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“I’ll start looking for a place,” I relented.
Ben whistled and looked up at the ceiling. “Thank god that’s over. Honestly, you took that better than I expected.”
I glared at him in response.
“Hey, isn’t your brother out in Denver?” Ben asked.
Stiffening, I tilted my head so he couldn’t see my face. “Your point?”
“Won’t it be nice being close to family?”
“Oliver and I don’t exactly have a lot in common.” That was the understatement of the century. Where people often viewed me as cold and uptight, they saw Oliver as the fun-loving brother with an easygoing attitude and a zest for life. I wouldn’t say I envied him, but it had always bothered me the way he never let anything get to him—the way he always put his enjoyment for life and adventure above all else.
Where was his sense of responsibility? His work ethic?
While I went off to college, he moved to Colorado to be a snowboard instructor. Then he was a rafting guide. Then a rock-climbing teacher.
I couldn’t keep up with what he was doing nowadays.
“Well, family is family. And, let’s face it, your social roster is pretty much nonexistent here, Nathan.”
“I’ll call him,” I said, already dreading the forced obligation.
Ben got up from his seat and walked around my desk to smack me on the shoulder. “This is going to be a good chapter. I can feel it.”
Chapter Two
CHARLIE
“Nathan Shawand Ben Mead from Pulse will be arriving next week to handle the merger. Any questions?” Don, our CEO, addressed us all as we stood in a large semi-circle around him. He had just finished dropping the bomb that we’d be merging with the sex-crazed dating app.
My hand shot up in the air, and he eyed it disdainfully. “Yes, Charlie?”
“We’re on track to grow three hundred percent this year. Why would we merge with an outdated sexist app that could drag down our numbers.”
Murmurs erupted around the room.
Don chuckled in that crude way he always did. I resisted the urge to scrunch my nose in disgust while he eyed me.
“Always so blunt, aren’t you Charlie?” He shook his head and made a tsking sound as if scolding me like a child. A hand pinched my arm, and I knew without looking that Lila stood next to me. “Pulse is still the number one dating app in the country. We’ll grow exponentially by merely associating ourselves with them. Plus, we could use the sex appeal.”
“Is that really going to appeal to our target audience?” I challenged.
“It appeals to everyone.” He winked at me, and I had to physically restrain myself from gagging. “Make sure you don’t ask these questions to Nathan and Ben when they arrive. We want to make sure we’re welcoming. Obviously, as the director of product you’ll be leading this merger on our end.”
Great. Just what I wanted, to be thrown into the lion’s den.
When I joined Love Linked in its infancy, the concept drew me in. A dating app that focused on meaningful questions and finding real connections. Now that I had been here five years, it had lost virtually all of its appeal. Largely due to the owner, Don, being an absolute sexist prick. I should have known it on my first day when he said that we had to come up with more thoughtful “dumbass questions to lure in desperate women.” Oh, the irony, of a dating app aimed to attract women being run by the biggest misogynist I had ever met.
And now, it seemed, two more just like him would be joining the ranks. I highly doubted the owners of Pulse would do anything to maintain the integrity the rest of the staff had painstakingly cultivated at Love Linked.
“This is unbelievable,” I whispered to Lila.
She glanced at me and gave a sympathetic wince. This integration was about to be hell.
I pretended to listen as Don droned on about insignificant details before finally releasing us. Lila followed me to my desk and leaned over my divider.
Even though I had worked hard and held a high position at this company, only Don had his own office. Well, I guess Nathan and Ben would have one now too.
