“It’s baron Christopher Deven.” Natasha corrected me with a friendly but slightly judgmental shake of her head.

“Christopher’s fine,” Christopher saved me from the introductory faux pas and shook Jared’s hand with a smile.

“How are you doing, Christopher?” Jared asked and looked at Natasha. “I didn’t know you’d be bringing guests tonight.”

“These two needed a bit of fresh air.”

We all laughed politely; the way people do when they have nothing to say.

“I’ll just escort my friends to the table,” Natasha said and took Christopher and me by the hands. We’ll see you later at the after party, won’t we?”

“There is an after party after this?” Jared asked, laughing.

“There always is.” Natasha smiled.

“Enjoy the event,” Jared said. “I don’t think I’ll be joining the party.”

He nodded to us with a smile and walked away to a group of twittering young people who met him with exciting greetings. I was glad he had not mentioned our little deal because I was not ready to make it public just yet.

“You seem to know him quite well,” I said when we reached our table, and I helped Natasha to take her seat.

“It pays well to get to know people like Jared Shannon,” she said and opened the menu. “Let’s see what we’ll be paying for tonight.”

“Speaking of which, what is this charity for anyway?” Christopher asked, sitting down.

“And where is that open bar?” I asked a more important question, looking around.

The event went well. We left the place a couple of hours later. We took advantage of the open bar, but we did donate some money to… I could not even remember what that blasted charity was for after we went to the after party. I did remember one thing. I did not particularly like the way Jared looked at Natasha. But I could not blame him for being smitten by her beauty either.

***

A week later, Mr. Goldberg and I were in a big meeting room with Jared’s team in charge, getting ready to iron out any wrinkles in the deal if necessary. This was when a young lady walked in and announced the new offer their boss was ready to put down on the table. She put it quite succinctly and yet extremely comprehensively: Jared would double his investment in the project, giving me more funds to make my small cottage community even better and thus attract more clients down the line, if we made one more deal–sell the house. He wanted Maple Grove House. His team had done the necessary assessment of the house’s condition when they were on the property checking the future construction site last week. The sum he was offering was very generous and he was eager to close the deal as soon as possible.

“What does he want the house for?” Mr. Goldberg asked me when we were out on the street.

“You heard her: ‘Mr. Shannon would like to give back to the community he was once a part of by restoring the house to its former glory and converting it into a cultural space for educational purposes.’”

“What on earth does that mean?”

“Beats me. Whatever it is, he’s willing to pay top dollar for it.”

“You still need to start the project with your money, though.”

“Yes, but there’ll be much more later. We just need to get a few offers and we’re golden.”

“If you get those offers.”

I smiled. Mr. Goldberg was a very cautious man. I tapped him on his shoulder. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

We walked to the parking lot and stopped by Mr. Goldberg’s Range Rover.

“I didn’t know the house was for sale in the first place. Your parents had been keeping it and hoping that one day you’d have a family, and you know…”

Charlie would be found alive, and we would all go back to being a happy family in a big house.