“Sure. Of course. Good night, Danni.”
“Good night, Cole.”
Chapter 25
Danni
In the morning, I playback our interaction, not sure I didn’t dream the whole thing. I’ve been working so hard, sleep has been optional since Thanksgiving.
My cell phone already has a text from him.
Cole: Good morning. Thinking of you.
Me: You, too.
The warm tingly feeling gives me an idea but when I add a message feature, my server crashes for no apparent reason. With my demo days away, I work for forty hours, take a nap, and start all over. Finally, I find the bug in my code and redeploy into the cloud just as my Zoom all-important meeting is about to begin.
Sweating, I walk them through some recordings of actual users and invite Mr. Brewster to join me on a date, letting the others observe. Because of Cole, I’ve added a lot more functionality for men of few words and I can tell the financiers are impressed.
After choosing an outfit and the bar scene, Mr. Brewster chooses a question from the drop-down menu. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Indigo.” My avatar smiles.
“Really. His brows raise. “Not deep blue.”
“No. What’s yours?”
“Red.” He pauses. “I don’t like this app. Want to meet in person?”
Like a real user might, I balk at his abruptness. “I think it’s a little too soon.”
“Why not? Are you fake? Do you like leading men on?” His voice takes on an edge as he tests my system.
I click on end-and-block. A warning shows up on his screen. It tells him his date has left the application and he can no longer contact her. It also warns I mentioned he was not polite and his ranking goes down in the pool.
As we take off our headsets, he claps his hands. “Nicely done. I can see where your female subscribers would like this but how about men?”
I call up my survey where I polled one hundred volunteers. Over fifty percent said they would want to continue communicating with the woman I set them up with.
Mr. Prentiss, the CEO of the largest dating site in the world, clears his throat. “I’m impressed. I think your application is a game changer. I’ll have my lawyers call you in the morning. Thank you for including me in your demonstration. I’m sorry but I have another meeting and need to go.” His face disappears out of the squares and the others I invited seem a bit put-off.
“Will you go with him?” Brewster frowns.
“It depends.” I can’t help but grin ear-to-ear.Oh my God. I did it.
“Well, at least promise not to agree to anything until we talk. We could make a lot of money together.” The CEO of DateToMate messages me a number in a private chat.
“Thank you all for coming. I’ll be in touch.” After saying my goodbyes and assuring everyone I won’t make any quick decisions, I smile for the first time in days and pop open a bottle of champagne.
The bubbly needs food so I order Chinese and while I’m waiting, call Cole. “Nailed it.”
“So, are you going to be rich?” His voice rings, sharing my pleasure, and it makes me laugh out loud.
“Let’s just say I won’t have to worry about money for quite a while.” I sip on my drink, happy to have the meeting behind me.
“Good for you. You deserve this. So, when you coming home?”
“Oh, rats. I’ve been so focused on this meeting, I haven’t packed or anything. I need to rent a car, do some laundry. I haven’t even bought gifts.”
