1
“Y ou did what?” Xola questioned a few days later as they were having lunch together.
Olani and her cousin made it a point to have lunch and dinner together once a week.
She’d been tempted to call her the morning after she’d lost her mind and made a husband application site.
However, she’d decided that she wanted to tell her in person.
Granted, Olani was giving herself time to see if she would leave it up or take it down.
Once she published it, she hadn’t even looked at anything related to it, turning off her notifications for the email she’d made to link to it.
“You heard me,” Olani responded because she knew her cousin did not need her to repeat what she’d said.
“What could have possibly made you want to do something like this?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time. A way to take away the hassle and possibility of bad dates.”
“Dating is half the fun,” Xola informed her.
“You aren’t wrong, and I’m not saying get rid of it altogether, but this way, you know if the person you’re dating has the same end goal as you, or if they’re dating just to do so, and waste your time.”
“Okay, I’ll give it to you. You have a point, but what happens when a bunch of weirdos get on this site you made, see your picture, and try to find you through other means to do who only knows what.”
“They won’t see my picture. The website is just an introduction to the services offered, and the men fill out a survey and give information on themselves.
They don’t have to submit a picture, but they do have to consent to a background check,” Olani told her before sipping her drink.
“If I like them, and we have things in common, I send over the survey I filled out as a match. If they accept, an initial first date is set up through the site, and if that date goes well, the rest are set up the same way. It’s all pretty anonymous until the actual meeting. ”
Olani wasn’t crazy enough to just plaster her picture onto the site.
She was running it as if there were multiple women available to be matched with the men who may submit information.
She also knew that running a background check on them wouldn’t guarantee that whoever they were wasn’t some sort of lunatic, but it would help rule out those with criminal records.
She already paid for a background check service for her business, so she’d use that to run them.
“And these dates will occur in a crowd full of people?” Xola questioned.
“Yes, they will. I’ll even give you the time and place; you can be there watching like a stalker from the shadows if you want.”
“Good, because I don’t want you going alone.” Xola took a drink of her lemonade. “I suppose what you’re doing isn’t all that crazy. There are dating websites and matchmakers for everything nowadays.”
Olani nodded in agreement. “Besides, there may not even be anyone who signs up or isn’t just looking for a quick booty call.”
Their server approached with their food, and they allowed a lull in conversation until the other woman was gone. “So, how’s work?” Olani questioned after blessing her food.
“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. I have a new and unique client. I’ve seen them six times, and each time, they insist on bringing their most recent sexual partner with them, and it hinders progress because the session starts, runs, and ends the same.”
Olani knew Xola couldn’t and wouldn’t tell her more than that.
Her cousin was a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, and honestly, had someone told Olani that Xola, who’d started her first year of college as an education major, would end up with the career field she was in now, she wouldn’t have believed them.
“Is the temp receptionist I sent you still working out?” Olani questioned.
Olani decided to open her own staffing agency after getting her business degree.
Before graduating, she saw several of her friends struggle to find jobs in their fields after graduation, and she didn’t want that to be her—she didn’t want that to be anyone if she could help it.
So, before she even graduated, she began to put together a business plan and get her name out there for the service she was planning to offer.
“She is. I think things are even running a bit smoother. I may have to keep her a few weeks over the submitted time frame. Angie doesn’t know if her doctor is going to release her since she isn’t healing as fast as they thought she would.”
“I didn’t have another job lined up for her yet, so I don’t see that being a problem. I’ll call or have one of the agents call to ensure that’s alright with her.”
They caught up for the next forty-five minutes as they ate their lunch before they both had to head back to the office. Xola told Olani to let her know when she decided to check and see if she got any submissions so they could look at them together.
Olani slid behind the wheel of her car, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed back toward her office.
She only had a few hours left, and she decided to spend that time putting together candidates for a few of the requests submitted earlier that morning and putting together a list of new businesses to go and introduce herself to.
Several had opened up in the past couple of months, and Olani always made sure to take them a little gift basket along with some brochures and cards from herself and her staff.
She made it a point to do business visits at least once a week.
It was her way of staying ahead of the few other staffing agencies in town.
E lion sighed as he felt a headache coming on.
It was the most inopportune time since he would have to sit through another hour of this meeting.
He and his team were currently reviewing how his last exhibit went as they tried to get him to give them a theme for his next one.
Elion was sure that was where the headache stemmed from.
He’d worked with this current group of people for the past few years, and at this point, he felt as if they all should know that was not how his process worked.
He was unable to give them a theme because he allowed his fingers to set it as he worked, and it just so happened the pieces tended to coincide with one another.
Elion was also a bit annoyed that the last exhibit had barely closed seventy-two hours ago, where all of his pieces sold, and they were ready to push him into the next one.
Clara, his assistant, who also happened to be his oldest niece, must have realized this.
“Why don’t we postpone this meeting until a later date? I completely forgot that there is a shipment of materials due to be delivered to the house within the hour,”she informed the room. “Forgive me. I’ll reach out to you all to reschedule.”
Neither Elion nor Clara gave them a chance to respond before they were both out of their seats and heading out of the conference room. She spoke again only when they were on the elevator, heading to the first floor.
“Why don’t you just start telling them to shut the hell up when they get that pushy.”
Elion chuckled. “Because they find me spaces to showcase my work, market me, and broker sales.”
“All of which I could do if you’d just let me try,” she mumbled.
“That would be a lot for you to take on right now. Maybe when you’ve finished school, we’ll talk about it.”
“I can still handle it. I handle being your assistant and liaising with them to make sure you don’t miss appointments, and everything is on track. It’d be so much simpler if I were the one doing it,” Clara countered.
Elion knew she thought that now, but so much work went into it. He wouldn’t have multiple people doing it if he felt one person could handle it on their own.
“We’ll talk about it again after you graduate,” Elion repeated as they stepped out of the elevator.
“That’s a year from now,” Clara responded with a huff.
“It’ll fly by.” They approached his car and got in. “Now, let’s go grab some lunch.”
He was just about to pull out of the parking space when Clara stopped him. Elion watched her pull some Tylenol from her purse and hand it to him. “Take these. That vein in your forehead is showing.”
Elion took them from her, dry swallowing the pills before proceeding to head towards their favorite sushi restaurant.
When they pulled in fifteen minutes later, Elion dropped Clara off at the door while he found a parking space.
Once he made it inside, she was already in line, so he went to stand by her.
The two placed their order, taking the number given to them, before going to make their drinks and finding a table.
Clara told him about school while they waited for their food. Ten minutes later, their food arrived, and Elion thanked the server, who lingered for a moment before leaving.
“Uncle Elion, you are so oblivious,” Clara stated.
“What are you talking about?”
“That woman was trying to flirt with you.”
Elion looked in the direction the server had gone in, only to find her looking at their table. She quickly glanced away when she noticed him looking.
“She’s a kid; she’s your age,” Elion told her with a scoff. “And you and I both know I don’t have time to go out.”
“First, I’m not a kid. I’m an adult.”
“Barely,” Elion responded. She wouldn’t be able to buy liquor until next year, so technically, a kid to him. “Second, dating would relax you.”
“Or stress me, which I have no intention of allowing to happen because I don’t have time to meet people. Work keeps me busy.”
“Then maybe you should join a dating site or something.”
Elion swallowed the sushi he’d just eaten. “If I don’t have time to meet someone, what makes you think I have time to date, period?”
“If you say so,” Clara responded, and he hoped she would drop the subject, but he knew that she would more than likely bring it up again. In those times, he wished she hadn’t gotten so much of his sister’s personality. Her stubbornness, in particular.
“Eat your sushi. I have a private commission I need to get started on this afternoon.”
Clara nodded and returned to telling him about a paper she had to write for one of her classes as they ate. Elion found his eyes drifting to where the server had stood once more before focusing on the conversation with his niece.
When they finished their food, they threw their trash away and left the restaurant. The drive to the house took half an hour. Elion preferred to live slightly outside of city limits.
He entered the house while Clara went to the apartment over the garage. When she’d moved in with him during her freshman year of college, she wanted some sort of independence, so Elion hadn’t forced her to live in the house but instead told her if she wanted to live in the apartment, she could.
It worked out perfectly when she started working for him two years ago. That way, when they irritated each other regarding work, they could separate in different areas.
Elion went to his studio, turning on some music.
He pulled up his email and went over the client’s vision for the commissioned sculpture.
Typically, he didn’t take requests of this nature.
However, this was one of his long-term clients, and they had spent undeniably large sums of money with him.
So, Elion had made an exception since he stated it was a present for someone.
Grabbing some materials with an image in mind, Elion got down to work, hoping what he saw intersected with what his client envisioned.