Page 101 of Faking It
I feel every single one of those from him, but it’s the one I want the most that I fear he’ll never voice.
THE MAKE-UP LADY POWDERS MY nose as the bright lights beat down on me. Nerves jitter through me for some reason when they shouldn’t.
Zane’s beside me.
Just like he was last night. This morning. For coffee as we sat in comfortable silence and scrolled through our social media and emails.
And now as we ready ourselves for our first of three television appearances today.
But this is the big one.
Sure I’ve modeled for Victoria’s Secret, I’ve done lingerie spreads in catalogs, I’ve walked runways, but this will be the biggest audience I will have had in one place, at one time, by far.
Zane slides his hand over to my knee and squeezes. “You’ll do fine,” he murmurs.
I slide my fingers over his hand and link mine with his as I just nod.
“And we’re going live in five. Four. Three. Two. One,” a man says across the stage.
“Good Morning USA. This is Fran Harrison and we’re about to talk to the real life couple behind the dating site that seems to be on everyone’s lips right now. We’re talking SoulM8. The newest dating site set to go live tonight at midnight and it seems to have quite a buzz about it. We’re here with the founder of the company, Zane Phillips, and the woman he met and fell in love with on his own site, Harlow Nicks—the couple that everyone is talking about. Welcome.”
“Thanks for having us,” I say with a smile.
“Good morning, Fran,” Zane says.
“So explain to everyone, if the site is launching tonight, how exactly did you meet Harlow on it?”
“We have put a significant amount of time into testing the site and fine tuning our one of a kind AI technology to create the perfect match. We have had numerous test groups try it out, myself included . . . and Harlow was in one of those beta groups.”
“I was,” I say with a smile and a nod.
“And why did you sign up? I don’t think anyone will argue when I say you are a beautiful woman who is more than capable of finding dates.”
“I’ve had my fair share, yes,” I say as my cheeks heat and the lies we’ve been telling for the past two months just roll off my tongue. “But they weren’t people looking for that deeper connection. They were men who saw the outside but weren’t interested so much in what’s on the inside. I was having a lot of first dates, a lot of men who only wanted one thing, and then I came upon an ad to be a beta for the site so I took the chance and found Zane.” I look over and smile at him, the emotion in my face completely sincere.
“And what was the first time you met like?”
“It was electric,” Zane says without missing a beat. “I knew she was fiery and passionate and not afraid to speak her mind. I loved that about her. That even though she was looking for someone, she was still herself. So many people try to be who they think the person they are talking to wants them to be . . . and with Harlow, here, she had no problem telling me I was wrong or challenging my opinion on things. It was refreshing.” Zane lifts our joined hands and kisses mine as if it’s something he does every day. “The first time we met was a comedy of errors, and the second time had a major misunderstanding, but I still wanted to see her. That’s how I knew.”
But I still wanted to see her.
“Was it love at first sight for you as well, Harlow?”
“We definitely had some things that made us question if we should go through with this, but yes, I was drawn to him in a way I hadn’t been with anyone before.”
“We’ll get a bit more of that after the commercials, but before we break, Zane, what is it about SoulM8 that makes it so much different than all of the others out there?”
“As I mentioned, we are the first site to use AI technology.”
“AI as in artificial intelligence?”
“Yes. We’ve spent a lot of time and research in how to best use AI to our subscribers’ advantage. Our initial profile set-up is a bit longer than other sites but it’s because we want to make sure we have as much information on your personality and traits and likes and dislikes as we can. We then use all of that information , combine it with the same algorithm and personality tests other matchmaking platforms use, but then SoulM8 takes it one step further. We take all of these results and allow the AI to take it from there. The program sifts through every facet and finds what we hope is the perfect match.”
“And how many matches have you had so far with your beta groups?” Fran asks.
“Statistics can always be manipulated so I’m not going to lie and say we’ve had one hundred percent success. Of course there have been people who have met up and their online persona didn’t match who they were face to face—or so the feedback has been—but at this time we’re showing the highest satisfaction rating of any of the comparable dating sites out there.”
“And you haven’t even officially launched yet! Amazing.” Fran turns to the camera. “Stick with us because after the commercial break, we’re going to get a sneak peak at these two and why everyone is buzzing about them—and we’re going to put that buzz to the test.”
