When she drew back, Jack pulled her close against him, then he finally told the group, “I’m extremely pleased to let all of you know that Mary has agreed to become my wife.”
The next thing she knew, Allen had popped a bottle of champagne and was pouring a glass for everyone. How, she wondered, could Allen have known to have champagne ready?
Realizing it was just the cynical part of her that kept trying to rise up to ruin everything, she figured it wasn’t at all impossible that Allen had the champagne on ice to celebrate the end of their successful campaign and their upcoming launch.
“I’m so happy that you found true love,” Gerry said as he drew her into his arms and hugged her tight.
While it occurred to her that Gerry was the only one in the room who had truly looked surprised at Jack’s announcement, she assumed that was because he was the only one of them who knew her history and how badly she’d been hurt before.
When he moved away to finish setting up his cameras, though she was only a few sips in, Mary could already feel the champagne going to her head, so she put her glass down.
She was just about to head into her dressing room to do her hair and makeup for the photos, when Larry said, “Hey, now that you and Jack are engaged, what do you guys think about taking some shots of the two of you together with the Pocket Planner?”
Mary’s gut clenched reflexively at the suggestion that they use images of the two of them as a couple to sell Jack’s invention, but even as she was working to push away the twinge, Jack was shaking his head.
“Mary’s the face of our product. She’s the one people want to see using the Pocket Planner, not an engineer who’s worked out of a garage for the past ten years.”
“Actually,” Howie said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “you two do look good together. Really good. Layla even pointed it out to me after that night at the bar. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people responded just as well to the two of you as they do to Mary. And maybe Jack’s ugly mug could help pull in even more female buyers.”
Mary felt torn right down the middle. Old fears were screaming at her, warning her not to be so stupid a second time by shooting pictures for a campaign in which falling in love with the founder of the company played any part. But she loved Jack and wanted the very best for him. And her experience with advertising over the past thirteen years told her that the two of them posing together would be good. Really good.
She looked at Jack and smiled. “It’s a good idea. Let’s do it.”
Jack took her in his arms, clearly concerned about the decision she’d just made. “We should stick to the original plan, Mary. I don’t want you to have any regrets. Not now. Not ever.”
For his ears only, she said, “Your dream is just as important to me as it is to you. I think we owe it to all those years of working in your garage to convince people to give your invention a chance any way we can.” She lifted her hand to his face and smiled. “Plus, just like Howie said, women are going to go wild for this face of yours.”
Gerry had picked up his camera and moved over to them in the hopes of capturing the poignant moment. “Mary? Jack?”
Finally, Jack gave a small nod. Larry handed them the Pocket Planner, and she held on to both Jack and his dream as the camera bulbs started flashing.
* * *
Several hours later, Gerry declared that they had more than enough fantastic pictures and headed out to develop them immediately in his darkroom so that they could create the final ad in time for the launch.
Mary realized she’d never had that much fun in front of the camera before. She’d always been able to perform with people watching her, but when she was in Jack’s arms, everyone and everything else had truly disappeared. It had been totally different from the way things had been when she’d shot the ads with Romain. Fun, rather than serious. Impromptu, rather than planned.
Jack was, as she’d suspected, a natural in front of the camera. Gerry had practically been drooling over every frame that Jack had been in, and she had a feeling the photographer wouldn’t be the only one. Rugged, mature men like Jack were always in high demand in the print ad industry. Clearly, if he ever wanted to give up engineering, he could walk right into a very lucrative career in front of the camera. Of course, she knew he’d never give up his work, not when his brilliant mind would always be racing ahead to the next invention.
Mary went into the dressing room to change back into her street clothes and was just coming back out when she overheard Larry and Howie talking excitedly, their voices traveling down the hall to her.
“Can you believe how well this is all going?” Larry said to Howie. “Thank God, we walked past Mary’s photo shoot that day in Union Square.”
She smiled, agreeing with them. Meeting Jack that day had changed her life, in the most wonderful ways.
“And, thank God, she agreed to Jack’s marriage proposal,” Howie added. “Allen was completely right when he told us yesterday afternoon that the press is going to eat up the way the two of them met and fell in love while working on this campaign. He’s already put out some feelers, and it sounded like there is going to be lots of interest already. That’s probably why he left so fast after the celebration this morning—to go make all those calls to confirm the news that she’s wearing his ring.”
Allen had known about her and Jack yesterday afternoon? He’d talked to Howie and Larry about it and how the press was going to love seeing Jack’s ring on her finger?
But he hadn’t asked her to marry him until that evening. And on top of that, they’d agreed to keep their relationship private, just between the two of them. In fact, Jack had been the one who’d said he wanted to keep things private a little while longer once they’d declared themselves to each other.
So how could all of them have already known?
“It’s been the perfect plan from start to finish,” Larry agreed happily.
Plan. Mary felt as if her heart was tearing in two right where she stood. It had been the perfect plan.
She braced herself against the wall and forced herself to take a deep breath. Now that she knew what a fool she’d been, it would be easiest to run, to leave, to get on a plane to somewhere, anywhere, and never see Jack again.
But even bigger than her shame at how easily she’d been duped was her anger. And, right now, fury was all that stood between her and the bitter pain of a broken heart.