Page 26 of Just Friends
“Thank you,” I said, jumping into his arms and giving him a big hug.
Yeah, my boobs were probably all smashed up in his business again, but I didn’tcare—he was a lifesaver. Literally. Thankfully, he didn’t make a big deal out of my boobs this time.
“Of course,” he said. “So, what exactly do you want me to do?”
I took a step back and mulled it over. Previously, I was at a complete loss for good ideas to promote Soulmate. But with Jax on board? The floodgates opened and great ideas came surging out, fast and furious.
“Oh, you know what’d be fun?” I began. “If we did a stunt where you downloaded the app, took the personality test, and then we set you up on a date with your number one match. Oh! We could even send you out with a camera crew or something. Of course, therealmagic would be in all the promo we’d do up leading up to the date—I bet I’d get hundreds of thousands of downloads from that alone. Maybe I could even interview you on live-stream, or something like that? That’d probably drum up a ton of hype, too.”
Jax grinned. “You want to auction me off?”
“Not auctionyou off—pairyou off! Would you be okay with that?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
“Yay! You’re Soulmate’s first guinea pig!” I clapped my hands. “What if it really works, Jax? Wouldn’t that be great? What if we found you a girl you truly clicked with?” I asked, elbowing him. “Maybe you’ll even fall in loooove.”
“Hopefully not,” he said with a devilish smirk.
“Ja~x. If you break some poor girl’s heart, I’m going to feel guilty.”
“Better put that in the fine print, then. ‘Warning: true love not guaranteed. Soulmate is not responsible for your broken heart.’ ”
Suddenly getting second thoughts, I groaned. “Oh God … this is going to end badly, isn’t it?”
“I’m teasing,” he reassured me, reaching for my hand. “I’ll behave myself.”
“You promise?”
He gave my hand a squeeze. “Yeah. I promise.”
“Great. Then I’ve got work to do.”I hurried back to my room, grabbed my laptop, and ran back out to the living room. I set up shop at the coffee table and began brainstorming, the keyboard clicking and clacking beneath my flying fingertips.
Jax finished tidying up in the kitchen and came into the living room.
“Oh, hey, I wanted to ask you something,” he said. “Yesterday, the boys told me about the WAG party coming up in a couple months.”
“What’s that?” I asked, still staring at my laptop, fingers still hammering away at the keys.
Yeah, I’ll admit it: I was in such a hurry to get out all my good ideas that I might have only been half-listening. But I caught the gist of it: the team was throwing its annual party at a spa retreat for the players and their wives and girlfriends just days before the season officially began.
The second I realized that thebestpromo idea was coming from Jax’s mouth? My frantic typing ceased. Slowly, I turned to stare at him, my jaw hanging open.
“I thought it sounded fun,” he said, smiling at me. “And hey, I’ve got a plus-one. What do you say?”
I rose to my feet. “Jax …”
“Yeah, Pipes?”
“That soundsperfect.”
“I thought you’d like it,” he said, his boyish smile spreading. Aw, he was so proud of his idea! “Plus, Soulmate will be out by then, so you’ll finally be able to kick back and relax.”
“Yes. The timing and everything—it’sliterallyperfect!” I began to pace the room, giggling like a mad scientist. “It’s theperfectpromotion.”
“Wait, the wha’?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“You take your number one match as your plus-one to the WAG party. An opportunity to go on a date with an NHL player and meet all his teammates? It’d createinstantbuzz all over the internet.” I stopped in my tracks and whipped around to face him. “That is what you were suggesting, isn’t it?”
