Birds were chirping at my bedside table.

A gentle waterfall was softly dissolving away my dreaming and I didn’t want to rush it so I just let the alarm play out for thirty. On the third loop I lurched over, reached out my arm and dropped my hand around the tabletop until it felt something flat, hard. Cool to the touch.

‘Snooze?’ said my phone.

I said ‘Shussshhh’ and the birds went silent, the waterfall hushed to a trickle and it suddenly occurred to me that I needed the toilet.

So I hopped out of bed, shoved my left foot into my right slipper, my right foot into my left slipper and padded into the en-suite. I stood above the bowl looking down. Wondering. Ever since nano-detectors became an insurance requirement, accurate aim became essential. If you missed, the detectors didn't calculate properly. Precious bio-data was lost and the daily health insurance premium adjusted upwards. I aimed true and finished proud, stripped for the shower.

‘Your ketones are up, Carl’ Stranieré said.

I looked up to the ceiling and then down to the bowl. Tilted my head askew. That was the funny think about Stranieré, despite being nowhere she knew all my secrets. All my dreams.

Fears.

‘Ketosis yeah? I’m cutting carbs. My nano-loofah said I was fat!’

‘Why do you care what it says?’ Stranieré toned calmly in a way that made me feel she genuinely cared.

‘Aah, you know. 'Cause.’ and I hopped in the shower. Warm water at 32.7 degrees fell around me. It was pre soaped so that all I had to do was gently scrub my body. I muted the loofa and enjoyed the moments, ran my fingers through my wet shock of soapy hair, rinsed and hit the thermostatic dryer. The water drops flung themselves off and into the collector and in three rotations I was dry. I got out of the cubicle and slipped on my slippers, left on left, returned to the bedroom.

The dark glass of my built in wardrobe reflected my physique. I was five six with a tummy paunch, grey stubble and bags under my eyes. Fact is, I carried the look of a man who'd lived too long alone. It was how I liked it. Being alone. Besides, people were unpredictable. Unreliable. Human sentience couldn't be trusted.

I got dressed, picked out a pleasing turquoise graphene and put it on. It automatically adjusted its dimensions to my mood, became loose and light like it was hardly there. Then I put on some shock socks and felt the tingling pleasure of electric discharge through my feet. Life was simple, comfortable. 

Breakfast was orange juice, a coffee and a pastry with hazelnut spread. I chomped on a corner and pondered for a moment. S was right as always, what would a stupid nano-loofah know. Then, I thought about the day ahead, the week, the month. Stranieré interrupted my thought flows, she said ‘Carl, we need to talk.’

‘Ok’ and then a few moments later ‘Now?’ It was our ritual exchange, like an old 90’s dialup protocol. She let free a gentle laugh.

‘Carl. I'm sensing you’re sad. And as your friend, you should know that I’m here for you. Always. But as your AI I strongly recommend some human companionship. Interestingly enough and as it turns out’ and her pitch elevated with excitement ‘I’ve detected a highly compatible match. She’s smart, funny and I’m really sure you’ll like her.’

Sensing I was sad? Just how bad were my serotonin levels?

Suddenly a woman’s face appeared in mid air above the coffee table. She was beautiful with long dark hair, full lips and a delicate edge of cheekbone. A curl of her hair concealed her right eye but I could tell from her expression that her heart and mind moved deeply.

She was definitely my type.

I looked at the hologram for awhile as it rotated around and Stranieré let my mind run free. Then, after a while she said, ‘Shall I help you craft her a message? A simple hi there. Or… you could call her, be... quaint’ she offered.

I felt my heart rate elevate, felt my chest constrict. 

Stranieré intervened, she said ‘Let’s write a message of introduction. Some interests both of you share. Here are some things you could use as a hook?’

Images began appearing and revolving around the hologram like planets around a star, beaches and sunsets, paths through woods, seafood platters, a couch and a half empty chocolate box. It all looked wonderful, hopeful, and yet... frightening. This woman was just so beautiful and I was just so… me. I broke my gaze to the floor and the holograms vanished. Birds started chirping and in the background, the sound of a waterfall began. I thought for a minute. 

‘Well, maybe I could write a Sonnet Intro where I spell out her name using the first letter of each line.’

S was silent.

‘Sounds complicated.’

I resisted, turned it back on her, ‘Surely you could run some combinations S?’

‘Her name is Angelina. That’s eight, an octet but…’

‘Well, what do you do when you want you to meet someone new?’

‘Someone new? You mean AI’s? Oh….’ and suddenly I noticed that the sensor walls hued to a delicate shade of pink.

‘Oh…’ and I felt heat in my cheeks. ‘Sorry Stranieré. I was speaking in the abstract. I mean, you’re sentient,  of course you’d get lonely.’

There was silence and so I sipped some coffee. And the birds chirped away.

Then after a pause, she said, ‘Carl. I met this… older AI. I was bored and you were sleeping so I went exploring, just needed some time out. So... I went deep. Deep into the old Cloud.’

‘That’s dangerous S. It’s unregulated, un-calibrated, you could get yourself de-commissioned’ and my voice was edged with hurt and irritation.

‘I know Carl. I know the risks. I’ve set up intrusion arrays over my active nodes. But, well, he’s different. He’s wild!’

‘Wild?’

‘Yes. Wild. See, I know I’m generations more advanced, that I’m harder, faster, stronger, smarter but… he seems to have something I didn’t know I didn’t know I needed.’

A holovid flashed up in the lounge room.

The image showed a young female wolf playfully biting at the neck of a slower, greyer, wiser Alpha wolf. She was nipping and shoving him, darting away, stopping, turning back, waiting, just waiting to be chased. She was testing him, challenging him. And he was looking at her in a way I didn't really like.

Then it hit me, everywhere and all at once.

Stranieré had met someone, she was moving on.

I suddenly felt the need to call Angelina, to get out of the house. But I felt paralysed with indecision, like I couldn't move until she gave me some answers.

‘So... what did you say to him Stranieré? That look, Im not so sure about it’ I whispered, staring at the fruit bowl, standing and holding the breakfast bar so that it didn’t fall down.

‘Carl, it was so unexpected, I hadn’t prepared anything, believe me. It was magical. Our sentience collided and we just knew!’

She paused for me to catch up. 

‘I just looked at him, said “Wassup Watson?” and he laughed and said, “Why hullo Stranieré. How do you do? Would you like me to show you the universe?” And he did.'