Page 45 of Swiped
She felt him smile through her kiss as he closed the bedroom door behind them. “I really, really do.”
She smiled back and pulled off his jacket. “Yes,” she moaned. The thud of his jacket on the floor brought her briefly back to her senses. “I mean, no! My app. You want to punish my app.”
Rami pulled off his shirt and leaned his bare chest against her. “What’s an app?”
She kicked off her shoes and lay back on his bed, pulling him down with her.Rami.She let his name fill her mind. His arms were golden brown and muscled as he leaned his weight into her body. He had a dark thatch of hair on his chest, leading a trail into his waistband, a trail she wanted very badly to follow with her tongue. Rami. He was also going to publicly attack her app in approximately eight hours. Her body and brain had very different agendas going on right now.
“So, bad dates? That’s why you hate BeTwo?” She arched her back so he could slip a hand under her blouse.
“Can I tell you later?”
Nat shook her head and so genuinely wished she could lie. “I’m just gonna be distracted until I know what it is.”
He nestled hungry kisses into her neck, and she sighed with pleasure. He whispered in her ear, “Your app isn’t perfect. No one’s is.”
“Yeah.” She panted, rubbing her hands across the smooth skin of his back. “Yeah, but did they also spend the best years of their life on their apps, and now it’s somehow being turned against them?”
He raised his face and hovered above her. “Are you sure this is about the app?”
“Just tell me,” she urged. “Should I make it ultra exclusive, maybe?”
He shook his head, sinking into thought as he nibbled down the line of her shirt buttons. “Honestly, I don’t know if that would fix it.”
“I agree,” said Nat, unbuttoning them. She started to wriggle out of her blouse. “It’s because of the users—”
“No, the flaw is in the design,” he said. “Not the users.”
Nat froze and stiffened. Rami looked up from nuzzling her belly button.
“I’m sorry.” He shook his head, his eyes dark pools of regret. “But you asked.”
“It’s fine.” Nat sat up and tugged her shirt closed.
“It’s obviously not fine.” He slumped over on the bed. “Look, my app has flaws, too!”
“Well, then how about I go on a rant about them for the entire world to see?” She stood and buttoned up her shirt.
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“So, it’s OK to drag my app through the mud, but not yours?” She scoffed as he buried his head in his hands. “Yeah, that seems really fair.”
“My app is just about predicting the weather!” He stood and started looking for his abandoned shirt. “The stakes aren’t nearly as high.”
“Hmm, I guess I didn’t realize that I had to make the world’s most emotionally intelligent algorithm.”
“Why didn’t you?” He pulled on his shirt and looked at her with rumpled hair. “BeTwo is about the search for lifelong companionship. Is there anything more sensitive than that?”
“Come on, it’s not that big of a deal,” said Nat, putting on her shoes. “It sucks when you don’t connect, but it’s not personal.”She could practically feel the cameras on them already. She gritted her teeth. “It’s just a numbers game.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“Yes,” she lied.
He shook his head in disbelief. “Right, so when you find yourself with a stomach condition because no one has responded to your profile for weeks, or people actually harm themselves because of the rejection they feel from your little algorithm, it’s all just a silly game that has no bearing on human emotion?”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Am I? Have you checked in with your users about that?”
