Page 6 of Built to Last

Anika bites her bottom lip.

I’m putting her in a terrible position. “You don’t owe me that. I’m sorry I asked. I get it. This guy brings in viewers, and you need viewers.” I hate the thought of this. I don’t want to say these words because I’ve dreamed of this house since I was sixteen years old. “Maybe I should step out.”

“Absolutely not,” Anika replies with a frown. “This doesn’t happen without you. I need you to find a way to get along with Reid. It makes me sad. I thought he was nice.”

Heath holds up a hand. “I am going to get into serious trouble for saying this.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t,” Ivy counters. “Unless you’re going to say the whole ‘maybe Harper’s being too sensitive about her grocery stores’ thing so I don’t have to say it. Because she can be mean.”

Heath sighs. “I was going to be nicer about it.”

I’m not mean. “He was an asshole.”

“He was not perfect,” Ivy concedes. “He wants his own guy in. Does that sound like anyone you know?”

Again with the calling me out when she could simply let me have this one. Sometimes I long for those years when Ivy wasn’t concerned about anything but her coding. “Fine. I did want my friend in. I learned a lot from her. He was an elitist asshole, but it’s not like I’ve never worked with one of those before.”

“He’s nervous because it’s his first time back in front of the camera in over a year. We all want to bring in our own people,” Anika says. “I want to bring in my hairdresser. You know Mandi from that salon over in the Bronx. But there’s some kind of royal hairdresser, and I have to hold up tradition and stuff. I’ve been told no glitter. It makes me sad. I look good with some glitter.”

Like I said. Real stress. “I will try hard to get along with him.”

“Once he sees the kind of work you can do, he’ll be thrilled to have you on the team.” Anika pours herself another glass of wine.

I’m not so sure of that, but I put a brave face on. “I’ll watch some of his show and try to get a feel for his design work. We’ll be fine.”

I can lie. I can also work with people I don’t necessarily like. I do it all the time. Pretty much every time I go into the office.

Anika breathes an obvious sigh of relief and squeezes my hand. “Thank you. I actually kind of thought the two of you would get along. You would make the cutest couple.”

“Absolutely not.”

Heath takes a drag off his beer. “Emma thinks you would be good together.”

I turn to Ivy and hope that the daggers I am sending her with my eyes get my point across. “What did you do?”

Emma is the artificial intelligence program Ivy and Heath have been working on for the last year. It’s what brought them together in the first place. Heath’s grandmother was an old-school matchmaker in Little Italy. They trained the AI on her methods of finding compatibility. And one of the things they did to train her was have all of their friends fill out Lydia’s forms. For practice, of course.

Ivy doesn’t bother to look guilty. “What I always do when we meet a gorgeous guy with his very own three thousand square foot Upper East Side apartment. I convince him it’s a good idea to help me with a project and then I run him against you and try to find a way to accidently introduce you.”

“How many times have you done this?” I’m utterly horrified, and now I’m wondering about all those times I ran into some guy who also happened to know Ivy. I kind of thought she knew them from her tech guru goddess days. And that is precisely why I turned them down when they asked me out. I avoid tech bros.

“Just a couple,” Ivy replies. “It’s a surprisingly small pool.”

“I told you we should also start looking at guys with a little less cash on hand,” Heath argues.

“She has expensive tastes.” Anika bites back a laugh. “So how did Reid do on the compatibility scale? Also, how did you get him to fill it out?”

“Oh, I lied and said it was part of the contract. The good news is most people don’t actually read their contracts. He thought it was super weird but did it anyway. I also have his brother’s file, but he is not of the same persuasion,” Ivy explains. “I do have some thoughts about him, but I’m going to hold on to them. I want to see him in action.”

“How in the hell are we compatible? Has Emma lost her damn mind?” There is zero way I match with that erudite jerk.

“Emma’s mind is excellent, thank you.” Heath looks a bit offended.

Ivy seems to study me for a moment. “Do you really want to know? Or do you want to just loathe him? It’s a valid choice.”

“I think loathe is the way to go.” There’s a buzz from the intercom, letting me know someone is at the door to the building. Except almost everyone I care about is right here. I get up and answer it.

“Hey, I’m looking for Harper Ross,” a masculine voice says.

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