"Your research?" Max asks.
"I analyzed successful relationship formations across campus. Did you know 73% of lasting couples meet through shared activities rather than parties or apps?"
"How do you even know that?"
"I... may have created a survey." JP adjusts his glasses. "Anonymous, of course. Statistically significant sample size."
We all stare at him.
"This is why you're single," Luca says, but it's fond. "You turned dating into a math problem."
"Everything can be improved with proper data analysis!" JP protests. "Which brings me to my first point. Luca, you're first on my intervention list."
"Why am I first?" Luca looks offended, snapping his laptop shut.
Everyone exchanges glances.
"Your last first impression involved explaining cryptocurrency for twenty minutes," Leo says gently.
"She asked about my major!"
"She asked your name," Max corrects.
"...Oh." Luca slumps. "Okay, fair. I'm bad at first impressions."
"You're not bad," I say, trying to be supportive while typing frantically. "You just need to... ease into the technical stuff."
"Says the guy who opened with 'I could remove your appendix' as a pickup line," Luca shoots back.
"That was one time!”
"It worked, though," Max grins. "Your football man loves the medical talk."
"He's not my—" I stop. "Okay, he is my football man."
"Can you teach me?" Luca asks suddenly, earnest in that way that makes you want to help him. "How to talk to people? Like, normal people who don't code?"
"I—"
"Because I'm tired of it," he continues, picking at his laptop sticker. "My ex... when we broke up, I took a different route to classes for a month just to avoid him. And I realized I don't want to be that person anymore. The one who hides."
The room goes quiet. Luca doesn't talk much about his ex.
"Plus," he adds with forced brightness, "I've practiced so many conversation starters from YouTube tutorials, I should probably actually use them, right?"
"Oh my god, is that why you asked me about the weather patterns last week?" Leo asks. "That was practice?"
"Maybe."
"Luca," I say seriously. "I'll help. But you know you're already interesting, right? You don't need to be someone else."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he laughs, but I can see the determination there. He wants to find someone who'll appreciate his cryptocurrency rants, his perfectly organized code, and the way he lights up when talking about language structures.
More phone buzzing.
Mamma
Your sisters say you have news to tell me
