Page 74 of Never Let Go

She chuckled. “Apparently, one of his basic requirements was disregarded by his case manager. He escalated the complaint to me, and I kicked it to you because he doesn’t listen to me at all. You stand a better chance at getting through to him than I do.”

“Who’s Dan?” Porter asked, frowning. “Why does it sound like he doesn’t respect you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. He’s one of our frequent flyers around here, but he loves complaining and he has—” She stopped speaking abruptly when there was a knock on my door.

Dan popped his head in.

Porter stood up immediately, smirking at us as he headed to the door. “I’ll give you guys a few minutes.”

He nodded at Dan on his way out, and Hope and I stood to shake hands with another of our more problematic clients. He grinned approvingly as he greeted us. “Wow. Both of you, huh? It’s good to know the company is taking this so seriously.”

“Always,” I said after shaking his hand.

Hope motioned for him to take a seat. “Why don’t you tell us what’s been going on, Dan? My assistant tells me you’re feeling like we’re not listening to you.”

He sat down in the seat Porter had vacated, and even though my brother hadn’t exactly been on my side, I’d still rather have been going back and forth with him than to deal with yet another of Dan’s bizarro requests, but I was at work.

I had to do my job.

Even if I was still feeling like shit. Physically and emotionally.

Dan looked between the two of us and sighed. “I’ve realized that I can only seriously date a woman who smells like gardenia. Can you help with that?”

Hope blinked at him. “Gardenia?”

Instead of telling him to go do some soul-searching and decide if he really wanted to put any more women through dates he was only going to find something to complain about, I stared back at him. “We don’t have questions that specific on the application and I’m not sure we’ve got any scents on file, but we’ll do our best.”

Hope nodded her agreement with me. “Perhaps if you gave us some alternative scents as well, we could—”

“It has to be gardenia,” he reiterated as he got up. “Can you help me with that or not?”

I offered him a tight smile. “Like I said, we’ll do our best. Thanks for coming in today, Dan.”

“Thanks for meeting with me,” he said as he walked back to the door. “I really hope you can find me the right woman. I’m starting to think Sight Unseen may not be the right company for me.”

“You and me both, bud,” Hope muttered once he was gone.

Porter came striding back in, giving us each a questioning look in turn. “That was fast.”

I sighed. “Yeah, he was just hoping that we could find him the right-scented woman.”

“What?”

“Yep,” Hope said. “Apparently, it’s gardenia or nothing, but anyway. Where were we?”

Porter nodded. “We were talking about how Foster is an idiot who needs to call Shelby and make his case.”

“I’m not sure calling is the right thing to do anymore,” she mused. “You know, I was updating your case file earlier and I noticed she was a referral client from Ashley.”

“Ashley?” I frowned. “That girl you were so proud about matching up with her one true love a few months ago?”

“Yeah, her.” She glanced at Porter. “Chase and Ashley were each other’s first Sight Unseen dates and they hit it off immediately. It was a home run for me. They’re getting married soon.”

I sighed. “Okay, so what about it?”

She suddenly grinned at me. “So I think we should reach out to Ashley. She might help us.”

“Help us with what?” I asked skeptically.