High Heels in a Novel

[CrushedVamp]

So, I am asking for help.

I am writing my latest fictional novel and I am looking for a pair of heels to be described in my book that is being given as a gift.

A little background here is this. The woman is a real estate agent and dressed fashionably all the time. Early in the book she converses with a code enforcement officer where a little mild innuendo banter takes place. She asks for a favor, and he says he will do it, but only if she wears her highest high heels for him. Older than her by 20 years, as time marches on in the book, he gets creepier and begins to show his affection for her. Except she has feelings for a client now.

He gives her an unexpected gift which is high heels, but what should the gift consist of? What would be an ideal heel height? What would be a good price point? In other words what sort of shoes would someone want to buy for a lady he was interested in. Something a bit suggestive, but not overly slutty. The more details you can give will be better, like color and style such as peep-toed or sling backs, etc. I am really not sure what would work in this situation.

There are no bad answers here, just asking for some expert help. I struggle to correlate centimeter heel height to inches, so if it can be stated inches, all the better. I was thinking 7 inch heels, but wonder if those are over the top as a gift in this situation?

[Shyheels]

Seven inch heels are well into fetish territory - if that’s the message your character is meant to convey, by all means but it would be decidedly creepy. He sounds a bit creepy anyway but if he’s hoping to disguise it then definitely lower the heels to no more than 12cm or just under five inches. Even so in real life such a guy would make women uneasy - and understandably so 

[higherheels]

3 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Even so in real life such a guy would make women uneasy - and understandably so

Absolutely.

But apart from the creepiness of the character, something "appropriate" relating to this story would be:

Black or red peeptoe pumps with a 4 inch heel, or maximum of 5 inches (no platforms). Price between 100 - max. 150 $.

[Cali]

The basic real estate pump, 4 " black leather, but not patent.

RE agents do not wear high heels to sell SFH but will to sell high rise condos.

[mlroseplant]

I'm going to put my vote in the 4 inch/10 cm camp, if you want to make the story believable. In my area, Latina real estate agents wear heels. Others do not.

[CrushedVamp]

Hey thanks for everyone's help.

Being a novel this can certainly be tweaked, but in taking into account what people said, I rough drafted it as such. In some light banter on the phone where she was talking with the Code Enforcement Officer while standing next to a building contractor, the CEO made mention of seven inch heels. She scoffed that the builder could not build a house level, so that was out of the question.

Later in the novel when he comes to her office with heels purchased for her, he buys four-inch heels. She makes note that she typically wears 3.5 inch heels to work. In that scene she quickly comes to realize he has increasingly creepy affections for her by making a contractors life deliberately a living hell. This results in a fight where she tosses the bought heels back at him in total disgust. Here it sounds ridiculous but over 3000 words works well.

In novels there is a technique known as lampshading which is a quick fix to explain an anomaly in prose, and here I lampshaded this all by having her explain that high heels and short skirts only works for male buyers, and goes against sales if it is a couple. Just a quick way to show some of her own flaws that she will do a lot for a sale. Does it work or not? It is hard to say, it is a writing technique that semi-works, and readers tend to accept any answer as, "yeah, I guess", and move on.

But feel free to add more advice. I can always change the novel