You and No Other

"Happy New Year!" Elizabeth said to no one as she danced around her office. "It is going to be a banner year here at Elmwood Zoo." After five years of planning and hard work, it was all coming together.

Just last month the zoo had broke ground on a new project to expand the Gorilla Habitat and Ape House. With her plans approved and funding secured this summer would bring the grand opening of the new Treetop Trails an ambitious project costing around fifty million dollars.

"Oh, Lizzie?" Christina the Zoo's Chief Operating Officer came bursting into her office. "What are you going to do? All your hard work?"

Elizabeth stopped dancing and stared at Christina in confusion.

Scanning her features briefly for acknowledgment, Christina looked horrified. "You don't know."

"Know what?"

There was no easy way to say it. Christina blurted out, "Mr. Dallas has died."

Shocked, Christina leaned against her desk for support. "Wow." She had just talked to him two days ago. He was her biggest supporter. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on his birthday. He just turned eighty-seven.

Christina waited for the shock to wear off and the understanding to seep in.

In seconds, Elizabeth leaped off her desk. "Treetop Trails? The expansion?"

"With Mr. Dallas gone we're in trouble," Christina said. "His will states in the event of his death all his funds go to his foundation for protecting the gorillas in the wild."

"So, that's it? We're cut off. We've already begun work. How am I going to pay the workers? How are we going to complete the project? If the work stops now, where will we house the animals? If relocated to other Zoos, we could lose them permanently."

Elizabeth paced her office like a caged panther. She had to think, she had to come up with a plan.

"Look," Christina said offering a small ray of hope, "I've called. Most of the donors are up for making a memorial fund to help the project but they can't give up the funds now. It would happen over time as funds become available, even then we are still going to come up short."

Elizabeth stopped pacing. "How short?"

Christina winced before saying, "A half a million will keep the project running, at least until the other funds arrive."

Elizabeth raised fifty million she wasn't about to let her entire project fail because of a measly five hundred thousand. She had to come up with something. "What about a fundraiser?"

"We still need a sponsor to cover the expenses. The zoo is strapped," Christina informed her.

Elizabeth bit her bottom lip in concentration. There must be a way.

"You have a connection you know? One we haven't tapped yet," Christina reminded her.

The reminder was a painful one. Ben. She had gotten this far without asking for his assistance but now her back was to the wall. She wouldn't have to hit him up for the full funds only enough to cover whatever fundraising idea she and Christina concocted.

Her pride would suffer a major blow, but to save her animals and the project, she'd date the devil himself, and Ben wasn't too far off that mark. Ben Styles was a world-renowned Wildlife Documentary Film Maker. His style had revolutionized how other documentaries were made. He was also gorgeous and dangerous, mostly to Elizabeth who made the mistake of giving him her heart years ago only to have him stomp on it like a herd of elephants on a stampede.

"He's back in the states, you know?" Christina pushed.

Of course, she knew. Elizabeth followed Ben's career like a fanboy follows his favorite comic book. There wasn't a detail she didn't know and in fact, she had insider information. He wasn't just in the States but back in their hometown, catching up with old friends as he put it in his last voicemail to her.