Chapter 1
Adley
I’m running late for one of the most important meetings of my
life, and I have my six-year-old niece in tow. What else could
go wrong?
Don’t jinx it.
Right. My life is already incredibly screwed. I was
made to understand that I was being given this client to work
with because everyone else was already overloaded. I was also
made to understand that my last six clients all failed to find
lasting matches. One gave the company a seriously negative
review that my boss had to beg and plead to get removed from
social media sites. One asked for her fees back, and the other
four tried the company’s services again. Not with me. With
one of my co-workers. Out of those four, three declared
themselves to be undyingly happy, or some cheesy, romantic
version of it.
“Where are we going again, Auntie?”
I haul Matilda out of her booster seat. I did a terrible
parking job when I hurriedly stopped the car in the one open
spot on the whole street, and the car door almost scrapes over
the sidewalk. I wince. Tildy laughs at my sour face.
“To the coffee shop. I have an important meeting with
a lady that I couldn’t reschedule.”
“Why don’t you have meetings in an office?”
“Well, we do. Sometimes. But some people don’t like
that. Some people think that’s impersonal. And I want to make
a good impression because if I don’t, my butt is going to get
