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“His glasses?”
“He had these big, round, wire-framed glasses. Harry Potter glasses. They made him look smart in this sexy yet earnest way. I liked that.”
“How did you get together?”
The mix of lime and vodka dissolves a tiny hint of my inhibitions. “We were in the same data science study group, back in college. He’d always walk me home and we’d talk about teachers and what we wanted to do with our futures. And then, one night, when he walked me to the door—I lived on campus at UCI, during the school year—he said, ‘I’d like to kiss you’ and I said, ‘I’d like that, too,’ and he did.”
“He asked?”
“What? Are you going to say consent’s not sexy?”
“No.” He takes a long sip. “I’m surprised he’s the one who asked.”
“Why?”
“You seem like the type who steers.”
“Are you going to say I wear the pants, too?” I ask.
He laughs. “I’m not that stereotypical.” He studies me the same way he did earlier, like I’m a landscape he wants to understand. “Did you like it, him asking to kiss you?”
“He didn’t ask. He said he wanted to kiss me. That’s different.”
“It is.”
“It was sexy,” I say. “A little shy, sure, but I liked that about him. I like shy guys.”
“Guys like me?”
Why would he say that? My cheeks flame. “You’re not shy anymore.”
His cheeks redden, too.
“No.” I swallow a sip to buy myself time to think, but I don’t come up with anything. “I don’t like shy guys anymore. But I did then.”
“Was he shy every step of the way?”
He’s a romantic. Why is he going straight to sex? “In a way. But he always let me know he wanted me. And that felt good. Which is stereotypical of me. Women want to feel desired. It’s a stereotype, but the data shows it’s common.”
“Men are the ones messaging women?”
I nod. “And liking profiles. And sending compliments.”
“You know all that?” he asks. “Isn’t that an invasion of privacy?”
“Users only supply as much data as they’d like to supply.” Most opt-in completely. Most of us gave up on Internet privacy a long time ago. Or they’re willing to sacrifice it for love. After all, the more access we have to users, the better we understand what they truly want, which means we can match them with someone they truly want. “We don’t look at the info for kicks. We use it to help people find the perfect match.”
“What does that mean?”
“Someone compatible.”
“Someone they’ll love?” he asks.
“Someone with the same goals. Someone who’s statistically likely to match well.”
He doesn’t address the issue of compatibility. “Were you happy with him?”
“At first.”
