Fortune's Perfect Valentine

Oh, Lord, I’m making a mess of this, she thought frantically. She had to pull herself together before she made a complete idiot of herself!

“Okay, say I answer all the questions listed on the program,” the interviewer went on. “Then what? A woman out there looking for her perfect man decides if she likes my answers? Isn’t that the same premise of all the dating sites being advertised nowadays?”

“No—My Perfect Match is different. A woman won’t decide if she likes you—the computer will do the deciding,” Vivian attempted to correct him.

The popular television personality chuckled, and Vivian couldn’t decide whether she wanted to crawl under her chair or throw her shoe straight through the monitor.

“I’m not sure I follow,” he said. “A computer is going to tell me who my perfect mate is? Look, I’m all for new technology, but when it comes to a person’s love life, that all sounds pretty cold to me.”

She said, “Cold—hot—temperature doesn’t come up on the app’s questions.”

“Then what does come up, Vivian? A criminal background check?” he asked, then burst out laughing at his own crude joke.

How to avoid jerks like you, Vivian wanted to say. Instead, she said through tight lips, “Those types of candidates will automatically be ejected from the system.”

“That’s good to know,” Ted replied. “But I’m still looking for the flawless woman. Tell me exactly how My Perfect Match will find her?”

“I—think—” Her words trailed away in confusion and she darted a helpless glance at Wes.

Thankfully he picked up the rest of her sentence as though they’d planned it that way.

“I think what Vivian is trying to say is that My Perfect Match takes the doubt out of dating. It’s all about being compatible, rather than a person’s appearance or the chemistry between two people. Isn’t that right, Viv?”

Smiling, he looked at her, and for a moment all Vivian could do was gaze into his eyes. She’d never noticed them being so blue before or so full of warmth.

“Oh—yes,” she gushed. “Absolutely.”

“Well, I must admit this is a new concept. And you definitely sound confident about its abilities,” Ted said to Wes. “Would you be willing to trust your love life with My Perfect Match?”

“I certainly would,” Wes said without a pause. “I’m more than happy to let the app tell me who I need to be dating.”

The morning show host appeared completely amazed by Wes’s announcement. “You mean you’re telling me that you plan to use My Perfect Match?”

“I plan to start tomorrow.”

Vivian’s head jerked in Wes’s direction. Had he lost his mind? To hear him tell it, everything he’d been spouting about the app was pure hogwash. Ted Reynolds and the viewing audience might not know it, but she certainly did. Why had Wes suddenly made such a wild promise? And on national TV!

“Did you hear that, folks? Wes Robinson isn’t afraid to put himself on the dating market! He’s just vowed to use My Perfect Match to find his perfect lady. I can promise you that Hey, USA will certainly be following the outcome of this romantic venture!”

While Vivian was trying to make sense of what had just happened, the interview wrapped up. And even after a crew member removed her earpiece, she continued to sit watching dazedly as the broadcast crew carried its equipment out of Wes’s office.

Once the room was finally quiet again, Wes walked over to the wall of plate glass and let out a hefty sigh.

As Vivian watched him stare moodily out at the city, she forced herself to her feet. The past few minutes had twisted her nerves so tight she felt utterly drained, and for a moment she wondered if her legs would hold her upright.

“Well, that turned out to be a hell of a mess,” he said.

Vivian winced with regret. Of course he was disgusted. She’d let him down in a big way and made herself look like an imbecile in the process.

“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I’ve never done anything like this before. The second we went on the air, my mind went blank. And Ted Reynolds wasn’t helping matters. He was—”

She was searching for the right word when Wes found it for her.

“Being an ass,” he finished.

She took a few tentative steps forward until she was standing close enough to see his brows pull into a scowl.

“You noticed?” she asked.

“Hell yes, I noticed.”

Realizing she was twisting the frames of her eyeglasses, she eased her grip and thrust her hands behind her. “Well, I’m not going to use him as an excuse for my breakdown. Everything I wanted to say about My Perfect Match came out wrong.”

His expression a picture of frustration, he turned and closed the distance between them. “Forget about it, Vivian. It’s over and done with. And frankly, what you said or how you said it doesn’t matter now. I’m the one who came out of this looking like a fool.”

Stunned that he was being so magnanimous about the whole thing, she stared at him. “You? What are you talking about? You didn’t miss a beat. You made My Perfect Match sound like something every single person should purchase.”

He rolled his eyes. “I realize you were visiting another planet during our interview, but surely you heard me say I’d be using the app for my own personal dating agenda.”

She tried to keep the dismay she was feeling off her face. “I heard. But I don’t understand your frustration. Ted Reynolds will never know if you use My Perfect Match. I doubt we’ll hear from him or the show’s producers again.”

“If this was just a phony promise made to a jackass television host, I wouldn’t care. But I was also speaking to a national audience. Many of whom purchase and use Robinson Tech products. They expect me to be forthright about myself and my company. Not to mention all the curiosity this is going to generate with the public. Everyone is going to be watching like a hawk to see what happens with me and this—dating thing of yours.”

Vivian rubbed fingers against her furrowed brow. She should be happy that her boss had managed to get himself in such a predicament. His misery was fitting payback for all that ridicule of My Perfect Match he’d spouted to her yesterday. Yet surprisingly, seeing the harried tension on his face right now didn’t give her the slightest feeling of satisfaction.

“I see what you mean,” she said thoughtfully. “As a representative of Robinson Tech, you feel obligated to follow through on your promise.”

“It’s a relief to see your brain is working again, Ms. Blair.”

One minute he used her first name and the next he reverted back to “Ms. Blair.” His vacillation made her wonder how he thought of her. As Vivian the woman, or Ms. Blair the computer developer? Either way, she wanted to tell him she’d had enough of his insults for one day, but she’d already put her job in enough jeopardy with the interview debacle.

“Well, if that’s the way you feel—I mean, if you’re actually going through with your vow to use My Perfect Match, then it’s only right that I use it, too. After all, I’m the one who has real confidence in the app.”

With a faint smirk on his lips, he stepped closer.

“You? Use the app?”

The incredulous tone of his voice made her lift her chin to a challenging angle. “What’s the matter? Afraid I’ll prove you wrong about My Perfect Match?”

“I hope you do prove me wrong and this blasted thing turns out to be a roaring success,” he countered, then slithered a skeptical look down the length of her body. “I just wasn’t aware that you were looking for a perfect man.”

I’m certainly not looking at him now. Vivian bit down on her tongue to keep the words from leaping out of her mouth.

“In this day and age, the task of finding a perfect man seems like a hopeless quest, but I’ve not given up the search,” she said primly, then shoved her eyeglasses onto her face. “And now that I’ve created My Perfect Match, I feel much more hopeful of finding him.”

The sly grin spreading over his lips was followed by a suggestive gleam in his blue eyes. One that left Vivian feeling so uncomfortable, she wanted to run out of his plush office as fast as her legs would carry her.

“Well, you’ve just made this whole fiasco more bearable and interesting. I’m willing to bet I find my perfect woman long before you find your perfect man.”