Nigel Brookes

Nigel Brookes, a character in the A Very Scandalous Proposal book, is Your Character's good friend from college and your confidant. He is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Nigel has brown eyes, short black hair which he keeps neatly combed and parted from the left, and a fair-to-olive complexion. He keeps his face clean-shaven. He wears a dark gray dress shirt with floral design, a dark space-blue blazer with currant-red handkerchief, and black slacks held by a black belt with silver buckle.

Personality
Nigel is friendly and honest, and knows his place and how to navigate British society. Although he is not well-connected, he is helpful to you and enjoys spending time with you. He has a reputation for his digital wizardry all over town.

Background
Nigel's family holds a baronetcy, the lowest heritable rank, which gets them into some aristocratic functions but nothing like royal weddings. As he puts it, they are on the outskirts of posh, just below peerage, and while he may know some people, he isn't a big 'muckety-muck' (a person in a position of power, authority, or status).

A Very Scandalous Proposal

 * Chapter 1: The Mysterious Heir
 * Chapter 2: The Proposal
 * Chapter 3: Mind your Manners
 * Chapter 4: Everyone Who's Anyone
 * Chapter 6: Out on the Town (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 9: The Charity Gala
 * Chapter 13: Facing the Music (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 14: Revelations
 * Chapter 15: Weathering the Storm (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 16: The Next Generation

Your Character
Nigel is your college friend who you haven't seen in six years since you both graduated. Now, he works as a digital analyst for a bank in England. In Chapter 1, he picks you up from the airport, hands you a cup of your favorite coffee—toffee mocha latte—of which he has coined your nickname from, and drives you to tour the Barrington House. Because the Montjoys are notoriously private individuals, Nigel could not tell you how Simon/Ava Montjoy looks like ahead of time and is unsure how you want to pursue your research on the Montjoy family. When you discover Simon/Ava's identity during the tour, Nigel tells you not to beat yourself up about it. He lives there, reads the tabloids religiously and even he didn't recognize him/her.

In Chapter 2, you tell Nigel about Simon/Ava's proposal to his shock and that you turned him/her down. Nigel says he might have accepted it in a moment of weakness, admitting that he finds Simon/Ava attractive. He tries to give you contacts that might help you in your quest for Montjoy secrets, but most of them turn into dead ends because they refuse to give you any gossip. Because your sadness is his kryptonite, he suggests contacting Viscountess Agatha Burgess, who is one of Mummy's old friends and around Mitzi's age but that is also futile. When you decide to take up Simon/Ava's offer, Nigel warns you to be careful. The Montjoys aren't just rich; they have staggering social capital. They know everyone who's anyone, have their fingers in all the biggest pies, and have pull. They can make you and just as easily destroy you.

In Chapter 4, he supports you during your "introduction" to society. He says that after all the beer-goggle hookups you saved him from in college, he is forever in your debt. He attends the Whittenby Gala with you but afterwards you do not see him until Chapter 14. He offers to look for digital fingerprints on your laptop. If you decide to take him up on his offer, he finds evidence against Tommy Harrington for you.

Simon/Ava Montjoy
Even though they don't run in exactly the same circles, Nigel naturally knows of Simon/Ava and the Montjoys. Nigel never met the Simon/Ava before and had only seen Margaret Montjoy three times in his life.

Trivia

 * His character model resembles Peter Graves from The Heist: Monaco.
 * In Chapter 4, he says his Aunt Perpetua wants to know if he found a lovely boy to marry yet, implying that he is either gay or bisexual.
 * His guilty pleasure is watching The Ladies of Sacramento (a nod to "The Real Housewives of [various cities]").
 * His flat is located in South Kensington.