrow clothes for a date let alone for work.”

      “This is important.”

      “So you’ve already said. Work shouldn’t be more important than your love life. That’s just sad, honey. Sad.” Elizabeth thought she heard a tsking sound before Mel went on. “You need to get out more, kick up your heels. And the heels I’m referring to are not those dowdy pair of black pumps that would suit my great-aunt Geraldine.”

      Elizabeth pinched her eyes closed. “Can we have this conversation another time, please?”

      “Fine. Another time. And don’t think I won’t hold you to it,” Mel warned, then added, “So, am I coming to your place or are you coming to mine?”

      They decided on Mel’s since her two-story town house was closer to the restaurant Thomas had selected, and it wouldn’t require her friend to pack up an assortment of outfits.

      Once there, Mel wasn’t satisfied with dressing Elizabeth in a ruffled shift that was surprisingly flattering on her less curvaceous form, and pairing the soft pink number with strappy silver sandals. She insisted on restyling her hair and applying additional makeup, too.

      The effect was an improvement, and she hardly appeared overmade, but it still presented Elizabeth with a dilemma.

      Studying her reflection in Mel’s vanity mirror, she said, “He’s going to think I’m interested in him.”

      “He who?” Mel asked, leaning over to dab a little more coral-colored gloss on Elizabeth’s bottom lip.

      “Thomas Waverly.”

      Her friend drew back, eyes wide with surprise. “Thomas Waverly? GQ-cover-worthy Thomas Waverly? That’s who you’re having dinner with?”

      “Do you know him?” Her stomach pitched. Had Mel dated him? That question was followed rapidly by: Why would that matter?

      “I know of him,” Mel clarified. “I saw him at a celebrity golf outing that I played with Dominic last summer.”

      Dominic, right. Mel’s beau of the month several months ago. A corporate highflyer of some sort. Yet for all the money he’d lavished on Mel, he’d been downright stingy when it came to contributing to Literacy Liaisons.

      “So, what’s Thomas like?”

      “We didn’t actually meet, but I saw him tee off on one of the par threes. Very nice swing. Fluid and strong. He nearly wound up with a hole in one. He settled for a birdie thanks to one very smooth putting stroke.” Mel made a purring sound that kick-started Elizabeth’s barely settled nerves.

      “Do you ever not think of sex?”

      Mel propped one hip on the edge of the bathroom counter. “I only think of it so often to take up the slack for you. You need to think of it more.”

      “I don’t have the time.” A pitiful excuse, and, of course, Mel called her on it.

      “Yes, it would be a real shame to miss your evening line-up of cable television shows once in a while.”

      “You like to watch White Collar, too.”

      “I like to watch the hunky guy who plays the ex-con,” Mel clarified while examining her manicure. “But I’m not faithful to him. When I have a better offer, I go out.”