Poppy
Thursday nights at Bloom meant Happy Hour.
It wasn’t technically a happy hour…that was just what we called it. Every Thursday, we stayed late, split a bottle of wine, and recapped what was going on with all the clients and with each other. Fridays we worked from home; no meetings, just catch-up.
It was just one of the reasons I adored this job—the first job I got out of college in Kansas, the only job I ever really wanted.
Staff meetings consisted of me, the office manager; Sophie Bloom, the mastermind behind it all; Jasper Ellison, the guy who’d designed the matchmaking algorithm; and our legal advisor, Cole North, who worked at another law firm but worked closely enough with us that he needed to be in the know.
Also…Cole had a thing for Sophie. None of us talked about it, but me and Jasper knew.
We were currently camped out in the conference room upstairs, a charitably named space which looked a lot more like a dorm lounge.
A giant rolling whiteboard took up one side; there was a beanbag on the floor where Jasper was hanging out, his tablet in his hand.
Sophie and Cole sat on either side of the couch, Cole in a suit that made him look totally out of place, while I was wearing my PJs and sipping a hot chocolate in a giant armchair.
“Okay,” Sophie said, scrolling through her phone—looking at the client list, probably. “So…we have four active cases in the baby stage, which I know is a lot for us—but they’re going well.”
"Four is manageable," Jasper said from the beanbag, not looking up from his tablet. "The algorithm is happy.”
"Pair number one," Sophie continued. "Marcus and Dev.
They're at the six month mark, everything is going well, and they've officially decided they want to move forward with a surrogate.
So I need to start making calls on that front.
I have two women in the network I think could be a good fit, and I want to get them in for consultations by end of month. "
I made a note. "I'll block time on the calendar."
"Thank you." Sophie scrolled. "Pair two…
Anna and Rob. She had her baseline bloodwork done last week.
FSH is a little elevated, which isn't alarming at her age but it does mean we're probably looking at a shorter timeline than they were hoping for.
I want to get them in to talk through their options before the holidays. "
"That's a hard conversation to have in December," Cole observed.
"Most conversations are hard in December," Sophie said. "That's why we have the wine." She held out her glass in my direction without looking up. I leaned over and topped her off. "Pair three—Jenny and Claire. They've completed their third IUI. We're in the two week wait."
Jasper looked up from his tablet. "How are they doing?"
"Anxious. I've been checking in every couple of days.” Sophie hummed, her brow furrowed. “Claire is convinced it didn’t work…Jenny is convinced it did. They’re driving each other a little crazy.”
“Classic two week wait,” I said.
“Textbook.” Sophie nodded. “I’ve told them to call me the second they know, either way.
” She scrolled again. “Pair four, the Nguyens. Tran’s sperm analysis came back and there are some motility issues, so we're pivoting to IVF.
They took the news better than I expected.
They want to start the process in January. "
"That's a lot of monitoring appointments," I said, already mentally reorganizing the calendar.
"I know. We'll make it work." She glanced at me briefly. "I'm going to need you to really hold my schedule tight in Q1, Poppy."
"Already on it."
"Of course you are." Sophie smiled, then paused. “Okay…onto matchmaking.”
She set her phone down and picked up her wine, swirling the glass and staring into space. I tucked my feet under me.
“We have fourteen active matching cases,” she said.
“Twelve are progressing normally—second and third dates, nothing that needs our attention tonight. I do think that Winn and Jace are moving onto babymaking already, which would be great; their fertility testing showed they could conceive right away if they try, so they’re well on their way to being parents. ”
“Hm,” Cole said. “Good for them. Make sure to get them over to me for custody conversations if they accelerate their timeline.”
“Will do,” Sophie nodded. “Poppy—make a note of that for me?”
“Already done,” I said, setting a reminder on my own tablet.
“And…unfortunately, I did decide to put Johnny Lawson on a break for ninety days.” Sophie shook her head. “He’s just—I don’t think he’s ready. I was skeptical about taking the case in the first place, but he’s really such a nice guy…”
“I don’t get it,” I said without even thinking. “He’s seriously like—he’s smart, he’s charming, he’s successful, he’s handsome—”
“He spent ten years in prison.” Cole interrupted.
I glared at him. “Yeah, but—”
“I’m not trying to be an asshole,” Cole said. “Just…you’ve gotta remember a lot of this is a legal arrangement, and that can present problems in family court down the line. It’s why I advised you not to take the case.”
He cast a look at Sophie. She rolled her eyes.
“Forgive me if I think I have a better intuition for these things,” she muttered. “Anyway…we’re putting him on a break. I don’t want to fire him as a client, but it’s certainly on the table.”
Jasper looked at me. I looked very intently at my tablet.
“Poppy?” Sophie said. “I think you have an opinion on this.”
I swallowed hard. “Why?”
“Because he’s smart and charming and handsome and successful, maybe…?” Jasper said.
I felt my face burning.
“I was just—it’s a professional observation,” I said. “He’s a good client. He’s always really kind when he comes in, and I think it’s a shame that it’s not working out, that’s all.”
“Mmhm,” Jasper said.
Sophie watched me carefully. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to argue anymore—not in front of my boss.
Finally, she nodded and moved on…thank god.
“Cole,” she said. “Let’s talk paperwork. What are we talking about per appointment setting this week?”
I made it through the rest of the meeting on autopilot.
Cole talked through the IVF paperwork for the Nguyens, then got into some updated language he wanted to add to the standard surrogacy agreements after a case he'd seen go sideways with a client outside of Bloom.
Sophie asked good questions. I took good notes.
Jasper offered exactly one legal opinion, which was that contracts were Cole's department and the algorithm's job was to make sure you didn't need a custody lawyer in the first place.
By nine o’clock we were packing up. Sophie had an early client in the morning…
Cole, as I understood it, always went to bed at nine so he could go to the gym at the crack of dawn.
He and Sophie left together, Sophie to walk around the block to her house, Cole to his fancy apartment for a lonely dinner.
I was pulling on my coat when Jasper appeared in the doorway of the conference room. I flashed him a smile. “You staying late tonight for some tinkering?” I asked.
“Mm…in a manner of speaking,” he said.
I waited.
Jasper took a step inside the room. “You like him,” he said.
I snorted. “Cole? Actually, I think I kind of hate him.”
“Nope,” Jasper said, shaking his head. “Johnny Lawson. You like him.”
“I do not,” I argued. “He’s like…twice my age—”
Jasper held up a piece of paper, waving it in the air. “—and he’s a 99% match with you in our system.”
I stared at the paper.
“That’s—” I paused. “Jasper, I’m not in the system. I’m not a client.”
“Buuut you filled out the questionnaire two years ago,” he said. “When I was stress testing the algorithm and needed real profiles.”
My eyes flitted from his face to the paper. I desperately wanted to see it. He knew that…he knew it and he was withholding to be a jerk.
“Why?” I asked.
Jasper shrugged. “I just see the way you look at him and hear the way you talk about him. I knew Sophie wouldn’t approve, but I couldn’t resist. And then…look who turned out to be a perfect match.”
He held out the paper.
I glared. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” Jasper said. “I just love love, okay?”
I snatched the report out of his hands.
It was a run-of-the-mill report…front and back, dense with data, analytics from our system. I’d processed hundreds of these for Sophie over the years, so many that I knew what the numbers meant.
And the numbers…they didn’t lie.
Overall index: 99%. Both long-game thinkers, two people who made decisions based on decades rather than moments. Analog couples with similar reports? There’d been three of them, and all were married with kids.
I read it twice. Trying to find something that would tell me this was all some elaborate joke.
But there was nothing. I knew what the attachment pairing score meant for long-term stability.
I knew what the conflict resolution number predicted about how two people would fight and come back from it.
I knew what it meant when the alignment score sat that high—that you weren’t just compatible, you were oriented toward the same life.
I sighed, looking up at Jasper. “I don’t know what you want me to do with this.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know either. Go fall in love?”
“Jasper…” I shook my head. “I could lose my job. You know it’s against policy to get involved with clients.”
“Sounds like he’s about to get fired as a client,” Jasper said. “Wouldn’t you rather see what happens before he’s out of your life completely?”
I stared at him.
“That is…genuinely the worst advice I’ve ever received.”
“It’s not advice,” he said. “It’s data.”
Then he just turned around and walked off, waving at me over his shoulder…acting like he hadn’t just thrown a hand grenade into my love life.