Page 13 of Sunset Serenade
Rose took a deep breath as she began typing in her username and password. It was possible HR took the time to look her up, or to call her old school, or…
Nope. She logged right in and Craig leaned over her shoulder, pointing out the various programs.
“Obviously, I don’t expect you to learn all of this today, but here’s a list with a few of our elite members and how they answered their questionnaires.”
“Interesting. I assume I can match them to non-elite members?”
“Yes. Those records are a bit messier, though.” He pointed to an icon on the desktop. “It’s all kept here, but it’s the raw data. It’s too much to look at. I’ll have one of our developers stop by this week and get you what you need.”
Rose felt a flutter in her chest. Her previous boss always needed help with wrangling large tracts of data, so much so that Rose signed up for a coding class using Python.
She’d loved it, and it had gone so well that she went to another one, and another, until she was a data wizard. Her skills were still basic – finding trends and making simple models – but it was enough at her old job.
Would it be enough here?
“I apologize, but I have to run to some meetings,” Craig said, standing up. “Take your time, walk around, get to know people. I’ll be back after lunch and we can chat more.”
“Sounds great. Thanks, Craig.”
He disappeared and she was left in the stunning silence of her magazine-perfect office.
Rose sat back and took a deep breath. She’d never been to a place like this before. When the workers saw Craig coming, they didn’t hide. They waved! They seemedhappy.
It seemed like paradise. She just needed to not mess it up.
It didn’t take her long to get started. Despite being promised time with the developers, Rose wanted to see what she could do on her own.
She pulled up the data and started combing through it. There were millions of entries. She’d looked up a bit about SerenadeMe and knew they had around five million active users – but how many were there who had met their perfect match and disappeared? There was a lot of history, and a lot to draw from. A bunch of these people could be married by now! Have kids! White picket fences, all thanks to the app!
Half an hour into her daydreaming, her phone rang.
Without looking away from her computer, she picked it up. “Hello?”
“Rose?” The familiar voice faltered. “It’s Greg.”
If she hadn’t been sitting down, she would’ve fallen over.
“Hey, hi,” she said, drawing out the “hi” for four seconds. “How are you?”
“I’m good. Ah, sorry for calling you out of the blue like this. Is this weird? Am I being weird?”
Rose touched a hand to her forehead. Was today some sort of vivid dream? Had she fallen into an open manhole, and now she was hallucinating this gorgeous office and the chic outfit and the call from her ex-boyfriend who she’d been pining after since they’d broken up five years ago?
“You’re always weird, Greg,” she quipped.
A laugh burst out of his end of the phone. “I know, right? How are you?”
“I’m good.” She paused. “Really good, actually. I started a new job today.”
“That’s why I’m calling. I’m not just a weirdo.” He laughed again. “I saw on LinkedIn that you’re working at SerenadeMe?”
Greg worked for a company in San Francisco as a data scientist. Three years ago, when she floated the idea of learning how to code, he was the one who encouraged her to do it. “You’d be great at it,” he’d said. “Spreadsheets have always been your thing. This is just the next level.”
In the last year, their conversations had fizzled out. Greg seemed occupied. Distant. His company was busier than ever, but they still kept in touch. They had moments like this. He noticed things, he thought about her.
Greg was her long-lost love. No one liked to hear her talk about it—they’d roll their eyes and tell her to stop dreaming, but she knew the truth. They were meant for each other. They just needed to get the timing right.
Maybe, justmaybe,it was all coming together now?
