V had spent most of his day at work researching for our first date.
As I ate my lunch at the kitchen table, I watched as the blue messages kept popping up on the glass screen.
First Date Essentials: The Best Go-to Classic Date Ideas
Top Movies to Catch This Week at the Entertainment Center!
First Date? Do's and Don'ts You Need to Know!
I smiled, taking the last bite of my lunch, and giving it four stars on my app. The Thrive Bowl, a balanced medley of fiber-packed lentils and wholesome quinoa crafted to restore energy, had not been as good as the other meals I'd tried the previous week.
Look at me! I thought. Among all the daily luxuries I was experiencing here, I was becoming critical of some of them!
It was almost too easy to get used to this new life.
Never Run Out of Things to Say: First Date Conversation Starters!, flickered on the screen as I placed my empty plate into the meal box, sending it off to whatever imaginary place our meals came from, and where our dirty dishes disappeared to.
Could this truly be his first date?
No, I couldn't believe that.
V had everything going for him. He was handsome, young, a scientist, and living in a giant house. Sure, he might have been wrestling with some demons from his past, like all of us, but I was sure women in the City wouldn't mind that so much.
Besides, if he had two women as friends, a married couple, that appeared like a good sign that he had good relationships with women.
So, why was he still so shy with me?
Yesterday, after agreeing on our first date, he retreated to his room. I didn't take offense, as he seemed still tired and recovering from whatever condition he had. I'd already understood he needed a lot of alone time to recharge. He had given me a lot already: taking me to the Love Machina meeting, then Stellar Slices, and sharing the secret of his exobirth. The heavy conversation we had the next day, after he had just puked, might have been pushing it.
I didn't want to demand more than he could give.
Plus, he had already given me what I wanted the most: more time in the City and a mission to accomplish.
We met again only for dinner, where he told me he'd organize our first date.
A message buzzed on my tablet.
Let's meet at Luz-Cielo station, 6 PM.
Unexpectedly, a thrill rippled along my spine as I read and re-read his text.
Was I regressing to a teenager again? I had to get a grip. This was nothing new.
And yet, I spent the rest of the day thinking about our upcoming date. It didn't feel like my first date ever, as I had experienced stolen kisses in hallways or secret meetings in shared bathrooms, but I wouldn't count them as real dates. At the clinic, we did what we could to create moments of intimacy in the circumstances we found ourselves in.
This would be my first real date, like the ones in the movies.
I tried to keep busy to stop myself from getting too nervous. As usual, V had left before I woke up. I ate a delicious breakfast while scrolling through the printer app for ideas of what to build that day.
I also discovered another app on my tablet, one where you could ask absolutely anything, and it would magically give you the most perfect reply, as if it had read your mind. I cleared up so many doubts I had, from why some of my printing creations failed to the science behind material composition.
Then, my stare fell on the small patch of dark soil outside the living room's window. It looked so sad and only reminded me of the dirty grounds of the Belt.
How to grow a garden, I typed on the magical app.
At first, its answer was encouraging, telling me it was a great idea to bring greenery into my living space, that it would promote well-being and emotional balance. However, I must have phrased my question incorrectly, because instead of providing a clear answer on how to grow plants, it kept suggesting even more printing ideas for me to try.
Considering your fabrication skills, you might enjoy printing modular planter pots designed for small, low-maintenance plants such as cacti, succulents, or air plants! These species require minimal care and comply with urban biosecurity guidelines.
I gave up after a few tries and returned to my initial printing activities.
That day, I designed and perfected small boxes to store dry food. The meal app warned that it was "unsanitary" to keep food in closed containers, suggesting that meals should be eaten immediately and any leftovers discarded back into the meal box.
I disagreed.
There is nothing wrong with keeping CocOat Cookies handy, I thought, filling a new glittery pink container, fresh from the printer, with a whole batch of cookies.
Ordering them from the app guaranteed they'd appear in less than ten minutes, but that felt too long for my newfound addiction to wholesome oats, rich cocoa, melty chocolate chips, and toasted coconut.
I placed the container on top of the two already filled on the kitchen table, but after considering for a second, I decided to put one in my bedroom, just in case.
Disagreeing with the tablet's instructions might have felt like a new version of me. However, the impulse to hoard food, the fear of missing out... That was still the old me, I realized, hiding the cookie container under my pillow.
"I'll share some with you if you don't tell anyone," I told Poly, patting her cute robot head as she whirred against my palm.
She would buzz in my trail all day, vacuuming the crumbs I'd left behind, whether from my meals or my printing experiences. Having her around made me feel less alone in this gigantic home all day.
Keeping myself busy had been a great idea to avoid thinking too much about the date, but when I finally got into the loop with nothing to do with my hands, I couldn't help but feel my heart racing in my chest.
As impatient as I was to be there, I was also filled with apprehension.
My reflection in the train window looked back at me in that pretty pastel yellow dress. Styla had said it was the perfect evening out dress. It was a similar dress to the one I wore the day we went to Stellar Slices. After all, V had said on the way back that he wanted a pretty girlfriend like me, so he must have liked it.
When I arrived at Luz-Cielo Station, I had expected a wide glass entrance, like the ones of the Freedom Fountain or the Tree of Unity, where the bright sunlight would pour in from every side. Instead, there was indeed a gigantic dome above our heads, but it was made of large, extended, dark blue draping.
Tiny, sparkling lights pierced through it, mimicking distant stars, just like the ones we had seen through the glasses at Stellar Slices.
"Hello."
I turned around as I recognized his voice.
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