“I’d like a motion to call this meeting to order.”

Abi purses her lips and gives me her best head-tilt. “For real? And if I make the motion, who will second it?”

She has a point. “Fine. Never mind the formalities. Let’s jump into the agenda.”

It’s our first official meeting of the staff of Boyfriend Whisperer Enterprises. I’d never called one before because … well, because texts, phone calls, and hastily arranged consultations in the janitor’s closet had always sufficed. This afternoon, though, I’ve reserved a private study room in the back recesses of the Sterling Community Library. Today we have some important business to discuss.

“Agenda item number one: Security.” I peer up at Abi. “Anything to report?”

Abi rolls her eyes. She is so not into corporate protocol. Maybe I should have brought doughnuts.

“Actually, yes,” she says. “I talked to Ari, and he explained a bunch of stuff I didn’t understand, but for the most part, you’re safe.” Abi’s brother majors in computer science at George Mason, with a concentration in hacking, or at least that’s the joke he likes to tell.

“For the most part? Please elaborate.”

“It’s complicated.” Abi picks up her agenda and absently waves it around. “The website is totally safe, meaning no one can trace it if you used a private registration, which I assume you did.”

“Of course.”

“And the email is mostly safe, unless …”

“Unless?”

“It seems if someone really, truly, seriously wanted to track down who owns your Boyfriend Whisperer email account, they could do it.”

I lean forward in my seat. “How so?”

“If they got the IP address and then matched it to all the IP addresses of everyone’s home email in the school, they could eventually find your match.”

“You mean match it up with my Gmail IP address?”

“Right. But to do that, they’d have to know your Gmail address in the first place. Not too many people know it, do they? You hardly ever use it.”

I groan. “No one except my entire team. Coach insists on communicating with us through email. Very annoying.”

“Ugh. That is annoying. But at least no one on your team has a grudge against you—or rather, against the Boyfriend Whisperer—do they? They wouldn’t have any reason to try to track you down.”

“Carmella.”

“The one with the purple hair? What have we ever done to her?”

“Nothing, but her sister’s on the volleyball team.”

“Oh.” Abi grimaces. “Well, it seems like a long shot, doesn’t it? That anyone would go to all that trouble? I don’t think you have to worry.”

I’m not so sure, so I make a note in my tablet to scope out Carmella later. “Let’s move on. Next on the agenda: Anita Alvarez and her BFTB, Jose Ramos.”

Abi says nothing, but her lips form a tight, thin line.

Here we go. I take a deep breath. “Go ahead. Say it.”

“Say what?”

“You want out.”

Abi’s metal chair screeches against the floor as she stands. She paces back and forth from one end of the tiny room to the other. “I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Love isn’t something you can plan, like a cheer or a bulk purchase on Accessories.com, or a … a picnic. Sometimes love just happens.” Her eyes mist over. “Or doesn’t.”

Oh, jeez. Dealing with Briggs at that party the other night couldn’t have been easy on her. I sigh and motion for her to sit back down. “Abi, I understand what you’re saying, but it’s our duty to make love happen. That’s our guarantee to our clients. It’s not always easy, but if it were easy, we’d be out of our jobs.”

“So … what? We ignore the fact that Jose already has a girlfriend? Did you meet her? She’s adorable.”

“She’s not a girlfriend. She’s a girl who’s a friend.”

“Who makes out with him.”

“Come on. She wasn’t even in the picture when Anita submitted her application.”

“Because she lived in a whole ’nother country. Now she’s here, in the United States, making out with him!”

I avoid Abi’s glare. Part of me knows she’s right. Maria seems very sweet, and for all I know, she and Jose are soul mates, meant to be together for all eternity. On the other hand, what can it hurt to give Anita a chance? She deserves a shot. If Jose is supposed to be with Maria, well, surely their relationship could overcome that bump in the road. What’s a little love triangle among soul mates?

“I’m not letting Anita down,” I say finally. “The poor girl has already started putting herself out there for him—making brownies, watching old movies, showing up randomly at his Debate Team practice. That couldn’t have been easy for her. If you want to walk away from the case, go ahead, but I’m in.”

Abi makes a vague harrumphing sound and taps her nails on the table. I let her stew, certain that she’s coming around to my way of thinking, but instead, she leans forward, her voice hard and low. “Is this about feeling bad for Anita or is it about your precious business?”

“What the …?” She’s never spoken to me like this before. “Maybe it’s about both. What’s wrong with wanting to run a good business?”

“Nothing, but with you, I’m never sure whether it’s about running a good business or winning some sort of imaginary game.”

“Game? What game?”

“Oh, come on, Lexi. Everything’s a competition with you. I’ll bet you could tell me right now, off the top of your head, without doing a single calculation, exactly what the Boyfriend Whisperer’s success rate is.”

Twenty-three out of twenty-four, or 95.8 percent. I purse my lips and look away.

“See. I knew it. But guess what? Those are just numbers. And behind every one of those numbers are human beings with real lives and real feelings, and for every love connection we make, we also could be breaking someone’s heart.”

“Like Maria’s.”

“And?” She gives me a meaningful stare.

I bite my lip. I did the right thing accepting Lindsay’s application. I believed that then, and I believe it now, and Abi has no right throwing it in my face. I crumple up the agenda. “Screw you. Meeting adjourned.”