"I don't have time to play with you right now, Amira." Amira decided to wait until right before Ethan was scheduled to sign the contract to inform Arya that she was matched with Ethan Christensen. She knew the less time her sister had to act the more it would make her jump into an impulsive decision and sign the contract.
"Ry, I'm serious. You know I use your profile as a model when I'm matching my clients. Your profile is the only one that breaks down all the analytics for determining compatibility. As soon as I unlocked your profile the system matched you with Ethan. I tried to undo it but it had already sent out the automated message notification with your profile to inform him of his match. I don't have anyone else whose profile is even close to yours."
"That doesn't even make sense, Amira. In order to match with any of the Christensen men you have to have a net worth of at least a billion dollars. I'm not in that bracket." Arya shook her head in disbelief while pulling up her profile in the system to see that it was indeed unlocked and matched. None of this made sense to her. Her clients were very particular when it came to income preferences which is why she had her IT team make sure the system wouldn't make any exceptions with considering profiles that didn't meet those requirements.
"Elite Connections is worth a few billions. You've been featured in Forbes twice now." Amira hated how her sister always made it seem as if she wasn't just as well off as some of her clients.
"Yes, my company is worth a lot, not me. Until I buy out all of my investors my net worth will never match my company's."
"You're not that far from it, sis. Look, if he had a complaint about your net worth he would've mentioned it to me. He already called me extremely excited about your profile. Do you want me to call him and tell him not to show up and that there was a glitch in the system?"
"We can't do that! This is bad, Amira. I can't tell a tech heir that our system glitched and matched him with the wrong person. My company is built off of technology. I should trust the system, I'm the one who built it. There has to be a reason it would match us even with me not meeting the income requirements. I don't know what to do. None of this makes sense." Amira watched her sister, trying her hardest to keep from breaking and telling her the truth.
Arya would do anything for Amira, and she'd proved that plenty of times. Amira couldn't help but feel like she was betraying her sister, but she was too deep in to turn back now. She had already gone too far by manipulating the system that her sister took pride in, and she could never admit that to Arya. She had to sell the positives to reassure the both of them that this was the right decision.
"You know what you have to do. With as many doubts as Ethan had about being matched already if this contract doesn't go through then he won't go through the process again. That's a five hundred thousand dollar contract down the drain. That's also a relationship with your top investor that's then in jeopardy. Look at it this way, your system matched you. It might have been sooner than you wanted, but with the way you work you would've never been ready. You're already familiar with his family and it's an all expense paid wedding." Arya heard what Amira was saying, but it was still hard to process what was going on.
Arya had her perfect wedding planned out by the age of ten. She planned to do everything to make that dream wedding happen until her parents divorced. Her focus went from herself to finding ways to make her parents happy again. She'd hooked her mom up with her best friend's dad, and shortly after that she'd successfully connected her dad with a teacher at her school. From there on she spent all her free time playing match maker, pushing her personal wants to the background. It had always been that way. She was even the one to hook her sister up with her now fiancé.
"Amira, Mr. Christensen is here to meet with you." Amira heard her assistant's voice in her earpiece and knew she had no more time to convince her sister to go along with this match.
"He's here now to sign the contract. What do you want me to tell him?" Amira stared at her sister, nervously awaiting her answer. She hadn't deposited the check in her account yet, just in case her sister didn't go through with signing the contract.
"Tell him congratulations. I'm supposed to be present for that, but with the circumstances I'm not allowed to have any physical or visual contact with him until the wedding." Arya felt herself going through every emotion at once. She was excited about the possibility of love, but her fears heavily overshadowed that. No where in her mind did she understand how she would be a match with a Christensen man, but she trusted her system. She built a multibillion dollar company off of her system never being wrong.
"You should have the contract in your email. I would explain it to you, but-"
"Just go meet with the client, Amira. I need a moment alone." Amira quickly left out the office, knowing if she stayed any longer the guilt would make her admit to what she did.
As soon as Arya was alone the tears began falling. Marriage isn't apart of her schedule. She didn't even have time to date, let alone a husband. She had spent close to an hour the other day speaking with Ethan about what he looked for in a woman and she didn't believe she could live up to his expectations. He was very precise with his descriptions and she knew that alone would take a little extra time to find him a match. Turning to her computer, she went to her email and blankly stared at the first unread email. The subject line reading: Congratulations! You've Been Matched!
"They're going to think I rigged the system." Arya spoke out, feeling herself beginning to get overwhelmed. She'd worked over several contracts for his family already. In her eyes, weather she signed the contract or not her business would still be in jeopardy. Grabbing her phone out of her desk drawer she called her best friend on FaceTime.
"Not you calling me during business hours. I feel so special!" Danica hadn't bothered to look at the screen until she heard Arya's sniffles. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know what to do. Amira unlocked my Elite profile and I still don't understand why she did it, but it matched me with a Christensen. I don't meet the requirements to marry into their family and I'm responsible for several of the marriages in their family. I'm the owner of the company, D. I'm not supposed to match with my clients. Especially not the ones worth billions of dollars." Danica could see the panic in her best friend's face and wanted nothing more than to help fix everything for her.
"Okay, take a deep breath. How much time do we have to fix this? We need to lay out all of our options."
"There isn't any time. He's signing the contract now. Mr. Christensen is going to be so caught off guard. He's like a grandfather to me and I feel like I'm betraying his trust." Over the years not only has James become a mentor to Arya and one of her biggest investors, but she looked at him as family as well. She didn't know what he would take of seeing her walk down the aisle at his grandson's wedding, but she knew it wouldn't be a good thought.
"I know how your system works, but your profile doesn't have your picture on it. Do you have any current candidate that slightly mirrors your preferences that you can switch in?"
"I can't do that. If I cheat the system I'll only be robbing my clients of the experience they're paying top dollar for. I don't know why there would ever be a reason for Amira to unlock my profile, but I stand behind my system. If it matched us then it's for a reason. I have to go through with it." Having to admit it out loud made Arya feel even more overwhelmed. The one thing that was consistent in her mind was James. He'd helped her build her company to what it is today, and she would hate to alter his opinion of her in a negative way.
"Look, I know how close you are to Mr. Christensen. If you're going to go through with this then I suggest setting up a face to face meeting with him after you sign the contract. You have absolutely nothing to hide, babe. Be honest with him. Let him know that your candidate profile was unlocked and the system matched it with his grandson's. Tell him that the employee who unlocked your profile came forward and let you know what happened which is why you're aware of the identity of the match. You didn't do anything wrong and don't think that you did." Arya listened to every word Danica was saying to her, appreciating that she always knew the right words to say to her.
"I love you. You know that right? You always know how to calm me down. Let me call him now. I'll let you know how it goes." She ended the call and took a few deep breaths before calling up the man himself, James Christensen.
"If it isn't the miracle worker herself. How did you manage to get that grandson of mine excited about being matched?"
"About that. I want to see if you have time for a quick lunch today, so I can talk to you more in detail regarding the match. I know it's last minute, so if you prefer I can pickup something that we can eat in your office." Arya was beyond nervous about the whole ordeal. The more she attempted to rationalize the situation the less it made sense. However, she did believe that everyone made mistakes and if her sister assured her that she unlocked her profile on accident then she would believe her.
"I always have time to see you, Ms. Arya. Now, I can't leave the office since I'm waiting to sign off on a financial report, but if you can bring me a fully loaded sandwich I'll be waiting for you."
"Perfect! How does noon sound?" Glancing at the time on her computer, she knew that would give her plenty of time to sign and submit the contract and get the food.
"Noon sounds great. I'll have my assistant let the front office know to expect your arrival. See you then." As soon as the call ended Arya made sure to text the lunch order to her assistant than began signing the contract.
She'd never imagined she'd be the one signing the contract inspired off a high school joke. Even as a child Arya took her matchmaking services seriously. Her biggest pet peeve was couples that broke up weeks into the relationship, so in turn she'd make her classmates sign a contract promising that in exchange for her matching them they would have to date for at least ninety days before breaking up. Now she was signing a contract stating that she would be married in ninety days.
Once both contracts are submitted it's forwarded over to the wedding planners who then begin putting together the wedding based off the couple's style preferences on their profile. Wedding invitations are sent out to the contacts listed in each candidate's profile on day two. Everything moves fast once the invitations are out. There's dress shopping, ring shopping, deciding whose house would be the couple's primary home, approving the honeymoon location, bachelor/bachelorette parties and of course the wedding. All of which is prepaid with the package price.
Elite Connections is contracted to ten venues and they are selected for the couple based off of their style preferences as well. The same goes for the menu, music selection, and even color scheme. The entire company is based around the efficiency of their system. Arya loved to brag about her system, but now she couldn't shake how her own system had outsmarted her. She also knew that she would be charged for the elite package due to her profile being matched with an elite customer. Regardless of if she has the money or not, she isn't too happy to be paying five hundred thousand dollars for a wedding she didn't ask for.
A couple offices down, Ethan was signing his last signature on the contract. He added a mental note to have Arya fire Amira once they were married. To him, any person who could sell out their boss for money isn't to be trusted. He understood that an employee would never be more than just that, but after talking with Arya he couldn't see how anyone would want to betray her like that. It didn't sit right with him that she had unloyal people working under her. It got him what he wanted, but it was too easy for him.
"This also means that you aren't to contact your match, so please do not stop by her office on your way out." Arya stressed to Ethan.
"This says I can't contact my match, and no where in this contract does it say I can't contact Arya White. Now, your-" Ethan stopped midsentence, when he noticed Amira's full name on the contract for the matchmaker information. "Your last name is White? What's your relationship to Arya?"
"She's my older sister. Why?" Ethan couldn't believe the words that had just left Amira's mouth. It was one thing for an employee to sell you out, but your own sibling. Any respect he had for Amira had disappeared. A quarter of a million to someone like Arya wasn't anything, and he couldn't grasp how that was all it took to sway her sister.
"Just curious. Thank you for your services, Amira." Ethan left out of her office and was disappointed to find Arya's office empty. He wasn't too worried about missing her since he knew that he could simply go to his grandfather and get all the information that he needed about Arya. He was going to make sure that this marriage happened on his own terms.
How long do you think Amira's lie is going to last?
What are your thoughts on Arya meeting with James?
Do you think Arya will be able to handle Ethan continuing to actively pursue her?
Who do you think will be the first to spill the truth?