The door to my office burst open and slammed against the wall with a force that startled me. Eliana carried a worried expression. "We have a problem."
"What?" I asked, already on my feet.
She looked from me to Bruno as if wondering if we should speak privately.
"Our fates are tied to Amoré Nights. Go ahead."
Eliana wasted no time. "We're being sued."
"Amoré Nights? By who? It's still in beta. For what?"
Bruno spoke. "You should call the company lawyer."
"I don't need you to tell me what to do. Is that some sort of difficult decision? Who else did you think I'd call, the janitor?"
"Alex, focus," Eliana said, as if she were the boss and not me.
Still, in that moment she was right. I jumped into action, calling the legal team, and soon everyone gathered in my office.
"Mr. Davis is suing on grounds of libel. The man has an embarrassing one-star rating average from women on the app, and now nobody will date him."
I waited for the rest. When the lawyer said nothing, I looked around the office. "He's wasting his time. Every platform has the same protections, and we'll beat him if it even goes to court."
"Ms. Ortega is correct. How quickly can you have his lawsuit dismissed?" Bruno asked.
The lawyer answered slowly. "Does Amoré Nights use any vetting policy for ratings?"
"Really? Reviews are everywhere online. What procedure would…" I began to rant but cut myself off. This would not help, and he clearly had more to say.
"At the moment, users are free to rate and leave reviews, and the problem is Mr. Davis insists everything written is false," the lawyer finished.
"All of them?" Eliana blurted out.
I let out a short laugh. "Twenty-five members rated him, and he says not one of them told the truth."
"That is Mr. Davis' stance."
Bruno came to my side, like we were partners on the issue. "We could easily beat him in court, but I don't want it to delay or hurt the launch. Amoré Nights can't afford bad press that makes men run from the app. That would ruin you."
What had been a joke seconds ago now felt dangerously real. My hand curled into a fist. "Pay him off. Money talks."
"Are you sure?" one of the lawyers asked.
Did I want another man to get away with screwing me? No, but I didn't have a choice.
"Wait. Doesn't the app agreement bind users to arbitration? I'm sure many of those women would love to go on record about how much Mr. Davis sucks. In my experience, an angry woman can go on at length about why she dislikes you," Bruno said.
If that was a jab at me, I didn't care.
"But what about the press?" I asked.
"The app just did what you intended, spared another woman from meeting that man. Now we should protect ourselves a bit further. Disable written comments and leave only the rating system. Then legal will add more verbiage about not being responsible for the ratings and that no one may request changes or sue because of dissatisfaction."
"Mr. Gasol could have a point. Those lines about his smell, sweaty hands, and beady eyes probably set him off," Eliana said.
Damn, leave it to my fellow women to go that deep into the details. I nodded, and after a bit more back and forth, it seemed the crisis was averted. Finally, with my office mostly cleared, I looked at Eliana. "Can you get me a cup of coffee?"
She started to leave but stopped. "I know you have history with Mr. Gasol, but in this case, he helped."
