The Date

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

At three o’clock, Dani sat at the rectangular table that functioned as the “conference room” and the “break room” with her five coworkers at the fledgling internet dating site Hookamate.com. Their boss, James Richardson, paced across the floor of the converted warehouse.

James wore ripped-at-the-knee jeans and a black T-shirt. He pushed long, straggly blond hair off his face. Fueled by caffeine and junk food, he spoke fast and loud. The guy reminded her of a stereotypical computer science graduate student in desperate need of a balanced meal, sunshine, and a girlfriend. His first two internet ventures had made him tons of money. He’d sold them and now wanted to replicate his success with a new online dating site.

Succeed at any cost, Dani had finally figured out. So far, it wasn’t going well, which explained why he’d stooped so low as to infiltrate other sites for ideas.

During her interview, James had seemed more captivated with her double-D bra sized chest than the qualifications on her resume. Yet, he’d surprised her by asking detailed questions about her schooling and work experience. He’d known what he wanted in a marketing person.

Dani had the skills and experience, so she’d made the most of what nature had given her, as her mother had taught her to do, and secured the job. The wrong move in hindsight, but all she’d been thinking about were her mother and youngest sister, who relied on money from Dani. Which meant she only had herself to blame for where she found herself today. She fought the urge to bang her head on the table for not understanding the consequences of her actions.

“The good news is, we had an increase in traffic thanks to Danica’s marketing efforts.” James winked at her. No one at the company except him knew she was undercover, so to speak, spying on the local competition, Blinddatebrides.com. “Unfortunately, we exceeded our capacity, so we’re adding machines. But that’s not a bad problem. The traffic will drive our advertising revenue. That means more money for us. Anyone have other ideas to generate more users?”

No one said anything.

“It might help to rethink our branding,” Dani suggested. “Taglines, image, ads, name.”

James clenched his jaw. “Our company name rocks.”

“Totally.”

“Yeah.”

Dani listened to the men in the room support their boss, who they held in cult leader esteem. The only other woman at the table, Shelley, the office manager, shook her head and mouthed the word sorry to Dani.

The responses didn’t deter her. She had to do something. Say something.

“Look at Blinddatebrides.com.” The name of the fastest-growing competitor brought groans from the three engineers, but Dani kept going. “When you hear Blinddatebrides.com, you can’t help but think about brides. That word connotes weddings, which leads to thinking about relationships, marriage, permanence. That’s appealing to users looking to fall in love.”

“Only if you want to end up with a ball and chain,” a Python programmer named Andrew murmured.

Dani ignored him. “Granted, your...I mean our...site’s name has ‘mate,’ but ‘hook’ makes people think of...”

“What?” James asked.

“One-night stands,” said a MongoDB developer, who probably hadn’t showered, let alone had a date, in a month.

The guys laughed.

“Yeah, s*x,” the interface hacker offered. “s*x appeals to many people, too.”

The two men gave each other high fives.

Dani sighed. “I worry the name brings about images of hookups, not serious relationships.”

No one spoke.

“There’s such a thing as a niche market,” Andrew said. “Hookups can be our niche.”

“And if that’s the direction you…we…want to go, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.” She stared at all the nodding heads. Male heads. No wonder women had a hard time finding decent guys to date these days. Not that she was interested in anything to do with dating. “But if we’re competing with sites like Blind Date Brides, we may need to rethink our target audience.”

“I appreciate you bringing this up, Danica,” James said finally. “I’ll consider it.”

Which meant he would never mention it again. That was how things worked around here—James’s way or the highway. Her second week on the job, he’d given her a choice—join Blinddatebrides.com or quit. She needed the paycheck, so she did as he’d requested. She’d enjoyed the challenges of being in on the ground floor of a start-up again, but now she hated getting up in the morning. She still came into the office each day to put in her hours, so that had to count for something, right?

“Anything else?” James asked.

No one said a word. No one ever did except her.

“Get to work, people.” James clapped his hands together. “We don’t want anyone to be lonely tonight. They need to hook a mate!”

The guys cackled.

Frustrated and tired, Dani trudged to her cubicle. She’d stayed up late last night sending out another batch of resumes. Speaking of which, she’d better check her inbox in case someone replied. A click showed a notification, but not from a potential employer. A person named BigBrother on the dating website had messaged her with the subject, “I read your profile.”

Oh, no. She squeezed her eyes shut—another guy who wanted to get to know her.

Her stomach churned. She hated this. Sure, she could hit “delete”—that was par for the course on many dating sites—but Blinddatebrides.com was different. The website touted itself as a community where politeness and manners mattered. The company requested users to reply, even if the intent was to give someone a brush-off. Still, the thought of telling another guy she wasn’t interested in him made her feel physically ill.

But what other option was there?

Leading someone on when she was on the site under false pretenses ranked right up there with corporate spying in her book. She massaged her forehead to stop a full-on headache from erupting. Okay, one rejection wouldn’t send some guy scampering back to his mommy in tears, but...

Why did this keep happening?

Dani had taken steps to ensure it wouldn’t. What sense of honor she had left had made her fill out the match questionnaire truthfully, so she understood when the compatibility program deemed her a match with someone. But Dani had hedged against the computer algorithms by uploading an unattractive photo of herself. She looked downright ugly. While other women uploaded more than one picture to their profile page, she hadn’t.

She’d also downplayed her interests to make herself sound...well...about as exciting as a slug inching across a driveway at dawn. She’d listed the library as her favorite place to spend a Saturday night and a collection of Jane Austen novels as her must-have item if stranded on a desert island.

No man should want to date her.

Maybe BigBrother didn’t. He might be one of those guys, the players, who only wanted to have s*x. If that were the case, she wouldn’t mind telling him to get lost.

Dani opened her eyes and clicked on the notification to go to her message inbox at Blinddatebrides.com.

To: SanFranDani

From: BigBrother

Subject: I read your profile

Who are you searching for? Mr. Darcy? Or Mr. Knightley? -bb

She reread the message. Twice.

Okay, the fact this guy knew the names of two Jane Austen heroes impressed Dani, but who did he take her for? Intelligent impulsive Lizzy, or smug interfering Emma?

Still, his message intrigued Dani. She typed a reply and hit “send.” With a satisfied smile on her face, she leaned back in her chair—and almost fell over backward.

Uh-oh. What had she done?

She shouldn’t have replied the way she did.

Dani grimaced. She didn’t want to engage BigBrother into sending another message. She meant to tell him she wasn’t interested. To. Go. Away. Politely, of course.

Only, she hadn’t wanted to do that.

Not when his email had been unlike the others she’d received. He’d obviously read her profile and asked his question based on what she’d written, not about her photo or bra size. He might be genuinely interested in her.

Or something was wrong with him.

Her eyes locked on the link to his profile. One click would transport her to a page about him and his photograph.

Curiosity trickled down her arm to her fingertip, hovering above the laptop’s trackpad. She wanted to learn more about BigBrother. Read what he’d written about himself. See his photo.

Temptation flared. Dani moved the cursor to the link. All she had to do was click, but no.

The less she knew about BigBrother, the better.

Dani wasn’t looking to meet a guy. She didn’t want to meet a guy—especially one from Blinddatebrides.com.

Not under these circumstances.

With a twinge of regret, she closed his email. Goodbye, BigBrother.