‘My only worry,’ she continued, helping herself to his coffee and taking a long sip, ‘is what any potential partners might think. It’s not brilliant for a brand-new company to have a social media storm so early on. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.’
The two of us exchanged a look, able to read each other’s mind. Level was not in a position to lose connections. We were at a crucial point in the trajectory of our company, and this was not part of the plan.
28
Of all the aspects of Level that I’d thought might defeat Rory’s optimism, I’d never imagined it would be a 50-year-old catfish.
‘My brain is so tired I’m struggling to remember how to chew.’ He was currently slumped over his kitchen counter, miserably taking on a huge slice of pizza. He’d ordered one with triple the portion of pepperoni, so you could barely even see the cheese. We’d been ordering pizza for years and it was his favourite thing in the world, but currently it looked like every bite was painful.
‘Who knew that launching Level would be so difficult?’ I chose the slice with the biggest crust and dipped it in barbecue sauce.
‘The romcoms make entrepreneurship look so dreamy.’ His tone was heavy on the sarcasm, but there was very little humour there.
We’d been in crisis meetings all day, working with Harriet and Ella to compose a media statement, and then working with the programming team to get to the bottom of how our facial recognition technology had failed us. Dexter had finally figured out what had happened; apparently, there were apps that could distort facial recognition, confusing the system. Our system needed to be tighter, so those kinds of creeps couldn’t get in. It made me feel physically sick that our app could put someone in any kind of danger. Even more so that someone would go to that length to cheat the system. The risks involved with online dating had been one of our main motivators for building a new app. This proof that even Level wasn’t invincible only added to my niggling list of doubts about how likely it was that we were actually helping people find love. Polly had quieted down on social media and we were now talking to her over email, trying to smooth over the situation. Harriet had absolutely smashed it today.
I picked up a second slice. ‘Well, on the bright side, that article about us is a fond memory of the past now.’
He shot me a wry look. ‘It was only you that thought being connected to me was the worst thing in the world.’
I jumped to my own defence. ‘Not the worst thing in the world.’ I dipped my crust again. ‘Getting stuck in an airport for twenty-four hours would be worse. Or standing in quicksand.’
He threw his own crust at my head.
‘Hey, assault by crust is still assault.’
Rory rolled his eyes. ‘Did you manage to get any pizza sauce not around your mouth by the way?’
I felt my skin flush before reprimanding myself – this was Rory. He’d seen me in my post-hangover state many a time over the years.
‘It’s my new method of repelling men.’
‘You’re going to need something better than that,’ he mumbled under his breath.
‘What was that?’
‘I said, things not going well with Daniel, then?’
‘They are,’ I said defensively, trying to subtly wipe the sauce away. ‘But it’s not serious, it’s just …’ I trailed off, not wanting to spell it out.
‘Oh, for God’s sake. You’re ridiculous, come here.’ He reached over and pulled me towards him, causing me to stumble into the space between his legs. He inhaled sharply as he dabbed at the corner of my mouth. ‘There.’
Neither of us moved. Desire curled in the pit of my stomach and for a hot second I didn’t ignore it. What if? Rory’s hand was still on my hip, and it tightened.
His eyes flickered up to mine, trying to read me.
‘Pen?’ His voice was thick.
And then I remembered a little thing called Maeve. Our best friend in the world. I really needed to get over my fear and ask them both what the hell was going on.
I sprung away from him like he was on fire, spinning around to go and get a glass of water and catch my breath.
When I turned, Rory was clearing his throat. ‘It’s been a long day.’
‘Yeah. Yeah, exactly.’ I didn’t wait for further excuses, just blindly agreed. Whatever that was, it was a symptom of a long, stressful, emotion-driven day.
‘Oh, hey guys.’ We both jumped when his flatmate Stephen walked in.
I had never been so happy to see someone in my life.
‘Hey Stephen.’ I gestured to the pizza box. ‘Have you had dinner?’
Rory’s flatmate worked in finance and had no real interest in being best friends with Rory, which suited them both fine. After Lottie, he’d needed a drama-free place to live until he figured things out, and this had been perfect. When Stephen wasn’t in work, he was hovelled away in his room playing computer games. The odd occasion where they shared a beer and watched Love Island or Match of the Day was as far as their friendship went, but I liked him. Particularly in this very moment.
He grabbed a slice from the box. ‘You guys are my heroes. Triple pepperoni, I respect that.’
All three of us chewed in silence, but the food tasted like cardboard. My brain was fried. Work, Daniel, Rory … Maeve. Shit – Maeve. I was going to hell.
‘You guys have been on the phone a lot this week. Big week at work?’ Stephen made an effort at conversation, grabbing a beer out of the fridge.
I was instantly confused. ‘On the phone?’
‘Yeah,’ he spoke around a mouthful of pizza. ‘I’ve been up gaming until the early hours and all I can hear is this one chatting away.’
Unless I’d had an out-of-body experience, that definitely hadn’t been me on the receiving line. I didn’t say anything, leaving Rory to fill in the gaps.
‘Oh no, not work related.’ Pause. ‘That wouldn’t be Pen, she’s a stickler for an eleven o’clock bedtime. It was a fucking nuisance at uni.’
They both laughed, and I pulled a face at him. But what I was really thinking was that I’d just been presented with some mightily damning evidence. And just minutes after a moment of something between the two of us. I thanked whoever worked up above for intervening.
