Very Modern Love Episode #4 - Deidre's Perfect Birthday

Focused and aglow, Deidre Rush emerged from the bedroom to greet the first day of her 31st year. The reliable scent of morning coffee welcomed her to a kitchen table and dual sets of screens, her portal to every knowable facet of the universe. 

Danny was already a whirl into his own day, headset on, the clickety-clack of keys and low-key voice efficiently telling something to someone, somewhere.

Her hand caressed his shoulder as she passed behind him, a gentle kiss finding an exposed section of neck not obstructed by his headset. 

“Good morning, love of my life.” Deidre smiled sincerely as their eyes met, his fingers continuing their clicking cadence completing some missive to someone, somewhere. She then moved a few steps toward the coffee station and poured her mug, glancing out their highrise window. A sharp glare of morning sun was awakening a city briskly on the move. 

“Gonna need to go in today, hun.” Danny watched as his partner retrieved last night’s leftovers from a plastic tray. He hadn’t heard the shower run, but Deidre was clearly groomed and ready for her first online Monday as a newly minted thirty-something. She moved with such effortless grace, the way her hands gently grasped things, never a wasted motion. He got lost in watching her move.

She set down her coffee and leftover, took her seat opposite him and logged on. 

“Ahhhh.” Deidre audibly sighed as she studied her screensaver for a few beats.

Thirty orbits 'round the sun, a grace, 

A masterpiece of time, in this sweet space. 

My heart, a compass, pointing ever true, 

Drawn to the radiant, the singular you.

“So sweet, honey. Very nice.” Deidre proceeded with her log-in. “I had the best birthday ever, baby. And I owe it all to you.” Their eyes met again as she sipped her coffee, then began turning on critical applications, her mind smoothly accelerating up the onramp to her own virtual highway. 

“That dinner was pretty darn great, huh?” Danny took pride in the way she went right for the last of the surf and turf.

“I know this doesn’t really pair well with coffee, but oh boy it’s unexpectedly good.” Deidre alternated poking a fork into bites of the genetically created strip steak, then the lab-cultured jumbo shrimp. “I still can’t get over how they get the bearnaise flavoring impregnated right into the meat.”  

Danny smiled. He got bonus points for originality, finding the hottest artificial food restaurant in the city, then picking things he recalled she liked from a few years ago.

“And!” Deidre stopped to complete chewing a steak bite. “I cannot believe you never even have to heat this stuff up. How they can get lab-created food to stay at 135F until you eat it is literally freakish.”

Danny took a few minutes to type out something while Deidre parsed her inbox, her mind still deep in yesterday. She glanced toward the bouquet of roses, so sweetly pungent, a few petals already fallen. Danny said they’re supposed to rebloom without water, soil or sunlight, guaranteed for three years. That beautiful man of hers thought of everything.

Deidre looked up, catching him idle for a brief moment, staring at her. “Are you going out to see her like that?”     

Danny took momentary stock of his appearance, t-shirt and jeans, sneakers, backwards ball cap, notably unshowered. “You should see how these people present, Dee. Seriously, I’ll be overdressed.”

She knew of his world. Executive producing video content for influencers, Danny dealt with some fairly bizarre people. His current client, a 15-year old girl, now had three million five-hundred and some-odd followers who collectively make a wide range of random life choices at the behest of a home-schooled ninth-grader in a training bra. After she hit her first million, her parents looked Danny up. His unique skillset would keep that kid climbing the virtual ladder of global influence.

“And that party. So over the top, babe. I don’t know what to say.” Deidre glanced over at their 90-foot full-wall electronic screen where last night, her man arranged a spectacular teleparty with thirty guests. He’d even hacked into her DataMine Technologies corporate contacts database to hunt down colleagues and friend’s IP addresses to set up the elaborate surprise.

“You know they all were thrilled to participate. Oh, and I sent you the video recording of it, check your inbox.”  

Deidre scanned her screen and found it. “I loved how you even slipped that virtual concert in there, and went around and got everyone talking. Nobody talked over anybody else. Man, that was tight.”

“I sent them an agenda ahead. Made everybody promise to stay on time…or I’d have the band “play’em off.”  This made them both laugh.

Danny started turning off his workstation. “What did you think of Brenda’s story? Did it embarrass you at all?”  

“I think she totally nailed it.” Deidre looked almost proud of a tale of her throwing up on her own twenty-first birthday party, with Brenda opening the car door and Katie Rohm holding her long (at that time) brown hair. “You know that was her avatar, right?”

“I kinda suspected it.”

Deidre took a sip of her coffee. “She’s told that story several times, but she could never tell it that well without AI. It’s funny, really, on its own. But with a little polishing, it’s a classic.”

Danny seemed puzzled. “So why didn’t Brenda just tell it herself?” 

“The truth is, Brenda’s just not a great storyteller. I mean, she knew it was a special occasion, and the group she was telling it to was probably the biggest group to ever hear it at once. She wanted it just right. Frankly, I’m touched that she used her avatar. She’d have gotten nervous and butchered it otherwise.”

“Yeah.” Danny started loading audio gadgetry into a black duffel bag. “I’ll tell ya, it sure did seem like it was actually her. How many other avatars do you think were there last night?”

Deidre had anticipated the question. “I’d say probably ten. Bobby and Sarah used their couples avatar. First time I’d seen that one…probably needs a little work but it’s cute. My boss definitely wasn't there in person, but he’s really freakin’ busy, you know. I liked how Katie Rohm’s avatar laughed when Brenda told that story…like they’d worked that out.”

“Isn't the fact that people can’t show up live to a birthday party…even a virtual one at that, and use an AI stand-in, isn’t that a little troubling?”

“Frankly I'm touched that so many people gave up thirty minutes of their time last night, just for me. My God, you know what other productive, totally great things they could have been doing? Think about it.”

Danny picked up his duffel bag. “But don’t you miss live conversations with people?” 

“We’re having one right now…”

“You know what I mean.”

“I think you’re being hypocritical.” Deidre opened an email, keeping her eyes lowered.

Danny considered that point carefully, recognizing his own extensive recent history with conversational AI. “Okay, I get your point. But there was something…charming, about the awkwardness of live, person-to-person, out loud exchanges. I miss it sometimes.”

Deidre saw her opening. “Look, I get what you’re saying, but consider how utterly dumbed down a lot of our friends have become. You wanna talk about something a little bit intellectual and they check out, or they rant about something they know absolutely nothing about, and then…well, the little chat becomes a shit show.”

“I have to admit, when my friends started calling me via their avatars, I’ve had some of the most invigorating conversations I’ve ever had with…um…them.”

“Exactly.” Deidre enjoyed winning their arguments. “Honey, you’re one of the last real human beings I actually enjoy talking to.”

“Awww.” She cooed as Danny ran back to his bedroom to retrieve something. She yelled back to him. “And for the record, I have never used my avatar at work or at a party. I want that established.”

He called out to her from his bedroom. “And hey, what about your last present of the night?” He returned to catch her demure, addictive smile.

A pair of adoring eyes rose to meet his. “I mean, how could I ever forget that?” Her smile spilled out into a laugh. “It was the most intensely joyful eighty-seven minutes of my adult life.”

“87:56:15, to be exact.” Danny flashed his phone screen, the JoyComa 2XX ap graphic displayed a time vs. intensity graph characterizing Deidre’s record-setting birthday orgasm. “I found that thing online about six weeks ago. It killed me keeping it a secret from you until last night.”

Deidre studied the graph from his phone screen. “Yeah, man. There….there….and absolutely THERE.” She crossed her arms to momentarily gather herself. “It figured out how to…well, you know…better than anything I’ve ever..”

“I downloaded the data from your PleasurePalm5 into this new gadget. It studies what worked on you and what fell a little short, then the massager figures out what might work well that hasn’t yet been tried on you, and….well…”

“So cool that they’re compatible like that.” Deidre continued to study the graphic, once again seemingly lost in yesterday.

“I think of everything. What can I say?”

“Do you miss us, getting together like that, you know…live?”

“Sometimes, yeah.”  Danny looked wistfully out the window. “Old school.” 

“Need I remind you of your 30th birthday present.” Deidre smiled slyly. “I remember somebody disappearing constantly after…”

“Okay…okay, point taken.” Danny checked his watch. “I gotta go.” As Deidre reflexively rose, he took her into his arms. They hugged each other tightly.

“Happy birthday, honey.” Danny kissed her lovingly, as if the two of them could just linger there all day. But the fast-paced, hyper-efficient world they currently occupied suggested otherwise. “And tonight, I would like to continue this little moment. Live actually. No gadgets. No help. No data. Just you and me. Deal?”

Deidre took his head in her hands and capped a perfect birthday with a passionate return kiss. 

“Absolutely.”  

Danny bound out the door, an extra spring visibly in his step, and Deidre settled back into her corporate seat. She checked over her virtual command center to assess the day that awaited. An online meeting with three colleagues was to start in thirty seconds. Her mouse roamed as she considered her next conflicted move. And then, a decisive decision was made.

She opened the meeting. 

She activated her online avatar. 

And then Deidre Rush disappeared into her bedroom.