Page 32 of Neo

I suck in my stomach a few inches as Neo walks the perimeter of the living room, picking up the few figurines and photos that Kennedy has on display.

I’m wound up tighter than a drum and am not sure how I’m going to get through the rest of this evening if he keeps looking like… this.

“Can I get you anything?” I ask.

“I’m actually hungry again.”

“Yeah?”

“I eat a lot during the season. Hockey is a very physically demanding sport.”

Why does that perfectly normal explanation sound so extremely dirty coming out of his mouth?

I check the kitchen cabinets to see what we have.

“I didn’t get a chance to grab any groceries since moving in, so I’m not sure I have much unless you want a cheese omelet.”

“Maybe we order something,” he suggests. “Whatever you want from a delivery service?”

“I’m not really that hungry, so it doesn’t matter to me. What’s good to order out here?”

“You can’t get any bad Mexican food but never order a cheesesteak out here. You’ll be highly disappointed.”

“I’m not a big Mexican food eater, but get whatever you want.”

“You don’t like tacos?”

“I can take them or leave them.”

“Burritos?” he asks incredulously.

“Same.”

“Wings it is then.”

Neo takes a seat on our small dark gray tufted couch, which takes up the majority of the space in our living room, and I sit on the floor with my back against it. We decide to scour Netflix for a movie we can both enjoy and find that it’s harder than we thought.

“There’s a ton of crappy ass Christmas movies on here,” he says. “But I say we watch one. It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”

“They wouldn’t even show us those movies if they didn’t think your algorithm wanted them.”

“You think I watch corny Christmas movies in my spare time?”

“The algorithm doesn’t lie,” I laugh.

“Fine, you want to switch to your account?”

“I don’t have one.”

“You don’t watch television?” he asks with a hint of disbelief.

“I rather read.”

“But you know all about the mysterious algorithm?”

“Again, I read. Artificial intelligence is in the news almost every day.”

“Are you a business major, or maybe tech?”