Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty Two
Votra
Votra had prepared herself all day for seeing Zeele; it was bound to happen. But selfishly, she hadn’t considered what it might be like for Candy to see her.
Obviously, she had nothing to worry about. She should have been more worried about Zeele instead. Votra sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of Candy’s ire.
“That was amazing,” Votra managed between feverish kisses. “You… you are amazing.”
Candy’s body sagged with relief. “Thank God. I thought you were gonna be mad at me. I was trying so hard to be professional, but she’s such a fucking bitch.”
That was hard to disagree with. But Votra had never had the nerve to stand up for herself.
“You did everything right, I promise.” All Votra wanted to do right now was rip this gorgeous dress off Candy and show her just how grateful she was. But they had a crowd to address.
Candy gave her a soft smile, her hands resting on either side of Votra’s face. “Good. Because if I ever see that cunt again, she’ll be getting a lot worse than that.”
“Gods help her.” Votra took Candy’s hands in her own, drawing them to her lips. “I love you, my ta’qel. My heart.”
Candy’s eyes watered, and she gave Votra’s hands a little squeeze. “I love you, too.”
The door behind them creaked open, a blue head popping out. “Ugh, thank fuck, there you two are.” Xyxy closed the door carefully behind her. “Everything okay?”
“Never better.” Candy grinned. “Is it time for us?”
“Sure is.” She threw her arms around both of their shoulders, pulling them in close to her. “I’m so proud of both of you.”
Emotion threatened to close Votra’s throat, but she took a deep breath. This was it. She could handle one speech, especially if Candy was there with her.
Xyxy hurried to the stage ahead of them, Candy and Votra lingering at the foot of it while she introduced them.
“Hey, everyone! If I can have your attention for just a few minutes!” Xyxy said into the microphone, her voice filtering throughout the room.
“I hope everyone’s having fun so far!” The crowd answered with enthusiastic cheers that made Votra’s heart skip.
“The Starcrossed team has a few words they’d like to say to you all, so please, give them your undivided attention! ”
Candy and Votra strode onto stage to a chorus of raucous cheers. Candy’s uncles were particularly loud, Lochlan’s hands cupped around his mouth as he shouted.
Votra guided Candy to the microphone by the small of her back. Candy glanced back at her, and Votra mouthed ‘go ahead.’ She had just as much right to a speech as Votra did, and Votra didn’t particularly want to go first.
Candy wrapped her hand around the microphone, an easy smile spreading across her lips.
“Hi everyone. Thanks so much for coming to our launch party. I can’t put into words just how much it means to us.
” Her voice was already thick with tears, and she laughed, moving her mouth away from the microphone as she did.
“Sorry. I knew I was gonna cry up here. This whole experience has meant the world to me. It has been so fun and so fulfilling to be a part of making the dating app that I always wished existed. So many of the apps out there aren’t very inclusive and still subscribe to outdated ideals of dating.
Some of them make you pay to talk to more than one person in a day. ”
Votra suppressed a snort. Gods, she loved this woman.
“But with Starcrossed, we wanted to make an app that everyone could use, without asking people to spend their hard-earned money to possibly meet the love of their life. We wanted to make an app where everyone feels safe and seen, regardless of sexuality, gender, species, or that one really specific dealbreaker you have that no one understands.” A hum of polite laughter erupted from the crowd.
“Anyway. I hope you all love the app as much as I do. I wanna turn things over to Votra, the real mastermind behind this whole thing. This app is her baby.” She shot Votra a grin, and suddenly, all of her nerves melted away.
She knew exactly how she wanted to do this.
Votra took to the microphone, raising it on its stand.
“Thank you, Candy,” she said, her eyes lingering on Candy for a little bit too long.
“Hello, everyone. As Candy said, my name is Votra, and I am the founder of Starcrossed. I hope that I will not bore you with my speech, as my partner here is definitely the more charismatic one of us.” The crowd laughed once again, and Votra’s eyes fell quickly on the two people she was looking for.
Qaed and Vendi stood side by side, not too far from Candy’s family.
Qaed winked at Votra, and her chest felt just a little less tight.
“I have been working on iterations of Starcrossed for years now and it has changed so much from its original mockups. But my ideals have never changed. I have always wanted Starcrossed to be as inclusive as possible, and I have always wanted it to be accessible. I want everyone in this room to be able to download the app and to immediately start using it as they see fit. I am incredibly proud of the product that we are putting out today, and I hope that you all are enjoying it as much as we enjoyed creating it.”
Votra turned her attention to Candy, holding a hand out to her. Her pink brows furrowed, and Votra nodded at her. She hadn’t put that much thought into her speech–she knew the motions, she knew what the crowd was going to expect of her.
But this was the most important part. She’d spent too much of their time together pretending that Candy didn’t mean as much to her as she did. She’d hid her feelings for Candy like she was ashamed of them.
And all she wanted to do now was scream them from the rooftops. A stage would have to do.
Candy placed her hand and her trust in Votra’s, and Votra wrapped her other hand around their joined ones.
“I have one last thing I would like to say, and I believe it is the most important one.” Votra squeezed Candy’s hand.
“If it is at all any testament to the matchmaking power of our app… I hired Candy to help me finish the app. Our relationship was purely business–but I suppose spending twelve hours a day with someone, talking about nothing but love, will shift the dynamic a bit.” The grin on Vendi’s face encouraged her to continue.
“Over the course of building the app, I was lucky enough to get to know her and to allow her to get to know me. She has changed my life in more ways than I can count and in ways that I did not think my life would ever change. I, and Starcrossed, would not be what we are today if I had never met her.”
She turned to Candy then, and it was as if the rest of the world had melted away around them.
Nothing else mattered anymore. She rested her free hand on Candy’s wet cheek, Candy’s tear-filled eyes meeting hers.
“I love you, Candy Murdock. Thank you for bringing your chaotic energy and infallibly huge heart into my life. I am a better person for it.”
“I can’t believe you brought me on stage just to make me cry in front of everyone,” Candy said, her words wobbly.
Votra leaned down and kissed her, and she never wanted to stop. The crowd erupted into wild cheers and whistles, and Candy snaked an arm around Votra, pulling her closer.
She wished this exact moment could last forever. But Candy pulled away from the kiss entirely too fast, her eyes glued on Votra. The way she was looking at her, with those adorable flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes and shy smile, made Votra want to steal her away and forget about the party completely.
Candy’s grip didn’t move from Votra’s, but she moved closer to the microphone, tilting it down so that she could speak into it.
“Sorry we stole the ‘first Starcrossed couple’ title. Guess that was kinda unfair. Enjoy the party, everyone!” The crowd gave one last cheer before Candy led them off the stage.
Candy rested a hand on the nape of Votra’s neck, tugging her down to her level.
Her lips brushed across Votra’s ear, sending a shiver down her spine.
“I hope you’re ready for tonight, because after that, I’m not letting you leave the bed until you come so hard you can’t walk,” she whispered as quietly as she possibly could, and Votra stiffened in every sense of the word.
Gods, she really didn’t want to walk around here with a hard on.
“I will hold you to that,” Votra murmured, pressing a benign kiss to the corner of Candy’s glossy lips.
Vendi and Qaed found them shortly after, and Votra had to pretend like her heart wasn’t pounding aggressively against her ribs. “It is about damn time,” Qaed said, enveloping Candy in a hug first. “Vendi, those fifty credits, please.”
“For the record, we made this bet before I met Candy.” Vendi stared at Votra, but immediately hugged her. “I am happy for you, zi’qal. I have not seen you this happy in a long time.”
Votra wasn’t sure she’d ever felt this happy. Certainly never with Zeele, and probably not before her, either. “Thank you, Vendi,” Votra said softly, tears choking her words.
Most of their night after that was filled with congratulations, and one shocked outburst from Lochlan.
“You two are dating?” he’d blanched, followed by a smug smirk from Vince.
He’d tried to assault Votra with even more questions about her life, but Candy mercifully saved her with the promise that he could interrogate her later.
They flitted around the room, engaging in conversation with users of the app. Candy placed herself at the head of each conversation, Votra’s attention and social battery draining. All she wanted to do was escape; she needed a solid week of zero interactions to recover.
But it seemed that her speech had worked. People were using the app, and they spoke with a few users who had made matches at the party.
Starcrossed was real. It was out there, and people were using it. And they liked it.
Votra was just beginning to get overwhelmed when Candy finally gave her the ‘let’s get out of here,’ and she couldn’t agree fast enough. Candy led Votra out of the ballroom and into the lobby of the hotel, which was mercifully quieter.
“God, I need to sleep for a thousand years,” Candy groaned, leaning all of her body weight on Votra. She rested her hands on Votra’s chest. “I have a proposition for you.”
If this was anything like her last proposition, Votra couldn’t envision herself saying no. “Yes?”
“Let’s get a hotel room. We’re already here, and… this is a nice hotel. You deserve a nice hotel room.” Candy’s eyes flashed with something wicked, and Votra’s flesh prickled with excitement.
“I like the idea of that.”