“Most people are wrong.” I study her face—the intelligence there, the calculation behind the warmth. “You’re buildingparasocial relationships at scale. That requires understanding human connection at a fundamental level.”
She blinks. “Parasocial relationships?”
“When people feel they know someone who doesn’t know them back. You’ve engineered it. Intentionally or not.”
“You make it sound manipulative.”
“I mean it as a compliment. Humans have always craved connection.” The word comes out wrong again. Humans. As if I’m not one. “People. We’ve always craved it. But the scale you’ve achieved—that’s new. Remarkable.”
She’s quiet. I’ve said too much. Revealed too much of how I see the world—from the outside, looking in.
“You’re strange,” she says finally.
“Yes.”
“You talk like you’re—” She stops. Shakes her head. “Never mind.”
“Like I’m what?”
“Like you’re studying us. People. Like you’re not quite...” She trails off, unable to finish.
Not quite human. The words she’s not saying.
“I’ve spent a long time observing,” I say carefully. “In my line of work, you learn to read people.”
“What is your line of work, exactly?”
“Investments. Acquisitions. Long-term holdings.”
“That’s vague.”
“Yes.”
She laughs—surprised, genuine. “You’re not going to tell me.”
“Not tonight.”
“But eventually?”
I meet her eyes. In the candlelight, they’re warm. Curious. Dangerously easy to fall into.
“Perhaps,” I say. “If you still want to know.”
By the time Marcus pulls up to her building, it’s nearly eleven. The dinner ran long—longer than I intended. We walked through the backstory, the timeline, the details we’d need to keep straight. But somewhere in the middle, the performance became conversation. Real conversation.
I can’t remember the last time that happened.
“So,” she says with her hand on the door. “Will I see you again before we leave?”
“I’d love that.”
“And we’ll practice the...” She waves her hand. “Proximity stuff?”
“Yes. By the time we land, we should be comfortable with casual contact. A hand on your back. Your head on my shoulder. Nothing that would make you uncomfortable.”
“What if I get uncomfortable?”
“Then you touch your necklace and I stop. Immediately. No questions.”
