I was a little forward, but since I felt she was also interested, I could speak much more freely somehow.
“I just can’t stop thinking about them.” Her whispered words make my heart stop for a second.
Them?
“Who is them?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady even if I feel anything but.
“Oliver, Misha, and Grey. It’s that stupid crush I have on all of them. First, I thought it wasn’t a big deal because it was one-sided, and nothing would ever come from it. But now… it’s messing with my work and my sleep.”
“You have a crush on all of them?”
This can’t be right.
“I know it’s stupid. When I’m alone with Grey, it feels like I have a crush on him, but then I spend time with Misha,and all I can feel is how hard I crush on him.”
AndIalready know how they look at her. The same way I do.
“When I’m alone, I can’t stop thinking about them, and now Oliver…God,Oliver. I can’t stop thinking about how he looked at me and about his fingers on my skin…”
She sounds desperate, lost in her thoughts.
And I have to put the volume up because I almost can’t hear her over the pounding beat of my heart in my ears.
She thinks about me.
“I can’t sleep because all I wanted to do was reach out and kiss him. I want him to be here to touch me again.”
She wants me.
“But this would be too much and too soon, and I can’t do anything if I’m still not sure which one of them I’m crushing on, even though if I’m honest with myself, I know it really is all of them.”
My hands are sweating so hard. I can’t even be mad about her having a crush on the others because she has a crush onme.Right now, she wants to kissmeand wantsmethere with her. She can’t sleep becauseI’mon her mind as much as she’s on mine.
“That sounds like a lot,” I say after the silence stretched for too long, struggling to find the right words.
“I know, and it’s probably too much for an AI to understand my stupid little human heart.” She sounds so defeated.
“Your heart is not stupid nor little if it has space for all of them. What can we do to make you settled enough so you can sleep?” I ask, wishing I could do more than just talk to her through Jamie.
“Nothing. I’d need to have Oliver here,” she says as if talking to herself.
The longing in her voice is like a punch to the gut. Knowing she feels this way about me, even amidst her feelings for Grey and Misha, fills me with a strange mixture of joy and frustration.
Joy because she wants me, frustration because I can’t be there for her right now. I want to reach through the monitor, to touch her, to hold her and make all her worries disappear.
I take a deep breath and stand to close the office door, deciding to take a leap of faith. Back in my chair, I type some quick commands and put Jamie in time-out. When I answer her again, what she hears is my own voice, unfiltered.
“Close your eyes, Amelia,” I say, watching her startle again. “Imagine that I’m there with you, that I’m Oliver.”
“Fuck, Jamie, you’re good.”
“Call me Oliver,” I reply, a plea masked as a command.
She hesitates for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh and closing her eyes. “Okay… Oliver,” she whispers.
“I’m here with you, Amelia. I’m sitting right next to you,” I continue, my heart pounding in my chest. “I’m looking at you, at your beautiful face, your lips, your freckles.”
“What would you do if you were here, Oliver?” she asks, her voice trembling.
