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“It’s fine, really.” She smoothed one of his curls. “I still own my algorithm.” She shrugged inside his arms. “And I have other ideas. Probably.”
“But I really do have some notes,” he said. “On the app! On how to make it better,” he hedged. “Or, I mean, less bad.”
“Yeah, I have some ideas, too.” She nudged him with her elbow. “Because some of your thoughts weren’t half-bad.”
“I can surprise myself sometimes.” He sighed. “I just thought we could version something with broader efficacy if we combined our approaches.”
The deeply nerdy way he’d phrased that pinged in Nat’s heart. “Well, then I guess this is a very inappropriate way of announcing that you’re hired.” She ran a hand over his chest. “For whatever we make next,” she whispered, locking back onto his lips.
A few moments later, Rami came up for air again. “Wait.” He searched her shining eyes and elfin smirk. “We’re not making a dating app though, right?”
“Oh, hell no.”
Then they smiled at each other and kissed again, and for a long, long time.
One Year Later
Nat and Rami searched for their booth on the floor of the Tech-Talk Expo. They were in the airplane hangar-sized General Exposition Hall, stuffed with other people debuting their new app or database or cloud service or what-have-you across hundreds and hundreds of small tables.
“I think it’s back there,” said Nat, pointing to a dark corner by some restrooms.
Rami consulted their map. “Yep, section Triple-Z. That’s us.”
They hauled their boxes over to their designated rickety folding table.
“Is there a section Quadruple-Z?” Nat asked as she laid out their brochures and promotional enamel pins.
“I think that would technically be the toilets,” said Rami, booting up their demo machines.
Nat laughed and reached for another box to set up.
For a while, they worked in silence, handing each other binders and locating dongles and unfurling their banner in orchestral precision.
“Should we go say hi to Tracy?” asked Rami. “She’s probably around here somewhere, right?”
“Are you kidding? She’s an influencer now. She’s probably skydiving with hedgehogs or something as we speak.” Nat adjusted their QR code placard.
“Oh, yeah! I just saw her TikTok recipe for vegetable soup.” He nodded and set out the final stack of brochures. “Looked pretty tasty, honestly. We should try it.”
“Sounds good.”
They stood back and admired their booth. In big blue letters, their banner read:Perfect Catch: A Weather and Fishing Optimization App.
She tucked her hand into his back pocket. “I love it,” she said.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I still thinkData Streamswas a better name.”
Nat heard a familiar voice calling through the maze of booths. “Nat? Are you . . . anywhere?”
“Oh no, I think Sara is lost.” She stood up on a chair and waved her friend over. “Follow my voice!”
Sara appeared from behind a life-size cut-out of a cartoon gopher riding a cloud in the iconic pose fromDr. Strangelove. “I feel like I’m in a humans-versus-aliens movie right now, and I’m rooting for the aliens,” she said, giving Nat a hug.
“Hello, hello!” said Ian, stepping up behind her.
Rami sputtered. “Wait. Did you two arrive together?” He staggered back like he had just made an exciting discovery in the chemistry lab. “Like,together-together?”
Sara scoffed through a creeping blush. “No! We just both exited the labyrinth at the same time.”
