Divine Temptation

By age thirty-two, Shaun was going to be a millionaire and married. He would always hear family members say, “You will never be successful unless you bring others along with you.”
He never forgot those words. His objective was to bring prosperity and happiness to others; come hell or high water, his aspirations were going to come true.
Growing up in an urban community and being the youngest of five children, he never saw any signs of hardship. There was always food on the table, and no one ever complained about not having enough money.
His parents were homeowners and worked in the service industry sector. His father sold life insurance, and his mother was a secretary to the C.E.O. of a major hotel.
The assumption was, if a person owned property and made good money, he or she was doing fine. For all purposes, his family lived a comfortable existence. However, he was never content with just doing fine. He wanted more.
At age eighteen, Shaun graduated from high school and immediately got a job at a high-end women’s clothing store in Queens, New York. He started out as a stock clerk, and because of his flair for color and fashion, he would study trends and drop hints on the different designs and accessories that would bring more customers into the store.
In three years, he was head salesperson. When it came to selling, he had the midis touch. With his successful marketing skills, he could have sold feathers to chickens and milk to cows. Whether it was his good looks, the layout of the store or the price tags, women from all over were coming to the shop, so much so, that sales literally quadrupled in two years. A year later, he was store manager.
Despite his excellent take-home pay, he was not reaching his goal of becoming rich. He bought lottery tickets and spent over one thousand dollars a year, chasing after an unattainable dream of hitting it big. He had a much better chance at finding UFOs and selling them on eBay; he might have become a millionaire overnight.
The way his life was going, he would never become prosperous. He started to re-examine his way of thinking by searching for realistic means of creating wealth.
After twelve years on the job, he came to the realization that becoming wealthy would only come about by being an entrepreneur.
While surfing the Internet for start-up business opportunities, Shaun came across an Internet ministry that offered a home study program; the organization would ordain and authorize people to perform legal weddings and marriage ceremonies in all fifty states.
He had always been impressed with the ministers in his community, and while many of them operated from storefronts, he always wondered how they were able to ride around in expensive cars and wear top name designer threads, while many of their faithful followers were struggling to make ends meet. He speculated that the preachers made a great deal of their income performing marriages and figured this would be an ideal business to start.
He registered for the course, ordered the ministry’s marriage packet and studied the manuals thoroughly. After completing the lessons, he was ordained a legal marriage and wedding officiant.
While doing more research, he decided to launch an on-line matchmaking and marriage service. He would find prospective marriage-minded partners, do pre-marriage counseling, and organize and preside over weddings. Couples would have the option to select from three kinds of services.
A simple ceremony would be for couples who just wanted to be pronounced husband and wife.
An informal service would be for couples who preferred to have their wedding in their home or courtyard.
For couples who longed to have their event in a house of worship, banquet hall, or on a yacht, they could select a formal procedure.
He would conduct some of the business from his studio apartment and use the shop to attract potential members. When the money started to roll in, he would quit his job and look for larger space.
His intent was to create a simulated wedding chapel and provide all of the amenities for the bride and groom, such as photography, videography, catering, music, and floral arrangements.
He even considered starting a travel agency to arrange in person meetings for couples who met through his site. It would be a one size fits all marriage and wedding enterprise.
Since Shaun had the weekends off, he first worked on getting his on-line matchmaking and marriage service into cyberspace. He searched the Internet and found dating software that provided web-hosting, registration of a domain name, e-mail addresses, chat rooms, instant messaging and 24-hour technical support for $99.99 per month. There were no set up or commission fees, and any money he made would be all his.
He named the site Global Matchmaking and Marriage Service or GMMS and asked one of his sales clerks to help set up and design the site.
Her name was Lisa. She had been with the shop for six years and was an expert in computer and Internet technology. She customized the site with an eye-catching logo, added graphics, text, profile questions, terms of service agreement, privacy rules, membership fees, and payment methods.
To collect membership fees, she advised him to go with a third party e-commerce service. In the near future, he could establish his own merchant account. In lieu of pay, she got the weekends off.
Since the new site had no profiles, Shaun would first have to interview prospective clients, and have them complete a questionnaire; he would then upload their profiles and photos to the site. To get women interested in his service, he would offer them a free membership.
Men would have to pay an annual membership fee of $3500.00, which would include a background check, private e-mail address, access to all female members’ profiles, chatting, instant messaging, and if needed, on and off-line counseling.
Women, who did not have Internet access, would have a code number instead of their home address on their profiles. When a man was ready to contact a female member, his letter, with the code number and his contact information, would be forwarded to the address on file. The high fee was set to eliminate unscrupulous individuals and attract only serious marriage-minded men.
But little did he know, the deceitful person would not be a man but a mysterious woman who would use her erotic domination and leave Shaun in a state of pandemonium, and if he thought this woman was a she-devil, he was about to discover who the real fiend was.
Since many of the female shoppers were single, divorced or widowed, they would be Shaun’s likely candidates to test his service. He had business cards, elegant brochures and colorful flyers printed and instructed Lisa, who worked at the checkout counter, to include the promotional materials discreetly into the customer’s shopping bag.
In no time, shoppers were showing an intense interest in joining his service, and the fact that it was free was a blessing. Over two hundred women became members, and more were sure to follow. Word of mouth about his matchmaking and marriage service was spreading faster than a gathering of turkey buzzards searching for their next snack.
In the meantime, Lisa had submitted the site to several popular search engines; soon, GMMS was getting over two thousands hits a week. In its first year of operation, over five hundred men became paying members. The site was now working at full speed.

In its second year, GMMS was getting close to ten thousands visits a week. Men from around the world were joining and connecting with women. More women were signing up faster than Shaun could handle. Before long, he would have to hire someone to keep up with the demand.
He could not believe there were so many lonely people out there, seeking love and companionship and went back to those words his family had told him. He was helping others obtain their dreams of finding a lifetime partner and making good money at the same time.
For him, life could not have gotten any better. He was so busy helping others to fulfill their wishes that he was overlooking his own personal desires: Having a lover and eventually, a wife by his side. He was now thirty-two, unattached and lonely.
To help recruit more female members and manage the busy on-line site, Shaun asked Lisa to be his part-time assistant, because she had a great rapport with people. She would work every weekend and receive $200.00. As more money came in, her salary would increase. This gave him more time to pursue other interests. His main goal now was to find a good woman to share in his triumphs.
Many of the shop’s employees were starting to become resentful of Shaun’s business success. After all, they were not getting a piece of that pie. Word was getting back to the owner, who lived in Hawaii that the shop was a meeting place for lonely men and women.
There were also rumors that funds were misappropriated to finance GMMS. These innuendos were of course false, but the talks continued and got uglier. He decided it was time to leave and asked Lisa to come with him.
Since his business was doing so well, Shaun could now afford to move from his small apartment into larger space. He found a nice 1600 square feet split-level loft in Long Island City. It was in a residential and commercial neighborhood; the area was ideal for operating his business, performing marriages and organizing wedding receptions. The rent was reasonable, and he signed a three-year lease.
It took about three months to get the place ready for walk-in business. The loft, which was located on the ground floor, had several work areas.
Lisa had her space, which included a desk, computer, printer, scanner, fax and telephone, and Shaun had a private area for interviewing new members and counseling couples. In the back were an open kitchen, and a spacious dining room that could change into a reception area. The floors were parquet. The ceiling stood twenty-three feet high, and beautiful paintings and wall hangings added a romantic ambiance to the environment. Behind a dividing wall was a replicated chapel.
On the upper level were three bedrooms and three baths. Two bedrooms were honeymoon suites, and the third bedroom belonged to Shaun.
Now that Lisa was a full-time employee, she had more responsibilities, including running the web site and was earning $1,000.00 per week.
Shaun and Lisa had a lot in common. Both were single, motivated and looking for love. She was originally from Atlanta, came from a well-to-do family and was the youngest of three children. She never attended college but was communicative and perceptive when it came to business.
When it came to her sense of style, she had impeccable taste and dressed the part of an executive. If one did not know any better, one would have thought she was the C.E.O. of GMMS.
Besides loving her work, she had eyes for Shaun. Her feelings for him grew stronger each day. He was immensely handsome, and a successful businessperson, and the fact that he never attended college either, was a great achievement.
Each day, she was falling in love with him. She was his right-hand person, made the business a winner and dreamed one day of becoming his partner in business and love.

Going into its third year, GMMS was exploding in sales. Shaun was performing marriages every other week. Wedding receptions were being booked a year in advance.
The web site was getting close to five hundred thousand page views a month and more men and women were becoming members.
So far, the business had grossed over $850,000.00. Sales were expected to triple in two years.
The idea of starting or investing in a travel agency was not feasible now. Instead, Lisa arranged for GMMS to be a partner with a popular on-line travel agency whose link she placed on GMMS’s site. When a visitor clicked on the link and booked his or her trip and hotel reservations through the travel agency, GMMS would receive a hefty commission and not have to worry about booking trips or reserving hotel rooms for their members.
Lisa’s initiative was brilliant, Shaun thought.
Lisa was planning to attend a family reunion and take a well-deserved vacation. Since she would be gone for four weeks, and it was quiet, with no immediate planned events, Shaun was able to manage the office and site on his own. If it got too busy, he would hire a temporary worker.
While on the Internet, Shaun received the following e-mail from a singles’ bureau, which was located in the United Kingdom:

Dear Shaun:
I am the publisher of a monthly matchmaking magazine. My clients do not have Internet access and place their personal ads in this publication. All of their contacts are through snail mail.
The reason why I am contacting you is that I am looking to sell the publication to a company that can distribute it worldwide.
You are a likely candidate because you run a respectable business, and this would be an added feature to your already popular site. I have read many of the testimonials on your page, and your reputation precedes you. I will be in New York next Friday and plan to stay for one month. Perhaps we could meet and discuss this venture in further details.
Could you recommend a nice place to stay? I look forward to hearing from you. I remain,
Very truly yours,
Divine Ono
Publisher