The Blind Date by Landish, Lauren (suggested reading .txt) 📕

“How could I not want to sign up with Life Corp after that?” Riley says, the compliment to Elisa woven through the question. “Besides, I’m going to be honest with my followers, as real as I can be. If I only offer a filtered, fake version of me, why would they trust me to help with their real, messy lives? And the truth is . . . I wouldn’t have met you without BlindDate. I’ve negotiated what the sponsorship will look like, and we’re going to do great stuff together. If you want to, Noah.”

“If it affects your decision at all, Mr. Daniels . . . I think your app is ground-breaking. I’m glad to have you and River here. Keep up the good work.”

A compliment from Lady Elisa? My dreams are coming true all over the place today . . . with Riley and with work.

And with that, she spins and heads back upstairs to her throne. Just another day at Life Corp, except it’s like no other day before for me.

It’s a Sunshiny day.

Chapter 29 Riley

“Hello, Sunshiners!” I greet the camera, wiggling my fingers in the Sunshine Salute. Next to me, Noah’s doing the same thing, his fingers looking a bit robotic, but he’s trying. He’s nervous, not used to being the center of attention other than in a boardroom, and then, it’s all about the facts and figures.

This is different. This is about us.

Which is why we’re sitting in my living room, on my couch, with my camera on a tripod on the other side of the coffee table. Yes, I have a ring light, and I cleaned like crazy, but it’s a real-life setup, exactly what I wanted. Elisa offered to hire a production crew with all the bells and whistles for my first Life Corp-sponsored post, but I told her, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s not me, and I’m going to stick with what has worked for Riley Sunshine from the beginning, a peek into my life.

I’m nervous too, honestly. Not because of the camera like Noah. I quit being nervous about that a long time ago, but because this video is one of the most important ones I’ve ever done, and I want to do a good job. For Noah, for BlindDate, for Life Corp.

“Riley Moonshine here where I—”

Noah laughs, nudging me with an elbow. “Uh, baby . . . that’s not your name.”

“Huh?” I replay what I just said in my mind and laugh too. “My brain is running faster than my mouth.”

“Someone really amazing told me this one time . . . big breath, hands up, and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.” He does the movements as he speaks, his arms and entire body shaking like a bowl of Jell-O in the middle of an earthquake.

I laugh, doing it too until we’re both silly and laughed out, panting for breath.

“Better?” Noah asks.

“Definitely. Let’s do this,” I tell him, excited and with a real smile now.

I hit a couple of buttons on the remote, restarting the video recording.

“Hi, Sunshiners!” I wave, and this time, Noah’s wave is better too. “I’m Riley Sunshine, and this . . .” I look to Noah, letting all my love for him show without filter, “is Midnight Mark.” Noah smiles at me and then the camera.

“Hi, Sunshiners,” Noah says evenly. He’s relaxed now too, leaned back on the couch with his arm laid out along the back cushions, surrounding me but giving me space to move and talk.

We planned out what we wanted to say, even practiced it a few times for Noah’s comfort, and I’m glad. It let us have some very detailed conversations about what we want to share and what we want to keep private.

Not that we’re hiding anything, but there are some things that are just for us, like no one needs to know that I’m shifting around on the couch, not because I’m overly excited but because I can feel the sting on my ass from where Noah smacked me right before we sat down. He promised me more of that when we’re done, so I’m ready to say the things we agreed on and get back to my bedroom. Maybe we can break my new bed too? Though I did invest in a more robust one, learning my lesson from the thin wood of the last one.

“I want to talk to you about . . . us.” I point a fingernail—yellow painted, of course—from Noah to me. “After my last video, there was a lot of speculation and assumptions were being made, and I want to be completely transparent. About everything. So, here’s the truth . . .”

“We knew each other a long time ago, and well, to be honest, we didn’t like each other much.” I make a face at Noah, scrunching up my nose and mock-glaring at him, but he just lifts one brow, silently and cockily daring me to come at him. I laugh and turn back to the camera. “Flash forward years later, when I joined the BlindDate app and started talking to this guy. We did exactly what BlindDate says to . . . we got to know each other, and he was everything I wanted—kind, funny, interesting. So imagine my surprise when I showed up for my blind date to find this guy.” I point at Noah with my thumb.

“Surprised,” Noah repeats, doing air quotes with one hand. “More like horrified and furious. She stomped out and left me standing there like an asshole.”

I giggle, shrugging innocently. “Well, you can’t say you didn’t deserve it.”

Noah nods and agrees with me. “I totally deserved it. But I chased you down and apologized. With tacos.” To the camera, he says, “Guys, always bring tacos.”

I push at his chest with a grin. “Anyway, so that was how we found out that we’d both used fake names. Yes, I’ll let you in on a little secret . . . Mark isn’t really his name. It’s Noah.” I put a finger to my lips, telling the thousands of viewers to keep that tidbit quiet. “But for Riley Sunshine’s sake, we’re going to stick with Mark here because