One Hundred Proposals. Holly Martin

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ just so proud of what we’ve achieved that I want to tell anyone that listens and anyone that doesn’t.’

      ‘No, not that. You always say our company, our business. It’s yours, you started it. I’m just the tech guy.’

      It was just me to start with. I created the.PerfectProposal.com over two years ago when my boyfriend at the time proposed drunkenly to me over a greasy kebab. It struck me that maybe the menfolk of this world might need a little helping hand to create a proposal their girlfriends would remember forever. Although the greasy kebab is not one I’m likely to forget.

      Harry was my web designer. When the business first started he would come by my office, the back bedroom in my home, every day to help update the website with my new ideas, photos and special offers. In the end it made sense to make him a permanent feature. Our website looked fantastic and as an online company this was integral to our success.

      But Harry wasn’t just the geeky IT guy, far from it. He was the biggest man I had ever seen in my life, with large thighs and big feet. He had stubbly, dark hair and chocolate eyes. But he also had a vivid imagination – where I was organising the logistics for a champagne helicopter trip, he would be the one that would come up with something completely unique like using fireflies.

      ‘And you always put yourself down. We’re equal partners now, you helped to make the company a success too,’ I said.

      He shrugged, never keen to accept that he played such an important part in it. He gestured to the fireflies that were starting to break formation now. ‘Is it too sickly?’

      I let my camera hang round my neck and leaned into him, I loved the way I fitted against him. ‘I love it, I really do, it’s… magical. But there’s still something missing.’

      Was there really such a thing as a perfect proposal? Three months ago, just before Valentine’s Day, Harry had made it his mission to provide me with one. But deep down I knew what I wanted and I doubted Harry would be able to deliver it. I should have told him that when he first started this wild goose chase. It would have saved me a lot of heartache.

       Chapter One

      Three Months Before

      I put the phone down on another excited client and sighed. It was February 11^th and we’d had a surge of customers all desperately wanting to propose on top of the Eiffel Tower on Valentine’s Day. I felt like screaming. It was only by careful planning that I’d arranged that my customers weren’t going to be there at the same time. That’s just what a girl wants to feel special, to see other girls being proposed to at the same place and time that she was. Was there no originality anymore? Harry was brilliant at coming up with unique proposals, but no matter how many times I had tried to sell Harry’s ideas to them, they wanted the traditional and that was that.

      ‘Another Eiffel Tower?’ asked Harry as he absentmindedly uploaded photos to our rolling gallery.

      ‘He wants a dozen red roses delivered to the observation deck at eight.’ I rubbed my head in defeat. ‘What about something different, going to the ballet or proposing over a bag of chips at the end of Brighton Pier?’

      He swivelled in his chair. ‘What would be your perfect proposal?’

      I looked at him and had a sudden flash of him holding me in his arms and asking me to marry him.

      ‘I don’t know, the perfect guy would definitely be a bonus.’

      ‘Ok so you have your perfect guy and it’s not greasy kebab boy –’

      ‘Let’s be clear, it was the kebab that was greasy not the man.’

      He waved away the details. ‘So Orlando Bloom or some other non-greasy hunk is asking you to marry him, how would he do it?’

      I took a sip of tea whilst I pondered this. If one of my customers phoned up at a loss for inspiration I had a hundred ideas. But for me, my mind was blank.

      ‘I have an idea.’ Harry’s eyes were suddenly bright with excitement. He whirled round on his chair and started tapping away furiously on his computer. I peered over his shoulder at our website.

       Proposer’s Blog

       How Do You Propose to a Proposer?

      Over the next hundred days I intend to find out. I will find one hundred ways to propose to our Chief Proposer Suzie McKenzie, and post the results here for your enjoyment. One thing’s for sure, not one of my proposals will be on top of the Eiffel Tower with a dozen red roses.

      ‘You can’t put that, we’ve had fifteen customers who want to propose like that over the last week,’ I said, ignoring the sudden thundering of my heart that Harry was going to propose to me.

      ‘Then maybe they’ll have a rethink.’ Harry was already uploading a picture of a diamond ring onto the blog.

      ‘Or ask for their money back.’

      But Harry was still writing.

      Day 1: The Traditional Proposal. Location: Our office.

      He stood up and got down on one knee – yanking the snake ring off his thumb, he held it aloft to my shocked face.

      ‘Suzie McKenzie, you are my best friend and I cannot imagine finding anyone I would rather spend the rest of my life with. Marry me.’

      The world stopped. My mouth was dry. How unfair was it that the one thing I wanted most in the world was happening right in front of me and it was as real as a pair of breasts on Sunset Boulevard.

      I wanted to snatch the ring off him, stuff it on my finger and march him down to the nearest registry office. But I didn’t.

      I cleared my throat of the huge lump. ‘Too clichéd, wrong location, wrong ring.’

      He grinned as he appraised his ring and stood up, clearly not fussed by this rejection. He started typing.

      Crashed and Burned. Apparently a snake ring with evil red eyes and the beige walls of our cramped office isn’t good enough for her. I’ll try again tomorrow.

      Surely not. A hundred days of this torment? I didn’t think I could bear it.

      He looked at his watch. ‘Oh, I’ve got to go, hot date with Sexy Samantha again tonight.’

      Samantha was his first girlfriend in nearly a year. When I first met him he seemed to go through a different girl each week, so I wasn’t sure why he’d gone through the sudden dry patch. But Samantha was definitely the type to tempt him out of it.

      I’d had the pleasure of meeting Sexy Samantha the night before. Suspicious of Harry’s relationship with his best friend, she’d barrelled into my home and demanded that Harry introduce me. I came downstairs in leggings and an oversized black hoodie – I knew I was hardly dressed to impress. And impress her I didn’t. The look of relief when Samantha saw me was palpable. She, on the other hand, was a vision of heavenly loveliness. She was almost as tall as Harry, with long blonde СКАЧАТЬ