Page 6 of No Match Found
He grasped his notebook and slipped the pencil behind his ear, looking like a high school senior who shows up to class prepared for nothing beyond maintaining his too-cool-for-school ego. “Does the same time tomorrow work? I’d love to get a tour of the office.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Do you not do office tours?”
“We do,” I said, utterly and totally confused. “I just…”
“It’s a three-day interview,” he responded. “You knew that, right?”
“Of course.” I smiled widely, overcompensating for the sense of dread sliding into the pit of my stomach like tar. “Same time tomorrow works great.”
“Perfect.” He turned and stopped in front of the cardboard cutout, then made a fist with his free hand and bumped Cam’s shoulder in ahey, buckarookind of way. “See you tomorrow, Cam.”
THREE
URGENT: Founder Meeting in D&E in five
I typedthe words into Slack and pressed enter.
The response was near-immediate.
Brooke:Already there
I couldn’t stop a knowing laugh. Of course she’d been expecting a debrief.
I grabbed my laptop and headed to the door. Just shy of it, I doubled back, grabbed Cam by the elbow, and hoisted him out of the room like I was taking him straight to time out.
Matchify’s offices were located in a warehouse-style building in downtown Raleigh, with thick brick walls, high ceilings, and big windows. We were a small but growing operation, and our space was beginning to feel more and more crowded. Most of the employees worked at long desks out in the open—an area Brooke had dubbed the Love Pit. There were only three dedicated offices, and mine was the biggest of them.
A space upstairs had become vacant, but we didn’t have the funds to take advantage of that. Not yet, at least. I hoped that was where Vantive would come in.
Two of our data scientists looked up at me as I passed. I waved but didn’t stop to chit chat, instead making my way to the first of three meeting rooms.
Darcy & Elizabethwas typed out on the wood panel over the matte-black door. Brooke had insisted on naming all our roomsafter famous couples. She was still trying to sell me on themed decorations in them. If she had her way, she’d turn Darcy & Elizabeth into something worthy of the next Bridgerton set, complete with bonnets, cravats, and canes.
As promised, Brooke was already inside, lounging in one of the five huge beanbag chairs, all of them varying hues of pink and magenta. I usually ended up giving in to Brooke’s requests. It was nearly impossible to say no to someone as sweet as she was. To her credit, people used the beanbags way more than they used the table.
“Wait up!” Jackie ran up behind me with her laptop under her arm. It might as well have been an additional appendage for how infrequently she was seen without it.
I opened the door for her, and she slipped inside as Katie came around the corner.
Katie shot a look at Cam. “Youshould be opening the door, mister.”
“He’s too busy making trouble.” I set Cam inside the door and closed it behind me.
“Where’s Nick?” Brooke asked.
“Take a wild guess,” Katie replied, dropping into a magenta beanbag.
Jackie opened her laptop. “Lunch with his wife?”
“Bingo.” Katie stretched her neck from side to side.
She and Nick had been great friends when the five of us had started building Matchify. That was…no longer true. Katie had attempted to stage an intervention with Nick before he got married. He hadn’t taken that well.
In some ways, having Nick absent was nice—it meant less thinly veiled digs between him and Katie. But I valued both of their feedback, and to be fair to them, they did manage to keep things civil. Mostly.
I sank into one of the two empty beanbags and wiggled until I found a comfy spot. I had managed to say no to Brooke’s initial request for LoveSacs—it simply wasn’t in the budget—but whenshe found knock-offs from China for a fraction of the price, I’d relented against my better judgment.
