Chapter 37
INA
Idid not want to be walking to Times Square on Valentine’s Day. I was still pretty new to the city, but even I knew Times Square was always a nightmare. There were too many tourists, too many lights, and too much noise.
But on Valentine’s Day? It was exponentially worse.
There were couples everywhere, taking selfies and kissing under the billboards. Their love and joy made me want to crawl back into my apartment and hide under my blankets.
But Abby had other plans.
“Come on,” she said, pulling me along by my coat sleeve. “We’re going to miss it.”
“Miss what? The commercial? I was in the commercial, Abby. I don’t need to see it on a giant screen with thousands of other people.”
“You do, actually. Trust me.”
“I don’t want to see how happy I look. How na?ve I had been back then.” My voice broke and I cleared my throat. “It’s going to hurt.”
“I think you might be pleasantly surprised. Come on.”
She’d been taking care of me all week. She hadn’t pressured me to take the job offer. But after doing some soul-searching, I decided to accept the position.
How could I not? It would be stupid to shoot myself in the foot because I got a broken heart. The best revenge was success. I would use the job to take the first step up the ladder to what I hoped was an amazing career.
After I accepted, I had to wait a week while the transition was put into place. And I spent that week wallowing on the couch eating ice cream and watching terrible reality TV while trying not to think about Dane.
It hadn’t worked. I’d thought about Dane constantly.
Tomorrow, I would go back as the new Head of Matchmaking.
It was a major promotion, the exact kind of job I’d dreamed about when I’d moved to New York.
And all I could think about was how I would have to walk past Dane’s office every day.
I would see him in meetings and have to pretend my heart wasn’t broken every time I heard his voice.
“You should be excited,” Abby said as we pushed through the crowd. “This is huge, Ina. Your own department. Your own team. You’re going to be amazing.”
“I know. I’m excited.” I pulled my coat tighter against the February cold. “But it hasn’t exactly fixed the giant crack in my heart.”
“Nothing’s going to fix that except time. Or Dane groveling. Whichever comes first.”
We finally made it to a spot where we could see the screens.
“Why are we here, exactly?” I asked. “Once that commercial airs, my face is going to be out there. I don’t want to be recognized.”
She waved her hand. “No one is going to notice you. I’m sure there was some serious movie magic. You’ll be unrecognizable.”
“Hey, not cool. I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”
Abby laughed. “You’ll be fine.”
The crowd around us was dense and in love, wearing lots of red and pinks, holding hands, and taking selfies. The energy was electric, and normally, I would love being in the thick of it. But I was so not in the mood for love and happiness. I wanted to be miserable just a little while longer.
Then, at exactly seven o’clock, the screens went dark. A hush fell over the crowd. And then there we were.
The commercial started exactly as I remembered from the shoot. Dane sitting in that ridiculous throne Lucas had insisted on, saying his lines about being the Most Eligible Bachelor. Then me, walking into frame, taking his hand.
The kiss on his cheek.
His smile.
The tagline: Love finds you when you least expect it. Find yours at Cupid’s Arrow.
I’d seen this already, in rough cuts and final edits. It was beautiful. We did look like a couple completely in love. What a fool I had been.
People around us were oohing and aahing, pointing at the screens, taking pictures. A few people were already pulling out their phones to look up Cupid’s Arrow.
The commercial ended, and I turned away, blinking back tears I’d sworn I wouldn’t cry. I was done. Abby could stay if she wanted to, but I needed to go home.
Dane’s voice boomed from the screens, and I froze.
“Wait,” Abby said, grabbing my arm. “Look.”
I turned back slowly. Dane was on every screen in Times Square.
It wasn’t the commercial I had seen. He was sitting in what looked like his office, the camera close enough that I could see the circles under his eyes.
He looked wrecked, which was very much how I was feeling.
“My name is Dane Kavanagh,” he said, his voice steady but raw. “I built Cupid’s Arrow on a simple concept. I believed love was an unhelpful concept. That compatibility could be calculated. I believed if you had the right data you could predict who will work together.”
The crowd around us had gone quiet, everyone staring at the screens.
“I believed that because it was safe,” Dane continued. “Because data doesn’t hurt you. Logic doesn’t make you vulnerable. I built a billion-dollar company on that concept, and it works. Thousands of people have found love through Cupid’s Arrow.”
He paused, and I saw him take a shaky breath.
“But I didn’t understand love. Not really. I understood compatibility and chemistry and the transactional nature of some relationships. I understood the math. But I didn’t understand the magic.”
My breath caught.
“I didn’t understand until I met someone who showed me what I’d been missing. Someone who believed in magic so fiercely that she made me believe in it too.”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. Dane as tall as a building, declaring his feelings for the entire world to hear. And for me.
“I fell in love despite every logical reason I shouldn’t.” He shook his head. “And then I panicked. Because love is terrifying when you’ve spent your whole life hiding from it. I said things I didn’t mean. I hurt her. I made her think I didn’t believe in what we had.”
Tears were streaming down my face now, and I didn’t care who saw.
“I didn’t know how to trust my own heart.”
He looked directly at the camera, and it felt like a hundred Danes were all looking right at me.
“But here’s what I’ve learned: love isn’t data.
It’s not something you can measure or calculate or predict.
It’s magic. It’s choosing someone every day even when you’re scared.
It’s trusting that what you feel is real even without proof.
It’s taking the biggest risk of your life and hoping it’s enough. ”
The crowd around me was completely silent now, hundreds of people watching this man bare his soul on the biggest screens in New York City.
“I don’t deserve the success I’ve had,” Dane said quietly. “I don’t deserve the company or the money or any of it because I don’t understand love. I’m selling a product I don’t understand. But I hope to learn.”
He smiled, small and sad. My hand was over my mouth, trying to hold back a sob.
“Ina, if you’re watching this, I love you. Not because of an algorithm. You made me believe in magic. You make me want to be brave. You make me feel things I didn’t think I was capable of feeling.”
People around me were starting to cry. I saw couples holding each other, strangers wiping their eyes.
“I’m asking for another chance.”
He looked directly at the camera again.
“I love you, Ina.”
The screen went dark. The crowd around me erupted. People were cheering and crying.
I stood there in shock, also crying, my heart pounding so hard it might bounce out of my chest.
Abby was grinning. “So? What did you think? Worth the trip out here?”
I shook my head, mouth agape, unable to even blink. “I can’t believe he did that.”
“It’s so awesome,” she squealed.
“This is insane.”
“It’s romantic.”
“It’s a lot.”
“It’s a grand gesture.” Abby squeezed my hand. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
She shoved me. “Girl, the hottest man in New York just poured his heart out in front of millions, no, billions of people. This is going to go viral. Come on! You have to be freaking out right now.”
“I am. But that doesn’t mean I can just open my heart and forget everything.”
She frowned and then pursed her lips together. “He came to see you while you were gone.”
“He did?”
She nodded. “I gave him a hard time, but he passed the test.”
“What test?”
“I needed to make sure he was serious. That he actually loved you and wasn’t just trying to win because his ego couldn’t handle being told no.
” She bumped my shoulder with hers. “He passed. He told me all the reasons he loves you, and they were good reasons. Real reasons. Not just ‘sweet tits’ or ‘nice caboose.’ He talked about how you make him laugh and how you’re the only color in his black and white world. ”
I felt a fresh wave of tears threatening. “He said that?”
“He did. And then I told him he could talk to you, but you weren’t home.” She grinned. “I may have put him through unnecessary torture, but it was worth it to see him squirm.”
“Abby!”
“What? Someone needed to make him work for it.” She gestured at the screens, which were now playing regular advertisements again. “But that? That was next level. He just told the entire world he loves you. He put himself out there in the most public way possible.”
“Okay, yes, it was worth the trip out here,” I said, giving her a side hug.
“Duh.” She laughed. “You have to let him bare his soul. It doesn’t sound the same coming from me. You have to hear it from him.”
She was right. I owed him that much after everything he just did.