Page 108 of Lovetown, USA
There’s a string quartet and a DJ, but he’s just getting set up. I’m sure the real party will pop off later in the evening. Waiters in crisp black vests move like shadows, balancing silver trays of champagne flutes and delicate hors d’oeuvres.
Happy couples float across the dance floor, hands entwined, faces glowing. The whole place hums with joy, and for a moment, a brief one, I feel myself faltering. The town isn’t hurting anyone. If anything, it’s bringing people together who may otherwise have never crossed paths.
I don’t know what to do.
Trey pulls me close. “You look so beautiful.”
“You told me,” I say with a grin.
“I know, but I can’t say it enough.”
We mingle, we laugh, we dance, we nibble. It’s all joy and fun and love. It’s tempting to call it magic, because it certainly feels that way. Something is in the air, and it’s not something I’ve ever felt anywhere else. That has to mean something.
I spot Mayor Daphne across the room.
She’s radiant tonight, as always, wrapped in a gown of emerald silk that clings to her curves like it was painted on. A dramatic train follows behind her and her perfect makeup and expert updo. She looks every inch the queen of this kingdom she’s built.
“I’ll be right back,” I say to Trey, leaving him in the hands of Bryce and Sanaa, couple friends of his.
I approach her honor with a neutral expression, which pales in comparison with her happy welcoming face.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?”
Her smile never wavers as she excuses herself, leaving her husband and two other men behind. She leads me out into aprivate hallway where we can hear ourselves think. The music muffles to a distant hum.
I take a deep breath and rip the bandaid off. “I know what’s going on, Daphne.”
The mask slips, and her jaw tightens. “And what would that be?”
“The fact that you sold this town to the highest bidder.”
She blinks, but says nothing.
“I know about the beta testing. The AI matchmaking. The contracts your husband signed as a so-called consultant.”
She exhales, long and slow, frustration flickering in her eyes.
“Was it all about the money?” My voice drops, shaking with disbelief. “It just seems so shady and underhanded.”
She still says nothing.
I lean closer, anger burning hotter now. “It’s not real love when it’s manufactured like this. It’s not real without consent.”
It would be a genius idea if it wasn’t so deceitful.
I figured it out when I saw who owned all those rental homes. Affinity, Inc., a subsidiary of Affinity AI, a matchmaking startup that partnered with Daphne’s husband’s company.
The goal?
Beta test an AI program that matches residents with their ideal partner based on personal, private data they had no idea was being sold by their own mayor.
All those meet-cutes and invite-only events were carefully planned to bring people together based on their shared interests. But it didn’t stop there. There was fucking private medical information in the data packs Cognilynx sold to Affinity. Matching people with similar illnesses, for fuck’s sake. Ring camera footage. Audio recordings from Alexa. Just maximum levels of intrusion and invasiveness. And the residents were none the wiser.
They have plans to expand all over the US, and eventually, to take this global.
“Why?” I ask again. “Why did you do it?”
Her hand flicks, dismissive as ever, and her voice is sharp. “Look around you, Lane. Look at the couples. Look how happy they are. Are you really gonna quibble over how they got there?”
