Her Secret Santa

by Kelli Callahan

  “I was being polite.” I stifled my laugh. “At least you’re not right in the middle of the latest scandal, right?”

  “A little closer than I’d like to admit…” He sighed. “How are things in the city?”

  “Cold.” I leaned back in my chair. “But all the Christmas lights make up for it.”

  “Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to visit my daughter and see them before the holiday season is over…” Bryant’s voice trailed off for a moment, and I heard what sounded like typing. “I’m forwarding you the details for the new app I need developed. Let me know what you think.”

  “Just a second.” I hit a button to load my email. “Okay, it just came through.”

  “It’s basically a way for new investors to see what we offer and have more control over their investments.” He shifted in his chair, and it sounded like he was leaning closer to his speaker. “It will let me bring in a lot of new investors without hiring more account managers.”

  Yeah, he probably doesn’t want anyone in the office to hear that…

  “Ah, smart.” I chuckled and started looking through the information he sent me. “Yeah, this should be doable. Can you give my team a couple of weeks to put together a proposal?”

  “No problem at all.” He leaned back from the speaker.

  “Question though…” I contemplated whether I should ask it, but decided that I had to address it. “Am I the only one you’re taking proposals from, or will I have to compete for it?”

  “Come on, Ian. You and I go back a long way…” He laughed. “You know I’m going to be shopping for the best deal—and the best product.”

  “You’ll get both of those from me.” I smiled to myself. “I love a little competition.”

  Especially when I win.

  “By the way…” Bryant cleared his throat, and I heard something of a laugh echo on the other side of the line. “This Secret Santa Romance app you released? I think you have a hit on your hands. I’ve heard a lot of people in Carson Cove talking about it.”

  “It is very popular.” I chuckled. “If only I could find a way to make it last longer than the holiday season…”

  By next year, it will be old news.

  The app Bryant wanted developed was an interesting one. Somewhere between closely reviewing the information he sent me and planning some mockups; I moved past the sting left behind from seeing Abigail again. It was a self-inflicted wound, and it wasn’t the first time I had forced myself to endure it. The only good thing was that it did seem to get easier with time. The first time I saw her several months after we broke up nearly wrecked me—because she was with someone else—and she looked happy. I hadn’t even learned how to be smile by that point, much less be happy. I just survived. I had my job—then I had my own company—and then the years that passed put more time between us than we ever spent together.

  Long enough for her to move on, but not long enough for me to forget.

  “Mr. Alexander?” Samantha pushed my door open. “It’s time for your meeting.”

  “You mean the meeting I was supposed to have this morning?” I looked up and flashed her a sarcastic look. “The one that got rescheduled?”

  “Yes, they’re ready for you now.” She put her hand to her mouth and snickered.

  “Thanks, I might keep them waiting for a few minutes.” I leaned forward to stand. “I need to get a cup of coffee.”

  “I’d offer to bring it in to the conference room for you, but I know you’d just turn me down.” Samantha walked to her desk.

  Yep.

  I called the meeting to get some updated figures on the performance of the Secret Santa Romance app. Normally, we could let an app get a foothold in the market before we started tinkering with it, but with an app that wasn’t going to last very long, we didn’t have that luxury. We needed to make sure it was flawless so that we could capitalize on the momentum it already had, then turn the success stories into a post-season version. There was no way it would be as popular, but that was okay—a tag line that told people they were looking at a new app developed by the same company that created a massively successful one was a dream come true for our marketing department.

  “Alright, is everyone ready to get this meeting started finally?” I walked into the conference room a couple of minutes later with my coffee in hand.

  “Yes sir.” Joe nodded. “The presentation is ready now.”

  “Awesome.” I sat down and leaned back in my chair. “Tell me the good news.”

  The presentation was something of a formality. I already knew the app was performing well—it was sitting at the top of the charts on iTunes and Google. That was the majority of the market. I was more interested in the second half of the presentation when they went over some options to expand before the end of the holiday season, and our plan to capitalize on the popularity as soon as Santa Claus went back to the North Pole for the rest of the year. The team seemed to have read my mind—and my email—because they had laid everything out that I asked for. Things worked smoothly when the team was cohesive and on the same page.

  “I like what I see.” I looked around the room and smiled. “Go ahead and get started.”

  “Yes sir.” Paul nodded.

  “I’ll also need your team to get started on a new proposal for Benson Enterprises. I’m going to forward you the email I got from the CEO along with my notes.” I reached for my tablet and started typing.

  “Anything we’ve done in the past?” Paul, one of the other guys on my team, tilted his head inquisitively.

  “Similar, yeah.” I nodded. “But there are a few features we’ll have to build from the ground up—code and all.”

  “We can take care of that.” Joe sat down and started looking over the email I sent him.

  “Oh…” I looked around the room. “Joe, earlier you said there were a few kinks. Was all of that sorted out?”

  “We’re getting there.” He nodded.

  “There was nothing mentioned in the presentation.” I tilted my head inquisitively. “What’s going on?”

  “I can probably explain it best.” Paul looked towards Joe, who motioned for him to take the lead. “I was the one that first noticed it.”

  “Okay.” I turned my attention to Paul.

  “The update we rolled out yesterday was supposed to match people up quicker.” He leaned forward. “More specifically, it was supposed to make everything more concise so that we could get people on the app and talking before it’s too late to be someone’s Secret Santa.”

  “Right.” I nodded. “We can’t afford for our clients to get matched with people they don’t like—it’s not a buffet like Tinder.”

  “That’s where the problem comes in.” Paul sighed. “Some people simply aren’t getting any matches with the new update.”

  “Well…” I looked around the table. “That’s not a little kink—that’s a major problem.”

  “We’ve been testing some stuff,” Joe interjected himself in the conversation when he realized I was getting antsy. “My team isn’t leaving until it’s fixed.”

  “How will you know it’s working right?” I tilted my head inquisitively.

  “We’ve got some default profiles set up to test things.” He leaned forward. “It’s going to be fine; I promise.”

  I trusted Joe and his entire team, but we couldn’t afford any complications. A dating app that was designed to end shortly after Christmas Day needed to match people up fast. We certainly couldn’t have people out there that didn’t get matched up with anyone. That was the kind of thing that would make our customers think the app didn’t work. With other dating apps they at least had the courtesy of being rejected by the person they were matched with—not getting matched with anyone at all was not going to build customer loyalty. Then there was the worst-case scenario where they thought they were incompatible with the rest of the human race.

  That’s a holiday downer for sure…

  I decided that I wasn’t going to leave un
til I had confirmation that the app was working. If my team was staying late to make that happen, then I was going to be there with them. I ordered pizza for everyone once I realized that they were going to be staying well past dinnertime. A breakthrough finally came, and a few tests confirmed that it was working. The matches were nearly instantaneous if there were enough compatibilities in the profiles. We loaded it on our server, rolled it out, and I prepared to say goodnight when one of the tester phones lit up with a message from the app.

  “Uh—Joe?” I tilted my head inquisitively and picked up the phone. “Is this supposed to happen?”

  “What happened?” He walked over.

  “It says there’s a match.” I held it up so he could see.

  “No.” He shook his head quickly and took the phone from my hand. “Those profiles aren’t supposed to be live—they’re just for testing.”

  “We might need to pull the update…” I felt my stomach twist into a knot. “There could be other issues…”

  “I’m checking.” Paul started rapidly typing on his computer.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Alexander. I take full responsibility.” Joe opened the app. “I thought I made sure everything was working right.”

  “It’s okay, just fix it.” I sighed and sat down.

  “Oh damn…” Joe blinked a couple of times.

  “What is it?” I raised my eyebrows in concern.

  “When we set up the tester profiles, we used real profiles from everyone in the office so that they were authentic…” He hesitated for a moment, and I saw concern in his eyes.

  “So?” I shrugged. “We do that with all the apps…”

  “Well, this one.” He sighed. “Mr. Alexander, this is your profile.”

  “Oh!” My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Well, don’t worry about that—just roll the update out and send them an error message or something. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

  “Aren’t you at least curious to see who you got matched up with?” Joe chuckled under his breath.

  “No.” I shook my head back and forth.

  “Hey…” Paul walked over to where we were sitting. “I checked everything, and it looks like your tester profile was the only one that got uploaded—we don’t have any other errors…”

  “That’s good news.” Joe nodded. “Can you roll the update immediately?”

  “It’s going to take a little time.” Paul sighed. “It’ll be okay; I’ll handle it.”

  “Is there a problem?” I looked towards Paul. “You can tell me if there is.”

  “I don’t want to complain…” Paul looked away.

  “Just say it.” I motioned to him.

  “Well, if I’m being honest—rolling out another update is a lot of work for one error. We could just message the person you were matched with and explain what happened—maybe send her a holiday basket as an apology.” He looked at Joe. “Right?”

  “That would be a lot easier,” Joe sighed.

  “Okay, fine.” I motioned for the phone. “I’ll take care of it. You two have missed enough time with your family tonight.”

  “I don’t mind taking care of it for you.” Joe hesitated, but then handed me the phone when I motioned for it again.

  “No, if she got matched with me, the least I can do is respond personally.” I slid my finger across the screen.

  I’m the last person someone wants to get matched with on Secret Santa Romance. I’m not exactly relationship material anymore…

  Chapter Three

  Elly

  I stared at my phone for a couple of minutes and actually considered clicking on the message I received on the Secret Santa Romance app. Ultimately, I decided against it—a decision that made Starla pout until our sandwiches arrived from Famous Sid’s. There was a part of me that was intrigued, but I quickly reminded myself how impossible a relationship would be. I was too busy with my job. Long hours were pretty common at Thornton Advertising. It was a salary job, and the work had to be done, no matter how much extra time it took. Missing a deadline wasn’t an option, especially for someone as new as me.

  “That was really good.” Starla leaned back on the couch and reached for her glass of wine.

  “Yeah.” I reached for the bottle of wine to refill my glass. “Crap. We’re almost out.”

  “I can’t stay much longer anyway.” She sighed. “School is kicking my butt right now.”

  “It’s getting a little late for me too.” I nodded.

  “Are you sure I can’t convince you to read that message?” She motioned to my phone.

  “Nah, I’m good.” I laughed under my breath. “You convinced me to come to Christmas dinner. You should just quit while you’re ahead.”

  “You’re probably right.” She smiled and sipped her wine. “Okay, I’m going to get an Uber.”

  “You took an Uber here?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

  “Yeah.” She nodded. “I haven’t driven in this part of the city very much. I was afraid I would get lost—even with GPS.”

  “At least you don’t have to drive home drunk.” I shrugged.

  Starla’s Uber arrived a few minutes after she requested it through her app. I accompanied her down to the lobby and made sure she made it to the car before I took the elevator back to my floor. Starla’s impromptu visit caught me off guard, but it was nice to hang out with her. It had been a while since I did anything other than go to work and come straight home. I wasn’t looking forward to Christmas dinner with the extended family that I never felt a part of, but I could put in an appearance since she came all the way to my apartment to extend the invitation personally. I just hoped I didn’t end up regretting that decision.

  I should probably delete this stupid app before I go to bed.

  I stripped off my blouse and bra as soon as I got back to my apartment and put on the pajama top that matched my pants. The wine still had me buzzing a little bit, but I wasn’t drunk. It would have taken the other half of the bottle to put me down for the count. I laid down with my phone in my hand, and the first thing I did was check my work email. It was almost instinctive for me to do that every night before I went to sleep. I didn’t want to miss anything, and if someone sent me something important, I wanted to have some time to think about it—that was a lot better than getting surprised the next morning when I was in a rush to get to the office.

  Okay, last thing…

  My eyes drifted to the Secret Santa Romance app. I had already staved off Starla’s attempts to get me to look at it, so there was no external pressure. There was no reason for me to feel conflicted about hitting the delete button—but there was an underlying curiosity I couldn’t completely shake. I wasn’t looking for romance, much less one wrapped in holiday cheer; I wondered what kind of guy the app had matched me with. I finally gave into temptation and curiosity. My finger moved from delete and loaded the app. I did feel like I should at least respond to the message I got—just to tell the guy I had no intentions of being his Secret Santa.

  Ian… Starla was right; he’s definitely hot.

  I avoided clicking on the message at first because I wanted to see what kind of information got loaded from my profile. It was rather sparse since I hadn’t updated Facebook in a while. The details about Ian were limited as well—neither one of us seemed to be fans of social media. The app seemed to be protective of personal details. It was limited to first names and a few rather broad details. It listed my occupation as a college student, which was true the last time I updated my Facebook profile. Ian worked in software development, but it didn’t expand on his career beyond that. My finger moved to the message—and I hesitated for a moment—but finally decided to click on it.

  Ian: Hi, it seems that there has been a mistake. I wasn’t supposed to have a profile on this app.

  “Well, we’ve got that in common, don’t we Ian?” I laughed to myself and started typing a reply.

  Elly: No problem. I’m deleting the app anyway.

  I let out a sig
h of relief. It was going to be one of those no-harm-no-foul situations with a side of dodging bullets. I didn’t get matched with someone that was going to be disappointed when they got immediately turned down. That would have been a blow to anyone’s confidence, and while I wasn’t looking for love, I also didn’t want to be cruel to some guy that was legitimately trying to find his happily-ever-after wrapped in holiday cheer. I shut the app down and prepared to hit delete—but before my finger could land, my phone lit up with another message from Ian. I considered hitting delete anyway—but I clicked the message instead.

  Ian: You don’t like the app?

  “Odd question.” I narrowed my eyes.

  Elly: I got signed up by mistake as well.

  Ian: Oh? You didn’t download it?

  Elly: My cousin was supposed to be using my phone to order dinner and decided to download it.

  Ian: I see. Two mistakes!

  Elly: Well now I’m curious. How did you end up with your profile on this app?

  Ian: My company designed it, and they created some dummy profiles for testing. This was one of them…

  Elly: Ah, okay. It was just a glitch. :)

  Ian: Technically, yes.

  Elly: Okay, well thank you for clarifying. I’m going to delete the app now.

  Ian: Wait…

  Elly: What is it?

  Ian: You don’t have to delete the app. Once I remove my profile, it should match you with someone else…

  Elly: I’m not interested in being matched with anyone, especially not on a holiday-themed dating app.

  Ian: What’s wrong with the theme?

  Elly: I’m less interested in being someone’s Secret Santa than actually going on a date with them.

  Ian: Why not? Do you not celebrate Christmas?

  Elly: I’m just not a fan…

  Ian: But it’s the most wonderful time of the year! :)

  “Oh wow…” I shook my head and laughed.

  Elly: Hardly, but that did make me laugh. Christmas is just an annoying time of the year for me.

  Ian: You shouldn’t say things like that. You’ll end up on the naughty list and get coal in your stocking.