Free Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts Page A

occupancy
these days, so maybe some of them would offer a special discount for that
weekend.”
    “Oh, and the restaurants can feature special chocolate
desserts,” Bailey said.
    “We could award a plaque to the one that comes up with the most
creative dessert, using our candy, of course,” Cecily suggested. “Bragging
rights for them, profit for us.”
    “I love it,” Samantha said. This scheme was looking better by
the minute.
    Bailey nodded eagerly. “Our local artists can set up booths in
the park along Center Street. Heck, we can all have food booths over on Alpine
like we do on the Fourth of July.”
    “Girls, this all sounds lovely, but you have to have time to
get people on board,” Mom said.
    “Since when isn’t the Icicle Falls Chamber of Commerce on board
with anything that brings in tourist business?” Samantha argued. “I could work
that angle.”
    “Me, too,” said Bailey. “I can phone people from here. Oh, this
could be really big. We can hand out samples, give tours of the factory, all
kinds of cool stuff.”
    “But there’s the matter of permits,” Samantha said, coming down
to earth with a thud. “We can’t just decide to have a festival without getting
permits for the sale of food and alcohol. And we need a special-event permit
that all the departments sign off on. It takes time for all that to make the
rounds in city hall.”
    “But if it’s good for Icicle Falls I bet you can find someone
to move the process along,” Cecily said.
    Hmm. Her sister had a point there.
    “Let’s try it, anyway,” Bailey urged. “Think of all the
chocolate-lovers we can lure up here. Oooh, and we could have a chocolate ball,”
she added dreamily. “I can see it now, an old-fashioned masked ball where
everyone dresses up.”
    “And have that chocolate dinner before,” Cecily put in.
    “We can sponsor the dinner and the ball and sell hot chocolate
and truffles in a booth.” Bailey was beaming now, on fire with a million
ideas.
    If they could manage to pull off even some of them…Samantha
felt the fire catching in her, too. “We’d need to advertise in the Seattle
papers, set up a website.” She grabbed a piece of paper from Waldo’s desk and
began scribbling notes to herself.
    “That will cost money,” Mom pointed out. “Girls, I just don’t
think we can raise what we need by sponsoring something like this. Sponsoring,
by its very nature, involves cost.”
    Now that they were going down the tubes she was deciding to
grow a head for business? “Everything involves cost,” Samantha argued.
    But Mom had a point. This whole thing was a huge gamble and it
could bomb big-time.
    What did it matter, though, if the bank was going to take the
business, anyway? Chances were slim that they’d even come close to making enough
money to get the bank off their backs—but if they did nothing their chances went
from slim to none. And maybe they could at least raise enough to allow her to
renegotiate with the bank. If she came in with a check…
    “I’ve got a good feeling about this,” Cecily said.
    Samantha put a lot of stock in her sister’s instincts. “Then
let’s do it. What have we got to lose?”
    Their business, of course. And maybe their sanity.
    Oh, wait, trying to pull off something this big in such a short
time—they’d already lost their sanity. So what the heck. Sweet Dreams Chocolates
was about to sponsor a chocolate festival.

Chapter Six
    The man of your dreams is the one who shares your dreams.
    —Muriel Sterling, Mixing Business with
Pleasure: How to Successfully Balance Business and Love
    A fter their family conference call,
Samantha’s mother loaded her up with chicken casserole, tuna surprise and
brownies, gave her an encouraging hug and then sent her home feeling slightly
ill. She hoped the queasiness was due to all the sugar she’d been consuming
lately and not fear of failure.
    She went to bed half hoping she could save the day by dreaming
up a fabulous chocolate