Page 13 of Only Fangs

I nod and then stand up. “Only if you’re sure?”

His hands are warm and he works with the kind of focussed intensity I have always found attractive in a man. He’s silent as he uses a solution to soak off the gels I messed up last night and then carefully applies the new ones. A minute under the heat lamp and I’m staring at perfection.

“Wow,” I say, looking up from my nails to meet his eyes. How had I not realised how blue they were before?

But no. I’m not going to think of him like that. He’s human. And even if he wasn’t, now is absolutely not the time to be getting involved with anyone. I have a job to do. Money to make. Debts to repay. Plus, I don’t date. Not now, not ever.

I pull my hand back. “Right then. Well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he says with a soft smile.

Damn you.

Chapter 8

Brody

We spend the morning – after I’ve done her nails, of course – looking at what other apps are offering.

“I had no idea there were so many,” she says passing me her iPad with all the search results. “There are literally thousands. How can we expect to compete with them?”

She sounds so despondent and for the first time I see a chink in her persona. You’d have thought she would have had a moment of vulnerability when I did her nails, but she’d remained almost stoic, like it wasn’t an oddly intimate thing to do.

“Well, we don’t have to compete with them all,” I tell her, desperate to cheer her up. “Only Fangs isn’t another general dating app with no USP.”

“USP?”

“Umm…” To be honest I don’t actually know what it stands for. “Unique selling point,” I say with far more conviction than I feel. At least it sounds kind of plausible. “Like the thing that makes it different from the others.”

“So Tinder has the whole ‘swipe right’ thing,” she says, but it’s almost phrased as a question.

“Tinder was the first, but most other apps work on the same principle now too.” I did a bit of homework over the weekend and judging by the impressed look on Ari’s face it’s paying off. “Basically you need something to set your app apart from the others.”

“Like what?”

“Right. Well, look at these ones,” I pat the seat next to me so she moves to sit beside me on the sofa. I try not to think about the scent of her perfume as I pull up a list of the standard dating apps. “These are all mass market apps, they appeal to large swathes of the population. And they generally have USPs which are based around functionality.”

I point to a black and yellow logo. “This is Bumble. Women make the first move, so you don’t get a whole load of unsolicited messages from creepy guys who want to send you pictures of their…” I trail off.

“Of their what?” she asks, frowning slightly.

“Their… you know.” I make a hand motion.

“I have literally no idea what you’re talking about.” Her frown deepens.

“Their… their…” I take a deep breath. “Junk.”

Ari looks absolutely crestfallen for a moment but then she bursts out laughing. “Junk? Did you actually just use the term ‘junk’?” She laughs again. “Of course I know about dick pics, Brody. It isn’t like I live under a rock.” Another burst of laughter tumbles from her lips. “Although you should see the look on your face right now.”

“I thought maybe dick pics weren’t such a thing in vampire culture, given the whole can’t be photographed thing,” I say, a touch defensively.

“To be fair,” she puts up her hands, “vampire dick pics are extremely disappointing. Although I think that’s probably better than the alternative.” She shifts her weight to face me. “Why are human boys so obsessed with photographing their ‘junk’?”

“I’m not,” I tell her. I’ve never understood it, why would you want to send a woman you fancy a picture of your genitals for them to judge? “Anyway,” I’m desperate to change the subject, “let’s move on.” I point to another app, this time it’s OKCupid. “This one has a whole algorithm dedicated to compatibility, so you’re more likely to get matched with someone you’d enjoy spending time with.”

“So do we need to think of something super flashy, then?” She’s looking despondent again.

“Oh no. I think Only Fangs belongs in another part of the market. The USP is the client base. So this one here,” I point to Veggly “is a great example of a niche app. It’s for people who are vegan or veggie.”