Club Endless Fantasy

All of my shopping was done except for the gift I needed to buy for Ian. I literally had no idea what to get him. He was wealthy enough to buy anything he wanted, but I wanted my gift to be thoughtful. I ran through some options in my head that included a book of dad-jokes, a book of dirty jokes, various holiday themed items, and even some memorabilia from the Christmas Vacation movie. None of it clicked—even a weirdly overpriced Eddie’s RV ornament that appeared to be quite a collector’s item since someone was selling it for over five-hundred dollars. I wasn’t wealthy enough to afford that, even if it was the most perfect gift on the planet. I wanted to get Ian something that had meaning—but I wasn’t sure what that could be.

This is going to take some thought…

Chapter Twenty

Ian

My dinner party wasn’t stressful by any means, but it was rather boring—because the only thing I could think about was Elly. It was held in a private room at a club downtown. The main thing that I needed to do was put in an appearance, mingle with a few people, and tell some jokes before we sat down to eat. It was compromised of various executives in the city and considered to be a meeting of the minds. It was a great way to network when I first started Alexander Software. We were supposed to be talking business, and we did, but over the years it had turned into more of a social event than anything else. Occasionally, I would still pick up a new client, but that became rather rare after I went from fresh-faced-newbie to a tenured member of the group.

“You’re kicking some ass this year, aren’t you Ian?” Ned Dumas, the CEO of Dumas Financial, walked up and slapped me on the shoulder. “I swear I got more people at the office talking about that Secret Santa Romance app than the work they should be doing.”

“It seems to be gaining some traction.” I nodded politely.

“Traction? Hell, it’s a fucking hit.” He laughed and took a sip of what appeared to be Bourbon. “I should have invested in your company when I had the chance.”

“We have good years and bad years.” I shrugged. “I think this year will be a good one.”

“Wish I could say the same…” He exhaled sharply. “We went heavy into the online marketplace investments this year, and it looks like we might take a loss. Fucking people are actually shopping at the brick and mortars? In this weather? Crazy…”

“It’s cold in the city, but not everywhere.” I laughed under my breath. “It just feels different this year—I don’t know what it is.”

“Who knows.” He sighed. “You can’t predict people—you can stick them in a demographic and trust the reports, but then they’ll screw you when you aren’t looking.”

“Sometimes.” I nodded in agreement. “I tend to trust my gut.”

“One thing is for damn sure…” He scoffed. “Next year, I’m investing in love or something—that always sells. I might have to get behind your competitor. I’m sure someone is going to copy your app eventually.”

“Yeah, I expect to see a dozen holiday romance apps next year.” I leaned closer. “But you can’t top the original, and we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve that none of our competitors are going to see coming.”

“Fuck, man…” He glared at me. “Now I’m going to have to rethink my investment strategy.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing you came tonight.” I smirked at him. “I might have just saved you a bunch of money.”

“Maybe…” He nodded and looked over my shoulder. “It looks like it’s time to eat.”

“Yep.” I nodded and walked towards the table.

Ned was fishing for information. I knew that when he commented on the app. He was the kind of guy that acted like a doofus half the time, but he was one of the sharpest CEOs in the room. He might have lost some money because he trusted the reports, but he had made a lot of it over the years, so a stumble wasn’t going to impact his company. He was feeling me out to find out if I thought dating apps were going to use mine as a springboard to get back to the same popularity they had when some of them were first hitting the market. I really didn’t need his money behind a competitor, so I did my best to kindly dissuade him. We were both playing chess, and I felt like I put him in checkmate before he could invest in his next big thing.

Hopefully, that will keep his interests in the retail markets where they belong and out of mine…

The first thing I did when I got to work the next morning was meet with some of the top guys at my company to let them know that they needed to be on the lookout for any activity from Dumas Financial. If they made an investment in a company that was one of our competitors, I wanted to know immediately so we could figure out what to expect from them. I was pretty sure that the Secret Santa Romance app was going to have enough popularity that it wouldn’t matter if we had some clones out there, but a clone with serious financial backing was not something we could simply ignore. I also told them to get started on some ideas for the sequel—I wasn’t exactly truthful when I told Ned we had some tricks up our sleeve, but we would by the time we launched the next one.

“Mr. Alexander, everything is set for tonight. We’ve got a lot of volunteers this year!” Samantha looked up at me and smiled when I walked back to my office.

“Good.” I nodded. “I assume you’ll be there?”

“Of c

ourse!” She nodded quickly. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“My outfit is ready?” I raised my eyebrows inquisitively.

“Yep, it will arrive this afternoon.” She smiled.

“Perfect.” I waved to her. “I have some work to do. Let me know when it gets here.”

I still wasn’t sure how Elly was going to react when she found out what I had invited her to. If I had taken a moment to think about it, I probably would have just asked her to hang out on Friday night when I had the evening to myself. If she decided that it wasn’t her cup of tea, then I wouldn’t hold it against her. It was important to me, and it was one event that I wouldn’t have traded for an evening with her, no matter what we did with our time.