Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3) by Tara Wyatt (electric book reader .TXT) 📗

more messages you exchange, the more features you unlock, such as being able to send short voice messages. When you reach dark red, you’ll unlock the ability to have a video call with your match.”

She took a sip of her water, licked her lips and continued. “Now, for a few housekeeping items. There are about 300 people in the beta test of this app, and you’re all Tapp employees. Please know that you’re under no obligation to find someone to date using this app—what we’re interested in is the functionality and the user experience. So yes, you will be matched with others, but you are certainly not expected to start dating your co-workers.” For the briefest second her eyes flashed up to Max and he felt it like a kick in the gut. He schooled his face into a neutral-erring-on-the-side-of-grumpy expression.

“However, if you do start actually dating a co-worker, that’s okay, too. Just make sure you disclose your relationship to HR and fill out the necessary and oh-so-romantic paperwork. But again, no pressure. This test is about the app itself and how well it works, how easy it is to use. The beta test is going to run for the next ninety days, and when it’s over you’ll all be given detailed feedback forms to fill out. You can also provide feedback as we go at any time by emailing the address I mentioned earlier. We’ve got about half an hour set aside for questions, so if you’ve got one, type it into the chat box and I’ll do my best to get to as many as possible.”

Max pulled his phone from his pocket, opened his email and searched for the link to the beta test, then downloaded the Blind Date app. He hadn’t looked at it for weeks now and was impressed with the product he saw in front of him. The app was responsive, sleekly designed, inviting. The icon was a navy blue square with the silhouette of two people in white, light blue blindfolds over their eyes as they appeared to lean in for a kiss. A gold heart rose up between them. He liked it—it was appealing, inclusive, and simple while still evoking the vibe of the app.

He quickly filled out the basic profile information: male, age thirty-six, straight, living in Manhattan, interested in women twenty-eight to thirty-eight also in Manhattan. He skipped past the username portion. He’d been assigned BetaTestAccount23 and didn’t care to change it. It’s not like he was on here actually looking for matches. He was alone, and he planned to stay that way.

The next screen pulled up the first question of the personality questionnaire and he closed the app. He’d fill it out later, when he had more time. He had to admit, he was curious about the questionnaire’s functionality and the algorithm used to map people’s answers.

Willa continued to talk, answering questions about timelines, bug reporting, and others. And then, as she joked about being invited to any weddings born out of the Blind Date beta test, the contents of his stomach curdled. What if Willa, who no doubt was participating in the beta test herself, got matched with someone and fell in love?

The thought was enough to make him briefly consider pulling the plug on the entire project. Enough to make him want to put his fist through the wall. Enough to make him want to fire whoever dated her.

Which were all completely insane things that he obviously wouldn’t do. That he had no right to do, especially after the way he’d treated her. God, he really was a selfish prick, wasn’t he? He’d pushed her away because he had to, but he couldn’t stomach the idea of her with someone else either. It was as though he expected her to live in a romantic limbo forever. Given that she was twenty-nine, stunningly beautiful, smart, kind, warm, funny and so fucking amazing he almost couldn’t process it, she wasn’t going to stay single forever. Any man with half a brain would want her.

He’d wanted her from the moment he’d met her, but he knew that she wasn’t meant for him. He was going to have to find a way to accept that. Somehow.

6

Willa couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone out clubbing with friends, and given how much she loved to dance, she was long overdue for a night out. Besides, she felt like celebrating. The beta launch had gone smoothly this morning, bug reports so far were minimal and Max had seemed…well, to be perfectly honest, he’d seemed bored. His eyes had been on his phone during most of the presentation, and while she’d told herself that he was probably just checking out the app, she’d still felt a little disappointed. His unexpected compliment had thrown her so off-kilter that she’d been expecting…more. But he’d just been quiet and reserved and impossible to read, as usual.

She stood on the corner of East 58th and Madison Avenue with her friend and new roommate, Dorinda Dong, waiting for their friend Brandon and Willa’s brother Elliott, who she’d finally convinced to come out with them. After the home invasion, she’d stayed with Elliott for a couple of weeks before she and Kayla had moved into Theo’s old apartment, subletting it from him. But now Kayla was gone, having left for Lake Tahoe with her boyfriend Sebastian a week ago. It had worked out that their friend Dori, a librarian at the New York Public Library and underrated comedic genius, was on the hunt for a new place, and so they’d moved in together. However, if they wanted to stay at Theo’s old place past August, when the sublet was up, they’d probably have to find a third person to take the last bedroom. She made decent money, but not enough to cover a gorgeous three-bedroom apartment in Midtown. She wasn’t a trust fund kid with a law degree like Theo, after all.

She spotted Brandon walking quickly toward them, his