Page 48 of Off the Wall

You can do this, Nori.

“Have you felt hovered over or watched by the representatives we’ve planted to catch the footage?” she asks.

I flash back to each time I’ve spotted someone across the room aiming a camera at me. “I knew what I signed up for,” I say. “And I don’t mind. It’s all part of the process.”

I just don’t want to witness the results.

Jemma pulls down her brow.

Uh-oh.

“The thing is, Nori, we’ve studied your post-date assessment surveys.”

“You said they’re confidential, right?” I rush to say. “Just so you can get an idea of how the dates are going? No one else is going to see what I wrote?”

“That’s correct,” she says. “But the team couldn’t help noticing none of the men we’ve matched you with have swept you off your feet yet.”

I take another sip of my coffee, considering whether to stay completely honest or go with what I know she’d like to hear. Swipe Rite wants a woman finding love, one match at a time, thanks to their algorithm. What Iamis a woman who’s been on four dates that have all been just … fine.

Roller skating with Adam. An escape room with Miles. Wreath making with Quentin. Candle-dipping with poor, rashy Clayton.

For the record, four is higher than the number of new men I’d go out with in an entire month back when I was dating the old-fashioned way.

With terrible setup dates and bad luck.

“Everyone’s been nice,” I say. And I mean it. “They’re all attractive. Polite. Intelligent. And the locations for our dates were … fun.” Still, this answer’s not going to set Jemma’s world on fire. Kind of like my temperature, which has been stuck solidly at lukewarm.

“Fair enough,” Jemma says. “And whowouldyou pick,ifyou had to choose your match at this point?”

Cash.

The name cartwheels across my brain before I can stamp it out. Too bad I’m not allowed to date him. And even if I could, he’s the one man who’s also made it clear he doesn’t have time for relationships.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Is ‘none’ an answer?”

Jemma squares her shoulders. “I appreciate yourforthrightness, Nori. But we’d like to tweak the algorithm to get at least one or two stellar matches for you going forward. In order to do that, we’ll need to know which man has been the standout so far. Just name the best of the batch you’ve already met, if you can’t imagine actually choosing one of them.”

“The best of the batch?”

I flash back to the reflections of Cash I’ve seen now in multiple mirrors. Even those figments of my imagination have stirred me more than the matches from Swipe Rite.

But let’s be real.

Those fantasies aren’t paying me ten thousand actual dollars.

I gulp. “I guess if Ihadto pick someone, Miles was funny. He made me laugh at the escape room. I like a guy with a good sense of humor.”

Jemma clacks at her keyboard. “Funny. Laughter. Humor. Perfect. That’s very helpful, Nori.”

I let out a chuckle. “Does this mean the rest of my matches will be a bunch of standup comedians?”

“Of course not.” She lifts her gaze to mine again. “All your dates can’t be winners. We need our singles to be willing to stick with Swipe Rite for the long haul. If everyone met their match within a few weeks, we’d lose money, wouldn’t we? It’s important that we prepare people for a few … bad dates.”

“Ah.” I nod. “Like kissing a few frogs before you get to the prince.”

“Precisely.” She tips her chin. “Although don’t forget, whether you kiss any of these men is entirely up to you.”

“I remember.” I snort.Definitelyno kissing. “Still, I feel like we’re not being entirely honest with everyone about the algorithm.”

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