The Roommate Equation

We fit perfectly together, always did, and as I listen to the sound of his heart pounding in his chest, I hope this wasn’t a mistake.

Chapter Nineteen

Dylan

Sloan pokes his head into my office. “Are you ready for the meeting?”

I still can’t look Sloan in the eye. How can I after what I did with Ash last night?

“You okay?” Sloan asks on our way to the conference room.

“You know me, I get lost in my head when I’m thinking about stuff.”

He nods. “You seem more distracted today than usual.”

“We should delay the deal with Exact Match.”

Sloan stops a few feet from the conference room and grabs my shoulder, pinning me in place. Our eyes meet, and it takes everything in my power to look at him. I should tell him about Ash, let him punch me in the face, and get this out of our systems.

“What’s wrong with the deal?”

“We’ve already given up enough equity in the company,” I point out. “We don’t need Exact Match to start a new dating app.”

Sloan bites the inside of his cheek, thinking it over. “But… We talked about this. You said you wanted the deal to go through to get access to their algorithm.”

“They don’t want to share it because, without their algorithm, Exact Match is no different than any other dating app.”

He smirks and then pats me on the shoulder. “Leave the talking to me.”

Sloan strolls into the conference room with a cocky grin in place. He wears his confidence on his sleeve, so sure of himself in every situation. If it weren’t for his people skills, I doubt we would have gotten this far in only a few years.

Our lawyer is waiting for us in the conference room with his eyes pointed down at a stack of paperwork. After our verbal agreement last night, the guys from Exact Match said they would send over the contracts for us to review. We’re making a mistake. But Sloan is the type of person who goes with his gut, and he’s had a good feeling about this deal since he first brought it to me.

Sloan and I sit across the table from Connor Hanover, a man in his late fifties with sandy hair. He’s dressed impeccably in a three-piece suit. When it comes to style, Connor gives Sloan a run for his money, even at his age. I wear suits because I have to dress the part of the CTO of Date Crashers when I’d rather wear a t-shirt and jeans to the office.

Sloan leans forward, his elbows resting on the table. “How are we looking, Connor?”

“It’s a standard contract… but there’s one small issue.” He pushes a page in front of us and points at the highlighted part.

I finish reading the paragraph before Sloan, seething with anger.

“This isn’t going to work.” I shove the paper in front of Connor, shaking my head. “They want to retain the exclusive rights to their algorithm but expect us to hand ours over for the next five years. No, not happening.”

“That’s not what it said,” Sloan challenges.

“I’m afraid Dylan is right,” Connor says. “Our legal team almost missed this with how they worded the clause. If you go through with this merger, you will grant Exact Match exclusive rights to your algorithm, which they will most likely use to create other products that you have no vested interest in.”

Sloan blows out a deep breath and leans back in his chair. He turns to look at me. “We’ll fix this.”

“Tell them no deal,” I say to Connor.

“We can go back to them with an amended contract,” he suggests.

“Do that,” Sloan says before I can interrupt.

“We don’t need them,” I challenge.

“This could be good for us. Why can’t you see that?”

“Because our new business partners are trying to fuck us,” I snap.

“I’ll give you a few minutes,” Connor says, exiting the conference room.

Sloan unbuttons his jacket and sighs. “What is your issue with them?”

“I don’t expect you to understand. You didn’t write a single line of code for Date Crashers.”

“Dude, what is your problem today? Do you need to get laid?”

Nope, that’s not my problem.

“The underlying algorithm is the product, not the app. Without it, we would have nothing. I’m not giving those assholes my code to use in other apps. Fuck them.”

“They have one hundred million active users worldwide. Do you want to start from scratch with a new dating app?”

I roll my shoulders, avoiding his gaze.

“Sleep on it, okay?”

I nod in response.

No amount of sleep will change my mind about this deal. We’re getting fucked, and I’m not about to bend over and take it to make a few bucks.

My cell phone vibrates in my pocket, buzzing against my thigh. A message from Ash pops up on my screen.

Ash: I’m having lunch with Willow and Savanna. You don’t need to pick me up.