Chapter 1

Downtown Seattle, WA

GRAYSON

The thing about algorithms is they can predict almost anything---market trends, weather patterns, consumer behavior. What they can't predict? The exact moment your ex-fiancée announces her engagement to her startup co-founder during your dating app's launch week.

At forty-five, I thought I was past caring about such announcements.

Apparently not.

"Statistically speaking—" I begin.

"I swear to God, Gray, if you say 'statistically speaking' one more time, I'm uninviting you from my engagement party," my best friend Alex interrupts, pacing holes into his office's Italian marble floor.

The Seattle skyline behind him is a wash of grays and whites, the early January afternoon already fading into the perpetual twilight of Pacific Northwest winter.

"You haven't even proposed yet," my other best friend Connor points out from the couch, not looking up from his phone. "Can't un-invite him from a party that doesn't exist."

“Can’t I, though?” Alex runs his hands through his dark hair for approximately the fortieth time in the past hour. I know because I've been counting. It's what I do—collect data points, analyze patterns, predict outcomes. Right now, all data points to my best friend having a nervous breakdown before he can propose to his girlfriend Mac.

My phone buzzes. Another TechCast notification.

"Stop checking it," Connor and Alex say in unison.

"I'm not—"

"'SecureMatch CEO Can't Match Himself: Dixon's Ex-Fiancée Announces Engagement While His Dating App Struggles,'" Connor reads. "Ouch."

"They used a decent photo of you," Alex offers. "Unlike that one from the tech conference where you look like you're choking on kombucha."

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