Page 7 of Certified Heartthrob

“Yes. Send him on a date that he actually gives a fair chance. We could extend an offer of more personalized matchmaking to compensate for his previous bad experiences on the app. Find him someone he really hits it off with.”

He considered it for a moment, dragging his hands down his face with a long sigh. Joshua was never good at strategizing or dealing with stress. It was just another reason he tended to take a backseat with most company catastrophes...or really any business at all.

“I’ve got this under control, Josh,” I assured him. “Just let me handle it. I’m sure you have some party or club opening to go chase bimbos around at.”

“Very funny, Camille. At least I have a life,” he barked before storming out.

I felt a momentary tinge of guilt for giving him a hard time, but I quickly put it aside. After all the work my other siblings and I had to do to make up for his frequent absences, I was not about to be the one made to feel bad.

It was easy to put it off my mind, since the mission I’d laid out for him was not premeditated. It was one of those magic things that just sort of slipped out when I was put on the spot. And it was pretty genius, the more I thought about it.

Mark Silver was hot and potentially wealthy. And his only flaw so far appeared to be his bitterness towards relationships. Fix that and we fix the whole problem. Not just for the company, but for his happiness as a human being as well. But...why did I even care about that anyway?

I didn’t. I definitely didn’t. I didn’t even know Mark. Not really. I mean, I could see that his muscular body was even more impressive in person. God, I loved a tall guy who towered over me like that. Enough to where if you were to kiss him, you’d have to stand on your tiptoes. And in bed...oh, how he could throw you around any way he wanted.

I cleared my throat and tried to shake it all off, snatching up my purse to finally leave and call it a night. All of those things would be great for whatever lucky girl I paired him with. I, uh, may have needed to remind myself of that more than once on the way home.

In order to find the perfect girl for Mark, I needed to know more about him. I spent several hours falling even deeper down the rabbit hole of his online persona. I still couldn’t figure out why he would create profiles that made him appear to be an unattractive loser, but as for his more accurate profile…

He claimed to do a lot of charity work, but I wondered if he considered his vigilante mission against love to be his form of philanthropy. Which was laughable. He worked out regularly, liked to travel, and therefore enjoyed lots of ethnic foods. He claimed to be a good cook and loved pets and kids. One of his profile pics even featured him posing with a friend’s dog. Jeez, no wonder this guy had no problem finding matches and dates. And no wonder the girls were so disappointed when he showed up to give them a lecture about the hopelessness of modern love.

After finding everything I could about Mark, I needed to browse our female profiles and find the best match. Rarely did we ever handle this process ourselves. Actually, I never did. Jada had occasionally done personalized matchmaking for disappointed customers, but I stayed as far away from it as I could. But now that I was giving it a go...it was actually kind of fun.

I clicked through the options, ignoring anyone who wasn’t at least better looking than me. I had to admit I’d be pissed to see a woman who was less attractive than me snag a hottie like Mark, as obnoxious as he was.

He seemed to be a pretty neat and organized guy, as far as I could tell. What I could see of his place in the background of his pics was spic and span. He ate healthily enough and worked out regularly. I decided a guy like Mark needed a doctor. Or a lawyer...or maybe a businesswoman like myself.

After hours of scanning through thousands of potential matches, I picked three. Lane Fantano, who ran her own medical practice—Italian with dark hair like mine and darker skin. She wore too much lipstick, but hey...he had options. Then there was Lucille Carmen, who was Hispanic, ran a non-profit, and owned two dogs. She was outdoorsy and liked to hike. Finally, there was Sydney Borday...She worked in marketing and was a little too gorgeous for comfort.

The moment they were all selected, I reached for my phone...which I had plugged Mark’s phone number into earlier after reviewing his file. I hated the way my heartbeat pounded as I waited for him to pick up.

“Silver speaking,” he announced.

I tried not to laugh at the way he answered. Instead, I cleared my throat and remained professional. “Mark Silver, this is Camille Meadows. We met earlier today.”

“You mean you showed up unannounced at my home earlier today.”

“Hm. Right...well, sorry to call so late. I actually wanted to extend an offer to you.”

“If you’re going to offer a free month of premium membership, I’m not interested.” He sighed. “The tech team already tried that.”

“No, actually, I took the liberty of scanning our database and handpicking three potential dates for you,” I explained. “While I am fully confident in the proven success rates of our algorithms, I do recognize that certain people may require something more personal. I was wondering if you would consider taking a look at the matches I’ve pulled for you and going on a date with one of them. I think you’ll find this process will produce much more satisfactory results.”

I heard him blow out a laugh over the line. “No offense, Camille, but you talk about love like it’s a math equation. Forgive me if I’m not entirely confident in your ability to pull this off.”

“And you talk about love like it’s a completely foreign concept—or a myth—even while millions of Americans find themselves happily married and in love,” I shot back. “I sent the matches over to you. Go ahead and take a look.”

“You have my home address, my phone number...and my email address?”

“All information you provided when you created your account.”

“I must say...this is some very questionable, yet thorough customer service,” he quipped. “But alright. I’ll bite. Give me one sec.”

I waited and heard shuffling in the background while he browsed the matches I’d sent over to him. I knew I had done well when I heard him whistle.

“Okay. Camille, I’ve got to hand it to you. These are some impressive picks.” I could hear him smiling. “I can go on a date with any one of them?”

“Or all three, if you want. Preferably not at the same time. All I ask is that you give them a fair chance.”

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