Club Endless Fantasy

Elly: Good. :)

Elly and I traded a few more jokes—mine were safe enough to be told in church. Some of hers were so dirty that a shower wasn’t completely out of the equation. I started wondering if she was just trying to test my limit and see if she could get me to end the conversation because she was going in the complete opposite direction of my jokes. I didn’t mind crude or filthy humor. I was no stranger to locker room talk, even if I had matured a little as I got older, but my favorite movies were rarely appropriate for my niece or nephew. I couldn’t even remember when I went from being the guy that told jokes like the ones that Elly was so proud of to recycling dad-jokes, but it probably coincided with the arrival of my sister’s kids.

I never expected to feel old before I turned thirty-five…

“Mr. Alexander, we have some good news to share.” Joe stepped into my office as soon as I took the first sip of my morning coffee.

“Yeah?” I looked up at him. “I could use some of that.”

“The new update? It’s working great. We’ve almost doubled the number of daily matches on the app and—are you ready for the best part?” He tilted his head and smiled.

“If it’s better than that, I definitely am.” I nodded enthusiastically.

“We already have a twenty-percent success rate.” His smile turned into a huge grin.

“Wait…” I leaned back in my chair. “Twenty percent of the people who got matched on the app have already exchanged gifts!?”

“They have.” His enthusiastic nod got faster. “The projections said that we wouldn’t have results until after Christmas since a lot of people wouldn’t exchange gifts so soon, but we were wrong—they’re still going to be talking about our app by the time Christmas rolls around next year.”

“Then it sounds like we’ll be making a sequel.” I chuckled under my breath. “That’s great news.”

“We’re also working on the app for Benson Enterprises. I think we’ll have a mock-up ready by the end of the week.”

“Perfect.” I took another sip of my coffee.

The success rate so early in the life of the app was an interesting development. We still had to find a way to transition the general interest in our product to another app after the holiday season was over, but it sounded like we were going to have a very nice accomplishment to tout when the time came. There as a different energy in the office once Paul’s news spread. It was normally a good atmosphere, but having a successful endeavor made the whole building buzz with excitement. Part of that was the Profit-Sharing bonus structure I created when I started the company. It was beginning to look like everyone was going to get a very nice check when we finished our annual profit report.

I usually keep the figures a secret so that I can surprise everyone, but this app is doing so well that they’re going to know ahead of time.

I went to Famous Sid’s on my lunch break and decided to get a table since I didn’t have anything else to do before I returned to the office. Samantha was meeting a friend for lunch, which meant she wasn’t even waiting on me to return with her order. It was rare for her to take a lunch break—despite my insistence that she take one every day. I assumed the news about the app had made her feel like she could spend an hour away from the office for a change. Nothing was going to fall apart because we stepped away from our computer to eat lunch.

After I finished my meal, I looked at a few news articles on my phone and scanned my custom feed, which delivered anything relevant to Alexander Software or one of our competitors. I was pleased to see a few positive articles about the Secret Santa Romance app. We were one step away from going completely viral, and it was only a matter of time if the success rate had already hit twenty percent.

I probably shouldn’t bother Elly. She’s either in class or at work—but I don’t think one joke would hurt. I’m sure she must take a lunch break too…

There was something about Elly that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I was a long way from looking for a relationship or any form of romance when we got accidentally matched on the app. I still wasn’t sure that my heart was capable of loving someone other than the one that got away, but I enjoyed my interactions with Elly. Maybe her lack of enthusiasm for the holidays just presented a unique challenge that piqued my interest—or maybe I just enjoyed making her laugh.

She would have already deleted the app if she wanted me to stop…

Chapter Five

Elly

I was having a bad day—not just a bad day, the worst day. There was some sort of server issue at work that required them to reboot it. When it came back online, all the updates I stayed late to make to the Dillinger’s Department Store ad-copy were gone. The guy from IT told us that something got corrupted, so he restored the server from the last backup, which was at five o’clock the previous day. That was perfectly fine for everyone else—they didn’t stay late. I spent my entire morning in a foul mood when I should have been excited to have a day without Mary’s holiday cheer. The one day, I might have smiled when I passed by her desk—and I didn’t even have time to go get a cup of coffee.

“Mr. Thornton, I’m so sorry.” I jumped up from my desk when he walked by. “I stayed late last night, so I could have the changes ready for you, and the server issue deleted everything I did.”

“Elly, relax.” He tilted his head slightly. “I told you I won’t even have a chance to look at it until Monday.”

“I know.” I nodded. “I just wanted you to have it as soon as possible.”

“Don’t stress. Seriously.” He waved off my concern. “I’m sure it’ll be as excellent as your stocking.”

Was that supposed to mean he has fait

h in me, or that I should do a better job?

My boss told me not to stress—his comment made me stress more than ever—and it just compounded on top of the bad day I was already having. It was Friday, so everyone was excited about the weekend, but I didn’t care. I planned to work straight through—possibly even sleep under my desk if necessary. Who was I kidding? I could skip sleep entirely. There was enough coffee in the building to keep me going until Monday morning.