Page 19 of No Match Found
“More…what?” The thought of extending these interviews made me want to cry—and I wasn’t a crier.
Grant’s eyes never strayed from my face. “He thinks there’s a great story here with Matchify, but he wants something more…human.”
My chest constricted. Morehuman.
What did that mean? That my interviews had felt inhuman? Robotic?
Chase’s face flashed across my mind, lit by the TV screen while I’d sat with my laptop. He’d been sprawled on the couch, trying to coax me to come watchSurvivor, but I’d been working on a stats project for class.“Don’t you ever relax, Viv? You’re always on, always working. I swear you’re like a robot.”
I shoved the memory away. “Meaning…”
“He wants more aboutyou—the woman behind the app.”
I stared at him, my heartbeat growing louder in my ears. “But it’s supposed to be about Matchify, not me.”
Grant took a moment before responding. “Are you single?”
The question snatched my breath, but when I managed tosnatch it back, all I could think to say was, “I said no personal questions, remember?”
He leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees. “My editor was really interested when he found out you don’t use the app. And when I told him we’d started filling out profiles, he had an idea. He wants to expand the piece on Matchify. The concept is for me to observe you as you use the app.”
I stared at him, then the ugliest laugh I’d ever generated escaped my lips.
The corner of his lip lifted. “Give it a second to percolate.”
“No.”
There was a pause. “No, you won’t give it a second to percolate? Or no, you refuse the concept?”
“Yes.”
His brows pulled together. “I don’t…”
“I don’t need a second for it to percolate because it’s a hard pass.”
He seemed amused rather than frustrated. “I told him you’d say that.”
Why did it bother me that he thought me predictable? “Any sane person would say no to that, Grant. Why don’tyouuse the app? Write aboutyourexperience.”
“Who says I’m not?” His eyes gleamed with mischief, like he was daring me to admit I knew he hadn’t accessed his profile since we’d sat at Katie’s desk yesterday. He shrugged a shoulder. “It’d be pretty powerful, though, don’t you think? The CEO of Matchify stands behind her app enough to use it herself. The founder of Bumble did it, and the user trust it created was significant from what I understand.”
“She was already dating the guy,” I argued. “It was a publicity stunt.”
“And it worked. Users ate it up.”
I pressed my lips together. Was I willing to let Grant watch me use Matchify? Not just watch me use it but write an entire article about it afterward?
I was willing to do a lot for my company and for our users, but there were limits, and this was one of them.
I shook my head. “No.”
He sat back and crossed his arms. “Final answer?”
“Final answer.”
He let out a sigh. “Okay, then. I think we’re done here.” He stood, grasping his notebook.
I felt a strange sense of panic. It was an abrupt ending, and it left me feeling off-kilter. But it’s not like I was about to ask him to stick around for more invasive questions.
