Читать книгу Kiss Me Again - Jessa James - Страница 6

1

Cole

“You have to be kidding me. Jacob, are you seriously going to let Callie set up a dating app? Well, my friend, there goes your reputation for being a serious mover and shaker in the tech world!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at poor Jake’s desperate attempts to get Callie’s attention. He really would let her have whatever she wanted, the poor fool. I couldn’t deny that she was smart too and her hunches were usually spot on, but this idea seemed a step too far in my humble opinion. But Callie was also the only woman I have ever met who could out-code me, and even had the temerity to beat me at chess – every single time. Well, of course, there had also been one other person who’d been able to do that, but she was no longer in my life. And yet, even five years later, my one true love Lucy still managed to infiltrate my thoughts at the most random times.

I shook my head and tried to force myself to pay attention to the conversation at hand. Maybe Callie had a different angle on the new dating app, one that hadn’t already been done to death. Jacob grinned at me sheepishly and shrugged.

“Ha, ha, Cole!” Callie said sarcastically as she brought a pitcher of beer and three shots of tequila back from the bar. “You boys ready to celebrate? This is going to be the best idea we’ve ever put into production!”

We’d all met at UCLA, on the very first meeting of the year of the Tech Society. We had bunched around a table, admiring the new gadgets we had all been excited to receive to start college in true nerd style. We discussed every little improvement and flaw as if the world would end if they weren’t put right – and then Callie walked in.

Standing six feet tall, she was a vision of leggy, blonde-haired, blue-eyed perfection. Naturally we all assumed she was in the wrong room. Turned out she was just as bright and obsessed as we all were, and more so than many. Callie truly did deserve the term ‘wiz’ – everything she did was fast: she thought fast, she drank faster, and she could solve virtually any math puzzle in moments.

And though there was no doubting that Callie was attractive, my heart belonged to another. The three of us settled into a comfortable friendship that lasted throughout college and beyond.

Callie knocked back her tequila shot and gestured to us to do the same. The fiery liquid burned its way down my throat and I made a face of pure displeasure. It had never been my drink; I was more of a bourbon guy really. I shook my head and regained my composure.

I must have still looked skeptical because I couldn’t see it myself. Sure, dating sites and apps seemed to be big business, but surely there were already a hundred all doing exactly the same thing? I mean how many did the world truly need?

“Seriously guys, the market seems flooded, I know. But, I’ve done the research. Every site has a different angle – matching by compatibility; matching on hobbies; matching on lifestyle; even matching on pets. But none of them give you a chance to check out the entire pool of people out there looking for ‘The One’. I mean, when you meet someone in a bar, you don’t check out whether you have stuff in common. You go on attractiveness, do they make you laugh, does being around them make you go tingly – you know, all that kind of stuff.”

I could kind of see her point. I have never waited to find out if a girl had something in common with me to go and ask her on a date. That’s what first dates are for after all. There does need to be some kind of initial gut reaction that draws you in.

“I think I get it, but the point of internet dating is to cut out the selection process, to speed it all up for yourself, to be matched with someone you are likely to get along with right?” I asked, beginning to get genuinely curious but still prepared to play devil’s advocate for the moment.

“For some people yes, time is of the essence – professionals and the like, but college kids have all the time in the world. Think about how Facebook started. It was a way to check out people on campus,” Callie continued.

Jake nodded. “And let’s face it, so many of us just don’t have the guts to admit to the object of our desires how we feel.”

I almost choked on my beer as he said so; his puppy-dog eyes were trained on the face of the woman who held his heart. If it hadn’t been so hideously close to home I would have laughed out loud.

“Exactly. Look at us, bunch of geeks that we are. Not one of us has ever had the guts to go up to anyone and ask them out, yet we aren’t even the worst of our kind. Cole Kent here is even kind of hot!” Callie joked.

“I’ve asked girls out on dates, occasionally… sometimes. I’m just not looking for anybody right now. You two could try a little harder, though. Neither of you is cursed with horn-rimmed glasses or nervous tics,” I teased back.

“We know,” Callie said as she rolled her eyes, “you fell in love at, like, age five and never fell out again…”

I sighed and tried to avoid her gaze, wanting her to change the subject.

“At some point you’re going to have to accept that the constant weekend trips all around the country are not going to bring her back and just move on. When you do, my friend, you are going to be so glad that there will be an app that will help you find the perfect girl for you!”

I knew deep down Callie wasn’t being harsh, and that she was probably right, but it still stung to hear it. I knew I couldn’t let go, not yet at least. I’d spent the last five years searching everywhere, often with my stepfather Tom, for my stepsister Lucy. And it seemed like every time we went out I got neck-ache from the constant straining to see if her face was somewhere in the crowd.

She had been my best friend for as long as I could remember, and our mothers had been best friends too since high school. We’d grown up with each other; morning coffee for our moms turned into play dates for us and as we got older we became inseparable.

But our friendship came under strain as disaster after disaster hit us like unrelenting waves. As if our teenage years weren’t bad enough, we had to deal with death, betrayal and then a marriage we just hadn’t seen coming.

Lucy left home not long after when my mom and her dad announced that they were getting married. My dad left my mom when I was just a kid. We hadn’t heard from him in years. We were better off without him, but it had been so tough when he left. Lucy had been there for me through everything, let me cry on her shoulder, kept me in school, and made sure I didn’t let my grades slip. I’d tried to do the same for her when her mother got cancer. It was the toughest time of all our lives; we were all so close, did everything together, and shared so much love between our two little families. Joanna, Lucy’s mom, had made my mom and Tom promise to keep the families together. They had tried to do what she had wanted, and it had cost them Lucy, who just couldn’t accept that her dad had moved on so quickly, or that my mom could betray her best friend.

I tried so hard to reason with her, but that made me as guilty as them in her eyes. She didn’t want to hear anything that she didn’t agree with. And then she was gone, and I lost the best friend and most wonderful girl in the world. Considering the miles Tom and I had covered between us and the college campuses we had visited, I had to agree with Callie. I probably wouldn’t find her again.

And even if I did there was still the fact she was my stepsister to get past. Sure, we weren’t related by blood or anything, but way too many people would think it was wrong, and she probably would too. Maybe she never felt the same about me anyway. I always dreamed our friendship could become more, but something always seemed to get in the way.

“Earth to Cole? Anyone home? Sorry honey, I didn’t mean to sound so cruel,” Callie touched a slender hand to my arm, her nails as always perfectly manicured in a bright scarlet shade that shone and twinkled in the light. This little touch always amused me, as she never wore any other makeup, just her trademark talons that clicked loudly as she typed at record speed.

“No, you’re right. I need to move on. But what have you brought me here for? You guys don’t normally bring me in on all the goings-on at Glitch. Clearly you don’t want my advice on whether I think this is a good idea or not.”

A cheesy grin spread all over Jake’s moon-shaped face. “Well, we were wondering if you had time to do the coding for the app? I am snowed under with the updates to all the games, Callie is up to her ears with those odd girly recipe games and coupon apps and things she deals with,” Jake admitted.

They often threw me the odd coding job when they were snowed under. I had to admit I was grateful. They paid me well and it meant I had managed to make it through college and a year into law school without any student loans to pay off. Considering our family didn’t have much money to spare it had been a real godsend.

“Way to diminish some of the most successful apps we have on the books Jake,” Callie tried to look huffy, but only succeeded in grinning as idiotically as Jake.

They waited for my answer, both staring at me intently. Obviously, they were truly excited, and that usually bode well for them and their bank accounts. Their first project together, a search app for on-campus societies at UCLA, had been so popular that every university had requested they do one for them. They had dropped out, and never looked back – except to make sure I wasn’t floundering without them.

I considered the offer, trying to figure out if I could work it into my upcoming busy schedule. Callie’s nails tapped impatiently upon the table.

“Well, I do have my internship starting at the DA’s office in a few weeks, but I could probably have the bulk of it done for you by then, depending on how complex you need it,” I said and smiled.

They simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief – they had both been holding their breath for my response. They raised their beer glasses for a toast.

“To ‘Wooed and Won’ – it’s going to make us all filthy rich!” Callie cried happily. “Cheers!” We clinked the glasses loudly and drank deeply. Jake indicated to the bartender to bring another round of shots and it wasn’t long before we were all drunk as skunks.

“Hey Jake, you entering the eating contest?” the bartender asked as he brought another pitcher of beer to the table.

“Eating contest? Show me where and when!” Jake exclaimed enthusiastically, rising from his chair and almost falling straight back down. He just about managed to maintain his composure as we giggled and he headed off toward the stage.

“Oh poor baby, he thinks it’s going to be an all-you-can-eat thing,” Callie said, concern in her tinkling, mocking girly voice. “He will never manage to eat half the stuff on this list.” She was reading the flyer the bartender had left. I took it from her.

“You underestimate him Callie. I’ve seen him devour things that have made better men cry. There’s nothing on here he can’t get down. He’ll be fine.”

Callie looked at me, and I could swear I saw her eyes narrow. One of her eyebrows arched up and a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. That couldn’t be a good, I thought.

“Want to bet on it Kent?”

“Oh, really now?”

“Come on, put your money where Jake’s mouth is,” she chuckled.

“Why not, a nice friendly bet? Jake will not let me down when it comes to food.”

“Let’s choose some stakes shall we? If you win, what do you want from me?”

“That you do your impression of Tina Turner, on this table, tonight, in front of everyone,” I said, thinking of the one thing that would freak her out the most. She gulped nervously but rallied pretty quickly.

“Okay, I want you to be the first person to sign up to the app once the site is up and running, and I want you to date at least one girl from the site a week for a whole month.”

Now it was my turn to gulp. That was a pretty big stake.

“That’s not very fair…” I grumbled. “If I win you only have to be embarrassed for a max of five minutes, but if I lose I’ll have four night’s worth of torture to contend with!”

“Chicken?” she asked as she poked her tongue out. “Hey, think of it as you’d be doing us a favor. The girls who sign up will be ecstatic to get a date with you Cole. The feedback from them could be amazing for us. And you never know, you might even find the woman of your adult dreams, not just your childhood ones.”

“Fine! Sure, why not.” I crossed my fingers under the table and prayed I would not regret it.