Chapter 6
The two older cashiers smiled when Hope came up the counter to order. But they weren’t smiling at her. They were smiling at Matt, who was still chuckling behind her. The cashier in front of Hope quickly took her order so she could join Matt and his cashier’s conversation about his house. It was clear he’d been regaling them with stories about his adventures in rehabbing the home for quite some time. It was also obvious he was holding back and trying to change the subject because Hope was there and the house held memories for her. And that bugged her. The last thing she needed was to have him worry about her feelings. But she decided to ignore it and not say a thing. Talking about it would turn the conversation away from business. Again.
She went to make her coffee and soon he was next to her. The worker who was refilling the half-and-half also seemed to know Matt, and the two chatted about hockey. When he left, Hope said, “We agreed we needed to meet in neutral territory. You seem to know everyone here.”
It was an observation, not a complaint, and he seemed to take it as such because he shrugged and said, “It would’ve been the same anywhere in the area. Because of what I do, I often have brunch, lunch, and dinner meetings close to downtown. There’s basically no place I haven’t hit up over a dozen times.” Then he smiled. “I probably should’ve warned you the entire downtown Dayton area wasn’t neutral.”
Someone called her name at the counter, and Matt went to their table while she went to retrieve her food. Along the way, she noticed someone was bringing Matt’s food out to him. She rolled her eyes. Everyone seemed to like him. It was odd because although he was likeable, he didn’t give anything about himself away. When he spoke, he put the spotlight on the other person, either by asking about them or by talking about things he thought would interest them.
She set her tray on the table and sat down. “So. You stated you had a proposal for me,” she began.
“Not yet.” He winked. “But give me time.” She gave him a sharp look. He returned it with an innocent one of his own. “We should at least share a meal first, is all I’m saying.”
“A business meal,” she reminded him as she stirred her oatmeal to cool it.
“Of course.” He tilted his head. “What else?”
Hope took a breath, ignored him the way she’d ignore a naughty child, and focused on eating her oatmeal. When she was done, she sat back and waited for him to finish his sandwich. When he polished off the last bite, she folded her hands in front of her and said, “Well. We shared a meal. And now I’m ready to hear your business proposal.”
He leaned back. “I like to engage in small talk before I conduct business. For instance, you can say something about the weather, I can respond with my own little observation, and it would make the meeting more comfortable.”
Hope was growing tired. “You’ve seen me in my glow-in-the-dark pajamas, heard me bark, and climbed through my window. We’ve engaged in enough small talk and deep talk to last a lifetime for two people who are business associates and not friends,” she said matter-of-factly. “In my book, that means we can always get straight down to business.”
Matt met her gaze, his entire demeanor now serious. “I told you the other night that I’m taking a professional risk on you because of the personal stuff between us. But having you sit across from me, enumerating all those personal encounters while you look at me as if you’d never met me before today makes me feel like my trust in you is misplaced.”
Hope was impressed. The man did not back down, but neither was he hostile. A worthy opponent. While he lasted. “Brrr.” She pretended to shiver. “It’s cold, Matt. As cold as it was on Saturday night, when I saw you last.” She picked up her coffee mug, took a sip, and looked at him expectantly over the rim. That was her weather observation, along with an acknowledgement that she’d seen him before today. Now it was his turn.
“It is cold.” He grinned and leaned in, and she tightened her grip on her mug. That grin and those twinkling eyes made it difficult to stay cold inside. “See? That wasn’t so bad.” He took a sip of his coffee and set it down. “All right then. Business. I’ll admit I don’t know exactly what’s going on at Friendly Clicks. But what I’ve learned so far leads me to believe that Unlimited Sparks, your umbrella company, has a buyer lined up and that the buyer has a relocation in mind, but that you and Justin don’t want Friendly Clicks to be part of that deal. But not being part of the deal and relocation depends on you being able to buy Friendly Clicks’s shares from Justin, and that depends on you solving your affliction, which isn’t totally under your control.”
Hope had to work to keep a neutral expression on her face. Those last words were hard to hear. But Matt must’ve noticed some shift in her because he lowered his voice, and the look in his eyes warmed. “I understand you’re in a difficult position, Hope. You can’t tell your employees about the possible acquisition by a larger company because you’ll have attrition and loss of morale, and you can’t explain that you’re trying to acquire Friendly Clicks but might not be able to because that involves very personal details. Details that could endanger you. Nobody should know that you’re not fully in control while you sleep. But this is all conjecture on my part. In order for me to help you, I need you to trust me with the truth about what’s going on with Unlimited Sparks and Friendly Clicks. Can you do that?”
He’d hit every nail on the head, and then some. It made him seem like more of a worthy partner than an opponent. But he was in this for the DBDA, and she wouldn’t allow herself to forget it. It was merely a twist of fate that he knew she wasn’t actively trying to leave. She held his steady gaze. “It depends on what you think you can do to help.”
He nodded. “I can help you by reassuring your employees, the DBDA, and the region that you’re working with us and trying to do the right thing by everyone involved. That’s all they’re looking for. Reassurance by a trusted source. They trust the DDBA to be honest in their dealings with them, and rightly so. But I need you to help me, too. The DBDA, your employees, and the region all need to see I’m working hard to keep you here. Before we get to any of it, though, you need to tell me exactly what’s going on. I need to make sure I’m making the right call.”
Hope disconnected her gaze and looked out the window for a long moment. This wasn’t a regular negotiation or business deal. Matt understood what was going on perfectly, and he was the only one, besides her and Justin, who did. What he was proposing was a collaboration. Like she’d told Mrs. Caputo, she always hired or outsourced to her weaknesses and it worked. Her weakness right now was that she had no choice but to keep her employees in the dark, even though it was undermining her goals. Matt could help with that. Looking at it from all angles, her best choice was to outsource her employees’ satisfaction to him for the time being.
She also couldn’t ignore the fact that he’d be taking a risk if he worked with her. If she didn’t solve her problem and Friendly Clicks left the region, Matt would bear some of the blame for failing to keep them here. She kept trying to keep him at arm’s length, but in all fairness, he needed to trust her just as much as she needed to trust him.
She turned to him, knowing it was about to get even more personal because to make him trust her, she’d have to explain everything. “How much time to you have?”
He leaned back in what could only be described as a relieved posture. “Don’t worry about it. This is important. I’ll make time.”
She hesitated, because he said it as if they were in this together. Which they soon would be. She then stifled a sigh and did what she had to do to earn and deserve his trust. Start at the beginning. “Justin and I had taken a few classes together as freshmen at the University of Dayton, but we traveled in completely different circles. Basically, he hung out with the ‘tech’ crowd, and I was married and…things had gotten complicated in my marriage.
“At the start of our sophomore year, though, things had changed. Justin was a loner and I was no longer married.” Her voice cracked, because that wasn’t all that had happened to her, but she pushed on. “We had a class together where we had to pair up for a difficult, semester-long project that would be fifty percent of our grade, and we were both sought out as partners because we were both known to be strong in our respective areas, but he and I immediately gravitated toward each other. The last thing either of us wanted to do that semester was socialize, and I guess it was very clear by our body language that we felt the same way. We were looking to get to work and nothing else. And that’s what we did for a while. Until this strange, deep, and beautiful friendship was born out of our silent collaboration.”
She paused, surprised she was sharing not just the facts, but the sentiment. But it was important. It was at the center of everything. “Our project was the only one to earn a perfect score, and normally, during any other time in our existence, we would both have gone our separate ways. We had nothing in common. But we kept hanging out, because it was like being alone without the loneliness. He wanted to throw himself into algorithms and data and never come up for air. I wanted to throw my whole self into running something big, something that would take up all of my time, brainpower, and energy. But both of us still wanted to add something of value to the world, and that cemented our friendship. It made us start brainstorming together.”
She could still see all their brainstorming sessions in her mind’s eye. They had gotten her through a lot. “One night, we were watching TV at his place, and we started making fun of all these commercials for dating websites that kept playing. One of them was talking about how they analyzed all these personality traits and how they had this high success rate for marriage, but because of how we’d been burned by others and how it had changed us and made us unlikely friends, he and I started talking about how it was impossible to know if any type of relationship could last because change wasn’t quantifiable. And out of that conversation, Friendly Clicks was born, because that’s what Justin and I were; two friends who’d clicked because of things that could be quantified and measured, like the fact that we went to the same school, took a few classes together, and lived in the same area… and things that could not. We were what the other needed at that moment. We weren’t counting on being friends forever. We weren’t counting on anything. We couldn’t. And we believed that was the key. To focus on fulfilling innocent needs for connections at certain moments in time, without the pressure of forever. Like when you go to college or when you move to a new city and you just want someone to go to a party with or to chat over coffee with. It also didn’t have to be one-on-one, because it was about making friendly connections. And we poured our hearts and souls into making our service happen. But we knew we needed to establish some level of compatibility. Interactions can be painful if you don’t have at least a few things in common that you can talk about.”
He laughed lightly at that, and said, “Tell me about it,” as if he knew about painful interactions. For a moment, it made Hope wonder if he meant that his current interaction with her was painful, and he was making a joke about it. But she quickly cleared her mind of the thought. That would be a mean thing to say, and he wasn’t mean. And then she wondered why she cared if he found her company painful. Her feelings weren’t easily hurt, and they almost had been hurt when he’d said those words.
Matt watched as a shadow slipped over Hope’s features. She wasn’t an emotional person—at least not when she was awake, but she often proved herself to be loving. Like with her family, Zeus, and the way she spoke of her friendship with Justin. And she was also expressive. Usually those expressions were lively. But for a flicker of a second, she’d shown some vulnerability. He realized instantly she might have taken his words the wrong way, and he worried that she’d cut her story short now, when it was the last thing he wanted.
“Friendly Clicks” for a moment in time indeed. At that moment, there was no other place he wanted to be. When it came time to leave, he knew he’d be dragging his feet. Before she could open her mouth and say something that would put distance between them, he asked, “How did you guys come up with an algorithm to match people successfully if you’d already decided you couldn’t measure or quantify change or what a person needed at a specific moment in time?”
Hope nodded and continued. “When we began to really dig into all the research out there we found that most studies showed that algorithms are only slightly better at matching people than random chance. Only one-third of compatibility can be established by matching attributes and interests, and it accounts for that slight advantage. I won’t get into it because we’d be here all day, but the evidence is out there for anyone who cares to look. But the sites still work and are a great resource because you have access to so many people who share some common ground with you. What we needed to do was set up the right expectations for what our service delivered and recruit a large number of people to join and be active, and all that could by handled by effective business strategies.”
“And that’s where you came in?” She nodded and smiled her bright smile, the one that made her blue eyes bluer, and his heart thumped so hard in his chest he actually had to rub it. That was a first. “How did you get it all up and running?”
Her smile became wistful, and he knew that she’d enjoyed the journey as much as the success. Maybe even more. “We both found part-time work on top of our full-time jobs, and we moved into a tiny studio in a cheaper area of town together so we could save even more. Justin began developing our algorithm and building the website, and I took care of all aspects of the business plan. Marketing was basically me putting up catchy fliers at every university and major employer I could reach in my ’82 Impala.” She grinned. “Six months later we had the website up and running, people were clicking, and we were reinvesting every penny.”
“That must’ve been quite a feeling.” He smiled. Her enthusiasm was contagious as heck.
“It was. We never forget it. And when we grew faster then we’d projected, the DBDA was there to help.” She became serious. “Another random connection based on compatibility. Justin and I have never forgotten that, either. The DBDA was just starting out, too. A regional business and government alliance experimenting with ways to bring in more businesses, retain graduates, and create jobs, and it had plenty of detractors. But they took a chance on two college kids who were in over their heads. In a way, we were what the other needed at that moment in time, too. But that was eight years ago.”
In one instant, Matt felt his goodwill slip. Is this where she’d been heading all along? “Are you saying you no longer need us, therefore, the relationship should no longer exist?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying.” Her eyes met his again. “How long have you been at the DBDA?” she asked.
“Six years.”
“That’s how long I’ve been at Unlimited Sparks in Raleigh. And that’s the relationship that’s no longer working.”
Matt understood then that she was about to get into the meat of the matter. “Go on.”
She blew out a breath. It was the first time he’d seen her do that. “Two years into Friendly Clicks, our growth began to stall. Competitors had popped up, and though we were confident we could outlast them all, we knew we’d blow them out of the water if we found an easy way to double our membership in a short period of time. Unlimited Sparks was based on the idea of finding your match through group dates, which meant we weren’t competitors, but we were compatible. We began a cross-marketing blitz where we offered their members access to our site for half the cost, and they did the same, plus new members could join both for a reduced price. It was insanely successful for both of us. We also discovered we each had talent the other lacked, and they tried to hire me away because they needed a competent operations manager, while we tried to hire their brand manager. To make a long story short, we merged, and Justin and I each got to keep one-fourth of Friendly Clicks as part of the deal.”
“And now?”
Her eyes flickered to the table. “Unlimited Sparks… evolved. It’s now more of a hookup website, but they don’t promote safe practices. I’m not happy there, but I have absolutely no say in branding. Coming back here as chief financial officer was the equivalent of a promotion, and my idea was to go back to Unlimited in the same capacity so that I could have more say in the direction the company was heading because the numbers didn’t look good long term. The problem is one of the largest matchmaking websites in the world now wants to buy us both. It’s a good deal for Unlimited—it will right their ship—but it’s not a good fit for us. Friendly Clicks will work better independently, and it belongs here, and I belong with Friendly Clicks. I believe in it. And I belong with my family.” The word family made her look away, and for a moment she was quiet. “So there you have it. I think you know the rest.”
“Not all of it. Why do you have to buy Justin out? It sounds like you two are still close and together your fifty percent could be enough to separate from Unlimited Sparks, depending on your agreement.”
Hope looked up. “It is. And though Justin’s story isn’t mine to tell, I can let you in on what most people know. Justin’s mom is very sick, he met his now-fiancée while spending time with his mom, and he wants to move back to his hometown in Texas to start something new. I have loans and support in place, and Justin is ready to let go. He’s only holding on because of me and because of loyalty. He’d rather the company stays in my hands, but Unlimited Sparks is pressuring us. Either spin off or be part of the deal. We have one month before we need to make our decision known. But now that our employees are finding out, it complicates matters. It erodes trust, both from the public who sees us as a great place to work and a community partner, and from our own employees, who are our greatest assets. I’ve seen what happens when the public turns on a company, especially nowadays, with the power of social media. We can’t have that.”
She was quiet then, and Matt let her be, because he understood where she was going with all of it. The answer would seem simple to anyone who didn’t know about Hope’s issues. After a while, Matt said, “You need time to figure out how to get better, so that you can stay and not hurt yourself or your family. And it looks like you have one month.”
“Exactly. And you think you can help me, because you know that, but no one else does, and no one else should. You’re right. It wouldn’t be safe for me if people knew I often walk around and black out during the night.” She looked at him more fully then, and he noted that she was all business again. It made him realize just how much Friendly Clicks and Justin meant to her, that talking about them had softened her significantly. “Now that you’ve heard the origins story plus the sequel, do you believe we deserve your assistance?” she asked.
“I do.”
She nodded. “And what do you require in exchange for your assistance?”
He looked away for a moment, because the expected question brought an unexpected reaction. Tenderness. For her. What did he require? He required nothing, except to know that she would be okay. But the DBDA and Friendly Clicks’ employees were another story. “The only way you, Friendly Clicks, the DBDA, and I will come out of this unscathed—or at least with minimal bruising—is to make sure everyone involved knows you are doing everything in your power to keep your company and its employees here. I propose that you act like that’s exactly what you’re planning to do.” He leaned in. “It’s common knowledge that you’ve outgrown your current facilities. If you knew you were staying, you’d be actively looking for new office space and networking to find partners in the region. You’re holding off because you don’t want to lead anyone on or let anyone down, but in reality, everyone knows that business deals fall apart all the time, for a variety of reasons. It’s a lack of goodwill that makes people feel let down. Start looking at new office space with me. It’s part of what I do. You should also attend networking meetings, and even tour the region’s amenities with me. It’s also part of what I do; show the region off as great place to ‘live, work, and play’ and help people make connections. I also take pictures of my efforts and our social media person posts them all over our accounts, and our public-relations person groups them and sends them out to newspapers along with relevant press releases. We don’t close on every deal, but when businesses give us a fair shot, goodwill is kept. And you won’t feel dishonest, because you know that I already know that it might not work out.”
Hope looked through him as she thought. He could tell she was carefully considering everything he’d said. It was a great solution to her problem, and he wondered what the sticking point was.
“Why does this all have to be done with you?” she finally asked. Ah. And there it was. He was the sticking point. He bit his lip and looked down at his hands. The last thing he needed was for her to suspect the admittedly immature thrill it gave him to know he was getting to the seemingly unflappable Hope Piper. Why else would she resist spending time with him as a business partner? “You’re right about my reasons for not moving forward as if I’m staying, which is why your idea is great,” she continued. “Now I know that you, representing the DBDA, will be on my side, letting people know I tried my best, which is the truth. But you don’t really need to be by my side. I can tour properties with a realtor, visit the region’s amenities with my assistant, and go to networking events on my own. I’ll send you the pictures so that your social media person can share them.”
“You forget that my reputation is on the line, too. Friendly Clicks is our first success story.” He looked at her, finding now that he’d grown angry at her words. “It’s not about me looking like I’m doing everything I can to keep you here, Hope, it’s about me actually doing everything I can to keep you here. It’s real and not for show. And that means I treat you the way I’d treat any other VIP, and you treat me with the respect you’d show any other business partner. I don’t just toss people keys, wave hello from across the room at an event, and collect pictures, and I suspect you don’t normally go around minimizing what other people do for a living. Who’s being unprofessional now?”
Hope took a deep breath before letting it out and looking him in the eye. “I am. And that ends now. I apologize. You’ve proposed a reasonable, mutually beneficial solution to both our problems, and I accept.” She stuck out her hand. He shook it, admiring her more than ever. He’d taken her to task, and she’d, well, she’d taken it. “Tell me where you need me to be, and when, and I’ll do my best to make it work.”
His eyes didn’t leave hers as unexpected answers to her question popped into his head. In my life. For now. Maybe longer. Instead he said, “242 Riverside Road, any time after noon on Wednesday. And the Dayton Create meeting on Friday at six p.m.”
She reached for her phone and scrolled through its calendar. “I can do four p.m. on Wednesday and I’m pretty sure I can make Friday work—I’ll let you know if I can’t,” she said before looking up again. “Now, I already know what Dayton Create is, but tell me what’s at 242 Riverside Dr.”
He smiled. “I’ve got some inspiring, efficient workspace I want you to see. Your sister could do a lot with it.”
“You know Gracie is a workspace designer?” she asked as she got up and gathered her coffee and briefcase, effectively ending the meeting.
He nodded. “I heard she did a great job with the courts building design and that her vision is coming along nicely.” She waited as he gathered his own things before leading him out. It made him think of the photograph he’d accidentally seen, where Hope was flying down the steps of city hall, leading a young man by the hand.
The instant she was out the door, the cold air whipped at Hope so hard, she knew there would be no room for extended goodbyes. It was a relief. She both wanted to stay and wanted to flee. Her feelings for Matt were becoming complicated, and it would be best not to examine them. Her best bet was to plow through the following weeks of togetherness, clamping down on her thoughts and holding back her feelings the way she pinched her nose and held her breath when she didn’t like the way something smelled.
But before she could nod and walk away, he spoke, and his tone made her stop and look at him. “You ex’s aunt is sitting in a car across the street, with a perfect view of where we were sitting inside,” he said.
Hope shivered in her coat and followed his line of vision, but she didn’t see Mrs. Caputo. “Maybe she was already parked there and she was only making a phone call or something before leaving. I do that all the time.”
“I’m asking you again, is that woman really Derek’s aunt?” he asked, turning an accusing look her way. His jaw was clenched and his expression had become hard.
Hope glared at him, so stunned by his unbelievable gall that she was unable to string any of the angry words that were rocketing through her brain together. Yes, she’d lied. So had Mrs. Caputo. And no, she didn’t like being caught. But it was none of his business. “You know, now that I think on it, maybe she stuck around because you acted so strange when you bumped into her that she wanted to make sure I was okay.”
Matt looked at her for a moment, as if he was considering what she’d said, and then nodded, as if it made sense. Still, he added, “Remember I’m trusting you, Hope.”
Hope’s blood boiled for the second time that morning. Both times, it had been because of Matt. He had been warm and understanding one moment, and then distant and hard the next. It confirmed that she couldn’t trust him, even when her gut and instincts told her she could. “No, you’re not. And you don’t have to—not with every little thing, because, guess what? I don’t trust you with every little thing either. And that’s okay. We only have to trust each other where Friendly Clicks is concerned. So enough with your talk about how business is personal for you. Between you and me, it’s business.”
If she could have one wish granted at the moment, it would be for Mrs. Caputo to find Derek that very day, so she could ask him to his face why he’d left, get the closure she needed, stop sleepwalking, buy Friendly Clicks, and not have to see Matt on Wednesday.
But since none of it was likely to happen so quickly, and she wasn’t even sure that closure would stop the sleepwalking, the next best thing would be to forgive her sisters and her grandmother so she could have one of them with her every single time she met with Matt Williams.