“Sixty-seven failed matches.Sixty-seven.”


    I knew it wasing, yet I still flinched when the leather folder pped the oak conference table.


    You’d think I’d be used to it by now. Alice and Mitchboth seemed to be.


    “How is it possible that you haven’t been able to find a single appropriate match for the only client that actually fucking matters?How? What the fuck am I paying you three for?”


    It was a trick. You weren’t supposed to answer her.


    “Someone answer me.Now.”


    My gaze dropped to myp, which was a mistake. The only thing Vivian Hale disliked more than an ipetent employee was a spineless one.


    Sure enough, the nanosecond I cowered, her attention zeroed in on me, her neck tugging back like a viper preparing to strike.


    “Jamie,” she snapped. “You’ve been keeping awfully quiet today. Care to chime in?”


    Not even a little, no. What was the point when she wasn’t willing to listen?


    Still, I lifted my chin and set my shoulders back. I had my answers memorized by this point. It was just a matter of reciting them.


    Here was the thing—Vivian didn’t actually want an exnation as to why we’d spent thest eight months failing to do our collective jobs. She didn’treallywant to hear why we were struggling to find a suitable match for (arguably) the most eligible bachelor in North America and (inarguably) her most high-profile client.


    If Vivian wanted real answers, she would have listened to us half a year ago when we’d warned her this might happen.


    The only thing the CEO of Charmed Elite wanted to hear was yet another lie about how we had A Very Thorough Action n in ce to address The Issue and werethis closeto getting her results. Because at the end of the day, failing to find a match for Jackson Sinir would be irrevocably detrimental to the reputation she’d spent twenty-odd years building—the one that had her hailed as the number one matchmaker in the world.


    The industry was small, and the Sinirs were… well, they wereThe Sinirs. One of the wealthiest, most influential families in the country. Money talked, and word of mouth was everything in this business. If we failed, rumors would spread that Vivian had lost her touch, and ourpetitors would start circling our existing clients like vultures, waiting for the inevitable exodus that would follow if Minerva Sinir decided to take her business elsewhere.


    The super fun part? Vivian was t-out in denial. She didn’t want to ept that we’dalreadyfailed, which was why Alice, Mitch, and I had spent thest few days brushing up our résumés instead of working. Because when this whole thing ultimately blew up, Vivian needed someone to me. Getting fired was an inevitability.


    Clearing my throat, I shot her a reassuring smile and?—


    “It’s not us.”


    My mouth snapped shut, my eyes ring as they darted to Alice.


    Vivian’s neckslooowlyrotated in her direction, her re lethal.“What?”


    “It’s not us, Vivian,” Alice repeated calmly. Too calmly. She sounded almost bored. “It’s him.”


    Mitch and I exchanged questioning nces as Vivian let the silence stretch, daring her to go on.


    Alice wasn’t deterred, though. Instead of shutting up, she lifted an unapologetic shoulder and let it fall. Not for the first time, I was convinced she didn’t experience fear the way the rest of us did. Likely due to her upbringing.


    I’d feel invincible too, if I had her financial safety.


    “He’s impossible.” She held Vivian’s re with unbothered ease. “Jamie tried to warn you this would happen six months ago, but you didn’t want to hear it.”


    Mitch jerked beside me, kicking Alice under the table from the feel of it. He was ignored.


    Inspired by her no-fucks-given approach, I sat up a little straighter. Maybe today was the day. Maybe this time Vivian would listen. “Viv, there are less than a hundred single women in the entirety of North America that meet his criteria and, as of yesterday, he’s turned down sixty-seven of them.”


    “So?”


    I thought that part was pretty self-exnatory but okay, I could spell it out for her. “We don’t really know what else you want us to do. Mitch and Alice have been working nights and weekends to find appropriate matches for his standing appointments, and I’ve been stayingte to do damage control on the carnage of angry tears and bruised egos he’s leaving behind. We’re tired.”


    “Chances are good we’ll run out of candidates before we find him a partner. It’s notus, it’shim,” Alice reiterated. “Jackson Sinir doesn’t need a matchmaker, he needs a miracle worker. And a really good therapist, if I’m being honest.”


    Mitch shrunk an inch in his seat.


    “And?” Vivian pushed. “What’s our n? How do we work around these obstacles?—”


    “We don’t. We fire him,” Alice countered smoothly.


    This time when Mitch jolted, he managed to kick her hard enough to earn himself an irritated re.


    Vivian’s lips twisted into a sneer-like smile as she stepped up to the table. My stomach crumpled. “Your proposed solution is to fire Jackson Sinir as a client? Do you have any idea what that would do to our reputation? Half of our active ounts joinedafterMinerva announced the partnership at her luncheon. What do you think will happen if she takes her business somewhere else?”


    They’d probably run into the same issues with him that we had. I bit my tongue; Alice didn’t.


    “Again, we told you this might happen, right after he sent one of his assistants to do the onboarding interview on his behalf,” she said. “Westillhaven’t actually met him in person.”


    Vivian waved a dismissive hand and started to pace again. “Not taking him on as a client wasn’t an option. And firing him now is out of the question. What I need from the three of you is a solution.”


    “That’s the problem, we don’t have one,” I said. “We’ve tried everything short of Immersive, and that’s only because he won’t agree to it.”


    A blessing in disguise if you asked me. Not that I was senior enough to even be considered for the role, but I couldn’t imagine being stuck to Jackson Sinir’s hip like that for an entire month, knowing what I did about his file.


    The Immersive Coaching Package was normally reserved for our most challenging clients. They were assigned a full-time rtionship consultant and dating coach who spent four weeks studying their daily life, routines, behaviors, and habits, then used the gathered data to find them a suitable match. The whole thing was very intense.


    The assigned consultant was even required to attend their dates and observe them from a distance so they could “coach” the client afterward if required (which, nine times out of ten, if a client’s situation was critical enough to warrant an Immersive, then coaching was definitely required).


    “I’m with Jamie,” Alice said. “Unless he’s willing to bend on some of his criteria and spare us a bit of his time, then we’re all out of ideas.”


    Vivian crossed her arms, but instead ofshing out, she granted us a single firm nod. “All right. I admit that his rigid schedule and expectations for a partner make this more limiting than we might like, but it’s not impossible. Failure isn’t an option here—it just isn’t. We have to find a way to work around it.”


    Again, denial.


    I slumped back in my chair, but Alice stood firm. If anything, Vivian’s reluctance to see the reality of our situation only fired her up. “We’ve done everything we can with the information we’ve been provided. Sixty-seven women miraculously met his insane criteria, and not one of them was able to secure even a second date with him. Notone. Our data has to be wed for that to happen but, again, he refuses to partake in our assessments himself, so we’re stuck working with what we have. All his tests, questionnaires, and interviews were done by his staff, and some of them weren’t even fully filled out. His team is dictating what information we need to do our job, and it’s just not working.<span id="page_11">There’s a reason we wouldn’t have made these exceptions for someone with a differentst name, Viv.”


    I was half-convinced that Jackson didn’t actually want to find a partner, but I couldn’t figure out why he’d waste so much of everyone’s time and resources, including his own.


    The sign-up fee at Charmed was a hefty seven figures, not to mention the level of initialmitment our programs required. Thepany catered to the top one percent of the one percent, and if there was one thing our clients had inmon (apart from their iprehensible wealth) it was that they didn’t like wasting their own time. That was why they hired us in the first ce—to do all the vetting and hard work for them.


    “Why?” Vivian asked, her sharp gaze snapping among the three of us. “Whyhaven’t they been able to secure a second date with him?”


    “Your guess is as good as ours,” I said.


    “What does that mean?”


    I edged forward in my chair. “The feedback we’ve been getting from his team has been vague and confusing, so we really only have the women’s version of events to work with. But that doesn’t help since we need to know whyhedidn’t think the dates went well.”


    His matches never voiced anyints about the experience, and most of them were quite upset after being told that Jackson didn’t want to pursue anything further with them.


    Another thing a good portion of our clientele had inmon? They weren’t used to rejection, and some of them did not know how to handle it.


    Vivian nodded again, and for the first time since we’d been assigned this hellish nightmare of a case, it felt like she was maybe hearing us.


    “Okay,” she said. “So then, there you go. That’s your next step.”


    I frowned. “What is?”


    “You need to figure out what’s really happening on those dates.”


    There was only one way I could think to do that, but she wasn’t going to agree to it. “Could we maybe sit in on one of your meetings with Minerva and see if she has any insight?—”


    “Out of the question.”


    Then I was out of ideas.


    Mitch nudged at his wireframe sses, finally deciding to take the baton. “Vivian, we’re really not exaggerating. He won’t even get on a five-minute call with us. And since he hasn’t signed off on an Immersive, we can’t exactly send someone out to observe the dates…” He trailed off when Vivian started to shake her head.


    “No,” she said. “Try again. He’s not going to budge on his schedule. Think of a different way. You need the data, so how will you get it without his cooperation?”


    “We’ve spent eight monthstrying. He won’t—” Alice cut off abruptly, her eyes going in and out of focus. She sucked in a short breath. “Oh.”


    Oh?


    Oh, what?


    But before I could ask, Vivian cleared her throat and smoothed down the front of her pleated dress. “Figure this out, and soon. I don’t care what you have to do to get me results. Minerva is running out of patience and if she decides to take her business elsewhere, half of our portfolio will follow, and that’ll meanyoffs. Period.”


    She shot Alice onest knowing look on her way out, the opaque ss door sliding shut behind her.


    “Holy shit,” Mitch breathed, his upper body practically copsing on the table. “The fucking balls on you, Alice.”


    She red at him. “The next time you decide to y violent footsie with me under the table, don’t. You almost ripped my tights with thatst kick.”


    “I was trying to save you from yourself. Vivian looked like she was ready to fire you on the spot when you started talking back.”


    Alice rolled her eyes. “She’s going to fire all three of us anyway. She knew exactly what an impossible clusterfuck this was going to be from the very beginning. Why else would she assign three junior consultants to a client this important instead of taking it on herself?”


    “Because we’re young, ambitious, and willing to put in the long hours it requires?” Mitch tried.


    “No. Because we’re young, naive, and disposable.”


    “That’s incredibly depressing,” I said.


    “It’s reality.”


    I slumped in my chair with a sigh. I really didn’t want to lose this job—not after I’d worked so hard for so long to get it. Charmed was the crème de crème of matchmakingpanies, so anywhere I went after this would feel like taking ten steps back in my career. Not ideal.


    Before Jackson Sinir, my professional life had been perfect. I’d loved my job, the people, the work-life bnce, and even Vivian hadn’t been so bad when we weren’t constantly disappointing her.


    I swiveled in my chair. “You know… if we get fired and have to look for new jobs, we’re going to need to exin why we weren’t able to find a match for a literal Sinir.” The industry was small, and people talked. It was bound to get out. “They’re all going to ask.”Content bel0ngs to N?vel(D)r/a/ma.Org.


    Mitch shoved a rough hand through his hair. “I’m more worried about tomorrow night. We have no one to send to Jackson’s standing appointment, and I doubt we’ll find a match<span id="page_14">in less than thirty hours. If we have to pull another all-nighter and sleep here, I’m gonna lose my fucking mind. I can’t do it.”


    “Also, how the hell does she expect us to get unbiased data on the dates?” I looked between the two of them. “Drones? Hacking security cams?”


    “I have an idea that’ll take care of both problems,” Alice cut in. “But you’re really not going to like it.”


    “No. Absolutely fucking not.” No way. There was no way I was willing to do it.


    Alice leaned in, arms ttening on the table. “Comeooon.It won’t be that bad.”


    Was she serious? “You want me to go on a date with Jack the fucking Ripper and you don’t think it’ll bethat bad?”


    “It’s not like you’re going as yourself,” she argued. “You’ll be undercover.”


    “How is that not a thousand times worse?”


    Not only was it a terrible idea that would undoubtedly blow up in our faces, but I was the absolute worst person for the job. I hated lying. It made my insides itchy, and the upkeep was almost always too stressful to be worth it.


    “Don’t overthink it,” she said. “We’ll hook you up with some discreet surveince equipment and give you a solid fake profile. You’ll be fine.”


    “You’rereallynot thinking this through,” I told her.


    “Agreed.” Mitch tapped his knuckles on the table. “Too many things could go wrong. Plus, there would be absolute hell to pay if Jackson ever found out.”


    Right. Exactly. “Not to mention I don’t meet any of his physical requirements.”


    I was blonde, five-foot-seven, and twenty-eight.


    Jackson Sinir only dated brtes between the ages of thirty and thirty-six, and they had to be at least five-foot-ten. Hisst match (number sixty-seven) was a former Miss World winner and current CEO of a major PRpany. He’d take one look at me, turn around, and leave. Just like he had with Allison Park (number twenty-nine), who’d then spent a full hour screaming at me over the phone like it was somehow my fault.


    After that, Vivian had called Minerva to ask that Jackson at least respect the one-hour requirement Charmed had for all first dates, the point of which was to ensure our clients gave their matches an actual chance.


    Alice shrugged. “We’ll get you a wig and a pair of tforms, put you in a dress long enough to cover your feet, and have you arrive early so you’ll be seated by the time he gets there. He’ll be none the wiser.”


    “If it’s that simple, why don’t youdo it?” I challenged.


    “I’m five years younger and two inches shorter than you, Jamie. Even if you put me in heels high enough to meet his stupid height requirement, I wouldn’t be able to walk in them. Plus, you’ve been doing this for a lot longer than I have, you have a ton more experience dealing with clients, and you’re kind of amazing at reading people.”


    Bullshit. “Gentle reminder that I was friends with Ria for a decade before she met your brother and didn’t realize her nostril red when she lied until he pointed it out.”


    They were now married—her brother and my best friend. That was how Alice and I initially met. I’d done this to her. I’d gotten her this mess of a job.


    “You were too close to Ria. That’s your blind spot, but it won’t apply to Jackson.”


    “I can see his face just fine on the screen if you’re wearing a camera,” I said. “And he probably won’t even notice your height if you’re seated?—”


    “No,” Mitch blurted abruptly. “No, uh, that’s not… Jamie should do it. I vote for Jamie.”


    Alice frowned at him. “What’s wrong with you?”


    “Your torso,” he responded.


    “Excuse me?”


    “Your… uh, it’s the height thing. Even if you’re sitting down, he’ll be able to tell… because of your torso. It’s… short,” he exined eloquently.


    Alice stared at him for a full, wordlessly unimpressed minute before turning back to me. “There you go. I can’t do it; I’ve got a short torso.”


    Mitch’s neck was purple.


    “I don’t care. I’m not doing it,” I said. “I’m not.”


    “Fine.” Alice let out a long breath. “Then I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”


    Yes. Fine. Great.


    We’d figure something out. We always did.


    “It’s not like abadtorso. It’s justpact.”


    She shot him another lingering what’s-wrong-with-you look before getting up. “I’ll grab us coffee. We’re going to need it.”


    Mitch deted the second she was gone, his forehead hitting the table with a sadthump.


    “Smooth,” I said.


    “Shut up.”