Page 28 of No Match Found
Even without that jolt, the gesture was jarring. No one but me had sat behind this desk, and Grant wasn’t just sitting next to me. He leaned over so his elbow was on the armrest of my chair.
As conspicuously as possible, I looked down at his arm in my space.
He blinked his hazel eyes at me like nothing in the world was wrong.
I debated for a moment, then turned to my computer and navigated the app, ignoring the thumping of my heart as my cursor hovered over theMatchify Me!button.
“So, this is where the magic happens,” Grant said.
“It’s not magic,” I said. “It’s numbers. Patterns. Data.” I forced myself to take a slow, even breath. The likelihood of Matchify running my data and spitting me back out without a single match was as close to zero as it could be. But it was one thing to know that in my head and another thing to keep my hands from shaking with nervous energy.
Meanwhile, the button waited for me to make that simple click of the mouse. But my finger wouldn’t move.
A few more seconds, and Grant would guess the truth: I was afraid of the app I had created—the one I was asking Vantive to invest millions in.
I clicked the button, my stomach queasy.
There. I’d done it. There was no putting the cat back in the bag. Why the cat was in my bag to begin with was a whole different matter.
But now I had to watch my results buffer. It was a new form of torture, watching the wheel turn and turn. Did it always take this long? I should let Jackie know.
“I admit,” Grant said, “I’mverycurious to see how it will match someone with your profile.”
Someone with your profile.
The words cut, and I distracted myself by grabbing my coffee mug. I had to grip the handle like a vice to keep it from trembling, and the cold liquid on my lips reminded me that, in my eagerness to get my profile filled out before Grant arrived, I hadn’t gotten my usual cup of coffee. This was yestercoffee.
Ugh.
I set down the mug, and it clattered slightly on re-entry.
Grant looked at me, always with that same crisp gaze that made me feel even more off-kilter. “You okay?”
“Yep!” The response was overkill, and I was pretty sure he knew it. “Just a little over-coffeed this morning.” Lies. I had one tiny sip of expired caffeine in my system, which was probably for the best. I was already more jittery than a junkie in withdrawal.
The progress bar spun and spun.
“Looks like it might be frozen,” I said.
“You’ve stumped it.”
My heart twisted into a giant knot as the screen changed, turning Matchify magenta.
I held my breath, waiting for the error message.
Matchification Complete.
My eyes darted to the results, where three names stared back at me.
Leo. Tanner. Jeff.
Beneath each name was the compatibility percentage Matchify had calculated.
Leo 76%. Tanner 71%. Jeff 70%.
Relief rushed over me like a warm shower.
Those percentages were definitely lower than I was used to seeing. But they were miles better than what had haunted my dreams.
