After a couple of hours at the bookstore’s Manhattan-themed party, Dot found a moment to excuse herself. She headed to the Jankowskis’ back office with her phone. She held her breath and logged onto the dating app to see how it was landing.
“Oh my gosh,” she said. The profile was on fire with tens of thousands of likes and comments. And it had only been a couple of hours. Dot refreshed the screen, and a thousand more likes appeared.
A text from Kitty was in her inbox. “Dot—it’s absolutely blowing up. And it’s almostallpositive! The Republicans will be spitting mad. We beat them to the punch!” She followed up with another message, “Call me tomorrow—we’ll debrief. And thank you. This is incredible!” For a woman who rarely used exclamation points, it was clear to Dot that Kitty was excited and pleased.
Dot scrolled down and quickly scanned messages sent to Lopez’s new dating profile:
I love this!
You’re amazing.
You’ve got my vote!
You’re hot.
It’s a date, Madame President!
You’re my role model!
I have a Havanese, too.
Let’s do this, Democrats!
The positive reactions went on and on.
“Fletcher!” Dot called out toward the main room. He came running.
“What’s up? Is something wrong?” He looked worried.
“It worked!” She handed him her phone. His face changed as he realized what he was looking at.
“Dot. It’s totally going viral. You did it!” He hugged her and they did a little tap dance of excitement.
Dot blinked back tears. She felt so much relief that her idea hadn’t backfired. “It’s so great! I can’t wait to see what happens next.” Fletcher put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. She threw and arm around his waist and beamed up at him.
Just then she turned to see Danny walking through the door, a surprised look on his face.
“Oh, I was just looking for you, Dot. Sorry to interrupt,” he said, starting to backpedal as if he’d caught her and Fletcher in some awkward moment.
Dot rushed over and hugged him. “It’s okay! Remember the work thing I did in the car? My idea worked. I’m so happy!”
“Oh, that’s great,” Danny said, lacking enthusiasm. Dot caught the tension in his answer. She wasn’t sure if the downshift in his mood was because he really didn’t want the Democratic party to win the election, or if he thought there was something between her and Fletcher that went beyond a work friendship.
Fletcher didn’t pick up on the vibe. “Yeah, Dot just amped up the Lopez campaign. Big-time.”
Thinking fast to save the evening, Dot realized she had to counteract what Danny thought he’d seen when she and Fletcher were celebrating. She transitioned into a more work-like posture to prevent Danny from thinking she had any attraction to Fletcher. She’d never told him about the bee incident. Maybe she should have.
“Thanks, Fletcher—I’ll catch up with you at the office.” She nodded at him and then cocked her head a little toward the door. It was subtle, but both Danny and Fletcher got the message.
“Yeah, uh, yep. I’ll just be going now. See you tomorrow, Dot.” Fletcher saw himself out.
“Come. I want to share this moment with you!” Dot reached for Danny’s hand and lifted her chin for a kiss. Danny couldn’t help but meet her lips. But after a moment, he pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Danny hesitated a beat. “Dot, you know I really like you, right?”
“Yes, I think so. Why?”