Page 6 of Swiped
V clapped again. “Now, panelists, listen. Do not just silence your cell phones. I need them off. O-F-F!” They herded the panelists into a line along the yellow tape. “If those phones buzz in your pocket onstage, trust me, it’s gonna sound like you just ripped a huge toot up there.”
Nat fumbled for her phone as she followed Rami toward the line. “Wait, you’re on the panel?” she hissed.
“Yeah, I made App Number Six, Whither, Weather. And yes, I know that’s the last place on the panel, OK?”
The mention of his app almost caused Nat’s mouth to drop open again, but she was guarded against that now. Yet on the inside, her butterflies were now flying in loops and tossing glitter around. She swallowed back the excitement and sputtered, “What? I love that app!”
Rami shrugged, unmoved.
“How did you get it to be so accurate?” she whispered, aware that this situation had now gone so completely off the rails that she was the star-struck fan of an app, albeit one with what she could only describe as symphonically beautiful functionality.
“Hard science,” said Rami, rolling his eyes. “And an algorithm that doesn’t prey upon emotional vulnerability.” He smiled, and Nat clocked an infuriating set of dimples. “You should try it.”
“First of all,” said Nat, no longer even trying to whisper. “Have you ever seen my code? Because it’d make your mother weep, it’s so fucking spotless—”
“Yes, exactly!” Rami spun to face her and leaned closer. “Your code makes all kinds of people weep. What have your BeTwo dates been like? Because as far as I can tell, your app only opens up a portal to a personal circle of hell for anyone who uses it.”
The flips in Nat’s stomach now turned to fire. Now he was talking about her baby. She leaned closer, too. “It’s OK, just admit you’re jealous of my work!”
“Right.” Rami laughed to himself, a soft, dark sound that rippled against Nat’s skin. “How about you answer a question for me. You’ve used your own app, right? I assume that’s why you’re normally about as public as Emily Dickinson?”
Nat stammered. His combination of a novel way to insult her introversion, mixed with a jab at her whole lack-of-a-dating-life thing, was enough to cross the wires in her brain, even when she was fired up on righteous rage and a handsome target.
Rami’s eyes lit up, but she didn’t like their sparkle this time. She didn’t like it at all.
“Oh my God,” he said. “You’ve never used your own app, have you?”
“I beta-tested it for years . . .”
Rami leaned in even closer toward her. He bit his plump bottom lip in thought, and his long lashes fluttered as he searched her face. “But you’ve never actually used it to date?” He watched her squirm as his face hardened into the full realization. “Classic,” he declared.
“Nat Lane! BeTwo!” V bellowed from the front of the line. “You’re our top app, so we need you up here!”
“One minute!” Nat called to them. She turned back to Rami. Her cheeks blazed with heat, and somewhere in her mind, she hoped that the flush was making her look pretty and not deranged. “So what if I haven’t used BeTwo?”
“So, you have no idea the utter swamp of social depravity that you’ve created!”
Nat recoiled. “OK, so like, how many BBC period dramas do you watch on a daily basis to talk like that?” She watched him smirk and nod, clearly used to being called out on his word choices.
Good. She was the creator of the top app at Tech-Talk!
He should be asking her for advice, not judging her work.
It wasn’t something she usually did, but she needed to flex .
. . just this once. “And as for the ‘depraved swamp,’” she said, “my two million users and counting would say otherwise!”
“No, they wouldn’t!” His hands were clenched, and now it was his voice that was getting louder. “Everyone hates online dating, but we all do it because it’s all there is now that your garbage app has ruined everything!”
V stomped toward her, but Nat kept her eyes locked on Rami. She closed the gap between the two of them with a step toward his steely, crossed-armed stance. Every thrumming cell in her body was determined to play this out. Her garbage app?
“Oh, so, you want to wait around for a meet-cute?” she asked.
She ran her eyes down him and noted his lean figure despite her boiling anger.
“You want to have to walk up to people in bars? Lock eyes on the subway? Fall for the guy who hits you with his car?” She watched him scoff.
She’d read the angry comments on Reddit in her dark moments.
She’d seen the flare-ups in the discourse.
“If only we could do it the old-fashioned way, right?” she said.
Rami nodded, his face as hard as stone. “Yes, exactly,” he said. “By talking. To humans. Like humans.”
“Inefficient,” said Nat, crossing her arms as she made her ultimate argument. She stomped her foot, and her boot made a satisfying clack .
“The romance overwhelms me!” declared Rami, placing a hand on his heart in a mock swoon and tipping his head closer to hers.
They locked eyes. Rami’s face was so close she caught his woodsy scent — a soft mix of sandalwood and juniper that hit her lizard brain like a shot of tequila.
She clocked the shadow of stubble along his angular jaw.
The way the swell of his lower lip jutted out just a little in righteous indignation.
Nat felt a smile twist into the corners of her lips, even against the currents swirling inside her body.
She remembered how people sometimes pointed out the prettiness of her stormy green eyes, and she felt her lashes flutter in response.
Rami’s gaze widened, and he bit his lip.
He lifted his long fingers from his chest and inched closer.
“Seriously, folks,” said V, an abrupt interruption as they snatched Nat by the arm. “We’re running a dry finger along the razor’s edge of disaster, here. Stand on your designated tape outline!”
“This conversation isn’t over,” Nat hissed as she forced her legs to follow V away from Rami.
“Good luck out there!” he called, waving from the back of the line with a gleaming, politician’s smile.
Still, his eyes followed her, even as they flicked down her long legs and back up to her loose curls.
Nat never wanted to see his face again, and also, at the same time, she wanted everyone but him to vanish from the room.
V snapped their fingers in front of Nat’s face. “Nat, you good? Deep breaths.”
Nat nodded and fixed her eyes on the spotlit stage ahead of her. “Let’s fucking go.”