Page 17 of Forty, Flirty & Fall Inn

"—because she wanted to introduce you to her family.Which is what normal people do when they're in love."

"I wasn't in love with Amanda."

"Exactly my point!"Her voice rises.“Which is why I signed you up for another dating app yesterday.”

“You what?”

“Now, don’t give me lip.I know you were only on Grayson’s app because you two are friends, but you need a real dating app.And a real woman.”I can hear her grin.“I already matched you with one.Her name is Becky Langston.She’s five-foot-seven, likes dogs, hates snakes, and is really very good at CrossFit?—“

The sound of my grandmother’s voice turns to background noise as my computer chimes with an urgent email notification.

The subject line makes my stomach tighten.

SafeStay Beta Panel Results - URGENT REVIEW REQUIRED.

"Nana, I have to go.Work emergency."

“Wait!What should I tell Becky?She wants to know your Zodiac sign!”

“Tell her I don’t have one.”

"Lukas—"

"I'll talk to you later."

I hang up before she can guilt me into making commitments I don't intend to keep, then immediately open the email from my development team.

Shit.This is exactly what my morning didn’t need.

What I didn’t need.

The SafeStay beta results are...not good.

Actually?They're catastrophic.

The test implementations at three luxury hotels in Portland resulted in system crashes, guest data breaches, and what the report diplomatically calls "significant user experience failures."

One hotel had to shut down their entire booking system for forty-eight hours.

The panel feedback is even worse:

"SafeStay feels like overkill for smaller properties."

"The interface is too complex for staff without technical backgrounds."

"This seems designed for Fortune 500 hotels, not the boutique market you're targeting."

I scroll through page after page of criticism, my heart jackhammering harder with every word I read.My mind buzzes.

Eighteen months.

Eighteen months of development.Tens of millions in investment.

And I've somehow created a product that's too complicated for the very market I'm trying to serve.

My phone buzzes with a text from the head of development.

Emergency meeting at 2 PM.We’d like to discuss next steps.