Page 89 of Swiped

“Good morning, Sara,” said Ian, with a cordial bow.

“Yeah, hi, anyway, you guys. You’re at Tech-Talk!” Sara raised her eyebrows and wiggled her fingers. “Where it all began just one year ago . . .”

Happiness swirled inside Nat as Rami winked at her. “Yeah, we know.”

Sara elbowed Rami. “Wanna go make some outrageous bets on a livestream, for old times’ sake?”

Rami raised his hands. “Well, a romantic might say I won that bet, so . . . maybe.”

Sara tilted her head. “Yeah, not sure there were any winners in that epic crash-and-burn.” She wrapped an arm around Nat’s shoulder. “The memes are still pretty popular, you know.”

“Yes, I know.” Nat sighed. “My mom keeps sending them to me because she doesn’t understand that they’re making fun of me.”

Ian cleared his throat. “Well, anytime love prevails is a ‘W’ in my book,” he intoned.

Nat frowned at Sara. “Where’s Jax?”

“They swore they could get bagels and still come find us in this mess.” She shrugged and checked her phone.

Ian cleared his throat and made a show of inspecting the booth. “I happened to run into Sara, and was it Jax you said? I ran into them on the way in, and so they will be bringing me a bagel, as well.” He put his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. “Coincidence. That’s why.”

Rami squinted at him. “You’re being weird. Weirder.”

Ian shrugged and scooped up a handful of their free buttons.

Sara rushed to fill the silence. “I don’t see what the big deal was about the app, anyway. Meet how you meet. Date how you date, right?”

Ian nodded as he fastened an enamel catfish to his lapel. “Of course. Different approaches are all just part of life’s rich pageant . . . the spice of it, etcetera.”

Sara picked up a brochure and tapped it against Ian’s shoulder. “Totally. Keep it safe and people-focused, but then, yeah, let’s have some fun.”

Ian and Sara smiled at each other through the hum of the expo center.

“OK,” said Rami, squinting at them. “Is there . . . ? Never mind.”

Nat sighed and checked the time. “We only have fifteen minutes before Jo’s talk about her start-up consultancy and I promised her I’d be in the front row.” She held out a demo phone. “Do you guys wanna see what lures to use, to catch themost fish, given the most likely weather at your precise location, indexed against historical fish migration patterns — or what?”

“Hell yeah, we do!” said Sara.

“Don’t keep us in suspense!” said Ian.

“Well, you might be the only people in the world who care about this besides my mom’s fishing group . . .” said Nat, loading the demo.

“The Bass Betties are my girls,” said Rami.

“But here we go!” Nat turned the screen to her friends. “I think it just might be my favorite thing that I’ve ever made.” She winked at Rami. “For now.”

THE END