Sparks the Matchmaker (Aaron Sparks Series) by Russell Elkins Page B

“When she gets too angry or manipulative, then you just tell her that you’re doing a planned ignore, and you don’t respond to her for ten minutes.”
    Ollie watched Marie grow increasingly more upset over the next minute while Lynn refused to look at her.
    “Talk to me!” Marie demanded, and then punched her large fist into the couch pillows again. “You can’t ignore me! It’s not your right!”
    “The company has behavioral specialists who come up with behavioral programs for each individual,” Lynn added, speaking to Ollie. “Marie’s program says that we’re supposed to do these planned ignores when she gets all riled up like this. I used to avoid doing them, because she doesn’t take it very well, but it didn’t take me too long before I saw that they were right. Basically, you can nip it in the bud and do a ten minute planned ignore— which will usually leave her calm and collected at the end— or you can try to work it out with her, which will just leave you both flustered for hours.”
    All Ollie could do was stand and observe as Marie got more and more flustered. Finally, around the six minute mark he noticed a change. She stopped punching pillows and stopped yelling. Her bottom lip quivered as she did her best to conjure up fake tears. Finally, her last tactic emerged. She begged and begged, telling them both that she’d be good and cooperate with the grocery list if they would just start talking to her again.
    Lynn still didn’t say anything, but periodically looked at her watch until the ten minutes had finished. “Time’s up,” Lynn said with a smile as she looked up.
    “Finally,” Marie responded. “That was way longer than ten minutes.”
    “Nope. I promise it was exactly ten minutes. I kept an eye on my watch,” Lynn said.
    Ollie was completely surprised and relieved. Marie was in a cheerful mood as they began to get ready to go to the store. Oh my gosh, there are actually times when Marie isn’t trying to overpower and manipulate someone! He was happy to see that Lynn truly did enjoy working with Marie and wasn’t pretending just to talk him into the job. He was starting to think he could probably handle his new position once he got the hang of it.
    “Marie’s fun,” Lynn said again once they were out on the sidewalk, walking toward the grocery store. “You’ll love her to pieces.”
    “You keep saying that,” Ollie said. “Something tells me you keep saying that because a lot of people don’t get to that point.”
    “A lot of people have a hard time with her because they don’t follow her behavioral plan,” Lynn said. “She’s easy if you just follow her plan.”
    “Like the planned ignore thing?” Ollie asked.
    “Exactly. Like the planned ignore thing,” Lynn said. “At first it seems a little insensitive or mean because she craves attention so badly, but she’ll go on for hours if you don’t do it. Some of the staff just don’t ever seem to get that.”
    “And what about her grocery list?” Ollie asked.
    “Yeah, that,” Lynn said. “The behavioral specialists put that in there because food is her second favorite thing in life other than attention. It got to the point where she has to earn the right to make her own weekly menu. If she ever refuses to go to work, like she did today, she loses that privilege. Besides, it’s not like she’s getting starved, even if she doesn’t get to choose her own meals.”
    “Does she have to earn the privilege to drive to the store too?” Ollie asked. “Is that why we’re walking?”
    “No,” Lynn said. “We walk because it’s part of her program to get exercise each day and it’s really hard to get her to reach that goal otherwise. Grocery day is the easiest day to get her to go for a walk because there’s food waiting for her at the other end— like literally holding a carrot on a stick in front of her.”
    Ollie and Lynn continued to discuss Marie’s different behavioral programs and goals as they