“Several months?” Dini’s eyes widened. “But I wanted to start fundraising now!”

Dini opened the glass office door etched with the words Shapiro NPO Consulting, took in at a glance the textured wallpaper and parquet floors, and walked hesitantly up to the secretary.

“Hi, I’m Dini Blumenfeld? I have an appointment with Mrs. Shapiro?”

She winced at the question marks in her voice. There’s no reason to be insecure, even if this lady is clearly an uber-successful professional. You’re paying her for her time! She pictured the way her father, or Eliana, would have stridden into the office and politely but authoritatively announced their arrival.

The secretary consulted her computer. “Yes, eleven o’clock. Sit down please, she’ll be with you in a moment.”

Dini barely had time to wonder whether the large plant in the corner was real or fake when Temima Shapiro stuck her head out of her office door and beckoned Dini in.

Temima was the nonprofit consultant that all the bigwig organizations used, at least according to Shuki’s friend Glasser whose father sat on multiple boards and who was the type who just knew things. (Glasser had also been the one who’d told them who to call when they’d needed permits to combine two apartments into one and add another floor on top. Their neighbors sometimes still muttered about their “palace,” which Dini found insanely ridiculous. Did they have any clue how tiny their apartment still was, compared to the way her siblings lived?)

“Hi, Dini, nice to meet you.” Temima stuck out her hand, which Dini shook. The woman wore a short black sheitel and a businesslike silk blouse. “How can I help you?”

She spoke English with a slight British accent, and with the stiltedness of an Israeli more comfortable in Hebrew. Anglo parents, grew up here, Dini guessed. Was that what her own children would sound like one day?

No; her mother would have her head if her children ever reached the point where they didn’t sound like perfect Americans. And she’d immediately send over English tutors and accent reduction specialists and who knows what else.