SEVENTEEN 8 страница

River frowned. “Oh. ” He opened his menu again. “What … um, else would you recommend? ”

Jess gaped at him. “Do not tell me you were going to get the same thing. ”

River nodded down at his menu. “Drunken noodles? ”

“They’re great, ” she confirmed. “Let’s do soup for two and the two entré es. ” She looked at River. “Want a beer or anything? ”

He seemed genuinely tickled by the way she took charge. “Water’s good. ”

They handed their menus to Rama, and Jess stared at her date across the table. “But really: you were not going to get the duck. ”

“I was. ”

She didn’t know where the urge to laugh-scream came from, but she swallowed it down with a cold gulp of ice water.

“Did you work today? ” he asked stiffly, clearly hoping she’d forgotten what she’d asked before they were interrupted. Frankly, if he didn’t want to answer, Jess probably didn’t want to hear the truth anyway.

“Nana’s always been a stickler that if I don’t have to work, Saturday is a family day. ”

“You live with your grandmother? ” he asked.

“Yes and no. Nana Jo and Pops own the apartment complex. They live in the bungalow, and I live in the apartment across the courtyard. ”

“With your daughter? ” he confirmed, and she nodded. “What’s her name? ”

After a second’s pause, Jess shook her head. Unease twisted through her.

“I know she’s off-limits as far as the experiment, ” he said. “That was just me asking about family. Sharing. ” He paused, smiling playfully. “For example, I have two meddling sisters. ”

“Oh, you’re lucky then. Meddling women keep the world running. ”

“They’d love that. ” He laughed, warm and clear. “Both older: Natalia and Pilar. Both overbearing. ”

“The youngest. Huh. ” Jess sipped her water. “I would have lost that bet. ”

Amusement lifted the corner of his mouth. “Why’s that? ”

Rama materialized again with a large steaming bowl of soup. He placed it between them and they shared a few moments of easy silence as they dished up their portions, passing the chili sauce and condiments across the table.

Jess bent to smell the contents of her bowl—the tangy, pungent broth was one of her favorite comfort foods—and registered that River had just mirrored her movement precisely.

He noticed at almost the same time and straightened in his chair. “Why are you surprised I’m the youngest? ” he asked, moving on.

“Youngest children are usually less ‘intense, ’” she said with a smile, using his own description against him. “You uptight perfectionists tend to be oldest children. ”

“I see. ” His laugh rolled through her, and he bent, taking a bite of soup. The deeply sexual groan he let escape when he tasted was destined to haunt Jess’s best and worst dreams.

“What about you? ” he asked. “Any siblings? ”

She shook her head. “Only child. ”

He took another bite. “I guess we’d have both lost a bet, then. I would have said oldest, with at least one sibling. ”

“Why? ”

“You seem responsible, smart, conscientious. Bossy. I imagine you emulating your parents and—”

Jess snort-laughed and reached up to cover her mouth with her napkin. The very idea of emulating Jamie was absurd. “Sorry, that was just—” She smoothed her napkin over her lap again. “No, I’m an only child. ”

He nodded in understanding and, to his credit, changed the subject.

“So, we’ve talked about how I got here, ” he said. “But how’d you end up a statistician? I’ll admit it suits you. ”

She lifted a brow.

“You seem very competent, ” he added. “It’s reassuring. Attractive. ”

Jess watched him pointedly avoid her eyes. He had no way of knowing, but calling her “competent” was easily the best compliment he could have paid her.

He set the glass down again. “But to my question …”

Jess hummed, thinking. “I find it soothing that numbers don’t lie. ”

“But they can be misleading. ”

“Only if you don’t know what to look for. ” She took a sip of soup. “I’ve always been a numbers geek. When I was a kid, I’d count my steps everywhere I went. I would count how many floors were in a building, how many windows per floor. I’d try to estimate how tall a building was, and then look it up when I got home. And when I took my first stats class, I was done for. I love working with numbers that are meaningful more broadly. Predicting earthquakes or natural disasters, political campaigns, customer service survey results or—”

“Genetics, ” he said quietly.

Ahh. The elephant in the room. She felt the tops of her cheeks warm and looked down, surprised again that her boobs were so much closer to her face in this bra than they usually were. Freaking Fizzy. Jess cleared her throat. “Exactly. As long as you have enough data, you can figure out anything. ”

“I get it, ” he said in that same quiet voice. “There’s something satisfying about solving little puzzles every day. ” They ate in silence for a moment, and Jess wondered if she was imagining the way his gaze seemed to linger on her neck, and lower, down her arms …

“Are those …” he asked, narrowing his eyes and motioning to her right forearm, where she’d pushed her sleeve up a bit, “Fleetwood Mac lyrics? ”

“Oh. ” Her left hand moved to cover the ink. “Yes. ” She turned her arm over, but he leaned in, wrapping his thumb and forefinger around her wrist, turning it so he could see the soft skin of her inner arm.

“‘Thunner only happens, ’” he read, eyes moving away from the misspelled word and up to her face. “‘Thunner’? ”

Jess rolled her eyes. “Felicity. ” Hopefully he’d gathered that simply saying her name should explain everything.

He must’ve, because he laughed and lightly swept his thumb across the letters. Nothing like the clinical way he’d touched her last night, this was leisurely, exploring. And she was melting. “And another piece of the puzzle falls into place. ”

“She—Fizzy—has the other half of the line. ‘When it’s raining’ except there’s no h in when. ” With him looking at her and touching her like that, it took great concentration to form thoughts and make those thoughts into words. “On my twenty-fifth birthday, she took me out to celebrate. It was a really perfect night and I emailed her when I got home to say thank you. I was absolutely hammered, and Pops thought it was so funny he wouldn’t let me use the backspace key to correct my typos. ” She shrugged. “Apparently I emailed her the full lyrics to the song we’d sung at karaoke to prove how sober I was. ”

His eyes shone when he glanced up at her face. With a look that might be regret, he released her arm. “That’s a good story. ”

Jess laughed down at the last couple bites of her soup. “Pops is basically a monster. ”

“A monster with a sense of humor. ”

“I’m surrounded by jokers, ” she admitted.

“You’re lucky. ”

There was something in his tone that caught her, hooked her eyes back up to his. It wasn’t that he sounded lonely, exactly, but there was a vulnerability there that threw her a little off balance. “I feel lucky. ” She scratched around inside her head for something to say. “Tell me about everyone at GeneticAlly. Have you known all of them very long? ”

“Most of them since we started. David, of course. And Brandon was Dave’s friend from college. ” He stirred his soup and moved out of the way when Rama returned with their main courses. “It’s a really tight-knit team. ”

“Have any of them been matched? ” Jess asked, digging into the platters.

“Brandon, yeah, ” he said. “He met his wife in the …” River looked up, thinking, and Jess marveled over his dark-lashed whiskey eyes all over again. “I guess it would be the third phase of beta testing. Maybe four years ago now. They were a Gold Match. ”

“Wow. ”

He nodded, dishing some food onto his own plate. “I know. He was the first, and it was a really big deal. ” Nothing like this, though hung unsaid between them. “Then Tiffany—you met her at the Results Reveal Disaster, ” he said with a wink, and Jess burst out laughing. “She’s our head data analyst—she met her wife, Yuna, when they matched. I believe they were an eighty-four, and Yuna moved here from Singapore to be with Tiff. ”

“How many countries have you pulled samples from? ”

He didn’t even have to think. “Fifty-seven. ”

“Wow. ”

“Yeah. ” Wiping his mouth with his napkin, River was a portrait of manners and class across the table from her. Did it make her a terrible person that she was surprised this date wasn’t awful? The conversation flowed, the silences were easy. She hadn’t spilled anything down her shirt, and he’d called her competent. It was the best date she’d had in seven years. “And everyone else has dated pretty broadly, if they’re single and interested. ”

“Do you think it’s a bummer for any of them who haven’t had a Gold or higher match? Like, do you worry within the company it will become a competitive or—I guess, like, a status thing? ”

He stared at her, and then blinked. “You ask really probing questions. ”

Immediately, Jess was mortified. “I’m sorry. I’m just—” Ugh. “Sorry. ”

“No, no, it’s okay, it’s very … thoughtful. ”

Warmth spread in a prickly rush along her skin. “I want to know about it, ” she admitted. “I want to know about you, and this, and what you think about all of it. I mean, we’re here right now. I said I would enter into this agreement genuinely. ”

“I know, ” he said, and seemed to be quietly appraising her with new eyes. “I appreciate it. ”

“Will you? ” she asked, feeling her heart hit her from the inside like a gloved fist.

“I don’t really know any other way to be. ” He reached for his water and took a sip. “You asked me before whether this result was an inconvenience. It isn’t. It isn’t an inconvenience, but I admit I’m not sure what to think about it. If I take it seriously, it rearranges my entire life. If I don’t take it seriously, I’m discarding everything I’ve worked for. ”

“Which, incidentally, also rearranges your life, ” Jess said, laughing.

He laughed, too. “Exactly. ”

“Well, in that case, ” she said, “I can be on board for Project Be Genuine but Cautious. ”

He wiped his hand on his napkin and reached across the table for a handshake. With her heartbeat in her ears, she took his hand, and hers felt weirdly small in his grasp.

“What happens now? ” she asked.

“I guess we get together when we’re free, ” he said, and her brain took off spinning about how that would work, where this could even go.

And where she wanted it to go.

“Okay. ”

“Otherwise, we wait for marching orders from Brandon about any public appearances. ”

“Brandon Butkis, ” Jess whispered, partly to break the tension of imagining forging a personal relationship with River after tonight and partly because—how could she not say it? “Come on, you have to admit it’s a great name. ”

Rama dropped the bill off at their table and River thanked him before sliding the small leather folder into his lap. Never missing a beat, River delivered the next bit of information with an admirably straight face: “His wife’s last name is Seaman. ”

Jess gasped. “No. ”

Finally, a smile broke across his face. “Yes. ”

“Did they hyphenate? ” She leaned in. “Please tell me they hyphenated. ”

River laughed. “They did not. ”

Small footsteps stomped along the sidewalk, and the weight and rhythm registered in Jess’s brain only a split second before a pair of small arms were thrown around her neck. “Did you save me some duck? ”

Jess peeked over her daughter’s head to deliver an apologetic-mortified glance at River. Holding her kid at arm’s length, Jess gave the most convincing Mom Face she could manage. “What are you still doing up, honey? You’re not supposed to be out here. ”

“I could hear your laugh in the courtyard. ”

“But what were you doing in the courtyard? ”

“Beating Pops at checkers. ”

“Pops? ” Jess called out.

“She’s too fast, ” Pops replied from behind the fence.

Juno giggled.

“I’ve got her, ” Jess said back. She relented and kissed Juno’s forehead before turning her around to face River. Apparently this was happening. “Sorry for the interruption. ”

He shook his head and smiled warmly at Juno. “Not at all. ”

“Juno, this is Dr. Peñ a. ”

Juno reached out, and he wrapped her tiny hand in his large one. “River, ” he said, shaking gently. “You can call me River. ”

Settling on her mom’s lap, Juno tilted her head, considering him. “You have a unique name, too. ”

River nodded. “I do. ”

“Do you like it? ” she asked.

“Absolutely. ”

“My middle name is M-E-R-R-I-A-M. I’m named after mountains. What’s yours? ”

“Nicolas, after my grandpa. ”

She pursed her lips, less impressed. “Hmm. That’s kind of normal, I guess. Did anyone ever tease you for being named River Nicolas? ”

“A few times, ” he admitted. “But I’d rather be teased for having a name nobody else has than one that a ton of people have. I’m willing to bet no one else is named Juno Merriam Davis. Only you. ”

Jess leaned back, taking this all in, confused by the warm wiggly feeling in her stomach.

Juno shifted on her lap, and Jess heard the tiny bell of the cat on the other side of the fence separating the restaurant patio from the apartment’s side yard. “My mom is Jessica Marie Davis, ” Juno said with exaggerated sympathy. “We looked it up once, and there were four hundred of them. ” She paused, and with surprisingly good comedic timing added, “In California. ”

“Yeah. ” He caught Jess’s eye and then smiled back at Juno. “But I bet there’s really only one person like your mom anywhere in the world. ”

W h a t.

“That’s true, ” Juno agreed with unbridled innocence.

He immediately looked away, clearing his throat, and Jess’s heart scrabbled up a vine, swinging wildly behind her ribs.

River pulled out his wallet, smoothly sliding four twenties into the bill folder. “I should probably head out. ”

Jess smiled. “Thanks for dinner. ”

“Anytime. ” He smiled at Juno again, and then quickly at Jess. “I mean it. ”

They stood, and Jess let her pajama-clad kid climb onto her back to be carried to bed.

At the alley, River stopped and looked over Jess’s shoulder at the apartment complex behind them. The tender tips of vines could be seen bobbing along the top of the fence. “Thanks for letting me park back here. ”

“We have a guest spot. Street parking is a total drag. ”

“People sit on cars out front, ” Juno added. “Mr. Brooks gets so mad. ”

River frowned, taking this information adorably seriously. “Does he? ”

“Our neighbor, ” Jess explained. “It’s a cast of characters here. ”

River glanced at his watch as he reached for his car door and unlocked it. “I’m seeing that. ”

Jess searched for it, she really did, but there was nothing in his tone to make her think he was complaining at all.

“Good night, Jessica Marie and Juno Merriam. ”

Juno squeezed Jess’s neck. “Good night, River Nicolas. ”

TWELVE

BURNED PANCAKES, ONE missing orange sneaker, cat vomit on the backpack, coffee brewing without water in the tank, and one mother yelling at her daughter that if she didn’t want to cut her hair then she needed to let Mom braid it before bed. In other words, a classic meltdown before eight a. m. Jess didn’t have a chance to look in the mirror, let alone check her email, until she’d safely dropped Juno off at school, and she was glad for it, because the notification that she and River had been asked for an interview by the San Diego Union-Tribune would have had her barfing right beside the cat.

“I got your email, ” she said as soon as Brandon answered.

“Oh, great! ” Teeth, teeth, teeth. It was all Jess could imagine. “Sounds like the date went well? ”

She chewed on her lip. It had gone well. Better than expected. River wasn’t supposed to be funny, and he definitely wasn’t supposed to charm her kid. And yet. “Yeah, it was fine. ”

“Does the timing for the interview work? I know tomorrow’s short notice. ”

“It’s less a timing issue, ” Jess admitted, “than a bravery one. ”

“You? ” He laughed generously. “You’re adorable. Stop it. ”

“I am very much not used to press. ” Quickly Jess added, “I know it’s what I signed up for, but I was sort of hoping to start small with dinners, then maybe a couple tweets no one notices, a small blog interview about online dating, and eventually working our way up to the Trib. ”

“Michelle is doing the piece and she’s a love, ” Brandon assured her. “She’s going to adore you. She and River go way back. ”

Jess wanted to ask whether that was code for banging, but would not ask that.

Brandon read through her silence: “She did a piece on him several years ago. That’s all. ”

“Mm-hmm. So, tomorrow, ” she said, biting her lip. “Tomorrow at noon, Shelter Island. ” Jess paused and a clammy chill worked its way up her neck. “Why Shelter Island? ”

“Perfect for photos. ” He confirmed her fears, and she nearly swallowed her tongue. She’d already turned her closet upside down for the dinner date, and a chambray shirt and jeans was the best she could come up with. This was exactly the sort of thing she’d been dreading.

“I have to go shopping. ”

“Jessica, honestly, whatever you’re wearing is fine. ”

“Brandon. You wouldn’t say that if you could see me right now. ”

He laughed. “I just mean you’ll be fine regardless. ”

Would she? She looked down at her threadbare light gray T-shirt and charcoal-gray sweats. She, honestly, could not stand next to River “GQ” Peñ a in front of the San Diego Bay in anything that was currently in her closet.

On the other hand, at the end of the day, a soulmate loved you for what was on the inside, right?

OF ALL THE beautiful places in San Diego—and there were indeed many—few were as spectacular as Shelter Island. If she took Harbor to Scott, hung a left at Shelter Island Drive and then another left at the circle, a long parking lot overlooked one of the best views in the city: a full vista of the San Diego Bay with the downtown skyline in perfect, crystalline glory. Coronado was visible in the distance. At night, the view was so breathtaking it felt like stepping inside a postcard.

Even during the day—especially after a morning shower that had left the sky bright and clear—it was so beautiful that Jess paused for a second once she climbed out of her car, staring at a side of downtown San Diego she should appreciate more. The buildings looked like sleek, glossy swords in the distance. Big, puffy cotton-ball clouds dotted the sky, and sailboats bobbed on the surface of the bay. Add to that the sight of River, in dark trousers, a long camel coat over a navy sweater, hair blowing in the wind like something out of an Austen movie. Would it be weird if she stood here and just … stared at him? Took a photo or two? Nobody would blame her.

For a second—truly, only a second—Jess regretted not being more insecure about her clothing before leaving the house. She had finally settled on black jeans, a white T-shirt, and black flats. Simple but appropriate.

Though maybe too simple. Beside River was a woman—Michelle, Jess guessed. She was pretty in a journalist sort of way, which was to say she had the luxury of never being the subject of her own story; how she dressed didn’t really matter. Jess was both amused and aggrieved that she and Michelle were essentially wearing the same outfit, with the sole exception that Michelle had been smart enough to wear a cardigan over her white T-shirt. It was noon on a gorgeous early-February day, but Jess had forgotten how exposed Shelter Island was. With the wind whipping past them in chilly gusts, she was going to freeze her ass off.

Noticing her arrival, they brought their conversation to an end. The two made their way over, and behind where they’d been standing, Jess noticed a man diligently setting up what looked like a whole lot of camera equipment. This was a much bigger production than she’d anticipated.

Her stomach wilted.

Michelle was even prettier up close, comfortable in her skin, with a friendly smile. And of course, there was River, ripped from the thick pages of a magazine, looking so far out of Jess’s league that she could only laugh at his approach.

He noticed and gave an unsure smile. “What’s funny? ”

“Nothing. ” She lifted a hand and let it fall in defeat. “Of course, you just—look so nice. ”

He stopped in front of her and dropped his gaze from her head to her feet and back again. His voice was a sandpaper scrape. “So do you. ”

“Liar. ”

He quirked a smile. “Nope. ”

It’s all an act, she thought. Even Dracula was notoriously charming.

Then, so quickly she wondered how long he’d been working himself up to it, he bent down and kissed her cheek. Jess was so shocked by this turn of events, he may as well have reached a single finger out and touched her forehead, ET-style. Michelle was probably watching this and writing the headline in her head: Wow, They Are Totally Fake Dating.

Subhead: And They Are Terrible at It.

“Hi, ” Jess said, because her brain didn’t remember other words.

River smiled this unfamiliar, private smile and parroted cutely back at her, “Hi. ”

Subtitle revision: And She Is Terrible at It.

Michelle reminded them that she was standing there, too. “You two are cute. ”

Jess had to literally bite her tongue to not reply, No we aren’t.

River seemed to have also expected her to come back with something contrary and offered a proud flicker of his eyebrow before turning back to Michelle. “Michelle, this is Jess. Jess, Michelle. ”

The two women shook hands, and Michelle gestured to an outcropping of rocks near the water. “Should we get started? ” As they walked, she pointed to the man with all the cameras. “Jess, this is Blake. He’ll be getting some photos. For now, we’ll just chat while he sets up. ” She tilted her head to Blake but kept her eyes on Jess. “If you see him snapping some pictures, he’s just getting candids. I promise we’ll make you look great. Just try to relax as much as possible, be natural. ”

Jess took a deep breath and exhaled as completely as she could, clocking that in the process her shoulders dropped from up near her ears back to normal shoulder position.

Comfortably, as though he spent most of his day in front of a film crew rather than at investor meetings, River sat on a rock just below waist height and opened his arm, gesturing for Jess to sit down beside him.

Jess took three steps closer and sat down in a stumble, legs awkwardly pinched together to avoid leaning into his long, solid body. With ease, he shifted her closer to a flatter surface, and now she was in a more comfortable position but they were sitting pressed together like people who were effortlessly intimate.

Which they were not.

“Jess, ” Michelle said, and then added, “I hope it’s okay to call you Jess. It’s how River referred to you …? ”

“Jess is great. ”

“Great, ” she repeated. “I’ve interviewed River before for a piece on the company, so I have some good background there, but this is my first time talking to him as a client. Before we get to him, I’m interested in hearing about how you came into all this. What made you take the test in the first place? ”

“Honestly, ” Jess said, “I was dragged into it by a friend. She and I—and River—are regulars at this coffee shop, and one of the baristas mentioned River was starting some kind of dating site. Which”—she pointed to him—“I mean, be honest, he looks more like a hot medieval history professor, right? ”

Michelle laughed, nodding. “He totally does. ” She wrote something down.

“But he invited us to come out to the offices, ” Jess said, and looked up at River to find him smiling at her fondly. It was rattling and threw her off her easy, unselfconscious rhythm. “So, we did. ”

“And what was it like for you, meeting Jess? ” she asked River.

“We hadn’t officially met until that day, ” he said, and reached up to run his hand through his hair like a gorgeous stereotype. “I’d noticed her, ” he said, looking at her again and letting his gaze move thoroughly over her features. “I’ve seen her there for a couple years now, but had no idea what her name was. ”

“Did you want to know? ”

He looked at Michelle with a small smirk. “Of course I did. Look at her. ” He gestured to Jess.

“Above average? ” Jess snarked, unable to help herself.

He gave her a playful but cautious smile. “Far above average. Only an idiot would suggest otherwise. ”

Michelle watched this exchange with interest. “I’m sensing there’s a backstory there, but I’ll move on. Jess, can you tell me a little about yourself? ”

While Jess gave a skeletal rundown of her life—her undergraduate work at UCLA, her first job at Google, and her later work as a freelancer—River’s attention on the side of her face was like the press of a hot iron. She could feel him smiling, nodding at these various bites of information. She could even hear the tiny hums of affirmation he offered every now and then. Like a proud boyfriend. He was good at this.

“And what did you think when you got the DNADuo score of ninety-eight? ” Michelle asked.

At least she could answer plainly here. “I didn’t believe it. ”

River laughed. “I didn’t, either. ”

“I can imagine, ” Michelle said.

“Think about it, ” he said. Jess swallowed about a cubic liter of air when River threaded the fingers of his left hand with her right. He was very good at this. “I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of these scores over the past decade. I’d never seen a ninety-eight. What are the odds it would be me? ”

“I’d say they were very slim. ”

“Slim to none. In fact, ” River told her, “Jess could probably calculate those odds. ”

“I could, for sure, ” she said, grinning. “That score is, as we mathematicians like to say, ‘deeply fucking unexpected. ’”

They both laughed, and River squeezed her hand in a tiny Good job gesture. At least, she assumed that’s what he meant. It could easily have been more like Don’t say the F-word in front of the reporter.

“So you get the score, you both take a beat to digest it. Then what? ”

“Then, ” River said with honeyed calm, “we went out for dinner. ”

“How did it go? ”

He looked down at Jess, eyes smiling. “I’d say it went well. ”

“So, ” Michelle singsonged gently, “you’d say you’re officially together? ”

Instantly, Jess’s hand went slick and sweaty in River’s grasp. As covertly as she could without Michelle noticing, she unthreaded it, wiping it on her thigh. “Uh, ” she said, squinting at the horizon like the question required deep calculation. “River? ”

Just as she said his name, River gave a definitive “We are. ”

Michelle laughed.

“Yeah, we are, I’m just kidding, ” Jess said, as he added, “At least, we’re open to what the future holds. ”

Smiling, Michelle bent to write something down again. Jess threw River a murder look. He threw one right back. They probably should have anticipated this sort of question. They turned away and fastened smiles on their faces just before Michelle looked back up.

“So I guess we can agree it’s new, ” she said.

“Very new, ” they replied in unison, and laughed stiffly.

River took her hand again, and squeezed it emphatically. Meanwhile, Blake the Photographer hovered in the background, arcing around them, planning his attack—or candid shots. Jess’s palms went clammy again.

“Sorry, ” she mumbled.

River bent to pretend to cough into his free hand. “It’s fine. ”

“So, seriously, ” Michelle said, “I think most people will want to know if this feels different. The first time you saw each other, I mean really looked, was there some sort of internal reaction? A score of ninety-eight—you must’ve known on some cellular level. ”

There. Right there. She’d found River’s vulnerability. The biology of it, the assumption that his body would somehow just know. Jess couldn’t get past the unlikelihood of the number. He couldn’t get past the way he knew he should feel it in every cell of his body.

“Attraction, yes, ” he said without hesitation. “But we’re only programmed to think about first encounters on a very primitive level. Sex. Coupling. We are animals, ultimately. ”

Heat crawled up her neck, and she was treated to a mental image of River behind her, his front curled over her back, teeth pressed into the bare skin of her shoulder.

“But we aren’t really programmed to wonder on first sight whether someone is our soulmate. At least, I’m not. ” Beside her, he shrugged. “It may be ironic given that I want to find it for other people, but I somehow hadn’t self-inserted into any of DNADuo’s findings. Truly. Given that we’re a couple months away from my first IPO, and having set my own criteria so high, the last thing I was expecting was a notification on my own app. So, if you’re asking whether I was surprised by the result, the answer is yes … and no. ”

Her brain felt like it was chewing, digesting each one of his words. He sounded so sincere, but what was real and what was just for show? Michelle’s voice jolted her out of her thoughts. “Jess? ”

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