“So,” Heidi said, pulling up a slide on the main screen. “As you know, the Valentine’s Day campaign rollout begins next week.”
I nodded once. We’d been over this. Multiple times. The campaign was solid, with social media pushes featuring our matchmakers, testimonials from successful couples, wedding footage, and behind-the-scenes content showing how Cupid’s Arrow was the only major dating platform that didn’t rely solelyon AI for matching. We had actual humans making actual connections, and that was our competitive advantage.
Everyone knew that, especially the guy that came up with the idea. Me.
“The commercial will air on Valentine’s Day itself,” Heidi continued, advancing to the next slide. “We’ve secured prime-time spots on three major networks, plus streaming placement, plus a coordinated social media push.”
“Heidi.” I checked my watch. “I’ve approved all of this already. What exactly am I doing here?”
She smiled in a way that immediately made me suspicious. “I wanted to show you something. But we’re waiting for a couple more people.”
The conference room door opened.
Ina walked in first, looking uncertain. She was wearing a purple sweater and dark pants, her hair in that complicated twist thing she’d been doing lately. Her eyes briefly met mine. I felt my spine straighten involuntarily.
I forced myself to look away. I was not going to notice the way that sweater hugged her perfect breasts. I was not going to think about the way she looked in that dress on Friday with her hair cascading down her back and her lips painted so kissably red.
Lucas followed her in, looking genuinely confused. “Why am I being held hostage by the marketing department?” He glanced around the room. “Is this an intervention? Because I maintain that my holiday party budgets are reasonable and necessary for morale.”
I arched an eyebrow at Heidi, who was practically vibrating with barely contained excitement. “Care to explain?”
“Please, everyone listen.” Heidi gestured to the empty chairs.
Ina took a seat directly across from me. I made the mistake of giving her a onceover, just a quick assessment to make sure she was okay. She looked right back at me.
Something flickered across her face that I couldn’t quite read. Then she looked away, focusing all her attention on Heidi.
“Alright,” Heidi said, nodding to one of her associates. “Pull up the rough cut.”
The screen flickered, and then I was watching myself on camera. The commercial.
It opened on me sitting in that ridiculous chair, looking directly at the camera with what I hoped was confident authority and not the irritation I felt about being roped into doing the stupid thing.
I listened to myself repeat the lines and then Ina entered the frame.
The camera loved her. That was the first thing I noticed. The way the light caught her hair, the natural grace in her movement despite the heels. She looked at me like I was the only person in the world.
I watched myself extend my hand. Watched her take it. Watched the moment our fingers touched and something passed between us that the camera had captured forever.
My hand had gone to the small of her back without conscious thought, and on camera, it looked possessive. Protective.Real.
The thirty second commercial felt like three hours. It was rough and still needed editing, but I saw what they all saw.
We worked together on camera. We looked like a couple in love. The physical side of the commercial looked so damn natural I had to bite back the feeling of moving toward her in real life. I wanted to shield her from the public scrutiny she was suddenly under. My eyes moved back to the paused image of me staring up at her while she grinned and looked at the camera. It looked so fucking real. And honestly, it had felt natural in the moment. I wasn’t acting when I pulled her to me. When I gazed up at her like a lovesick fool, that wasn’t fake. I wasn’t an actor. I didn’t know how to fake anything.
And that was bad.
The conference room was silent. Across from me, Ina was staring at the table, her cheeks slightly pink.
“Turn it off,” I said gruffly. “And explain what exactly you want with not only me, but my executive assistant and my director of public relations.”
Heidi nodded to her associate, who closed the video player, then turned to face me with the kind of confidence that came from someone who thought they had a winning hand.
She’d make a horrible poker player.
“My team ran the numbers over the weekend,” she began, pulling up a new slide. “Dane, you’re currently trending on three different social media platforms. Since you were named Most Eligible Bachelor, mentions of you have increased by 340%. Searches for Cupid’s Arrow are up 67%. Our app downloads are up 23% just from the ambient publicity.”
She clicked to the next slide, a graph showing search trends and social media engagement.
