Page 139 of Let’s Make a Scene

I’m gratified to see my name is only slightly smaller than Hannah’s.

“You want to help me plan a grand gesture?” I ask, weirdly touched by how invested they all are.

“Of course we do!” Arjun says.

“Well, I’m grateful,” I say, “but I don’t really understand why you’re doing this.”

Hannah looks down at me. “Jack, are you in love with Cynthie?”

“Yes,” I reply without hesitation. “Deeply, irrevocably, embarrassingly in love with her.”

Her face softens. “Yeah. That’s what we thought.”

“But it’s still nice to hear it.” Liam sniffles a bit.

“You’re perfect for each other,” Patty agrees.

“But with Cynthie.” Hannah shifts on her feet. “It’s… complicated. She wants to trust you, but it doesn’t come easily to her.”

“I know that,” I say softly. “I’ll earn it. I’m not going anywhere.”

Liam’s hand goes to his heart. Arjun is doing some pretty hard blinking.

“The thing is,” Patty cuts in, “Cynthie’s getting in her own way. She thinks it’s all too good to be true, and you need to do something to show her that you mean business.”

“She needs an intervention,” Hannah says firmly.

“And we promised we’d help her,” Liam adds.

“Hence the grand gesture,” I murmur, running my hand across my jaw as the truth dawns on me. “Cynthie thinks that the love we see in the movies doesn’t exist in real life,” I muse. “So we should show her that it really does. That life can be grand and romantic. That she deserves that—the time and the trouble and the thought, she deserves someone who loves her… epically.”

When I look up all four of them are watching me, wide-eyed. Hannah is smiling.

“That’s exactly right.” She nods approvingly. “Cynthie wants the big splashy happily-ever-after moment, but she’s been let down too often. She wants to believe that you’re in love with her, but she’s holding herself back.”

“It’s like she needs proof.” Arjun sighs, his eyes flicking to the murder board. “Hard evidence.”

There’s a pause as we absorb that.

“We could have a trial.” He perks up. “A love trial! I could wear a judge’s wig. We could prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.”

“That doesn’t sound very romantic,” Liam puts in doubtfully. “It sounds more like a bad episode of Judge Judy.”

“Well,” Arjun says with a shrug, “I already told you I’ve got a dove guy—”

“Arjun!” Patty huffs. “Stop banging on about the dove guy. There’s nothing romantic about a load of fancy pigeons crapping everywhere.” She hesitates. “But I’m not against the idea of seeing you in one of those wigs.”

Arjun’s eyes widen and his grin threatens to split his face in half. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

“Once again, can we not get distracted by your role-playing kink,” Liam groans. “I cannot believe how often I have to say that.”

“Actually, I think Arjun might be on to something,” I say thoughtfully.

“Yes!” Arjun pumps his fist. “Vindication! You want me to call my guy right now? I can get you a great deal. We can have so many doves here in the next hour.” His expression is gleeful, bordering on manic.

“No, no,” I cut him off with a wave of my hand, frankly starting to feel a bit worried about this avian obsession. “Not the doves. The proof. I think I have an idea.” My eyes meet Hannah’s. “But it’s a ton of work and we’d need a lot of help to pull it off by tomorrow.”

Hannah’s smile widens. “What I’m hearing is that you require the help of an organizational whiz.”