Page 74 of Triggered By Love
“Me? No way,” Damon said, pointing to himself with his thumb. “I don’t have time for a virtual romance.”
“Can’t sell a service you’re not willing to use,” Avery teased.
“I’m going to use it,” Cory volunteered. “Who knows? I might meet a sweet girl next door, especially if I code in all the right romantic lines to use.”
“He’s scanning ebooks of romance novels to fill in for his avatar,” Eliza said. “But what we need help on are the fashions.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” Avery followed them to the conference room.
Alida Adams sat at the presenter’s seat, fiddling with her laptop.
Avery’s smile faded, although she forced herself to reignite it. Damon was free to hire whoever he wanted, but why hadn’t he mentioned Alida to her?
“I believe you already know Miss Adams,” Damon said. “She’s agreed to be the public face of Club Cockburn. She’ll be running publicity for our launch.”
“She’s my sister.” Cory held his hand near his mouth conspiratorially. “She wants to use this app to set me up.”
“It will be great publicity for both Cory and Damon to find mates through virtual dating,” Alida said without missing a beat. “This concept will go viral, and I’m excited to be on board.”
“For a share of founder’s stock,” Eliza muttered in a low voice to Avery.
“Will there be a problem?” Avery asked when she and Eliza went to the coffee machine, hopefully out of earshot of Alida.
“I don’t trust her,” Eliza said in a low voice. “She’s too grasping, and she’s already talking about concocting a storybook romance out of this for Cory.”
“Cory’s a nice guy. I’ll be glad for him if he finds his soulmate virtually.” Avery did like Cory, but on the surface, he was hard to look at. His beard was untrimmed, and he was out of shape from downing too many sugary soft drinks and snacking on pretzels and peanuts all day and night long.
Avery startled when someone clamped her shoulder.
“Hey, it’s only me,” Damon said. “You okay?”
“Just jumpy from everything that’s been going wrong with my life,” Avery said.
“It’ll get better,” he said. “I know you’re only fake-dating that football player, but remember what we talked about?”
Eliza thankfully moved away, making her way toward Alida who was going through her slides and testing the sound system.
“We’ve talked about so much lately.” Avery shrugged. “I feel like I’m losing the twin intuition. What’s on your mind?”
“Worried about you making wrong choices.” His soulful eyes bore into hers. “Did that cop do something to hurt you? Because if he’s messing with you, I’m going to kill him.”
“He’s a little too much to take,” she said, hoping to diffuse his intuition. “But really, all he cares about is finding the murderer. Sometimes, I think he’s obsessed because he’s afraid he or Alida were the real targets, and I’m guessing it’s guilt that keeps him on the case.”
“Okay, if you say so. There’s something creepy about him. It’s like he wants too much,” Damon said.
“So, what is it we talked about before?” Avery wanted to get off the subject of Jason Burnett. She didn’t want to dwell on how easy it was for him to shut off passion as easily as shutting off the tap.
“Baby steps. Getting back into dating safely. You can be in complete control and disappear any time without consequence.”
“I’m not sure I follow.” A sheen of cold sweat dotted her forehead. The thought of dating again was too disturbing, especially after the way she threw herself at that horrid cop. What was she thinking or not thinking?
“I’d like you to be one of our beta testers for Club Cockburn Dating App. You can choose any screenname you want and be completely anonymous. You can get your emotional needs taken care of without putting yourself on the line in the real world.”
“You want me to do virtual dating?”
He nodded solemnly. “I think it’ll be good for your recovery. I know more about you than you want me to know.”
“What?” She hissed, hating that her twin might be onto what she was subjected to. “You couldn’t have known. You were always with Chase, Alex, and Stone in the game room.”
