if introducing him at the party had freaked her out. Even he felt a few nerves flutter alive.
Helena waved as the applause died down. “Gosh, thank you, Jason, for introducing me, and thank you all for coming! I’m so excited to be here at CREATE, and especially at this interview. I have so much respect for both of my guests today.” She cocked her head. “Now, this panel is called Slow Dating vs. Swiping, and I think that’s a bit of a mistitle, because I think real ‘slow dating’ would be, like, meeting someone at a café or a party and then seeing them once a week for four months and then deciding you want to be exclusive, and who the heck does that anymore, huh?” She placed her hand by her mouth and leaned forward, like she was imparting a secret. “If there’s anyone here who’s got a relationship that started like that in the last couple years, you’re a freaking unicorn, FYI.”
The smatter of laughter eased him. Helena was a good moderator, and this seemed like it would be a fairly softball interview. All he had to do was not focus on Rhiannon.
He might have been hit, he might be disoriented, but he could still play.
“But for our purposes, we’ll use ‘slow dating’ to refer to a nonswipey dating app. And to that end, over here we have Matchmaker. Matchmaker was one of the first entries to online dating, almost a quarter century ago. While a number of those first sites have been lost to history, Matchmaker has remained strong, with almost eight million paid subscribers, and committed to its one-hundred-point matching system. Now, I know some of you were expecting to see Annabelle Kostas, cofounder of the site, but unfortunately, she had to bow out at the last minute. We have a very attractive stand-in, though. If you’re a football fan like I am, some of you may know Samson Lima from his days as a Super Bowl–winning linebacker for the Portland Brewers or, before that, his college ball days at Notre Dame. He’s taken a bit of a break from the spotlight, but now he’s back. Hopefully, you all have heard about his gig over at Matchmaker, and how you, too, can score a date with this handsome bachelor. If you’re just finding out right now, I’ll ask you to hold signing up for the site until after the interview, please.”
He smiled and waved as the crowd chuckled and clapped.
“And, over here, we have Rhiannon Hunter.”
Samson raised an eyebrow as the audience erupted into cheers. There was no doubt who everyone was here to see.
Rhiannon took another drink of water while Helena indulgently waited for the noise to die down. “Rhiannon is the creator of Crush. Built on that familiar swiping platform, it’s often called the more empowered response to app dating, where users have more control in curating who they see and how they communicate with their matches. The customizability of the app seems to appeal to a lot of people. Crush currently has about twenty-six million subscribers.”
Rhiannon crossed her legs. Her sneakers were a matte gold, a pop of color in her otherwise somber outfit. “It’s closer to thirty million.”
Helena chuckled. “Okay, thirty million.”
Thirty million was a lot more than Matchmaker’s eight million. Samson worried anew for Annabelle. Matchmaker had an app, but only due to Jennifer’s insistence. Annabelle had fought her every step in migrating their platform or altering their time-consuming sign-up process.
Matchmaker was behind, and Jennifer had leaned into being the “old-fashioned” option, but Samson really hoped their lag didn’t eventually tank the company. His aunt had had a rough year, what with losing Jennifer and Joe, and she didn’t need any more loss.
Helena waited for the applause to die down, and then turned to Samson. “I think we can all agree that the internet has made dating so different now. Samson, why don’t you explain what makes Matchmaker the place to be?”
Samson launched into his memorized talking points. “For anyone who’s taken Matchmaker’s questionnaire, you know how in-depth it gets, how long it takes. Now, some people may say that that’s a negative, that time-intensive process, but I think anything that forces us to slow down and think about ourselves and what we’re looking for is a good thing. Life is too fast paced. Your relationships shouldn’t be.”
Helena tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you think apps are too fast paced for anyone to make a solid connection?”
“I