Free The Gift of Love by Peggy Bird

work for you?”
    “It’s great. Thank you. I owe you.”
    “Actually not. It would be doing a favor for me to connect her with a few friends.”
    “Are you responsible for her or something?” Now Taylor was curious about the exact relationship between Marius and the lovely Ms. Rodriguez. Then a possibility occurred. “She’s not an ex-girlfriend, is she?”
    “God, no,” Marius said before breaking into a loud laugh. “But please don’t repeat your question in front of my wife.”
    “Is there a story there?”
    “A long one. But it’s too complicated for right now. Maybe some night over a drink, I’ll tell you.” Taylor could hear the rustle of paper. “Give me your home address so I can make sure Cynthia gets an invitation to you.”
    Taylor recited his mailing address, thanked Marius for his help, got the names of the leads for new clients, and disconnected the call. He’d succeeded in his goal of finding out who the beautiful woman was. Now all he had to do was figure out why it mattered to him so much.
    • • •
    A week after the meet-and-greet, Bella was no closer to getting to the root of the problem with the zone change than she’d been the first day she arrived in Seattle. She’d talked to half a dozen people at the event who’d given her the names of people to contact in the city who might be able to give her some help or at least an insight into what was going on. She’d followed up on every one of the suggestions. But no matter whom she talked to, the story had been the same: the staff had flagged the application because of the formal opposition of the neighborhood association, and any action would have to wait until after a hearing. Which couldn’t be scheduled for weeks, maybe as long as a couple months. If it took that long, Summer would miss her target date for opening.
    The president of the neighborhood association who’d filed the objection was out of town so Bella couldn’t talk to her. She did make an appointment with the city staffer who worked with the neighborhood associations, but he couldn’t give her any better advice than anyone else had about how to get past the objections of the neighbors.
    Bella was stumped. There was only so much work Summer was willing to pay to have the contractors begin in the house until after the zoning change was official, but what could be done, Bella got back on track. She was more successful at contacting lawyers, counselors, and writers who might be interested in joining their resource base, expanding their pool of expertise to provide the services the firm offered. She wouldn’t be making the final decision about whom to work with, but she wanted to have the research done to discuss with Summer when she was next in Seattle.
    She made the decision to move ahead with the marketing plan and set up a meeting with Nate Benjamin at MBA Consulting. Persuading Summer to stay overnight, she also scheduled a series of telephone and in-person interviews with the possible consultants she’d identified.
    She felt reasonably satisfied with what she’d accomplished although her frustration at not being able to move the huge barrier of the zoning change bothered her. Maybe it was her lack of experience, maybe her concern she wasn’t quite up to the challenge, but she was afraid she wasn’t doing a good enough job and it ate at her confidence, in spite of Summer’s continued praise for what she’d accomplished.
    An invitation to a reception for Cynthia Blaine, Marius’s wife, was a welcome distraction from her work worries. It came with a note from Marius asking her to be there by seven so he could introduce her to someone who wanted to meet her. As a chance to meet Cynthia at an event where they wouldn’t be forced to carry on too much of a conversation but where she could apologize for her behavior a year ago, it was perfect. And she was curious about who could possibly know enough about her to want to meet her.
    On the night of the event, she