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“Okay. So first of all, this is a during work hours only thing. When we’re not working, nothing changes.”
“Suits me.”
“So, take a step back. We’re not going to act like we’re involved with each other when no one is watching.”
“You don’t think it would be good to practice?” He leaned toward me instead of stepping back.
I caught a whiff of his scent. Something about it was the perfect chemistry to heat up my blood and make me wet, and I swallowed a groan. It was like having a seven-layer cake in front of you and knowing for sure that it was poisoned. I couldn’t give in to him—but God, I fucking wanted to. Oh geez, focus, girl.
“No practice,” I said, my voice tight.
He smirked. This whole thing was clearly funny to him. “Whatever you want.”
“We’re having dinner with Michael Sanders the night after tomorrow,” I said. “He wants to meet myhusband. So I’ll pick you up here at six. And wear something nice.”
I reached for my car door and pulled it open.
Jake grinned. “See you then, honey,” he said.
I was regretting this already.
Chapter 2
JAKE
“Explaintomeagainwhy you’re doing this,” Danny said.
“I told you,” I said. “It’s an untapped market.”
“I don’t think we’re going to have trouble marketing Branches 2.0,” Danny said. “The first one practically sold itself, remember?”
“Yeah, I know, but this one’s different.” I put the finishing touches on a simulation I’d been writing and hit the button to start it. The program would give me a look at how the app would perform over a twelve-month period using random data.
I ran this sim yesterday, and it had turned up a few issues, so I was hoping I’d patched them well enough that we could move on to the next stage of software development.
“What’s different about it?” Danny asked. “I mean, I know we’re trying to reach a different customer base—“
“That’s exactly it. The money management tools in this version of the app are going to appeal to millionaires. We want them to be exposed to it, and big exposure is not going to happen using standard social media marketing.”
“We need to get it in the public eye, the same as we did last time,” Danny said. “Once people start buying it, everyone will hear about it. And don’t forget; Branches is already a household name. It’s not like anybody hasn’t heard of us.”
He was right. I’d been pretty confident the original release of the app was going to perform well when we’d dropped it two years ago, but the success had been a surprise even to me. Before Branches was released, Danny and I had been roommates out of necessity—LA wasn’t cheap.
But now, we each could have bought ourselves one of the nicest mansions in the city without breaking a sweat. We’d gone on living together because the place was big enough to accommodate both of us easily and because it allowed us to put in the workshop we’d always dreamed of having on the lower level.
The workshop was where we were now, working on the second version of our app, This version was designed to manage more complex financial situations across an entire corporation than the first version had dealt with.
I leaned over to Danny as my simulation ran. “Listen, I know Branches 1.0 got more attention than we ever dreamed it would,” I said. “But think about what would happen ifMichael Sanderswent public telling the world he used 2.0.”
I could tell Danny was intrigued by my suggestion. Of course, part of the appeal of LA was rubbing shoulders with celebrities. When Branches 1.0 was released, we were invited to some fairly big parties, and we certainly had some D-listers using the app, but Michael Sanders was in a league of his own.
He was poised to win a slew of awards this year for his last film, and everyone expected the next one to be equally as big a deal. Branches might be a household name, but Michael Sanders was a much bigger one.
And then there was the matter of the stars who would probably be working on his movie. I didn’t know who he was going to get, but I was sure it would be some big names, and what if we could getthemto use—or even better, endorse—our app?
We’d be able to go big time then.
It wasn’t about money for me. At this stage, I had more money than I’d ever expected to earn doing this and more than I knew what to do with. Danny and I could have easily retired and lived comfortably for the rest of our lives. But I wanted to see my projects be successful. I poured myself into them, and they meant the world to me.
