Page 2 of Meet Cute Reboot
The cabinet door is open again. I clench my jaw along with my fists. The cabinet door that keeps openingby itself.
Large yard with mature oak trees, great location downtown, a guest house and a barn, original woodwork, history, southern charm. The house’s positives still far outweigh the negatives.
I walk over to the cabinets, gently close the door, head to the mudroom to fill Korg’s food and water dishes, and then return to the kitchen.
The alarm I’d set to wake me up in time to catch Cassie’s news segment still hasn’t gone off. I tap my watch. I have twenty minutes until I need to turn on the TV. In the meantime, I swipe off the alarm, toast a bagel, eat the bagel, and brew a cup of coffee while mentally preparing myself for Cassie to press the Choose button on live TV.
Thanks to my insider knowledge, I know Cassie’s database is small, only one hundred eligible bachelors, so there’s a one in ahundred chance Cupid will choose me. (I’m good at math.) More if you consider how much she and I naturally have in common.
If I’m chosen, I have a spiel prepared. I’ll tell her I was approached by an investor friend who works for Excel, who knows I’m single and new to the area, and who thought I might be willing to try a new matchmaking app.
After punching me in the face (well-deserved), she’ll calm down, and I’ll win her over again with my charm. Yes, it’s sneaky. Yes, I’m sort of lying. Guilt is a thing, and I’m suffering from it, but I think she’ll understand this is a romantic gesture, like the prince who slays the dragon, wards off evil spells, crosses the moat, and climbs the booby-trapped tower to rescue the princess. I’m the prince. She’s the princess. It’s a fairy-tale love story. What can go wrong?
She could hate me. I mean, continue to hate me. My lies could blow up in my face. She could see them as another betrayal in a long line of betrayals, and I could be stuck alone in a huge house with a haunted cabinet and a feral ectoplasmic cat.
I sigh and rub my face. Cassie’s app probably won’t choose me anyway.
I top off my coffee mug, make a pit stop in the bathroom—Korg follows me in, of course—and then I head back to my bedroom to retrieve my phone before returning to the family room and flopping onto the couch. Korg jumps up beside me while I flip on the television.
I’m early. Cassie’s segment isn’t for another five minutes, so I clutch my phone and jiggle my knee as meteorologist Kenny Blackburn tells me it’s gonna be another hot one in Charleston, SC.
Cassie
As Kenny Blackburn uses his entire body to draw the path of tomorrow evening’s thunderstorms across the Charleston metropolitan area, I sit on the leather sofa wringing my hands. Felicia Acrea and I are already in place for our interview segment. Felicia’s distracted by her jacket, fiddling with her lapels and smoothing her blouse while the makeup guy floofs her hair. Guests don’t get special treatment. I hope my nose isn’t shiny.
This was my idea. Go on TV, be the guinea pig, the first to click MatchAI’s Choose button and trust Cupid to find my perfect match. It won’t be a real date. Heavens no. I’ve only been divorced for six months (yeah, that happened), and I’m not ready to jump back into dating. This is just a publicity stunt—a way to advertise and let people know that I, the CEO of the company, am so confident in my app that I’ll use it myself.
In addition to pressing the Choose button on live TV, I’ll go on a blind date with my match, livestream portions of our date on Instagram, and do a follow-up radio interview on Monday morning. There are two hundred singles in my database. When the men signed up, they agreed to cooperate with my launch plan if their name was selected. Nothing could go wrong.
The guy behind the camera points at us. Kenny isn’t talking anymore. It’s our turn.
I start sweating under the hot studio lights. If my nose isn’t shiny, it will be in five seconds.
Felicia starts the interview like we’re old friends, like we’ve been chatting all morning. She laughs at something, and I laugh too, even though I didn’t hear what she said. Nerves do funny things to a person.
Deep breaths. In. Out.
“Let’s talk about you first,” Felicia says. “MatchAI isn’t your first gig. You have an established ghost tours business as well. Do you want to give it a plug?”
“Sure. My mom says I’m an overachiever.” I rattle out a nervous laugh. “I suppose she’s right. After I earned my associate degree at Trident Tech, I knew I wanted to own a business, and combining my love of Charleston’s history with the tourism industry seemed the perfect place to start. I bought Old Towne Ghost Tours from an older couple and took the company from a fledgling mom-and-pop to a profitable business with a reputation for bringing Charleston’s vibrant history and legends to life.”
“So, MatchAI is just your side hustle.”
“I guess you could say that. I manage them both with the help of my talented assistant, Sarah.”
I glance at Sarah, who is standing, arms crossed, at the back of the studio, her brow furrowed in response to my callout.
“You’re already a successful businesswoman,” Felicia says, oblivious to Sarah’s glare. “What made you want to create a dating app?”
“My nickname in high school was Stupid Cupid because I had a knack for matching people up. With the advent of AI technology, I realized I could take my talent virtual. My app features an artificial intelligence—we call her Cupid—and she matches people based on hundreds of categories including custom keywords and phrases.”
I prop my elbow onto the armrest and lean toward Felicia. “We also use biometrics software to match people based on facial geometry,” I continue. “Studies have shown that we are attracted to people we resemble, and Cupid harnesses that tendency to find your perfect match.”
My voice sounds confident. Fake it till you make it. The time I spent practicing with Sarah last night is helping.
“So, you’re in beta right now. Tell me a little about that.”
“Yes, we’re rolling out the beta version to the Charleston metro area and surrounding communities. I’m from Charleston, and this city is dear to my heart, so it makes sense to roll out here first.”