“You’re going to find out who ran our profiles, right?”
I nodded.
“Then I’m coming.”
I hesitated, but it was his data too. He had a right to know. I could only imagine how this would feature in his article, but I couldn’t think about that right now. I had no control over it, and Grant would write what Grant wanted to write. If he needed fodder to rip Matchify apart, he’d manage to find it.
“So,” he said, walking at a brisk pace to keep up with me, “they ran our profiles and got our score. What else would they have seen?”
“Nothing, I hope,” I responded. “If you want more information than what’s on someone’s public profile, you have to send the person a request, and they have to accept it. Jackie!”
She was leaning over one of the other developers, their eyes on a computer screen, but her head whipped around.
I motioned her over.
During the minute it took to explain the situation, her brows drew close and the grey glimmer of injustice lit her eyes. She took the security of the system she’d built seriously.
“On it,” she said in a clipped voice.
Grant and I followed her to her chair, and chaotic keystrokes ensued.
Grant’s brows shot up, and he looked over at me.
I smiled like I was single-handedly responsible for Jackie’s genius.
Her fingers stopped suddenly, and she stared at the screen for a second.
Grant and I did too, but we might as well have been looking at the blueprints for the next spaceship.
“What is it?” My heart fluttered with impatience.
She turned her head, looked at me for a second as though she was still processing, then said in an under-voice, “It was Alex.”
I blinked.
“Who’s Alex?” Grant asked.
“Katie’s intern,” I said blankly.
Alex had only been with Matchify a few weeks now, but every employee and intern was heavily educated on what was and was not allowed when it came to user data.
I searched the room for him. He was two rows in front of us, so all I could see was the back of his head.
“There’s no way it was an accident, right?” Grant asked. “Slip of the mouse or something?”
Jackie shook her head. “He knew he was doing something wrong. He tried to cover his tracks—really amateur attempt, but an attempt all the same. He also ran the full matchup sequence on your profiles, not just the score.”
I forced my breath to come evenly as I stared at his curly brown hair. “But why?” What had made him interested enough in Grant and me to do something like that?
Jackie shrugged. “Katie mentioned he’s a whiz at his job, but he’s also super social. I see him laughing a lot with the otheremployees. Seems kind of off-task a lot of the time. I think he’s been trying pretty hard to fit in with some of the more seasoned employees. Maybe he thought this would be a cool flex?” She looked at her screen again, and the frown deepened.
If I knew Jackie—and I did—she’d take this as a personal offense.
She wasn’t alone.
I felt violated.
Grant didn’t look terribly troubled, but then again, why would he? His information hadn’t even been real.
