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This wasn’t working for me. It was too stilted. What would Austin do?
It didn’t matter, because I was me, and I knew what I wanted to do. I dialed her number.
“Hello?” She almost sounded surprised when she answered.
“Hey. I wanted to hear your voice.”
“Oh.” Her blush was almost audible in that one sound. “I’m glad.”
“I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“No. I was going to watch The Bachelorette, but this is better.”
I was about to bethat guywho ruined the fun. “You realize that show is all but scripted, don’t you?”
“I assumed it wasn’t completely improv or real. Even if all they do is shove these people into very specific situations, it’s easy enough to guess they’ll react in certain ways.”
They ought to put cameras in the house here, with Austin and me. They’d get one hell of a show.Odd Couple, the Millennial Edition.
My insides twisted and recoiled at the notion. It was bad enough having hints of my romance with him on display the first time around.
Romance? This wasn’t romance.
I needed to be talking to Kandace. “You ever feel bad for any of them?” I asked.
“Yes and no? The first couple of seasons, when it was a new thing and no one really knew what to expect? More so. Now people should have a good idea of what they’re getting themselves into. You know what I do dislike though? That she has to pick one at the end.”
I wasn’t looking forward to that either. “She’s not going to be compatible with all twelve or thirteen of them.”
“True.”
I didn’t want to talk about picking and choosing between men, for that way madness lay. Or at least a lot of jealousy that I wasn’t in the mood to confront. “What else do you like to watch? To read?”
“Really dry, dull stuff.”
“No, really. It can’t be that bad.”
“I’m a tech investor. I spent a lot of time reading up on where people are spending, what they’re inventing, and trending the two toward each other for future projections.” The way she said it, it was almost sexy.
Or I was biased and just liked hearing when she said anything. I lay back on my bed, to get comfortable. It was so easy to imagine her here next to me. Cuddling after a long day. Talking. “There’s got to be some interesting stuff in there. Future tech means robots that can be Bachelorette contestants, right?”
Kandace laughed. “Probably. I suspect they’re better in bed.”
“You mean specifically, not overall, right?” Because if I thought I had to prove I was better than Austin, there was no fucking way an imaginary sex robot was going to get top billing over me.
“If you can program them…” Kandace trailed off.
“Then they’re following a script again. Say you’re in the mood one night, and you pickslow seductionfrom the menu. You get a few minutes into it and you realize you wanthard, rough, and dirtyinstead. A real person can adapt.” Was I really doing this?
Apparently so.
Kandace made a clucking sound with her tongue. “Not all real people can adapt, and can I stash a real person in the cupboard at the end of the night?”
“If that’s their kink? Probably. You don’t want that though.”
“No? What do I want?”
“Stimulation.” I was about to get myself in trouble. It was rare that people actually wanted to hear what I’d observed, even if I thought it was good.
