Everyone in the story is at least 18 years old, and the story is entirely fictional. Any similarities to real people or events are purely coincidental.
This is the first time I've written in the"Romance" genre. It's a story that I wrote just because the idea was kicking around in my head. It doesn't have any sex in it. It's meant to be sweet and a little funny. Constructive comments are welcomed.
Larry just broke up with his live-in girlfriend. He knew that because she moved out when he went on a one-day business trip. She left a note. That was nice of her after they'd lived together for five years.
When she moved out, she took their only computer. That was OK. It was a piece of shit. Now Larry could buy a state-of-the-art, newest, latest and greatest, laptop with a new type of operating system, "Windows 11+You with Advanced Artificial Intelligence
®
". He had seen it advertised. It was so advanced that it learned your personality and could help you get things done more efficiently. It would even alert you if you wrote something out of character.
Larry was not convinced. He figured it was advertising hype, but he needed a laptop.
This laptop was different. Microsoft changed the damn interface again. One more time he couldn't find anything on it. He couldn't even get it set up the way he wanted. Because Microsoft was a "because we say so" company, he was stuck with the interface.
The next day, he turned his laptop on, and he didn't know what had happened. It was set up just the way he wanted. Maybe he had done more than he thought last night. It even had all his passwords set up, and his data was on it. He thought that with the other computer gone, all his data was gone forever.
"It must be one of those 'cloud things'," he thought.
He'd long suspected that Microsoft had been gathering his information to spy on him. The joke was on them. He didn't have any information that was worth anything and his computer was set up for him. Still, it was strange.
He started noticing trivial things. His typing was suddenly much better. It seemed like the computer was almost typing for him. He couldn't just sit there and let it write for him, but he felt like it knew was he was going to write. He chalked it up to a better keyboard and better spelling and grammar checking. But it seemed to know more significant things too. Like the words that he normally used. When he types a phrase like "small things," when he read over what he'd written, he would find he had used the phrase "insignificant things."
The laptop even seemed to know who he was writing to and make suggestions on how to write sentences. It would suggest different words and phrases when you emailed different people. It didn't object if you wrote "screw you" to your old college roommate, but if you used that in an email to your mother, then it would highly suggest that you not use that phrase. It would object about every word you typed until you changed it.
Larry considered himself more technically savvy than most, but he couldn't figure out how it knew which of his contacts was his mother, which were friends, and which were business associates.
Another curiosity was that his contact list had new entries in it. People he didn't know and hadn't even heard of.
The next evening, he started thinking about his ex-girlfriend and he got extremely drunk. When he got this drunk, he usually got stupid. He decided to send emails to people who deserved it.
First on his list was that slut he used to live with. He just knew she was out spreading her legs for someone who made more money. It took a long time to write because of his continual need of a thesaurus to find new ways to say bitch/slut/whore/tramp. The email program wasn't helping either. It didn't like the words he found. In his inebriated state, he couldn't see the keyboard or screen very well either.
He finally hit "Send" and was pleased with himself.
His next email was to his boss. That afternoon, the bastard came out and ripped him a new one, in front of the whole staff, over some little piddling thing. Larry was a manager and now the staff wouldn't respect him anymore. His boss could have talked to him in private, like a human would, but he was too much of an asshole for that. The thesaurus came in handy here too for finding novel words. He needed new words for things to put/shove/slam/pound into his boss's various openings.
After hitting "Send"', he passed out with his face on the keyboard. People would see computer keys on his face for quite a while.
In the morning, when he could focus his eyes again, he looked at the screen. He saw a message that his email to the slut, had an "unrecoverable error." That pissed him off, so he sent it again. The same message appeared. On the third try, the email just disappeared. He intended to write another one, but her email address and phone number had disappeared from his contact list.
His head was pounding. He slammed the laptop closed and got ready for work.
When he got off the elevator, he remembered that he had emailed his boss last night and groaned to himself. Before he made it into his office, his secretary told him the boss wanted to see him as soon as he got in. Larry figured he'd lose his job. He knocked and the boss met him at the door. He shook Larry's hand and thanked him profusely for the excellent product development idea that Larry sent him last night. He apologized for yelling at him the day before, explaining that his wife had just told him that she wanted a divorce. Larry got a promotion and a substantial raise.
When Larry got home, he looked for the emails he had sent the previous evening. There was the email he sent to his boss, but when he read it, it wasn't the email he thought he had written. He vaguely remembered writing something telling the boss to put things 'where the sun don't shine,' but this email was about how the company could increase their business, something he'd thought about several years ago. He was awfully drunk last night but how could he forget about that?
He couldn't find any trace of the email he'd send his ex. His head was still hurting from his hangover.
While getting a promotion and a raise was nice, he still didn't have a girlfriend and he was lonely. He didn't think he could stand the rejection inherent in finding someone on dating apps. He was very shy and the idea of going on awkward first dates made him miserable.
He signed up for an adult chat website where you could meet women anonymously. Even meeting people on-line made him nervous, so he made himself a couple of drinks. He logged-on and found a woman he wanted to chat with.
As he typed, his words were changed by the computer, for the better, at least he thought it changed them. Or maybe he was getting to be a better writer. Strangely, sometimes women would reply to questions he hadn't asked. The women seemed interested in him and wanted to meet him in person. But he did a search with "Bing
®
" (it was the only search engine available on his new laptop) and found that the women were most likely to be pretending to be regular people and were probably con-artists or prostitutes.
He needed to cancel his account. He went to the site and found that his account was no longer active, and his money had been refunded.
**********
A new, extremely cute woman, Millie, moved in on the other side of the apartment complex. She'd just left her boyfriend after 4 years. When she came home early to surprise him a couple of days ago, he surprised her instead. In the bedroom, she found him asleep, lying naked on the rumpled bed with her naked, slut of an ex-best girlfriend sleeping next to him.
Millie grabbed some clothes, her new laptop and left. Neither of them woke up.
She needed a place to stay so she did a search with 'Bing
®
' and the first listing was for a nice place, in a good area, that she could afford. She went to the office and leased it.
After she moved in, she opened her computer and there was a strange email.
It said:
"
I'm Larry. I live on the other side of the apartment complex. I just wanted to welcome you here. If you need anything let me know. After you've settled in, let's go out to dinner. How about Las Puertas."
That seemed a little odd to her, so she sent it to the trash folder.
Larry received an email that he almost deleted as spam. It turned out to be from a woman who lived on the other side of the apartment complex. He'd never heard of her. He didn't know her name, much less her email address. He was confused because it wasn't an original email but a reply to an email. He looked in his contacts and she was in there, but Larry didn't know how.
She seemed to know who he was. She answered questions that he never asked. He couldn't complain. She seemed nice and her email was pleasant.
The email from her said:
"
Larry. It's refreshing for someone to send an email welcoming me to my new apartment. No one has ever done that before. I'm debating your invitation to dinner."
Larry was in shock and decided to ignore it.
Millie was concerned about someone asking her out like that. She was also a bit fed up with men because of the cheating bastard she'd just left. She needed to get a look at this "Larry" guy.
The next day she got up early and sat out where she could see his door, but he was unlikely to see her. When he walked out the door, she was surprised. He didn't look creepy at all. In fact, he was rather handsome. Better looking than the creep she'd just left. It might be fun to go out to dinner at a nice place. But something didn't feel right.
She emailed him:
"
I don't think I can go out to dinner. Maybe some other time."
What he received was:
"
Yes, I'd love to go out with you. I've never been to a fancy restaurant like Las Puertas."
Larry replied to her email:
"
There must be a misunderstanding. I never sent you any emails."
What she received was:
"
Great Las Puertas is my favorite restaurant. You're going to love it. How about we go the day after tomorrow? I can pick you up. I'll make reservations for 7:30. Maybe we can go out for drinks and dancing afterwards."
She sent:
"
I said I CAN'T go out with you."
He received:
"
That would be perfect. You can pick me up the day after tomorrow at 7:00. I can't wait to see Las Puertas. As for drinks and dancing afterwards, we'll see after dinner."
Larry stared at his laptop for a long time and finally thought, "OK."
He needed to see this "Millie" woman. He knew it was a bit creepy, but it had been a strange week. He left work a little early and parked near her apartment so he could get a look at her.
When Millie came home, Larry was pleasantly surprised. She was stunning. Way cuter than that ignorant slut that left him.
He called Las Puertas to get a reservation. They told him that it had already been made electronically and they would see him at 7:30 the day after tomorrow.
He was still confused about what was happening, but she was cute, and he was very lonely. She wanted to go out with him. What the hell, he might as well go out with her if only to figure out what was happening. He wasn't sure he was ready to date, but there was only one way to find out.
Larry drove to her apartment right at 7:00. He had dressed in a nice suit and was looking good. He rang her bell, and she came to the door dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt. She looked very confused.
"Millie? Hi, I'm Larry. Are you ready for dinner?"
"I...I know who you are, but I emailed you two days ago that I couldn't go out with you."
