She moved her fingertips to just behind his neck, sending a new wave of tingles across his back. After a few blissful moments of her lips moving against his, she pulled back slightly, a small moan escaping her lips. “Roman, that was…Wow. You really know how to kiss a girl.”
He was pretty sure the magic of that kiss was all from her. “Go on a date with me. No cameras, no interviews, just you and me.”
“Just you and me?”
He nodded.
She gave him one more slow kiss on the lips. “I would love that.” She looked up, biting her lip like she was thinking through things, and it made him want to kiss her again. “I have a pretty full schedule this weekend to prepare for the start of judging on Monday. Are you free next Thursday?”
He nodded. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
Roman got the last of the things he needed for the day’s meetings organized and into folders with a smile on his face and a lightness in his chest. He loved release day of a new app more than any other day—even more than the high they all got when they brainstormed a concept they knew would be a winner. Even more than the day they finally worked through the final issue and got it ready to go live. Release day was the day when they finally got to see what users thought of it.
But that wasn’t the only thing giving him a bounce in his step. He had woken up Monday morning realizing that he actually enjoyed his interviews with Bex. Maybe because the first three were filmed with only a couple of days in between but he had to wait a full eight days between the third and fourth. It gave him time to realize how much he wanted the next one to come.
His interview with Bex went live this morning, too. He never would’ve guessed he’d enjoy creating those videos with Bex, but there was something exhilarating about putting yourself out there and having people respond. It oddly felt similar to putting a new app out there. He had poured himself into both, yet once either was released into the world, it felt separate from him. Almost like at that point, it was something that belonged to the viewers and app users, no longer to him.
It was also oddly freeing. Opening himself up a bit and letting strangers get to know him had come with plenty of people who weren’t bashful about criticizing. But there were more people who responded positively. It made him feel like there were always going to be people who were accepting of him no matter what. He didn’t need to be so guarded and careful. It made him excited to wake up in the morning. Maybe he’d have to make doing interviews something he just did every once in a while.
Another surprising thing was how much he had enjoyed the way Bex got him to open up a bit more. It left him waking up each day more excited than he had possibly been, ever.
But maybe part of it was the creative ways he’d been able to find to see and talk with Bex between their last interview on Thursday and today.
He walked into his nine a.m. department heads meeting. Since it was release day for Nudge Out, it was Charli’s meeting. He wasn’t surprised to see a giant cake in the middle of the conference table and several groups of balloons in the green and blue of the Nudge Out icon placed in groups around the room. His team worked hard on this—they deserved to celebrate. They all did.
Charli opened the meeting by giving the release day numbers of app downloads—which were, by far, the best release numbers they had ever had, even though their advertising budget hadn’t been much different from the last one. There was quite a bit of high-fiving and cheering all around the room.
“And I think a good part of those numbers came from the interview our illustrious leader did on Bexlandia that released early this morning. Can I show it to them?”
It was nice of her to ask, even though they both knew that there was no way the rest of his team was going to let him leave without it being shown. So he gave the okay.
In the weeks leading up to the video’s release, he had thought back through the interview, which had been more than an hour long. Sure, there were some exciting parts, but he worried the video would be slow and boring and no one would hang around for the exciting parts. But when he had seen it on Sunday, just like Bex had promised, he was surprised at how well edited and well paced it was.
The part with the deer staring them down right before it decided to charge made him laugh, and now that he was watching with his team, he smiled at how much it made them laugh, too.
If he was the one who had fallen into the stream while being chased by the deer, though, he wouldn’t have wanted it in the video. He was impressed that Bex included it. She had been right—letting the viewers see all of that kind of stuff definitely made the whole thing more interesting. And he did get why it would help her audience connect with her more.
Before filming the first interview, he had anticipated having multiple things in the video that he didn’t agree with and having to possibly use threats to get Bex to edit them out. As it turned out, he hadn’t asked her to change a thing. He had enjoyed the email thread going back and forth to tell her that, though. He couldn’t say he’d ever flirted so much over email before.
As the video finished and Charli took it off the main screen, all his department heads cheered, and it made him feel a bit like a rock star. He was liking this a bit too much.
“Now that’s what I call a good bump to sales,” Wells said. “That’s going to be giving us a boost for a while.”
Daran chuckled. “Much like what that deer was trying to do to you.”
“You guys don’t plan on letting me live that down, do you?”
“Not anytime soon,” Charli said, her eyebrows pulled together as she scrolled through something on her laptop. “So far, it looks like almost everything in the comments is positive. Lots of people are saying that they just downloaded the app, or coming back to say they got it and are so excited to use it.”
“I bet those investors are going to love this,” Melinda said.
Roman hoped so. He was having a meeting with them in a couple of weeks—long enough away that a few of the interviews would be out. He’d be surprised if this didn’t give them everything they needed.
Charli gasped and put a hand to her mouth. She stayed silent, though, still reading. Finally she looked up at him. “They’re shipping you!”
He shook his head, having no clue what she was talking about.
“Shipping,” she repeated, enunciating the word. “You and Bex.”
“Charli, I heard you fine. I still don’t know what you mean.”
“Ship, as in relationship. It means they want the two of you to start dating! Oh my goodness, that is so cute.” She read a little more. “Her viewers practically worship her. And whatever they saw during that video in her and whatever they saw in you made them think that the two of you should be together.”
Roman didn’t know what he thought about that. Part of him was completely weirded out that strangers were weighing in on who he should date. But with as much as Bex had been on his mind lately, he liked hearing that she was feeling it, too.
And it made him want to win her over even more. Just two more days, and they were going on a date. He was going to make sure it was perfect.
13
Bex