Page 100 of Debugging Love

“No,” Danni says. “Drew. Why?”

I look up from my French fries. Drew is holding a carton of milk, taking a long swig from his long straw.

“Milk gives you gas,” Danni says.

With his head stationary and his lips wrapped around the end of the straw, he looks at Danni, swallows, and then says, “No, it does not.”

“You farted all the way to Orangeburg.”

“I am only lactose intolerant in the mornings.”

“How does that work?” Danni asks, unconvinced.

“It means I am not lactose intolerant in the evenings.”

“All right,” Morgan says, her eyes glued to her phone. “Some of these sessions don’t fit in my categories. Quantum Brewing: Superposition and Entanglement in Chai.”

“Computer Science 101,” Drew says with an eye roll. He puckers his lips and takes another swig of milk.

“Quantum computing is new tech,” Morgan says. “It’s hardly for beginners.”

“A qubit is the basic unit of information in a quantum computer,” Drew says. “It has two states, 0 and 1 like traditional computers, differing in that they exist in a superposition of states 0 and 1 until they are measured, which causes the state of qubits to collapse to one of the two states. Easy.”

“Make Drew go to that session,” Danni says.

“Right.” Morgan writes it down under Drew’s category using her purple pen. “Chai & AI: Steep Learning. Who wants it?”

Danni raises her hand.

“That gives Chance Virtual Chai Management: What’s Brewing in the Cloud, and me ChaiScript: A Special Starter Kit with Tea Samples.”

Drew and Danni balk.

“Why do you get free tea?”

“I’d rather go to that one.”

Et Cetera.

“She who holds the pens gets the free tea.”

“That is not fair,” Drew says. “I know all about qubits but I know nothing about chai lattes and various chai mélanges.”

Morgan reaches over the table and rests a hand on Drew’s cheek. “And you never will.”

They lock eyes for a moment and seem to forget Danni and I are sitting right here. “Oh.” Morgan fishes through Drew’s bangs and pulls out a burr. “Missed one.” She giggles.

My brain hurts. My food is gone. And so is my desire to watch Morgan and Drew flirt while the three of them argue about a tea sampler.

“I need some fresh air,” I say. I wad up my food wrappers, take a final sip of my Coke, and leave the three of them to argue about tea bags.

The parking lot at the hotel is crowded, but I luck into a spot across from the main entrance. I tell everyone to jump out and get their suitcases, hastening the process by pulling the bags and suitcases out myself and setting them on the asphalt. My suitcases and bag are the last to leave the van.

“Two suitcases?” Danni asks with a skeptical arch of her eyebrow. “I didn’t realize you were so extra.”

I tip my head back and grab onto each handle. “I am.” I didn’t pay three hundred dollars for an authentic Stetson Skyline cowboy hat to squash it in a canvas bag. My hat and my boots get their own suitcase and I’m not ashamed of it.

We cart our luggage through the sliding doors and into the lobby, and they hover behind me as I approach the front desk and flash the JetAero credit card to the young lady with two frizzy braids in her red hair. She taps my name into the computer and begins programming four key cards. Behind me, the lobby is abuzz with guests, many of them here for Chai World and Profacy Universe, which are occurring simultaneously in downtown Atlanta. Our hotel is fifteen minutes north of downtown, a little cheaper but still fancy with a floor to ceiling crystal water feature and an in-house restaurant and bar called Toasties.

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