Simply Be Mine Matchmakers

1. A New Client?

Finding love in a big city like Los Angeles can feel impossible, but that only further motivated Lucy Chen to do her absolute best to help her clients meet their perfect match. She saw a couple holding hands as they passed her favorite coffee shop; it was something she always noticed even amongst strangers: connection and love, and it was a reminder that something so precious still existed in the world. Lucy ordered her chai tea latte and watched her surroundings in that deeply observant way she tended to default to until her name was called to indicate her drink was ready. She picked up the warm paper cup and crossed the street to her company's office on the third floor of a glass building filled with small businesses and kind employees.

"Morning," Celina Juarez eagerly greeted Lucy at the entrance to the offices of Simply Be Mine Matchmakers then played with her watch.

"Good morning, Celina, what's wrong?" Of course Lucy noticed the nervous tick.

"I got a weird vibe off of the woman waiting in your office. Her aura is clearly troubled. I'm not sure she's ready to be in a relationship right now, so maybe you shouldn't take her on as a new client."

"Okay, well, I'll talk to her and see for myself. What did she say when she came in?"

"She said she saw you in that article and wanted to talk to you about our matchmaking services. Oh, and her name is Genny Bradford," Celina recalled.

"That article is getting us a ton of business," Lucy grinned. "Can't wait to meet another potential client. Thank you." She walked past the front desk that Celina usually occupied when she was not nervously waiting by the door and stepped down the corridor to her office where she came upon a woman sitting in one of the chairs at her desk with middle length copper hair, blue grey eyes, and a kind smile. "Hi, I'm Lucy."

Genny shook her hand. "Wow, it's really nice to officially meet you. You're one of the matchmakers that found THE Sterling Freeman a husband. He's my favorite character on 'Hot Suspect', and he's so good looking. I didn't think a guy like that needed a matchmaker's help."

Lucy went to the other side of her desk to sit in her office chair and set her coffee down. "As our team of matchmakers said in the interview for the article about Sterling and his new husband, everyone can use another perspective when it comes to finding the right person. We can be so blinded by appearances, or in Sterling's case, his fame, when we need to look deeper to discover long-lasting compatibility. That's where we come in."

"Then, I've definitely come to the right place," she smiled.

"Our services start with an initial free consultation so we can get to know you, and then..."

Genny shook her head. "Oh no, I'm not looking to hire you for me. I'm recently divorced and not ready to put myself out there again quite yet. I want to hire you to help my brother find someone. I never understood how difficult it must have been for him to get divorced until it happened to me. I'm still reeling, but he's been single for a while now. I think he might just need a little shove to find love."

"We all do sometimes. Is your brother here?" She knew Celina would be thrilled that Genny and her troubled aura was not their newest client, but she had more questions.

"He's not. Actually, he's at work right now. He's a cop."

"Alright, well, we can have our administrator, Celina, get in touch with your brother to set up a time for us to meet."

"Great, and just a bit of a warning, he's not going to be super open to the help," Genny admitted as she winced.

"Really? Our clients tend to be open minded and desperate for matchmaking help."