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“Oh, I know,” she said. “But it’s so much fun to poke the bear.”
Nate couldn’t help but smile. Seeing the happy couple had put everyone in a good mood. The bickering today was more like teasing. Light-hearted. Fun. Now that they knew the background bot wasn’t broken, there weren’t many other fixes to the app. The tweaks he had come up with on his mail route helped keep the servers from overloading. The update to the interface looked great. Now they just had to put the final touches on the presentation and promotion.
“This was a great idea,” Nate said. “You are a total genius.”
“Thanks,” Alisa said. “I wasn’t sure you believed me for a while there.”
“I didn’t,” he admitted. “I had to see it. But now that I do…it’s going to be amazing. So much better than what we were planning.”
“Hey, I resent that,” Zane said.
Before Alisa started insisting on the idea of story for their presentation, Zane was just going to do a standard pitch, highlighting the features and benefits of the app, plus lots of research and numbers. “Those things matter,” Alisa had told them. “But if you start there, people will fall asleep and walk away. If you start with story, people will become fascinated. Then they’ll want to see all the data.”
Watching the interview gave Nate a renewed sense of hope about Colby. He had opened the app countless times to look at her last message: Sounds like a perfect first date.
Sure, he would have to figure out how to explain what happened four years ago and how he knew all along that Colby was Sewzy. But this could one day be a part of the story they told about how they met and fell madly in love. He felt sure of it. At least for right now he felt sure.
He pictured her as she had looked yesterday: her eyes guarded and her jaw set, anger and hurt visible in her face. Maybe he was being too optimistic.
“Is that our app?”
Nate pushed the button to darken the screen. He hadn’t heard Zane coming up next to him. “What?”
Zane had his hands crossed over his chest. “Are you on First Sight, talking to someone?”
Nate looked up, trying to gauge how much trouble he was in. Todd was looking at him now too. Alisa must have been in the bathroom because she wasn’t in the room.
“I…”
As he moved his gaze back and forth between Zane’s hardened jaw and Todd’s wide eyes, Nate’s mind threw explanations at him.
I’m just testing the UX.
I was looking at someone else’s account.
I…I …I …
Suddenly Zane reached out and slapped him on the back, grinning. “You dog. It’s about time you met somebody. You like her? What week are you on?”
“Uh…about two weeks.”
“You haven’t met yet. Brilliant,” Todd said.
Nate looked between them again. “You guys don’t care? I know we said we were just testing the algorithm’s ability to match people…”
“I don’t care if it’s on the street or on the internet or whatever. I’m happy for you. And I happen to sort of believe in this thing we created here. If anything could pair you up with a girl, it’s this,” Zane said.
“He’s not just saying that because he designed part of the software,” Todd said. “You saw that couple in there. This is working. For multiple people. I hope it works for you.”
“What’s she like? I mean, what do you like about her? And did you cheat and look at her profile?”
This was the question Nate hoped they wouldn’t ask. If neither of them had been mad that he was using the app to meet someone, he didn’t hope to get that lucky when he told them it was Colby. But he couldn’t keep up with more lies or secrets.
“Before I tell you this, I just want to say that you don’t need to freak out,” Nate said.
Zane and Todd exchanged a look. “Uh oh,” Zane said. “Out with it.”
Tearing off the Band-Aid was always the best option, right? “It’s Colby.”
