Riley looks up from the desk where she’s talking with Keith Nord, one of the senior contract attorneys. “Noah! I was hoping to have this finished and surprise you. What are you—”
Her question’s cut off as I cross Keith’s office and pull her to her feet, lifting her in my arms to kiss her hard. Keith, who’s been married longer than I’ve been alive, chuckles. “Nobody gives me one of those for stopping by the office.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I tell Riley, ignoring Keith as I set her down. “You don’t have to sign a contract with Life Corp.”
“I’m not,” she says.
Confusion rolls over me like a thundercloud. “What?”
“I wouldn’t sign without you. BlindDate is your baby, and our relationship is our own. This is something we need to discuss together. Mr. Nord is giving me all the information because I planned to tell you over dinner. I thought we could do a little light contract reading before bed. Surprise!”
She makes contract reading sound like the filthiest, nastiest thing we’ve ever done even though her tone is perfectly even. Keith clears his throat uncomfortably.
“We were going over the contract details—sponsorship funds, expectations of name placements in Riley’s videos, and things like that,” Keith explains.
“And I gave her the hard-sell treatment on the tour,” Elisa says from behind me, scaring the shit out of me. How does she move as quiet as a ninja in heels? “Told her all about our charitable donations to the city and our various apps that are environmentally sound and self-improvement driven. I want Riley to know who she’s agreeing to work with and that my goals aren’t dissimilar to hers.”
I blink slowly so my face doesn’t give away my thoughts on that. Riley Watson and Elisa Montgomery couldn’t be more different. Riley is all warm sunshine and joy while Lady Elisa is cold, calculating ambition.
Riley smiles, nodding her head as she shares a look with Elisa.
Hmm. I glance between the two of them, and suddenly, I can see it. Their surface differences are readily apparent. My Riley with her wild blonde curls, and even for today’s corporate meeting, wearing her Docs and knee socks. Elisa has on a power suit, her hair slicked back into a tight bun. But deeper than appearances, they are the same.
Women with dreams of making life better—Riley for her followers, Elisa for Life Corp’s customers. They’re willing to take risks, be bold, and succeed on their own terms.
“How could I not want to sign up with Life Corp after that?” Riley says, the compliment to Elisa woven through the question. “Besides, I’m going to be honest with my followers, as real as I can be. If I only offer a filtered, fake version of me, why would they trust me to help with their real, messy lives? And the truth is . . . I wouldn’t have met you without BlindDate. I’ve negotiated what the sponsorship will look like, and we’re going to do great stuff together. If you want to, Noah.”
“If it affects your decision at all, Mr. Daniels . . . I think your app is ground-breaking. I’m glad to have you and River here. Keep up the good work.”
A compliment from Lady Elisa? My dreams are coming true all over the place today . . . with Riley and with work.
And with that, she spins and heads back upstairs to her throne. Just another day at Life Corp, except it’s like no other day before for me.
It’s a Sunshiny day.
Chapter 29
Riley
“Hello, Sunshiners!” I greet the camera, wiggling my fingers in the Sunshine Salute. Next to me, Noah’s doing the same thing, his fingers looking a bit robotic, but he’s trying. He’s nervous, not used to being the center of attention other than in a boardroom, and then, it’s all about the facts and figures.
This is different. This is about us.
Which is why we’re sitting in my living room, on my couch, with my camera on a tripod on the other side of the coffee table. Yes, I have a ring light, and I cleaned like crazy, but it’s a real-life setup, exactly what I wanted. Elisa offered to hire a production crew with all the bells and whistles for my first Life Corp-sponsored post, but I told her, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s not me, and I’m going to stick with what has worked for Riley Sunshine from the beginning, a peek into my life.
I’m nervous too, honestly. Not because of the camera like Noah. I quit being nervous about that a long time ago, but because this video is one of the most important ones I’ve ever done, and I want to do a good job. For Noah, for BlindDate, for Life Corp.
“Riley Moonshine here where I—”
Noah laughs, nudging me with an elbow. “Uh, baby . . . that’s not your name.”
“Huh?” I replay what I just said in my mind and laugh too. “My brain is running faster than my mouth.”
“Someone really amazing told me this one time . . . big breath, hands up, and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.” He does the movements as he speaks, his arms and entire body shaking like a bowl of Jell-O in the middle of an earthquake.
I laugh, doing it too until we’re both silly and laughed out, panting for breath.
“Better?” Noah asks.
“Definitely. Let’s do this,” I tell him, excited and with a real smile now.
I hit a couple of buttons on the remote, restarting the video recording.
“Hi, Sunshiners!” I wave, and this time, Noah’s wave is better too. “I’m Riley Sunshine, and this . . .” I look to Noah, letting all my love for him show without filter, “is Midnight Mark.” Noah smiles at me and then the camera.
“Hi, Sunshiners,” Noah says evenly. He’s relaxed now too, leaned back on the couch with his arm laid out along the back cushions, surrounding me but giving me space to move and talk.
We planned out what we wanted to say, even practiced it a few times for Noah’s comfort, and I’m glad. It let us have some very detailed conversations about what we want to share and what we want to keep private.
Not that we’re hiding anything, but there are some things that are just for us, like no one needs to know that I’m shifting around on the couch, not because I’m overly excited but because I can feel the sting on my ass from where Noah smacked me right before we sat down. He promised me more of that when we’re done, so I’m ready to say the things we agreed on and get back to my bedroom. Maybe we can break my new bed too? Though I did invest in a more robust one, learning my lesson from the thin wood of the last one.
“I want to talk to you about . . . us.” I point a fingernail—yellow painted, of course—from Noah to me. “After my last video, there was a lot of speculation and assumptions were being made, and I want to be completely transparent. About everything. So, here’s the truth . . .”
“We knew each other a long time ago, and well, to be honest, we didn’t like each other much.” I make a face at Noah, scrunching up my nose and mock-glaring at him, but he just lifts one brow, silently and cockily daring me to come at him. I laugh and turn back to the camera. “Flash forward years later, when I joined the BlindDate app and started talking to this guy. We did exactly what BlindDate says to . . . we got to know each other, and he was everything I wanted—kind, funny, interesting. So imagine my surprise when I showed up for my blind date to find this guy.” I point at Noah with my thumb.