Chapter 2
ELOISE
The office was buzzing with chatter as the various matchmakers asked for advice and swapped stories about their clients. I didn't have much to contribute at the moment, but it was interesting to listen to, especially when it told me a lot about what kind of pitfalls to try and avoid when I was dealing with particularly difficult clients.
I leaned back in my seat and took a sip of my coffee while thinking about the day ahead. I wasn't in the process of inducting anyone new into the matchmaking process, and I was up to date on all of my check-ins.
It seemed like general busy work was my plan.
Sasha made her way over, a mug cupped in her hands. "I saw you made a match already."
"I did." I pointed out.
"It's impressive." She took a sip of her tea. "You've got to be pleased."
"I am. But the matchmaking system is really the thing that made a difference here. Without it, who knows how long it would have taken me to match the two of them up." I'd like to think I'd have managed to do it without Cupid's algorithm, but there was no denying that it was an excellent system and it made things a lot easier.
"It's a good system." She perched on my desk. "Ever thought of putting yourself in?"
"What? No. Of course not," I protested, though it wasn't the truth. I'd thought about it just about every day since I came here. "Why would I do that?"
"Because it's expensive and we have the opportunity to do it for free. Besides, don't you want to know if there are any gods out there who would be good matches for you?" She waggled her eyebrows at me.
"Who did you get?" I asked curiously. We'd been building up a friendship in the four months since I'd arrived in the office, so it seemed like it was a safe question to ask.
"Hera." She wrinkled her nose. "I don't think I'll be going there."
"I didn't realise Hera even had women ticked as her preference," I mused, thinking over everything I'd heard about the Greek goddess. It wasn't much, but it was enough for me to know that I wouldn't want her as a client or as a match.
Sasha shrugged. "Neither did I."
"Are you going to do anything about it?"
"Nah, I just wanted to know which god I was most suited to, not because I actually wanted to date one. That's way too much drama for me. But if you don't think it's accurate, then you should leave the filter on and do a proper search. Not that it'll make much of a difference on your end."
I rolled my eyes. "That's not true." There were people in the system who didn't want to date women, and the filter would remove those for me.
"So, are you going to do it?" she asked.
"You're not going to stop until I do, are you?"
"Probably not." She drank more of her tea and smiled at me.
"Fine. But I'm only doing it if you go back to your desk and quit bothering me." That wasn't entirely true, but I didn't want her to know exactly how excited I was at the prospect of filling out a matchmaking questionnaire.
She shrugged. "Sure. But you've got to tell me your results." She headed back to her desk, leaving me blissfully alone.
I pulled up the intake questionnaire we used for new clients and stared at the welcome screen. There was a part of me that just wanted to tell Sasha that there were no matches for me, but the rest of me was nervously excited about the prospect of finding someone who could be a good fit for me.
The questions flew past and I typed furiously, answering each of the questions without thinking too hard about them. This wasn't about what I thought I wanted, this was about how I actually felt. With each question, my admiration for Cupid grew. He'd clearly put a lot of thought into what he wanted the algorithm tested, from the obvious questions about sexuality to the mundane questions about where the washing basket needed to live. There was even a question about what kind of mattress I liked to sleep on, which was something not many matchmakers thought to ask about, even though it was important in my opinion.
The more questions I answered, the clearer it was that this was the matchmaking department I belonged in. Not that I had any intention of looking for another one. Working for Jinx had been my goal ever since it was founded, and this was why.
My finger hovered over the button to submit. Despite wanting to fill this out, and knowing that an understanding of the system was also advantageous, I was a little worried about what was going to happen when I pressed enter. For a brief moment, I considered just doing a private search, but that defeated the point. If I was going to go through all of the trouble of filling out the questionnaire, then I wanted a chance to find a real match, someone I could form a relationship with, and hopefully a life.
I took a deep breath and pushed the button, sending my results spiralling away from me. It would take a little while for them to return anything, but that was fine. I made some notes about follow-up questions I'd want to ask prospective clients.
I went on with the rest of my work, quickly making it through a few welcome emails and reminders for people to pay the fees associated with engaging the services of the matchmaking department. It amazed me how many high-profile people were difficult when it came to paying on time.
The ping sounded to let me know that a match had been found. I absentmindedly clicked on it to see which client it was for, stopping short when I recognised the profile as my own. I hadn't really expected to get anything back from it, especially so soon.
My curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on it to see who the system had matched me with. It would probably be a random paranormal who had been added to the system but had not found their match yet. There were plenty of them, even if the matchmaking service had a good success rate so far, especially when we were so new.
Suggested Match for Eloise Finch flashed across the screen, and under it was the profile of the person the Jinx system thought would be a good match for me. My eyes widened the moment I saw the familiar face smiling at me from the attached photo, and a ninety-two percent score. I let out an involuntary squeak.
"Who is it?" Sasha asked, rolling over on her chair and looking like a weird office crab as she did.
I minimised the screen, not wanting her to see. Or anyone else, for that matter. The one advantage I currently had was that I doubted anyone had my match assigned to them as a client. "No one."
She raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe you."
"It doesn't matter," I repeated. I wasn't even sure what to do with this. I'd hoped the system would find me someone, but I'd also hoped it would be less complicated.
"Eloise..."
"Sasha," I responded.
"Okay, so now I'm going to start thinking that you've matched with Zeus or something."
"Is he even in the system?" I asked, mostly to try and deflect from the existing conversation. "I thought he was banned from this service."
"No idea. So who is it?" She leaned over and grabbed my mouse. She pulled up the tab and stared at the photo of the dark-haired god on the screen. "Oh my..."
"Yep. So, nothing to see here." I tried not to get too flustered about the man looking at me from the screen. Especially when that man was my boss .
"Do you think he knows?" Sasha asked.
"Knows what? That the matchmaking system paired us together? Why would he even look?"
She shrugged. "He filled in the questionnaire."
"Of course he did, he wrote it."
"Well, don't be surprised if he calls you into his office now."
"You don't really think he will do you?" Even as I said it, I realised there was a part of me that wanted him to do that.
"Who knows, he is a love god, or attraction, or whatever. I'd have the ping turned on if I was in his position."
"Mmm." I looked over to the closed door. Surely Cupid had better things to do than to look at his potential matches on the system?