Ben smiled at her – a fake smile that was convincing enough – “Heey, Gretchen,” he said. “Whatcha doing over here? Did you need to brainstorm an idea?”
“It’s just, I noticed that you were out of coffee,” the mousy, blonde woman said, staring at him with her large hazel eyes. On most days, she wore thick, Coke-bottle type glasses like she’d just walked out of a movie from the ‘50s, but today for some reason she was without them.
Maybe that’s why she was leaning so close to her computer.
“So it would seem,” he said to her. “I go through coffee very quickly. Which is why I really ought to bring a mug next time. I’m sorry, environment.”
Gretchen smiled and let out a small, shy laugh like she was afraid to laugh in front of him but also worried that not laughing would insult him. “I could refill it for you?” she offered.
Had she really been sitting there watching him and waiting for his cup to be empty so she could swoop in? He started to wish he had just thrown it in the trash under his desk like usual.
This is what I get for trying to conserve cups, he thought. Then he nodded his head at Gretchen. “Yes, please. Thank you, Gretchen. You’re so helpful. But only if you were already heading over there…”
She’d grabbed his empty cup and rushed off before he’d gotten halfway through this sentence. She was definitely an eager person, but he didn’t quite know why or what she was so eager about.
Eager to help him, he supposed. Which was nice. He just assumed that she must have some kind of ulterior motive.
Maybe I should just date Gretchen and see what happens, he thought morosely as he watched her refill his coffee and proceed to put in way too much creamer. She looked back at him and gave an excited little wave.
Ben looked back at the shared Drive file. He wondered if maybe he should use this new Sparkly and see if it was any different. There was only one problem, of course, and that was that this app didn’t exist yet. He couldn’t be a beta tester for something that was little more than words in a file at the moment. Besides, they want me to be serious. I’m pretty confident that I shouldn’t take a dating app too seriously. Online dating is to0...overhyped and the market is saturated.
He knew that he shouldn’t really complain about online dating considering that he a) had never tried it, b) didn’t have a better option at the moment, and c) genuinely thought that it was entirely uncool for someone to complain about popular apps. He wasn’t a Seattle hipster; he could appreciate the validity of any app that came to his desk or his phone. People liked fun and easy, and he got that. He was one of those people.
But he still thought this app could use a lot of work or else it was going to fizzle and fail. And he couldn’t have that, because any of his acquisitions failures were his failures.
And he hadn’t had a failure in years.
* * *
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About the Author
Blake Andrews is an author of sweet, wholesome contemporary romances. Hailing from New England, her own happily ever is spent hiking with her husband and rescue pup, devoting long, lazy afternoons to reading on the beach, and trying every flavor in the ice cream aisle.
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Billionaire Hearts Club- The Complete Series Collection Page 37