Free Private Politics (The Easy Part) by Emma Barry Page A

said.
    “I hope not.”
    It was the nicest thing anyone had said to him in a long time.

Chapter Six
    Alyse felt intensely sorry for all those brides who approached their nuptials without so much as putting on a dinner for fifty, let alone a reception for five hundred. If she ever planned a wedding it would be easy. Routine even.
    On her desk leaned a stack of envelopes filled with invitations to a joint event YWR was hosting with several other international education groups. She was currently adhering stamps to each one and filling with simmering rage.
    Somehow she’d done the first one precisely right—just enough space around the edges and perfectly straight. Her example sat there taunting her as each one since had been slightly crooked, or placed so the tines of the stamp hung off the envelope and caught on her fingers. It turned out there were lots of ways to screw up and she’d tried them all. No doubt the road to madness was paved in self-adhesive stamps.
    She’d already dealt with most of the other details for the event, which was perhaps why the stamps nagged. Having addressed the larger issues, only those that couldn’t possibly matter remained.
    The trick was to balance something people would want to attend with what would make them feel bad. Or not bad, but concerned and empowered. You wanted them to want to give, to feel like they could make a difference. The most important part of the evening was the transition from the statement of the problem to the call to arms. You had to end positively with a list of ways in which people could help.
    What Alyse excelled at, what set her apart, was an ability to create the right conditions for The Ask. Others brought in leads, were involved in conversation, but the entire fundraising operation hinged on Geri and her. For all the teasing about centerpieces and hors d’oeuvres, the setting made The Ask possible. And whatever anyone else at YWR might think about it, Alyse knew that she brought in at least as much money as Geri. Maybe more.
    That was what made whatever was going on so dangerous. There wasn’t any cover. However it had happened, she was involved.
    She’d spent some time on Sunday night reexamining the photocopied receipt letters. There was something a bit off—perhaps that her signature looked too much the same.
    She had signed her name ten times and compared. The signatures on the letters were far more uniform than those on her test strip. She was beginning to suspect that the letters looked unfamiliar not because she had been distracted but because she had never seen them at all.
    Or not. Even the test strip was remarkably consistent, however. She had a fairly unvarying signature. She might be grasping at straws.
    Maybe she’d just needed something to obsess over so that she wouldn’t contemplate Sunday afternoon. A quick exchange with Millie after she’d returned home had confirmed that Liam had just met Molly. They weren’t an established couple or anything.
    When she’d asked casually, her roommate had said, “He called Parker yesterday. He apparently knows her a bit from work and Liam was concerned...”
    “Parker might have hooked up with a girl he wanted to date?”
    Parker’d had quite a reputation—a well-earned one—prior to his relationship with Millie.
    “Something like that. Why do you ask?” Millie was trying to keep the hope out of her voice, Alyse could tell. Ever since she’d found a happy relationship, Millie had been encouraging her to date more. She and Parker hadn’t exactly tried to set her up with Liam—and Michael, and some other guys Parker knew—but they’d created opportunity. Because wouldn’t it be a perfect little Buena Vista Social Club if she paired up with one of Parker’s friends?
    “No reason.” The words were thin and razor-sharp. She was trying to shut the door firmly before it flew all the way open. “I saw him at the movies and was surprised. I didn’t realize he was seeing