defeat, Levi Barnes left Congress and Utah for California. During the following decade, he became a very wealthy man. His most recent invention, enabling smart phones to act as credit cards, had ensured that he, along with his children, would never need to work again.
I wondered how much he had changed in the decade since I had worked for him. We had parted ways on good terms, but had taken different paths. His life had been consumed with entrepreneurial pursuits and mine with politics. He was married with a family. I had started a business in the City. Time had passed quickly. But now, here we were again, being reunited by Gabriel Laurent, a man whose connections and background I was only beginning to grasp.
I arrived at the Four Seasons dining room at 1 pm, as directed. I checked in with the host, and was led to a table where Gabriel and Levi were already seated.
Levi Barnes was aging very gracefully. His short, black hair had grayed somewhat in the decade that had passed, but his blue eyes looked as crisp and aware as ever, and he had managed to keep his tall frame fit and trim over the years. Gabriel, once again impeccably dressed in dark jeans and a white oxford shirt with driving loafers, was almost vibrating with feelings of approval toward me. And while he was holding something back, I was sure of it, there was no hiding that he felt almost proud of me as I strolled to the table.
Both men stood up to greet me. Gabriel gave me the traditional bisou on both cheeks and Levi clasped my hand in the two of his.
“Olivia, it’s so nice to see you,” he said. “I’m embarrassed that it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other.”
Right away, I opened myself up to Levi, curious to know what he was feeling. His aura was bright yellow, glowing like the sun on a summer day. This was a good sign, as yellow tends to demonstrate people who are positive, have strong intellect and are imbued with the power to inspire. Those are good skills for elected office. He was feeling a deep sense of curiosity, but was otherwise happy. For someone who had to quickly assemble a team and jump into a congressional race, he struck me as remarkably calm. I wasn’t sure if that was his nature—I didn’t remember him being that calm before—or maybe it was Gabriel’s influence.
We all took a seat as I spoke. “It seems you have been a bit busy.”
Levi laughed. “Yes, I guess I have,” he said. “The valley is a remarkable place. There are so many ideas to pursue, so many businesses to start…well, it captured my attention.”
“And now,” I asked, as the waiter came by to bring me a menu. “You’re ready to return to Congress?”
Levi nodded. “Utah was unpleasant and I didn’t think I would ever return to politics. But a lot of time has passed and I have changed my mind. I have enough money to last a lifetime. My children are grown and living their own lives. I am ready to do something new—or old, I guess, in this case,” he said, smiling.
The waiter came and took our order. I was almost too excited to eat and requested a bowl of soup. Gabriel frowned and added a piece of fish to my lunch, saying, “the sole here is too delicious to be missed,” and ordered a bottle of Sancerre to go with the meal. It struck me as odd, his desire to feed me, but despite my efforts I could not detect any untoward motives on his part.
If Levi found it odd that a French digital media executive was ordering lunch for me, he didn’t show it. Gabriel told Levi that we knew each other because of his interest in building an office tower in San Francisco. “I have toyed with the idea of re-locating some, possibly all of my employees to San Francisco,” he told Levi. “France is lovely, but we have no start-up culture and our film industry has less of a need for the kind of 3-D animation we develop. I spend so much of my time coming to California that it makes sense to relocate. Olivia has been kind enough to put up with my half-hearted efforts to look at parcels of land and provide me with a political analysis of my chances.”
“This is a great time to build in San Francisco,” I said,